There's this thing called a NEST thermostat...

...and apparently, it's just the best thing since sliced bread. Now, let me temper that a bit. There have been a lot of "best things" since sliced bread. Yet sliced bread is the one that people still use in the analogy. Many of those "best things" have been found to have pitfalls serious enough that the old way really was better.

Forgive me, because I'm going to sound grumpy throughout this review...

With that out of the way...NEST is a startup run by some ex-Apple Computer (yes, I call them by their old name) employees. They have brought to market this new and improved, maybe even magical thermostat that's supposed to spend a week "observing" your household to learn your occupancy and temperature setting habits. The thermostats appear to have been selling well, to say the least. NEST couldn't keep them in stock for a while, and I guess (as of this writing) that there is still a line of people waiting to get theirs.

I didn't buy one. While I suspect I will get majorly grilled for having an unpopular opinion here, I've got to say that I don't appreciate frilly-froo-froo "green" stuff. The galumphing green greenies (apologies to Stan and Jan Berenstain) have managed to ruin almost everything. Cars, home appliances, light bulbs, many other things...you name it, the new replacements just don't seem as "green" to me in any practical sense. I own a 40 year old refrigerator that cools better on R12 than any modern fridge I've seen with "green" refrigerant. You think a modern fridge will last forty years? I don't, and I've got some experience along those lines. These goofy front-loading washing machines seem to have depressingly short lifetimes, compared to an old "inefficient" Maytag that would run for 30, 40 or maybe more years without much in the way of maintenance. Which, when the numbers were crunched, only produced a significant difference in terms of water use!

To (loosely) quote the BOFH..."a real computer would have a hole in the front to shove trees into and a hole in the back for smoke to come out".

Sorry. I got a bit distracted there. I have no shortage of obnoxious options. Back to this thermostat. My dad actually bought one at the suggestion of one of my brothers. He installed it and set it up the other day.

Since NEST was founded by some ex-Apple employees, I'll preface this by saying that there is a reason why Apple is who and where they are. While some of their decisions are controversial and their computers not necessarily at the forefront of performance, Apple does generally produce equipment that just works. In my advancing age (29 as of this writing), I'm starting to care about that bold part more and more. Engineering's a difficult process, but there are some things that ought to be obvious when testing a product.

The NEST thermostat can connect to a wireless computer network for added functionality. It's supposed to even go so far as to upload collected data to the "cloud" that all of the cool kids use today, where you can view it from a special web page or even control your thermostat. Cool idea, huh?

You back there with the privacy hat on, yeah you, hush it. Not that I don't think what you're saying is important, just bear with me on this.

Well, my wireless network is like most others by way of the fact that it's secured with WPA2 encryption and a (fiendishly long, I suppose) WPA2 key. It's already a chore (instead of writing "bitch", as part of an effort not to sound too crabby or rude here) to input this key on mobile devices. The NEST thermostat can only accept input via its rotating dial. There is an onscreen keyboard that can be switched to enter small letters, capitals, numbers and punctuation. Which I dutifully did, though I'm getting ahead of myself here.

At first, the thermostat wouldn't even see my wireless network. I'm not hiding my SSID, nor is there any lack of network signal strength. Every wireless device I own can use the wireless network reliably in every room of this big old house, and most can use it outside to at least my driveway. What gives? Well, finally, my network showed up. And I entered the WPA2 security key, all 60 some characters of it.

And NEST, it said uh-uh. "Failed to connect to network" was all its round display offered for an explanation. To add insult to injury, it didn't even have the decency to wait a bit, or you know, make me at least think that it would connect to the network. Even if it was only deliberately inserted wait states, I'd be placated by the illusion that it was at least trying.

But you know, I'm human and while my uptime (measured as years of lifetime) should be better than most any computer, I do make mistakes. Dutifully, I keyed the WPA2 key in again. This takes a tortuously long time to complete, and it's the first thing that is seriously wrong with this thermostat. There really needs to be a way to "plant" wireless network info into devices like the NEST. So why hasn't it been done?

The usual way to do this might be through a wired network connection, or maybe even through a USB memory device. NEST has a USB port, so why can't I hook up a memory device to that port and have it read in a text file containing my wireless configuration? Or, though it would be asinine unless the software were cross platform, why I can't I run a software program to set this info over USB and then stick the thermostat to the wall? I'd settle for the ability to attach a keyboard to the thing and enter the info that way.

Well, I tried another tack. I set up an ad-hoc network (as opposed to infrastructure) on my Macbook and tried to connect to that. NEST wasn't having any of that, and its only response was the brusque error message "Failed to connect to network". If this were my thermostat, I'd have seriously considered delivering a response via baseball bat, as the vindictive, spiteful, bad tempered person I can be.

I had another idea. Turn off security on my wireless network, risk all those hard core criminals breaking in, and join the thermostat to my network temporarily. Surely, thought I, it's got an onboard web server that I could hit, configure it properly (in case I'm still making a typing--or is that wheeling--error) and then re-enable security on my wireless network.

NEST doesn't have a built in web server. Not to put too fine of a point on it, but why the heck not? It's got an ARM CPU, a gob of RAM, what would seem like plenty of flash memory...and yet it can't devote any of that to having even a minimal configuration interface onboard? What year is this?

Oh, but it did download a software update. Mind you, while you can see it downloading the update, there's no obvious way that I found to tell it "stop now, and apply the update". (It did so a short while after downloading, but I think I only got lucky there.) My hope springs eternal, but v2.0 of the software was no better about connecting to my secured wireless network.

I've given up on it at this point. I did restart it a few times. I don't know, or care why the NEST refuses to connect to my wireless network. All I know is that it's too hard to set up, and doesn't work even after multiple tries.

Along the way, I've noticed that the NEST thermostat appears to lack CPU power or something. Maybe the code isn't well optimized. Again, don't know--shouldn't have to care. I've had it ignore input clicks and rotation of its wheel.

I'm posting this rant mainly to get it out of my system. I do hear that the nice folks at NEST have contacted people in response to articles, so maybe that'll happen here. I'd like to talk about my thoughts with someone there, though I don't have enough desire to sit through what I think will only be a maddening technical support experience. If you're with NEST and want to shoot me an e-mail...it's right here.

And while I'm at it, just to close things up...what is up with that display? It would be nice to have the option--like every other thermostat in the world--to have the display constantly lit, though probably at reduced brightness to avoid wearing it out so fast.

Oh. Yeah. I almost forgot. The NEST support site, well...it sucks. I don't want to watch a video when I'm sitting in the hallway trying to troubleshoot a thermostat with an attitude almost as bad as mine. I want...help, surprisingly enough!

Maybe I'll post more when I see how well it's learning process does in a week? For now, that is all.

What happened one year ago...

Gosh, it's been a long time since I've said anything on this blog. It's been a little over a year. (And I also see that Xanga's weblog editor has gotten no better about handling double-spacing properly.)

I guess I ought to bring you all up to date. You see, around February of 2011, the United States government thoughtlessly (senselessly?) knocked my--and many other--innocent web sites offline. All of us had one thing in common...we used the FreeDNS service and its top-level domain mooo.com. Our servers were still running as usual (and often on dynamic IPs), but any attempt to access them through friendly names resulted in a chilling notice appearing.

There was an enormous outcry from the Internet community and about three days later, just as quietly as the malicious act had come, it was gone. Yet it put off quite a buzz in the Internet community and covered by the technology press. Oh yes, it was covered left and right. My thoroughly-incensed screed (an entry or two below) was quoted in many of the articles.

And yet, what really struck me about this was the fact that, outside of the technology press and its reporting, I seemed to be the one user of mooo.com who cared enough to get on his soapbox and start massively chewing out the midget-minds who'd done this. So, what all happened between then and now? Let's recap:

1. I was contacted by at least two organizations with the potential of finding me legal representation and starting a case against the US government. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and another organization whose name I have forgotten both contacted me via e-mail. The unnamed organization just stopped responding after a few back-and-forth e-mails between myself and them. I had a phone conversation with counsel from the EFF, and then nothing happened. It all just kind of disappeared, without any sense of closure. As much as I respect and support the EFF, I can't tell that they ever followed through with anything.

(And no, I'm not one of those sue-happy bastards who wanted a big payout. I couldn't care less about money. What I wanted was to make nothing less than an indelible point. Or at least try to. I would have testified in any court if it meant the possibility of nailing those SOBs to the wall, and reminding them just why we have a constitution that guarantees due process and the presumption of innocence.)

2. Caro.net--who seemingly went through a bankruptcy around October 2011 (!!!!)--contacted me and asked me to take the blog entry down, or at least remove their name from it. They claimed to have received death threats and attacks to their network. That's not cool at all, folks. Don't do that.

My contact with Caro.net suggested that they never knew what their network was being used for. You can believe it or not--personally, I do not--and it sure seems VERY irresponsible to sell hosting services without knowing who is buying or what they are doing, no? Someone might take down part of your network as part of an ill-planned "save the children" scheme! (I don't say.)

3. Life has gone back to normal, I guess. Yeah, don't laugh. After the bad press was gone, and the sites restored, I guess that was it.

I probably shouldn't complain, as I don't think much, if any, lasting damage was done.

What have I learned from all of this? Be vigilant, folks. Get involved in your government as much as you can, and have time for.

And oh yeah, in case you were wondering. Our lovely government is still abusing its powers and pulling similar stunts with other web sites.

There's something I'd like to make perfectly clear...

This is yet another update to the whole mooo.com fiasco/saga/unfortunate series of events. If you don't know what I'm talking about, please read more in the blog postings below.

However, I'd like to get a moment of your time before you continue. While I've never heard anything back from my letter to John Morton at ICE, I was contacted by someone within CaroNet who told me that they were unaware of what their services were being used for when people started to attack their network and threaten their business.

Frankly, I don't know that I believe all that. But that is immaterial to what I'm discussing here. When I made my first posting about the whole ICE issue, I clearly stated that I did not want anyone to engage in illegal, dangerous or retaliatory behavior. Yet I was contacted by CaroNet because people have attacked their computer systems and threatened them. Please do not do this. If you have a beef with the CaroNet business or think they acted in error, please don't do anything illegal and don't threaten or attack their systems. Keep any action you take on the right side of the law.

Thank you for your attention, and again, I ask that you not retaliate against CaroNet in by way of illegal or abusive action. So please don't do that.

Well, that was stunning...

About a week ago, I was alerted to the fact that my personal web site had been pulled offline and replaced with an ominous notice purporting to be from the United States government's department of Immigration Enforcement and Customs. I was not the only one impacted by this, so too were 84,000 other people.

At the time I noticed this, I was scared at first and mad as hell later. You can probably imagine my thoughts--was this real? Did someone break into and deface my web server? Was this someone's sick idea of a joke? How could this possibly happen? I basically told the head of ICE to "fuck off". I was absolutely bilious to the core. Who does things like this, without thinking or considering the ramifications? Anyone can make a mistake, but you really mean to tell me that nobody thought about how many thousands of people would be impacted by this, or that there would be a better way to work it out? I have an awfully hard time believing that, yet clearly something must have happened.

And then--to my total astonishment--my little rant was picked up by a few IT news sources and quoted. PC World and The Register both published articles about it. Prior to this the most viewed article on this blog was a discussion of the internals of a digital TV converter, viewed some ~750 times the last I had checked. Pretty soon there were 7,500 views to the posting regarding the activities of the US government and their "seizure" of the mooo.com domain. Now there are around 10,000.

There are some corrections, clarifications and amplifications that should be added to my original post, in the interest of everyone having the most accurate information I can provide. COICA isn't law just yet, and the actions taken by the Department of Homeland Security and ICE were a part of "Operation Protect Our Children". Don't get me wrong here--children should be protected from such heinous crimes and exploitation. But those doing the protecting must be very sure of their ground and extremely careful not to ensnare innocent people. Just the allegation of child exploitation--without anything more substantial--is enough to ruin a person's livelihood and maybe even have them killed or harmed in the name of vigilante justice, something that I hope hasn't happened here.

I guess everyone really does get their fifteen minutes sooner or later. I just wish mine had been on a happier, more upbeat note. Maybe someday it will be. I find it striking that at least so far, I'm the only person impacted by this who has actually said anything obvious about it. (Note that this claim wasn't exhaustively researched and corrections are welcome. If you were impacted by this and have come forward to say something, please do inform me of this. I'll be happy to reference you here if you'd like.)

I still want and hope to get an apology from Mr. John Morton. But I suppose that I ought to apologize to him as well--telling someone to "fuck off" is a pretty serious thing to do. It's something that I've only ever said in my life a whole handful of times. I'm not the kind of person to make a habit of talking that way. So there I've said it. Now, please step up to the plate and apologize to me and those who were impacted by your actions.

Please also consider doing better next time. Research your facts more carefully. Don't let something like this happen again, and please don't abuse the legal system to meet your whims. Due process of law isn't optional.

I hope this is one of the last things I can be saying about this. I'm not a terribly political person. I don't particularly care for politics. But everyone should be involved in their government, or it will do as it pleases. I do ask that people respect my privacy. Please don't contact me via e-mail. It's OK to leave a comment here if you'd like. If you really want to do something, again, I urge you to contact Mr. Morton at ICE and tell him what you think of his actions. Keep it factual and relevant, and don't do anything stupid that will only get you in trouble.

Thank you.

From the blithering idiots department...

Or, "where did greyghost.mooo.com go"?

Someone who watches my Youtube channel brought this to my attention.

Chances are some of you who read this blog also visit my personal website, hosted for the longest time at http://greyghost.mooo.com/ and http://greyghost.dyndns.org/ prior to that. Well, if you go there now, you'll see a severe warning stating that the domain was seized due to child pornography. Quite really?

I really try to refrain from any political comment on this blog or in any other outlet I frequent, but too much is too much.

You can rest assured that I have not and would never be found to be trafficking in such distasteful and horrific content. A little sleuthing shows that the whole of the mooo.com TLD is impacted. At first, the legitimacy of the alerts seems to be questionable--after all, what reputable agency would display their warning in a fancily formatted image referenced by the underlying HTML? I wouldn't expect to see that.

Evidently, this warning page is real. There are various news reports that can be found about it, most of them relating to music, TV or movie piracy. It's a by-product of so-called COICA legislation. COICA is basically Internet censorship legislation that allows our wonderful government to do an end-run around any proper legal process and pull availability to a site, replacing it with this warning page. Hmm. Doesn't that trample all over the Constitution?

Some bozo by the name of John Morton presides over this particular department of the US government and he has gone on record saying that he's going to "stay at it" and is "unapologetic on that last point."

(warning, bad words coming)

Mr. Morton, with all due respect: "fuck off". Get out of my Internet. You'd get no argument from me that there are truly distasteful and illegal things on the Internet. That's true of any society. But there are also proper ways to deal with these problems. Pulling a total domain, sweeping up innocent people along the way, feeling that you don't have to comply with due process of law and indicating that you don't give a damn is wrong. It's not as wrong as child pornography or counterfeiting, but it's still wrong. As a taxpayer, I feel you are wasting my money, and denying my ability to use the Internet to host a server containing useful, legal and hopefully interesting content over a readily-known alias. Perhaps I should send you the bill for my time and trouble?

That's to say nothing of any damage done to my name or reputation by this idiotic law. Last I knew, accusing someone of trafficking in or producing child pornography was about the worst thing you could ever do them, especially if it stuck.

 I encourage all readers of this blog to get involved in their government. Please write Mr. Morton a letter. I plan to. This address is publicly available on the ICE site:

Director John Morton
ICE
Washington, D.C. 20536

I've already contacted FreeDNS(.afraid.org) and brought the matter to their attention. My hope is to have this resolved soon. In the meantime, I suggest you utilize civil disobedience. I strongly recommend that you keep any action you take on the right side of the law. Don't do anything stupid, illegal, dangerous or retaliatory. Seriously.

The "illegal seizure" notice was served by systems located at a business known as CaroNet. CaroNet claims they knew nothing of this. Although I do not approve of their providing this service, or really believe that they did not know what was happening, I approve even less of the fact that people have been attacking the CaroNet network and threatening the people who work there. Let me be as clear as I can here: Do not do this. If you have an issue with CaroNet, take it up with them through legal means ONLY, not through harassment, denial of service or threats.