#connected-home-equipment

#connected-home-equipment

In the past, roof inspections mostly focused on what could be seen from the outside. Contractors looked for broken shingles, worn flashing, or areas where water might enter the roof. The problem is that roof damage does not always show clear signs right away. Water can move through roofing layers before it becomes visible inside the home.

After some investigation, I found that Home Assistant has an integration with Node-RED - a graphical tool for manipulating data and event streams. It could probably satisfy most of my needs. But from time to time I remember that I'm a professional software developer, working with event streams for many years, and for this kind of problem there's nothing better than math (and Scala's type system, which supports it very well).

The leap from a "functional" network to a professional-grade infrastructure is the difference between a dirt path and a multi-lane highway. As we integrate more high-bandwidth technology-from 8K streaming to AI-driven home security-the "consumer-grade" hardware typically provided by service providers is reaching its breaking point.

The plugs let you add smart controls to devices like lamps, fans, chargers, coffee makers, and heaters. All you need is plug one into an outlet and connect it to your Wi-Fi network, and you can automate whatever's attached using the Kasa app on your phone.

Retail point-of-sale systems today offer a wide range of options for peripherals and hardware. Their technical specifications play a major role in selection, and big retailers often choose multiple vendors to reduce a single point of failure. This gives them an advantage to negotiate price or support as well. Technically, these peripherals also require updating with new models and may have new feature sets. This necessitates the redevelopment of point-of-sale applications, increasing development costs.

PF4J expects that your plugin code has a class that extends org.pf4j.Plugin interface. And for running and stopping the plugin, methods start() and stop() of this interface will be called. But our service is expected to have completely pure logic - without any side effects - we need to bring these two worlds together - Java impure plugins start/stop and Scala pure logic.

We live in a time where privacy is something we actually have to work to enjoy. Achieving a level of privacy we once had takes work, and you need to start thinking beyond a single desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone -- all the way to your LAN. Before I scare you all off, understand that this starts on the desktop and extends to the LAN. By beefing up both your devices and your network, you'll achieve a level of privacy that you wouldn't otherwise have.

All of the appliances and systems are brand-new: the HVAC, the lighting, the entertainment. Touch screens of various shapes and sizes control this, that, and the other. Rows of programmable buttons sit where traditional light switches would normally be. The kitchen even has outlets designed to rise up from the countertop when you need them, and slide away when you don't.

Originally developed by Nest (before the Google acquisition), Thread has existed since 2011. Devised as a power-efficient mesh networking technology for internet-of-things (IoT) products, Thread gathered pace after the 2014 formation of the Thread Group, which develops the technology and drives its adoption as an industry standard. Founding members like ARM, Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm have been joined by Apple, Amazon, and many other big companies over the years.

You might be surprised to learn that someone is determining whether or not your appliances work on a day-to-day basis. That your fridge isn't just malfunctioning because of some electrical failure. It's because of a person, and I am that person, and your appliances are the tools with which I craft my art, and make your life a living hell.

Ring has launched a new tool that can tell you if a video clip captured by its camera has been altered or not. The company says that every video downloaded from Ring starting in December 2025 going forward will come with a digital security seal. "Think of it like the tamper-evident seal on a medicine bottle," it explained. Its new tool, called Ring Verify, can tell you if a video has been altered in any way.

On the hunt for new smart plugs to upgrade your home automation? One of our favorite picks, the Meross MSS110 Smart Plug Mini, is currently marked down on Amazon. The two pack is discounted from $34 to $27, and the four pack is down to $34 from its usual price of $52. These plugs help add smart functionality to otherwise dumb devices around your home, like lamps or fans, so they can be included in your routines.

A floodlight security camera is a great way to add light and video surveillance to your property, and they work extremely well for dark areas. They can serve like motion-activated lights when you or your family are taking out the trash, adding safety and convenience to your property. The addition of a security camera enables you to receive alerts about intruders, record video events that you can review later, and drop in and check on the videofeed whenever you like from wherever you are.