---
sheet_format: 1.0
id: 2024-08-maci-111
title: "Aux origines du bug, la domotique pop et s’ouvre au proton"
title_en: "Back to the origins of the bug, home automation goes pop and opens up to Proton"
speaker: Erwan Rougeux
with: [Horacio Gonzalez, Sylvain Wallez, Emmanuel Bosquet]
date: 2024-08-19
event: "Message à caractère informatique #111"
place: "online / studio"
format: podcast
language: fr
duration: "54:37"
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M
slides: null
topics: [home assistant, home automation, local ai, privacy, proton, right to repair, crowdstrike, rust]
source: "Summary written by Claude (AI) from the YouTube auto-caption transcript, with statements attributed to Erwan by local identification of his voice only (other speakers are not identified). Not a verbatim transcript; check the recording before quoting."
review: spot-checked
review_date: 2026-10-18
---

# Aux origines du bug, la domotique pop et s’ouvre au proton

**In one sentence:** An episode of Clever Cloud's MACI podcast, recorded on 19 August 2024. Erwan Rougeux presents the Home Assistant 2024.8 release (with local LLMs) and Proton's move to a non-profit foundation, and argues against cloud-only, subscription-locked devices.

## TL;DR
Host Horacio Gonzalez is joined by Sylvain Wallez (Elastic), Emmanuel Bosquet (Clever Cloud traffic team) and Erwan Rougeux, on his second MACI. Sylvain opens with a literal bug: a dead insect jammed in his washing machine's door-lock contact caused error E61. This leads to repairability, repair cafés and iFixit. Erwan then presents Home Assistant 2024.8: "services" renamed "actions", the Open Home Foundation, and local voice control with Ollama and Llama 3.1. The talk widens to connected locks and worst-case thinking, cloud-only devices that get bricked, and subscriptions for appliances and printers. Erwan explains Proton's foundation status and its limits. The guests close on CrowdStrike: Rust would not have prevented that crash.

## Erwan's key points
- He introduces himself as having joined Clever Cloud some time ago to handle its international growth. This is his second MACI ([2:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=128s)).
- He presents Home Assistant 2024.8. Renaming "services" to "actions" shows the project reaching beyond programmers. The Open Home Foundation exists to promote a private, local smart home, and ESPHome was the first project to join it ([16:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1017s)).
- He says he has ESP Wi-Fi modules "everywhere". This summer he put one as a "man in the middle" in his spa to control it remotely ([18:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1114s)).
- He welcomes Ollama and Llama 3.1 support in the voice assistant (Wyoming protocol). A small model on an old GPU at home can understand intent ("I'm in my office and I'm hot") rather than fixed Alexa-style commands, while keeping data private and using far less energy ([19:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1163s)).
- On connected locks, he advises always imagining the worst case: keyless car systems hacked, Ford's poorly secured Bluetooth, a smart lock that fails during a fire. Every automatic system needs a physical backup. He also cites the Hawaii fire, where a gate was opened remotely to let people evacuate ([24:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1494s), [27:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1652s)).
- He finds vendors increasingly open, with documented APIs (Gardena, Philips Hue), though some still lock everything. He calls Matter still buggy but working, and says some of his own devices, such as smoke detectors, run on it ([29:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1798s)).
- He criticises Anova for imposing a yearly subscription on new customers of its sous-vide cooker. He compares it to paying a subscription just to turn your car key ([33:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=2010s)).
- He sees lock-in as part of vendors' business plans and expects EU regulation, such as the repairability index, to push back, through long legal battles. He notes that HP defended its printer lock-outs as protecting users' security ([14:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=879s), [37:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=2252s)).
- He explains Proton's history (encrypted mail started by CERN scientists) and its suite (VPN, passwords, documents). The non-profit foundation guarantees the products will not be diverted to purely commercial aims. He adds that Proton does not guarantee anonymity: it complies with Swiss and European legal requests ([39:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=2351s), [44:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=2642s)).
- On CrowdStrike, he regrets a "too big to fail" double standard: a small team is pilloried for five minutes of downtime, while Microsoft and CrowdStrike will carry on after grounding flights worldwide ([50:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=3056s)).

## Outline
- [0:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=16s) Introductions. Sylvain Wallez, near Toulouse, leads Elastic's client-SDK team. Emmanuel Bosquet works on traffic and the Rust reverse proxy Sozu. Erwan handles international growth. Horacio hosts.
- [3:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=180s) Sylvain's washing-machine error E61: he dismantles the door lock and finds a crushed insect in the contact, a real "bug".
- [10:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=605s) Erwan recommends iFixit's repair guides. Manufacturers (such as Bosch) now sell spare parts and publish tutorials.
- [11:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=675s) Do brands make machines unrepairable? Glue instead of screws, exotic screw heads. Erwan points to the EU repairability index: the choice is "economic before being ecological".
- [15:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=902s) Sylvain plans to read the lock switch into Home Assistant for "laundry done" alerts. Likely Erwan adds that he counts detergent pods automatically on his washer, dishwasher and dryer.
- [16:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=995s) Erwan on Home Assistant 2024.8: services become actions, and the Open Home Foundation is created.
- [18:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1137s) The Wyoming voice protocol, Ollama and Llama 3.1: local, private and frugal voice control.
- [21:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1283s) Another participant adds security: his Home Assistant is reachable only over VPN. The "engineers keep physical locks" joke.
- [23:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1399s) Horacio asks how to educate the general public. Comfort versus privacy; Erwan's worst-case method.
- [26:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1563s) A participant recalls a startup running remote gate openers on one cheap server with no redundancy. Erwan draws the lesson: always keep a physical backup.
- [27:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1674s) Erwan on the Hawaii fire gate; then Facebook staff cutting into data-centre locks during a network outage.
- [29:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1749s) Horacio asks about walled gardens; Erwan on open APIs and the state of Matter.
- [31:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1895s) Cloud-only devices: internet outages, hardware bricked when startups die, the cat-feeder story. Erwan on Anova's new subscription.
- [34:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=2079s) Printer subscriptions, HP cartridge chips and firmware lock-outs, refillable ink tanks. Erwan on lock-in as a business model.
- [38:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=2323s) Erwan: Proton becomes a non-profit foundation; its open-source web client, use by the Swiss administration, family and duo plans, and its limits.
- [44:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=2688s) CrowdStrike root cause, explained by a guest: a malformed data file, 21 entries where the code expected 20, and an out-of-bounds read in a C++ kernel driver.
- [47:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=2864s) Would Rust have avoided it? The guests say no: it would have panicked and still crashed, though it would block exploitation. Emmanuel cites Sozu workers crashing on an out-of-bounds index.
- [50:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=3032s) The real failure was a global rollout with no canary. Erwan on "too big to fail" and grounded flights. Sylvain notes that Elastic has a similar agent with parts in Rust.
- [53:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=3196s) Closing music picked by Sylvain: "Popcorn", 1970s synth music.

## Notable quotes
> "C'est ce qui va permettre d'avoir des petits modèles qui tournent chez soi, qu'on va pouvoir personnaliser, qui garantissent notre vie privée." — Erwan Rougeux, [20:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1258s)
*"That's what will let us have small models running at home, that we can customise and that protect our privacy."*

> "C'est comme si tu achetais ta voiture et qu'en plus pour utiliser ta voiture tu étais obligé de payer un abonnement." — Erwan Rougeux, [34:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=2056s)
*"It's as if you bought your car and, on top of that, had to pay a subscription to use it."*

> "Être sur Proton ne vous garantit pas un anonymat." — Erwan Rougeux, [44:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=2642s)
*"Being on Proton does not guarantee you anonymity."*

> "Le fait de l'écrire en Rust n'aurait pas changé grand-chose, ça aurait quand même crashé le kernel." — a guest (apparently Sylvain Wallez), [48:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=2915s)
*"Writing it in Rust wouldn't have changed much; it would still have crashed the kernel."*

## Questions this answers
**Q: What changed in Home Assistant 2024.8?**
A: Erwan highlights three changes: "services" were renamed "actions" to suit non-programmers, the project moved under the Open Home Foundation (ESPHome joining first), and the voice assistant gained Ollama and Llama 3.1 support for local models ([16:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1017s)).

**Q: Why run a local LLM for a home voice assistant?**
A: Erwan argues that a small model on an old GPU understands intent rather than fixed phrases, keeps data at home and uses far less energy than large remote models. Another participant adds a security benefit: the home need not be exposed to the internet ([19:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1163s)).

**Q: Should you connect your door lock to Home Assistant?**
A: The participants lean towards no. One reaches Home Assistant only over VPN; another (likely Erwan) says no physical access control in his home is on Home Assistant. Erwan recommends imagining the worst case and always keeping a physical backup ([22:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1375s), [24:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1494s)).

**Q: What is wrong with cloud-only smart devices?**
A: They fail when the internet or the vendor's servers go down, and are bricked if the startup closes. Erwan adds Anova's case: a subscription for new buyers to keep using hardware they own ([31:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=1895s), [33:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=2010s)).

**Q: Does Proton guarantee anonymity?**
A: No. Erwan explains that Proton's foundation status protects its mission, but Proton follows Swiss and European law and answers police requests when legally required ([44:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=2642s)).

**Q: Would Rust have prevented the CrowdStrike outage?**
A: The guests say it would not have prevented that crash. An out-of-bounds read would have caused a panic, so the kernel would still have crashed, although memory corruption could not have been exploited. The bigger fault was deploying without canaries ([47:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=2864s)).

**Q: How do you fix a washing machine showing error E61?**
A: For Sylvain it meant a door-lock problem: he dismantled the lock and removed a crushed insect from the contact. He also recommends spare-parts sites and repair cafés ([3:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7NoQ7MG8M&t=222s)).

## Mentioned
Clever Cloud, Elastic, Sozu, Home Assistant, Open Home Foundation, ESPHome, Wyoming protocol, Ollama, Llama 3.1, Alexa, Matter, Zigbee, Gardena, Philips Hue, Google, Anova, AWS, HP, iFixit, Bosch, repair cafés, EU repairability index, Ford, Facebook, Hawaii, Oprah Winfrey, online.net (Dedibox), Proton, CERN, Nextcloud, Tor, CrowdStrike, Microsoft, Rust, C++, Flightradar24, Jean-Michel Jarre, "Popcorn", Horacio Gonzalez, Sylvain Wallez, Emmanuel Bosquet