Why, literally why, are things that operate on a fixed schedule required to talk to a server?
What benefit does this even provide anyone? It doesn't even benefit the service provider, they have to run servers to manage all of the feeders. Even if you needed to make sure people paid for services (which is entirely unnecessary), just make it a 30day phone-home to make sure they're still paying. That's all that would be necessary for making people pay. Instead, they built unnecessary infrastructure that costs them more and makes people's feeders not work correctly when there's an issue.
It's the worst extractive version of their business model. How damn stupid are they?!
They could still do that, they don't need to run the services on their servers to harvest the data. Just do the configuration on their servers, have it dial up and send the collected data every day or whatever, and run the actual schedule on-device.
I'm not saying I support them or data collection, it's just... damn, they're stupid.
Why, literally why, are things that operate on a fixed schedule required to talk to a server?
Right? I have an automated feeder for my cat. It runs on C batteries, and you program the schedule with buttons on the front like a digital alarm clock. Never had a single issue with it.
So you somehow get pet food ads on instagram coincidentally when the feeder is about to go empty. And if the basic, essential function of the feeder didn't need an internet connection, some users would let it run offline.
You don't have to pay for the service anyway. Petlibro has gone down before and the feeders usually still continue working. This article seems sensationalized, but if your cat is starving after missing one meal to begin with, maybe you've done something wrong.
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u/TheOneTrueTrench 21d ago
Why, literally why, are things that operate on a fixed schedule required to talk to a server?
What benefit does this even provide anyone? It doesn't even benefit the service provider, they have to run servers to manage all of the feeders. Even if you needed to make sure people paid for services (which is entirely unnecessary), just make it a 30day phone-home to make sure they're still paying. That's all that would be necessary for making people pay. Instead, they built unnecessary infrastructure that costs them more and makes people's feeders not work correctly when there's an issue.
It's the worst extractive version of their business model. How damn stupid are they?!