Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do. And you are right. I think we will get to a place where one company does it right, before we agree on an interoperable standard.
Why not a good open-source standard? iOS did it "right" for mobile, but Android provided tough competition. And Apple benefited from the competition... it pushed iOS designers to keep their game up - and likewise.
The Internet of Way Too Many Things
201–210 of 266 posts
Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been longing for a nice looking wifi-enabled flow meter I can attach to all my faucets that have a readout of how much water I'm using and tie that data to current water rates to show me the cost in cents/second or something. And the obligatory display of a dashboard via website or app. Great way to help people in a home, especially little ones become water conscious.
Is water really that expensive? has anyone in a developed area ever actually run out of water? Even in California, people are still flushing toilets every day. The obsession with water conservation doesn't seem like it's based on anyone actually ever having run out of water. For example, where does water actually go when it's "wasted?" Does it disappear?
The short answer is, any water saved is a good thing. I see houses over in Los Altos Hills and Atherton and such, and these are large estates with the greenest grass you've ever seen. And I'm sitting here feeling like a schmuck for taking a short shower.
But every little bit helps, and the meter would be a good reminder to not be wasteful.
Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not the person you responded to, but survivorship bias is what you were originally responding to -- a claim like "we survived without the baby monitor, so it's unnecessary" falls flat because the people that didn't survive without it aren't here to tell you it would've saved them.
Eh. We still know about people who didn't survive. Survivorship bias is when you are only seeing the successes.
The claim showing survivorship bias is from this comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10181767):
> ...if my siblings an I were brought up just fine in the 80's without being in a "smart onesie", I'm sure we can do just as fine today.
There's no one here to say "I died because my parents didn't realize I stopped breathing". Yes, one can look at statistics, and see how many deaths would be prevented by this device, but the comment didn't do that. It's survivorship bias.
Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the companies that is solving this very problem is Xiaomi. Their method is quite crude - that is, they make everything themselves. But the end result is that everything they make - from an air purifier to a TV - is connected and operated via a similar / familiar OS called MIUI. They give away their phones for very cheap, because the phone is the Trojan horse - it is the remote control for all the other devices…
Yup, Xiamoi makes everything interoperable by making it themselves. And Apple makes HomeKit. And Google makes their own. And Microsoft makes their own. And HP makes their own. And... See the problem?
Actually, Microsoft has joined as part of the "Allseen Alliance" and has done a great deal of work around Alljoyn.
One link is here -- https://ms-iot.github.io/content/en-US/win10/AllJoyn.htm
Also a colleague of mine has done a great deal of work with and talked about this work over the last year or so. Here is a link to one of his talks -- http://www.omggeek.com/elc-2015-alljoyn-101-make-smarter-dev...
Part of the issue with IoT is what do you define as IoT, the devices themselves, data ingest, management infrastructure, etc. The whole topic is pretty broad.
Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
About ten years ago I sat through a funding pitch for a monitor that detects sudden changes in residential water flow rates. Cost was about $250/home, and part of the pitch was that insurance companies would help cover the cost to save catastrophic damage. Apparently washing machine hoses burst on a regular basis, and such an event in an unoccupied home is very expensive. I haven't heard anything about that problem/s…
When our washer hose burst, and the adjuster said it's the most common insurance claim, I asked why the insurance company doesn't just send out new washer hoses every five years. Seems like it be more cost-effective than a $250 device that I'm sure doesn't work as well as the maker claims. And yeah, I previously never gave washer hoses much thought, either. Go change yours this weekend. They're cheap, and a hell of a…
Yeah, with respect to water, the simplest solution is probably to have valves that you shutoff. I have them on both washing machine and [EDIT] dishwasher but don't routinely close them. It probably should be part of my routine at least when I go on trips.
The problem is that as soon as you introduce control systems, you also introduce new failure modes. What happens when the smart thermostat crashes in winter which probably happens more frequently than a really dumb mechanical one? Of course, it's not like your heating system can't shut down for other reasons as well.
It's hard to figure out how to plan for rare failures. Ultimately you probably want someone who checks in on your house because smart systems can only handle so many eventualities. But that's may be costly.
Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things
#206I 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 agree with nearly everything you have said except for: > and don't get me started on the smart baby monitors, etc... if my siblings an I were brought up just fine in the 80's without being in a "smart onesie", I'm sure we can do just as fine today. I even agree that the baby monitor mentioned is a little over the top (I don't care for the lights/music/coffee aspect) but it's important not to write things off just b…
Sorry to hear about your sister, that's horrible. I absolutely agree that there is a role for these devices in monitoring medical conditions.
I have a sister who was born with a tachycardia condition which recurred in high school. I got her one of the Garmin wrist watches with a heart rate sensor so she could monitor the condition over time. Obviously it doesn't fix anything on its own, but it can help to understand the problem and feel more in control.
Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I've never understood the desire to add smart technology to the smoke alarm. Because very few things suck more than coming home from work and your house is burnt down because the smoke alarm wasn't heard by anyone and by the time the fire crews arrive it's too late. Happened to a friend of mine, house was beyond repair even though fire crews arrived 10min after a passing driver noticed the blaze.
A smoke detector is there to alert the occupants of the building so that they get out. If it was an actual alarm system that is connected to a dispatcher, the firefighters would've been notified.
Yeah, as originally designed perhaps, but what if you could add a bit of tech to make sure your pets are safe? Or you're not coming home only to inhale carbon monoxide? I don't think $99 is a ridiculous expense for such peace of mind, even if it's not proven to be full proof just yet.
Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things
#208[deleted]
Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things
#209Two points that jumped out at me:
>>Privacy and Security. Every one of these items is connected to the Internet
And we've seen how this has been handled by companies recently. Their idea of security is somewhere between non-existent and EPIC FAILURE status. No thank you. I have enough problems trying to lock down my Windows PC.
>>>I asked a young man working at the Target store how visitors felt about their every action being tracked and he said that they’d come to accept it. And that was that.
Maybe the young man's generation has accepted it, but those of us who have seen first hand what can happen when data gets in the wrong hands, it's not even remotely ok.
To smooth over this point just confirms PT Barum was right all along.
Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things
#210FWIW I find the Whistle to be a good product. I can easily find out when our dog walker dropped our dog off, and therefore how long she has been alone. At the risk of stating the obvious: just because the author doesn't have the problems that these devices purport to solve doesn't make them superfluous.
Agree, we use it to coordinate dog care between housemates, but if they stopped all work on networking with dog owners and just made the damn thing sync more often, I'd be thrilled. I hate walking the dog at 1AM because it took 3 hours to upload the data so it looked like he never went.