this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2024
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CAFE by GE for those who are wondering.

We are renovating our house including all new appliances. I have told my partner to make sure we get non smart appliances. This is why.

Yes I can setup a VLAN for it to be on but that's not the point.

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[–] rem26_art@fedia.io 78 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

they're using the Wi-fi radiation to cook your meals /s

Thats really, really dumb. I can understand maybe wanting the option of having your oven ping your phone when the timer goes off, but what could it possibly need internet access for in order to turn on the heating element and a fan for a set period of time??

[–] tiramichu@lemm.ee 56 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It doesn't need it. That's exactly the point.

Even though air frying doesn't need Internet, the manufacturer is restricting that feature as a way to force you to set up the WiFi, so they can then slurp up all your data.

They're literally holding the feature hostage, as motivation.

[–] gazter@aussie.zone 1 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Is data on when I turn the oven on, and how long I run it for, even worthwhile? Or do you think it's sniffing out other info from my network?

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 6 points 3 weeks ago

I've honestly come to the conclusion that some companies have management that actually believes its worth while to collect the most meaningless telemetry data, even after the ridiculous cost of bandwidth, database storage, hosting, etc. which all become more bonkers the larger the dataset. I've seen the cloud bills for actual useful data, I don't want think about how much they must be paying AWS/Azure/GCP to host such worthless data. There's no way its at all profitable to do so

[–] CafecitoHippo@lemm.ee 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Is data on when I turn the oven on, and how long I run it for, even worthwhile?

They wouldn't be holding you hostage for it if it wasn't.

[–] Don_alForno@feddit.org 3 points 3 weeks ago

Nah. Corporations aren't all knowing godlike beings. They are run by stupid people who make mistakes, just like us.

[–] Tinidril@midwest.social 1 points 3 weeks ago

Some people just want to watch the world burn.

[–] AntEater@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 3 weeks ago

At the bare minimum, they’re going to use that data to figure out, on average, how much use it gets while under the warranty period. They’ll use that to further cut corners on the materials or other design considerations.

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 19 points 3 weeks ago

I had a bakery/kiosk mix of shop, where I baked bread every morning for 13 years or so. There was a customer who questioned my oven, because she actually does not know if it really radiates. And how I can be this sure about it. Its a damn oven! Like one in every household, just a bit bigger. People are really this dumb. Besides, it wouldn't be legal... oh man still upsets me. Not because of being accused for, but it upset me that people like her have the right to vote.

[–] SteevyT@beehaw.org 18 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

they’re using the Wi-fi radiation to cook your meals

You're thinking of microwaves.

[–] Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com 32 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The microwave region extends from 1,000 to 300,000 MHz (or 30 cm to 1 mm wavelength).

Source: https://www.britannica.com/science/electromagnetic-radiation/Microwaves

2.4Ghz, and 5Ghz are microwaves. Your typical microwave oven operates at about 2.45GHz due to resonance frequency of water. 2.4Ghz wifi is literally a typical microwave's neighbor.

The difference is sheer amount of power and shielding. Not the type of radiation.

[–] SteevyT@beehaw.org 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com 7 points 3 weeks ago

It may very well be. However, with how matter-of-factly you said it, some people might not think it's a joke.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

The water resonance thing is a myth, AFAIK. Strong absorption is actually a bad thing for a microwave oven, because then it would only heat the surface. The way they work is effectively bouncing the radiation through a barely-absorbing dielectric thousands of times, to get the effect really even.

The frequency is probably just an easy one to build magnetrons for.

[–] Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The frequency is probably just an easy one to build magnetrons for.

The real reason is that that range is reserved for consumer devices so that it doesn't interfere with actual ISM sanctioned communications as enforced by the FCC. We just also decided to put wifi in the same range cause they're stingy releasing frequencies for public use.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISM_radio_band#Frequency_allocations


But research was done on it cause of course it has been.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0031-9120/39/1/006

This article deals with the generation of microwaves in the oven and includes the operation of the magnetrons, waveguides and standing waves in resonant cavities. It then considers the absorption of microwaves by foods, discussing the dielectric relaxation of water, penetration depths of electromagnetic waves in matter and, in considering the possible chemical changes during the microwave heating, multi-photon ionization or dissociation.

So you're likely right that it's not water resonance, but chassis cavity resonance. I can't say that I've read deeply into it. And thinking about it I remember hearing something about some of the high level stuff that I just read in relation to this article. I probably ran into it in passing and just failed to recall it. But to be frank, I'm okay just calling it voodoo wizardry in of itself. But I have to understand wireless communications stuff for my profession, and it's well known that it's basically the same range as wifi 2.4ghz/bluetooth/other consumer standards that sit in the same crowded space.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

There's several ISM bands, though, pretty evenly spaced. The 13.5MHz one is used for passive RF chips like on credit cards, for example. They're skinny, but for purposes where bandwidth doesn't matter they can be. For other purposes bandwidth is scarce enough there has to be tight regulation.

Actually high water absorption happens in mm wave bands up in the hundreds of GHz (and THz too, if we could make a decent transmitter). Those fucked up riot control devices that make your skin feel on fire work based on that principle, because the heat will only go deep enough to hit pain receptors. Presumably, they stop working if you get a water mixture of any kind on the window, too.

[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

That could work if you amped the waves up and trapped them in a confined, isolated space, no?

[–] Midnitte@beehaw.org 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Maybe if you could amp up the wattage by a 1000 fold, sure

[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

We're not trying to be efficient, we are trying to be innovative!

[–] Midnitte@beehaw.org 3 points 3 weeks ago

Listen, the Behemoth probably wouldn't even survive a shot from the wifiaser.

I for my part would rather like to use the microwave for Hi-Power WiFi (and you can hold a bag of popcorn into the datastream for nutrition too!)

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 2 points 3 weeks ago

I'm not sure if that's possible, but if, not in this size. You would probably need an oven in the size of an entire truck maybe? It probably needs lot of energy for both, isolating and transforming/amping the signal. At that point the power going in to transform the signal could be used more efficiently otherwise to achieve the same goal without Wi-fi (as those small microwaves proves it).