Lots of online data on how Amazon's revenue is in line with the GDP of the top 10-15 countries on the planet. This boggles my mind. When I see projects such as this my mind immediately references all the dystopian fiction stories I've seen and read where tyrannical corporations control everything.
They aren't comparable metrics. Revenue doesn't represent value added. I can sell a $20 bill for $20, my revenue is $20 but there is no impact on GDP (nothing has been created, no value has been added). Do that enough times and you too can have revenue equaling that of a small country.
Remember that while these types of dystopias are bad for most people, for some they are utopias. Amazon being an all powerful unaccountable infinite money machine is Jeff Bezo's utopia, for example.
Changed your life for the better I hope? My kids asked for a Nintendo Switch, but instead got a Steam Deck, along with my 12-year old desktop that is on it's second GPU, second pair of RAM, and third disk drive but still chugging along well. Those systems aren't anywhere near hackable like when we were kids, but I'm hoping just the possibility being there is enough.
Newer systems offer dramatically more opportunity for hacking. The problem is that you just don’t have to.
If you want to introduce hacking for necessity, try introducing an SBC into the mix. For $40, you can get a system younger you could be never dream of. Actually there is a Milk-V is $5 right now.
I love to see one of these come with the ability to fit into a gang box on the wall... to use in a place where one would usually have light switches, etc.
This is a good idea. You don't want to have a full-on Linux distro controlling your lights. You want something you can set up and forget.
You will feel a world of pain when there is some bug, and it will take you 8 hours to figure out the issues so that you can turn your lights on. The simplier, the better for these kinds of applications.
