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The Internet of Way Too Many Things

nytimes.com

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Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#11

Post by dmschulman »

Like a lot of tech products I think these devices have a niche appeal, despite the fact that of these doohickeys are answers in search of a problem people will buy these products (Target hosted this expo after all).

Unlike a selfie stick or edible gold pills however there is a deeper ethical issue inherent in selling products that transact so much data about your life (and metrics about your family and home) for the purpose of creating marketable data sets about every mundane aspect of living. Not to mention how vulnerable a person or family becomes once these devices are integrated into their house, children, car, BBQ, etc since so little attention is given to making these devices secure.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#12

Post by antr »

s_baby wrote: post #8
antr wrote: post #2

I just bought a home, and just started a considerable renovation. I'm putting in new water pipes, new electrical wiring, etc. I thought of putting "smart" devices (i.e. switches, alarms, thermostats, etc.) given the "advantages" these promise. After considerable research, it's not worth the hussle or money. Let's put aside the fact that these are considerable more expensive, and won't breakeven in years (some devices…

I would still run cat6 as if I was going to use smart devices. You're already inside the walls.

All rooms will have gigabit ethernet sockets :-)

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#13

Post by dmschulman »

edgyswingset wrote: post #6

Some of these products strike me as being created because one of the owners of the startup thought it was cool, not because they went out and actually tried to identify peoples' household problems and figure out ways to solve them.

I also get the impression many of these things were dreamed up out of minor inconvenience.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#14

Post by pdkl95 »

edgyswingset wrote: post #6

Some of these products strike me as being created because one of the owners of the startup thought it was cool, not because they went out and actually tried to identify peoples' household problems and figure out ways to solve them.

That may be true for some, but I suspect most of these internet-based devices are little more than an excuse to get on the surveillance-as-a-business-model bandwagon. All you need is a clever excuse to gather a new type of data that isn't currently being collected, and you have something to sell to "big data".

Fortunately, even the non-technical people I know have started to wake up to these scams, and are now avoiding any "smart" product.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#15

Post by OliverJones »

Internet-enabled house jewelry? Feh. It will be fun for a week, then boring.

Here's what I want: stuff that will make me a better neighbor and citizen of the world.

Specifically: Realtime smart energy and water consumption meters. Wouldn't it be great to get some sort of alert if there was a pipe burst or even a water trickle? Wouldn't it be fabulous to track electricity consumption? That could generate the creation of sets of light bulbs each of which consumes a different prime number of watts. Then your smart meter can say, "hey chump, you left a light on in the attic. Turn it off."

Combined with a smart grid and demand-pricing of public utilities (yeah, fat chance, I know), this kind of thing could make a dent in my carbon footprint.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#17

Post by antr »

hessenwolf wrote: post #10
antr wrote: post #2

I just bought a home, and just started a considerable renovation. I'm putting in new water pipes, new electrical wiring, etc. I thought of putting "smart" devices (i.e. switches, alarms, thermostats, etc.) given the "advantages" these promise. After considerable research, it's not worth the hussle or money. Let's put aside the fact that these are considerable more expensive, and won't breakeven in years (some devices…

http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=infant-child-and-teen... Looks to me like infant mortality (under age one) has halved between 1977 and 2013. I understand the argument of "it worked fine for me", but, well, on a portfolio basis, you and I were dying a bit faster back then. Outpatient care is a big field these days. Something that, with extremely little effort, can reduce the odds of death or disability, is quit…

Maybe you are right... but a onesie that "knows that when a baby wakes up, the parents will, too -- so it turns on lights and music and even makes the coffee." ... is of no use to fight infant mortality.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#18

Post by joshvm »

Refuel looks like it would be much better pivoted towards the beverage industry. The BBQ going out is not a problem, beer running out is a party-killer. It looks for all the world like a WiFi-connected scale that tells you when the weight of the tank is getting a bit light.

We're poking fun at these, but this just caricatures the entire bay area startup scene. There are so many companies solving rich-people-problems that really shouldn't exist or at least are highly unlikely to scale.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#19

Post by erikb »

There are always two kinds of developments. One is where you have a huge problem and people try different things to solve it. The other thing is where you have new capabilities and don't know yet what to do with it yet. One is not worse than the other. Given some time there will be reasonable usecases. Think back to the first iPhone and Android. Nobody really knew what to do with a smartphone yet. Now everybody has at least one and uses it way too often. Internet of Things are just one of the next areas. Let's just calm down and let the market work out what's reasonable.
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