partial_accumen

I ask for their wifi password. I’m not going to pay for my data to help them do their job.

They’d love nothing more than you using their wifi. The data they can collect about you, your spending habits, and how they can change you behavior to buy more.

You don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s network giant Cisco Systems pitch to store owners how their gear can track you and how the store benefits from it.

"With guest Wi-Fi access available right at their fingertips, they can easily look up reviews about each product. This data gathered from Wi-Fi analytics not only allows retailers to track customers’ interests and identify emerging trends, but also provides shoppers with validated decision-making processes, as they weigh options across multiple providers. "

"Gaining insight into your customer’s identity: By utilizing Wi-Fi analytics, businesses can gain valuable insights into who their customers are. This data can be used to better understand who is using their Wi-Fi network, when they are using it the most and what actions they take while connected. It provides business owners an unprecedented glimpse into their customers’ true identity, as well as more concrete evidence of their buying behavior in order to segment them more effectively. "

If they’re using bluetooth and wifi, we better find and remove those components too.

Removing the Bluetooth/wifi module maybe more difficult. For cost cutting reasons, these controllers are built into the logic boards now, but disconnecting the bluetooth/wifi antennas inside the TV is trivially easy. They are simple push-on mechanical connectors. No wire cutting needed. Gently grab the gold/silver metal part pull straight up from the board.

I just googled “lcd TV logic board” and this was one of the first images I found. I put a red square around the antenna connectors.

I originally went shopping for a Bravia II 7, but found an open box Bravia 5 (which is the one I got) for less than half the cost of the Bravia II 7.

I haven’t. I have not once hooked it up to a network, and my preference is that I never do so.

I recently bought a new TV and did some research to find the “least worst” TV with regard to internet connectivity and reliance on its “smart OS” navigation to just use an external HDMI port. I can report pretty good news for the Sony Bravia line of Android TVs.

• there was no requirement to connect it to the internet
• during setup there is a choice for “basic” which adds only a few default apps (which are uninstallable/disablable by the user)
• there is a setting called “Power on and remember last input port”. What this means is you last used HDMI1 port when you powered off the TV, when you power it back up again it automatically goes right back to that HDMI input port without any extra button presses or user interaction. In practice this means you see the Sony logo on the screen and just a fraction of a second the graphic circles of part of the AndroidTV interface before it switches to the HDMI1 input where we left off before powering off the tv prior.

Bonus feature we like:

• there is a setting you can enable/disable that if the TV is already powered on, when you power on a device on another HDMI port than the one you’re on, the TV will automatically switch to that HDMI input without prompting. So if we’re watching the AppleTV on HDMI1 and then want to watch a Blu-ray, simply powering on the Blu-ray player will also have the TV switch to that HDMI2 input.

I wish there was no AndroidTV OS on it at all, but the only time I’ve ever seen it was the one time when we went through the initial setup. We haven’t seen or interacted with it since.

Is that paying cash for the solar system or financing? Financing can devastate the ROI with interest rates today. I’m looking at as long as 12 year ROI with possibly as short as 7 year ROI if I consider the USA’s federal tax incentives. My slightly southern latitude (a border state with Canada) also likely contributes to slightly higher generation results using the same equipment.

How are the government incentives in Canada? I’m super envious of your great hydro power, my neighbor.