XPost: rec.arts.comics.strips   
   From: psperson@old.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Sun, 26 Oct 2025 15:33:45 -0400 (EDT), kludge@panix.com (Scott   
   Dorsey) wrote:   
      
   >Paul S Person   wrote:   
   >>On Sat, 25 Oct 2025 12:25:22 -0500, Jay Morris    
   >>wrote:   
   >>   
   >>>On 10/25/2025 11:10 AM, Paul S Person wrote:   
   >>>> Locally, Seattle City Power converted us some years back. Ours are not   
   >>>> only smart, they are/connected/. Using WiFi, of course. That is how   
   >>>> they plan to tell how much power we are using during each part of the   
   >>>> day, after all.   
   >   
   >How did we get onto smart meters?  Smart meters use the 900 MHz ISM band,   
   >not 2.4 GHz, because they want the added range.  The ones in our area use   
   >a fairly primitive interrogate-reply protocol at 1200bps.   
      
   I mentioned a coming change to the electric bill, which requires them   
   knowing when in the day power is used. I am still waiting for the bill   
   that may show how this works in practice. This led to a response about   
   how to identify smart meters. Which (eventually?) led to my   
   distinguishing smart meters that use wireless from any that don't[1].   
      
   [1] Note that I have no idea if any don't. But the response indicated   
   that they had had the same meter ever since they bought the house, so   
   I avoided asserting that all smart meters use wireless.    
      
   >This wasn't about smart meters inititally, it was about home thermostats,   
   >and many of them DO use wifi to link to the furnace as well as to allow   
   >people to control the temperature and schedule from their phones.   
      
   Which is nice to know.   
      
   How odd that it took this long for this information to come out. But   
   it is welcome all the same. Well, provided "furnace" includes "heat   
   pump".   
      
   Note that security problems associated with this use of WiFi have been   
   mentioned. Then again, a few years back, a power company apparently   
   decided it had the right to control the user's home environment for   
   them without explicit permission, so the security problems may run   
   deeper than we know.   
      
   >Two differnet ISM band applications, two different protocols, two different   
   >ISM bands.   
   --    
   "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,   
   Who evil spoke of everyone but God,   
   Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)