Thanks for this info. I've been patiently waiting for Thread/Matter devices so that I could just use my AppleTV as the TBR and not need any Zigbee gateway. And not need HomeKit-specific devices; just use generic ones.
But I'm certainly not about to let simple IoT devices have any internet access at all. Being unable to block this on the TBR as you suggested would be mandatory for me, and not possible on AppleTV.
Technical Program Manager with 12 years of experience leading complex cross-functional engineering programs from planning through delivery. My background is primarily in infrastructure, platform engineering, developer tools, and blockchain (specifically Ethereum).
I currently split my time between two part-time roles. I advise a small investment firm on technology initiatives, including software development strategy, technical hiring, and execution planning. Separately, I serve as Head of Strategic Initiatives for an affiliated non-profit, leading feasibility assessments and execution planning for major programs.
Both roles are project-based and initiative-driven rather than full-time operational positions. My involvement is around planning, evaluation, and execution milestones, so I'm flexible to pursue a larger full-time opportunity or additional part-time or contract roles.
- Building engineering planning and analytics tools (Python/Jira API) for throughput analysis, estimation accuracy, dependency visualization, and forecasting.
- Scaling engineering organizations by improving communication, roadmapping, planning, and execution.
- Technical deep dives with engineering teams to break down complex work, identify risks early, and keep large initiatives on track.
- Developing engineers and technical leaders through clear ownership (DRIs), mentoring, and enabling teams to operate with less coordination overhead.
I didn't, but I'll do so now. I usually don't bother with support, because I forget that good companies like Fastmail actually have a competent support team.
I literally switched on "Enable offline support", caching "All mail" offline on my iPhone a few months ago. Tons of free space, only using 4GB for offline.
But when my phone is actually offline (on a plane or elevator) it beachballs when trying to find something.
Found this a few days ago. It solves a problem I didn't know I had: showing a map of all my photos locally (like Apple Photos), but not copying them or allowing modifications into its own library. I don't want sync, or the ability to edit them, just display and search them (and view and maybe edit metadata).
You just add a folder as a source and it'll create thumbnails, add metadata, do face recognition (if desired, using MacOS APIs), all locally.
One feature I would love: write the name of the recognized person to the metadata as a keyword (which I do manually now in Photo Mechanic).
> Even if they have taken away other routes that used to exist so that this is the only way?
I’ve only been in the system for a year so I don’t know about the history beyond that. Based on some downvotes + your comment I will look into it further.
Very useful comment. I’ve had an A1 Mini for a year now and it has been my favourite purchase in years. Like when I got my first mobile phone, I feel like I’ll have some sort of 3d printer for the rest of my life. Bambu made it super easy and inexpensive for this to happen.
I’m completely against bullying and attempts to lock out open source software from using 3d printers directly; if they locked out OrcaSlicer from direct control I’d have a big problem with that.
But trying to interact directly with Bambu’s private infrastructure/APis seems reasonable for Bambu to block. I think a cease and desist might backfire on Bambu but i don’t think it’s unreadable. (Didn’t watch the video. Just getting context from parent comment. )
I can think of two instances from the past year or two where this happened: "printer cable" (USB-A to USB-B?), and USB-A extension cable (both at separate times). I think I spent ~$10 for each of these, so my total bill was $20.
So $20 fee to pay for getting rid of a bunch of other cables I didn't need years ago and saving ~500 cubic cm of space.
And I gave the printer cable away to a friend when I was done with it, happy to repurchase it in a few years in the increasingly unlikely scenario that I need it again.
I’m looking for a recommendation to get beyond TinkerCAD (for 3d printing). I learned it in 2019 and came back in 2025 when I got my own printer. It is comfortable and fine for my purposes but lacks basic things like chamfer and fillets.
Anytime I try to jump into Fusion or FreeCAD I immediately hit a wall (like trying pirated Maya when I was a kid).
Totally correct and a good call out. I did check this as best as I could for this particular model of TV. But I'd have to do the same in a few years if it was ever to be replaced. I suspect I'll have to desolder the cellular module of my next TV circa 2036...
I wonder about this every time I see a smart TV-related thread on HN. I recently purchased an LG OLED (C5 48") because my old TV died so I'll finally comment. As others have said, just don't connect it to the internet. But you knew this already, so I'll provide my anecdote on the experience of this since I wondered the same thing for years before getting this TV.
When the TV is never connected to internet, and you use a single HDMI source like me, the TV acts completely like a dumb TV. It gets turned on via my AppleTV remote and displays the picture 1-2 seconds later. No LG logo (I disabled this), and no smart interface shown whatsoever.
If you want to change settings, you can display the settings interface via LG remote control and it generally acts like a dumb TV (not blocking the entire screen, so you can adjust picture quality and see the result as expected).
I've had the TV for about two months and never been asked to update it or shown any ad. The only time I've ever seen the smart fullscreen interface is when you unplug a live HDMI source and the TV detects that nothing is there. (If you turn the source off, it tells the TV to turn itself off as well.)
Hope this helps since it's a lot easier to buy a nice smart TV and do it this way than find a truly dumb commercial panel.
Now that you mention it, DJI action cameras required the same thing (installing an app to activate the camera). I bought one, discovered this during setup, and promptly returned it and got a GoPro instead.
I do something similar with voip.ms (hosted Asterisk).
The intercom calls my voip number, which can be set two ways: 1) play DTMF tone 9 to let the person in, then hang up (which is a security risk if random folks at the intercom buzzed me up trying to get in.
Or 2) plays audio "enter passcode", then:
- if the visitor enters the code that I told them, it plays DTMF 9 to let them in
- if the code is incorrect, plays "incorrect passcode" and hangs up
It also sends an email and SMS whenever someone triggers the intercom so I know about it. With passcodes, I can even set up multiple passcodes to give out to various people (like Amazon, friends) and my notification will display which code was used.
I have the opposite experience (in tech at small or medium companies). Managing remote workers is much easier since outcomes (and outputs) are necessarily more visible.
Before working remotely (pre-2019) when managing teams in person, I found myself necessarily having discussions to get synced with folks. At my most recent role (and previous remote first roles), team members were excellent at providing updates on Github issues (the sources of truth for work items). Of course, this required buy in at all levels and trickling company objectives down through the program(s) and linking work items to OKRs etc. It was very obvious when folks weren't hitting objectives and easy to gather detailed written evidence of this.
And regarding getting to know folks. Most recent offsite was at a villa in Croatia where I got to both meet my team members and ended up getting to know them like friends. Now that I think about it this has happened at previous companies as well during remote offsites.
I wonder if it's field-specific. Sounds like there are multiple anecdotes across a wide distribution of outcomes.
Your description of the test and your replies to questions indicate you've come up with a pretty great assessment for the role(s) you hire for. Especially where you mentioned:
> The test was a few of those questions and a few which were easier to cheat, and almost nobody had good scores on just the cheatable section
I also like how you allow/encourage self-assessment, where if a candidate can't do the test in ~20 minutes under zero pressure, they probably won't be a good fit in the role itself.
This is very useful context. Especially around Contact Scopes etc. It's never made sense to me that iOS shares if the user is choosing to not share their contacts.
Apple seems to basically do privacy-related things to an 80% level but not bothering with getting it totally correct. This makes business sense because the extra 20% is way more difficult, but it's great to see GrapheneOS going all the way.
Glasses would have been the "normal person" fix, but my eyes are great otherwise (better than 20/20 distance vision). So I could focus closer with glasses, but the lenses were worse quality than just sitting farther back.
100% agreed. I'm a Program Manager and have been writing tooling for my own internal workflows for years (like Monte Carlo-based forecasting tools), or program-adjacent low-stakes stuff (like an API to generate a WSJF score based on a fields inputted into Asana, since it couldn't do that itself).
But I'm not about to send a PR for fixing production bugs even if I have decent high level context. Nobody has better context than the devs working on it every day.
But I'm certainly not about to let simple IoT devices have any internet access at all. Being unable to block this on the TBR as you suggested would be mandatory for me, and not possible on AppleTV.