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GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

theregister.co.uk

171–180 of 235 posts

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Let me think - the reset button can only work when the light is powered up (and maybe too hot to touch) A capacitor that is kept charged during normal operation, and that powers the reset circuit which you close with your metal pin once you unscrew the bulb. The circuit flips some bits in persistent memory of the bulb.

So it resets every time you leave the bulb off long enough for the capacitor to discharge?

No. "Reset" is done by a circuit, and the only way to power it is by connecting that capacitor to it by pushing something into the reset pinhole. If you don't do that, capacitor eventually discharges but since the circuit never gets powered, no reset happens. So after a while you need to connect the bulb to mains power in order to be able to perform reset.

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#173
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you live that your can afford a 15-hour week without worrying about rent, food,..etc?

just think about it. Factories produce with near zero human muscle costs endless supplies of goods that take care of all our vital needs. With a tiny little effort we could almost entirely automate food production. The way it is currently set up is because of the invention of money and ownership we are in a false sense of lacking something. We lack nothing anymore. In reality there is no lack, hasn't been since the i…

Properly allocating all resources that humans produce on the scales larger than tribes is only really doable by markets. Ensuring universal access to a subset of those resources is only doable through government programs. Funding government programs is only really doable through taxation. So we're back where we started. You must tax the market to pay for the capacity to universally allocate some of the resources.

You can't tax a machine, you can only tax people, because people operate machines, they can't generate fungible resources (money) themselves. There will always be a market between resources and individuals.

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So your goal is discovery of music? We used to have a great solution for this: disk jockeys. Some stations still do employ them as actual curators of music, not just a pleasing voice over the Clear Channel Top 40 feed. The problems of today are strange.

The loss of DJs to syndicated formats was tragic. These folks are pros, with vast experience, and they can put together a show by theme, or to tell a story, or to set a mood, or to challenge you with some new things. Most of them now press the button on whatever they're told and read the title out. But, every once in a while they sneak in a late night show now, maybe when mgmt isn't looking. I wonder if this would be…

I've found Apple Music does this pretty well with some of it's scheduled programming like Beats 1, or the less frequently but quality stuff like Echo Chamber.

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#175
post #67

I had a chat with Japanese lifestyle management consultant for the rich recently. In the 90's Bill Gates had networked house and automatically adjusting lights and it was the peak of luxury. Today networking and automating the house is so affordable that it's not signalling luxury lifestyle. Apparently doing simple mundane tasks gracefully and carefully without feeling irritated is quickly becoming a way to signal to…

> In the 90's Bill Gates had networked house and automatically adjusting lights and it was the peak of luxury. Nonsense. X10 devices cost a bit more than regular outlets/switches/fixtures, but not much more. I know many people that added dimmers/timers/remote-control to their lights for a few hundred dollars in the late-80s/90s. Home automation has been a solved problem with cheap and easy solutions for decades.

Except X10 devices are unsecure and can have issues with interference from neighboring homes. That's part of the reason why Insteon developed a new protocol, it mostly solves those two issues.

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#176
post #136

Reminds me of the key programming method for my 2003 car: Sit in the driver seat of your G35. Close all of the car doors. Insert the key into the ignition then remove it. Repeat this process six times within 10 seconds. Watch for the emergency lights to flash on the car to indicate that programming mode is active.

In the 2007 Honda Accord you had to push the Emergency Brake button a number of times while doing something. I don't recall the exact procedure but I found it highly amusing at the time.

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#177

"For some reason, GE decided not to install a physical reset button" Well, there might be some good reasons not to have a reset button. Without knowing GE's reasons let's brainstorm: - My first thought is that many light bulbs are not easily accessible. They could be high up, or in a casing that requires a tool to open. So being able to reset them remotely is a practical benefit. - If you google "accidents whilst cha…

It could also be that it just adds a few cents to the design.

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just shove in a $10 zigbee temperature monitor.

I can't believe I haven't thought of that ha! I'll have to check it out - hopefully I can get a zigbee signal through the fridge itself (I am not sure if it is a Faraday cage or not)

Why do you need a signal? You don't care about the temperature until you open your fridge to either consume to toss food, do you? Buy a digital thermometer for ten bucks, one that keeps a record of max/min, toss it in there, look at the max reading when you return from out of town.

If your power goes out you'll need aux power for whatever is reading the signal, otherwise it also won't work. You are making a huge project with all kinds of failure modes when this problem has been solved for ages. Kind of like the house with no mechanical light switches that you are responding to!

Re: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

#180

I had a chat with Japanese lifestyle management consultant for the rich recently. In the 90's Bill Gates had networked house and automatically adjusting lights and it was the peak of luxury. Today networking and automating the house is so affordable that it's not signalling luxury lifestyle. Apparently doing simple mundane tasks gracefully and carefully without feeling irritated is quickly becoming a way to signal to…

If you're interested in this sort of thing, read "Class: A Guide Through the American Status System" by Fussell. It's a little bit out of date but it's still interesting.

It did make me realize that class is everywhere, and I'm constantly signaling it despite thinking I'm above caring about it.

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