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

theregister.co.uk

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

#221

Post by naikrovek »

dominicr wrote: post #78

"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…

> 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.

Light bulbs that get installed ARE accessible -- accessible enough to be installed and changed, at the very least, and that's all that's needed.

Remove the bulb, put it in a lamp, turn the lamp on, and push the button that should have been installed for a firmware update.

The "power on, wait, power off, wait," repeated 12 times or whatever should be a LAST RESORT only, imo.

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

#222

Post by naikrovek »

asdfman123 wrote: post #177
dominicr wrote: post #78

"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.

This is likely the real reason there is no button.

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

#223

Post by perl4ever »

jaclaz wrote: post #197
tompccs wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that there is a logical chain of engineering considerations that got us to this point I take as granted (yes, the article thinks it could have been done better but, as you point out, there are safety problems). But our world is becoming more and more like a Doglas Adams novel - I seem to remember in one of the H2G2 books that they considered their civilisation so advanced that they did away with TV remotes,…

Almost, it was about radio knobs and touch control, not tv remotes: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1329 >A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wave bands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became mo…

I like to watch Youtube videos about cars I can't afford, and Heart of Gold was exactly what I thought of when I saw that a recent BMW 7-series actually has gesture control.

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

#225

Post by perl4ever »

wallace_f wrote: post #85
acupofnope wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I think he means if humans were rational and enlightened. Note: the world started producing a surplus of food a while ago, and still we let many starve, and even today many people live with shortages and food insecurity. Honestly, if you take a step back and look, a large portion of our economy are just bullshit jobs, or outright cronyism. I mean, I worked in private sector fin tech (nothing fancy, more-pedestrian st…

"I'm not surprised to see GE as the culprit here. I know they have some brilliant groups, but that company is also infected with crazy politics and insanity from within"

I don't think GE consumer products are related to GE, the American company, for several years now. They sold the appliance business to Haier, I believe. Not sure if that would include things like smart bulbs.

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

#226

Post by perl4ever »

serpix wrote: post #86
acupofnope wrote: post #53

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…

"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."

You're implying that costs are mostly physical effort and automation is a "tiny effort". That's a really weird thing to say on a forum called Hacker News, and why on earth do you think food production isn't "almost entirely automated"? Any prediction of a sudden change in the rate of a trend needs to explain why the change didn't happen more gradually and sooner, as soon as it was possible.

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

#227

Post by perl4ever »

roland35 wrote: post #201
kakwa_ wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or even simpler, put a cheap analog thermometer which records the min and max temperature in your fridge. Maybe not exactly this one, but something like that: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61jmAUQ70pL...

I bought a digital thermometer with min/max from Walmart for $5, but the problem was the temperature would rise quite a bit (above 40F) if the door was left open even for ~10-30 seconds, so it was hard to use the "max" temperature reading. It would have been more handy if the thermometer's min and max responded more slowly to reject these short fluctuations.

You could put it in something with substantial thermal mass as a buffer.

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

#228

Post by perl4ever »

roland35 wrote: post #203
RogerL wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 proj…

I mentioned it up earlier but I did try out a simple battery digital min/max thermometer, but every time you opened the door the air temperature would rise above 40F (highest recommended temp to store dairy), which made it hard to use for the intended purpose! If the thermometer had more thermal mass attached to it (or simply had a low pass filter on the readout), it would have worked great. I also had an analog ther…

"If the thermometer had more thermal mass"

Put it in some water?

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

#229

Post by perl4ever »

knolan wrote: post #18
tossAfterUsing wrote: post #15

> For some reason, GE decided not to install a physical reset button – you know, one of those tiny holes that you have to stick a pin or paperclip into. Instead, it programmed the devices to factory reset after being turning on and off in a specific pattern. Physical reset switch would be great, unless you've got 20 lights all installed in a chandelier 30 feet up.

If you’ve got such a light fixture you’re probably not changing your own light bulbs.

Cathedral ceilings are pretty common, surely a couple orders of magnitude more than servants.

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

#230

Post by perl4ever »

vinaypai wrote: post #165
pdkl95 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the cheapest and best option My father and I implemented all of those features trivially and cheaply in the late 1980s with X10 switches/outlets/fixture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X10_%28industry_standard%29 X10 devices also featured: * No internet (or other network) access. It worked as long as the mains power was on. * Putting the control in the outlet or fixture allowed any type of light or device to be cont…

Yes I wonder why they didn't use an industry-standard wireless protocol. Possibly one named after a Norse king and built into basically every phone made in the last decade or so.

That protocol has been around so long, I wonder why connecting to things is so chancy and slow and frustrating.
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