Free Republic

Your smart lightbulb is probably storing your wifi password in the clear, ready to be recovered by wily dumpster-divers; Limited Results discovered the security worst-practice during a teardown of a Lifx bulb; and that's just for starters: the bulbs also store their RSA private key and root passwords in the clear and have no security measures to prevent malicious reflashings of their ROMs with exploits, network probes and other nasties.

DeWitt, N.Y. -- In 2014, the development arm of SUNY Polytechnic Institute agreed to build, with $90 million in state money, a factory in DeWitt for an LED light bulb manufacturer. The company, California-based Soraa, agreed to create 250 full-time, high-tech jobs at Collamer Crossing Business Park and to encourage Soraa contractors and suppliers to create another 170 jobs in Central New York. In return, the company would be allowed to lease the factory for $1 a month for 10 years. But the deal with SUNY Poly's Fort Schuyler Management Corp. did not require Soraa to spend any of its...

As a self-confessed science geek I am fascinated by technology. Yet in the world of gardening this is often synonymous with the gimmicky (fiberglass meerkat solar light, anyone?) or the hugely complex and costly – think hydroponic growers that require a degree in electrical engineering to install. So it was with trepidation that I started experimenting with LED grow lights last winter in my tiny flat. Nine months down the line I am a total convert, eulogizing about them to all my gardening mates. They are something I feel could be a gamechanger to many modern gardeners, if we could...

By the end of the year, GE will cease production and sales of compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), the manufacturer announced this morning. Moving forward, the company's focus will fall entirely on halogen incandescents and on high-efficiency LEDs. "CFL's kind of been the light bulb that everybody loves to hate," explained John Strainic, chief operating officer of GE Lighting, citing the history of complaints about CFL dimmer compatibility, brightness delay, and quality of light. Strainic says that the industry has come a long way, but admits that the perception of inferior performance lingers. "Ultimately, LED offers a better solution at a...