[Cryptography] "push within the entire IT industry to make everything "Web-centric"

[Jerry Leichter]

> Not exactly cryptography:
>  You stated
>> This is a way broader trend.  There's a big push within the entire IT industry to make everything "Web-centric."  It used to be that you managed your routers or other devices by connecting to command line interfaces.
> 
> My garage door opener recently broke. ... I called a local door opener company that had good online reviews.... $900, compared to the $50 I paid for gears last time. I had only asked him to "fix it" but I wasn't specific enough!
> 
> Why the outrageous price? The opener has a tag on it asking me to download an "app" (hate that word) that would let me control the opener from anywhere....
Well it has to connect to the Internet somehow.  I doubt, even for $900, that they are including a cell connection; so presumably it has to connect to your WiFi.  If you haven't connected it you're probably safe - though there have been too-smart devices that look for any open WiFi nearby and hop on.

I wonder how people living in the National Radio Quiet Zone - 13,000 square miles mainly in West Virginia where no WiFi or cell phones (among other sources of radio energy) are permitted to allow the Green Bank observatory to operate - buy ... almost any new "things" these days.  Many cars *do* come with built-in cell connectivity; Smart TV's want to connect to wireless (I suppose most will still connect to Ethernet but I suspect that that's a technology with a somewhat restricted lifetime for home use going forward).

                                                        -- Jerry