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The Internet of Way Too Many Things

nytimes.com

131–140 of 266 posts

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#131
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought that a cot death meant that this remained unexplained. Now a baby monitor reduces cot deaths? I'm really interested to read about that claim.

It remains unexplained but things are correlated with it, and possibly have an unexplained causal effect.

There are side effects of monitoring.

"Angelcare voluntarily recalled 600,000 under-mattress sensor pads after two infants died of strangulation when the cord attached to the pad wrapped around their necks" - http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2014/02/mimo_and_o...

Strangulation by baby monitor is correlated with having a baby monitor.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#132
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 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…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I renovated my house a few months ago and also had to decide whether or not to go "smart" on the lighting, switches thermostat, etc. Did a lot of research and came to the same conclusion that there was little benefit and large chance that I would have obsolete technology next year. However, I did go for an electronic doorlock (with finger print reader) and after just a few months I can not imagine ever going back to…

In general, fingerprints should not be treated as a password or key. They unfortunately are being used as such by Apple and Samsung and these fingerprint locks. A key is something you keep private, but you leave your fingerprint on everything, including the doorknob you're trying to keep locked. Additionally, once compromised, the key cannot be revoked. I don't doubt it is much more convenient, but I would personally…

I don't think you become less safe with a fingerprint lock compared to a regular key. Someone trying to fool the fingerprint reader with a fake fingerprint on our house door is really not a realistic scenario compared to the scenario where a burglar simply uses a crow bar. In any case, it's not more likely than someone trying to use a fake key.

But if you don't like fingerprints you can use the RFID chip of your phone (my kids are too small to have those), fingerprints are easily revoked from the lock.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I renovated my house a few months ago and also had to decide whether or not to go "smart" on the lighting, switches thermostat, etc. Did a lot of research and came to the same conclusion that there was little benefit and large chance that I would have obsolete technology next year. However, I did go for an electronic doorlock (with finger print reader) and after just a few months I can not imagine ever going back to…

In general, fingerprints should not be treated as a password or key. They unfortunately are being used as such by Apple and Samsung and these fingerprint locks. A key is something you keep private, but you leave your fingerprint on everything, including the doorknob you're trying to keep locked. Additionally, once compromised, the key cannot be revoked. I don't doubt it is much more convenient, but I would personally…

All security is an economic equation. All of it. Anything that increases the overall time/energy cost for an attacker represents an increase in security. Security is also heavily defined by lowest energy failure points and the human interface cost/benefit factor (because security itself often takes time/energy, so there's no point in expending more then whatever is being guarded is worth). In this scenario, both come into play in a way you're not giving credit to. I can't speak to your situation, but large numbers of us do not live in heavily armored homes packed with alarm systems. The door lock is essentially a mixture of minimal energy cost/social message ("nobody is home and you are not invited to just wander in") and a canary system (if someone does break it, it'll be obvious it happened).

It's become trendy any time someone mentions biometrics to talk about "finger prints being everywhere" and all that, but it's always incorrect to do so in a security discussion without considering overall economics. The fact is that, at least for now, it is not trivial to find, lift, and duplicate a fingerprint to the level needed to fool a decent reader (ala Touch ID). Long before it's worth doing that, a typical crook would simply break a window (including a door window should any exterior door in your entire house have any glass) or, likeliest of all, simply go to another house. Much of the low level crime that takes place is because a crook is interested in getting someone, not you specifically. It's a numbers game, it's not worth it to go to a lot of effort against one somewhat more secured building when the one next door may be wide open. Conversely, if you're subject to an actual persistent targeted physical threat then you've got vastly bigger problems then most are equipped to easily deal with. You have to make sure keys don't get stolen/duped, that hidden cameras aren't installed, that professionals can't pick or use more advanced subtle physical bypasses, etc etc.

Finally, it's necessary to compare to what the actual practical alternatives currently in place are. "Key under the mat/behind the flower pot/fake rock on lawn/..." or some variant is how a huge number of homes currently deal with fallback entry. Even if in general a copy of keys are carried around, being able to get into one's home no matter what is important enough that many people will at keep least one copy on premises in case they forget/lose theirs or a guest needs to get in or something. That's not a high baseline to surpass.

So there's nothing inherently wrong with using biometrics in scenarios like this. They're convenient, audit-able, cannot be lost or forgotten, and are often at least as good against expected attack scenarios as what currently is in place. There are certainly ways to make it even better, or promising alternates. Using a different factor (like a pin or electronic) key as the primary option with biometric fallback (in an electronic system fallback usage could be used as a trigger), time fencing, combining it with another option for MFA, or in the future directly improving "something you are" (such as with implants) all could be considered. But right now it's perfectly appropriate security for many homes. If anything my major concern would not be security but rather reliability, so I'd never use it exclusively. But it's silly to just write it off purely because it could be bypassed with sufficient time/energy/expertise.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#135
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…

Can anyone speak to the difficulty of homebrew automating some very simple processes? For instance, I have no interest in buying into an ecosystem or any sort of smart appliance - but I would love to have low-watt floor lights turn on as I half-asleep stumble to the kitchen for a glass of water at 3am. I want my idiosyncratic needs to drive 'smart' home additions - not the shared needs of target population Y. Is ther…

A great place to start is Node-Red: http://nodered.org/

Its a node.js browser based programming environment that allows you to connect anything to anything. You can run it on any desktop platform, as well as Beaglebone, Raspberry Pi, etc.

There are all sorts of nodes for networking, such as push notifications, social media, protocols like MQTT, or XMPP. You can make system calls, which means you can kick off python, bash, C, or other scripts/programs. That means you can cURL anything, and process it however you want. If you're on a Beaglebone or Raspberry Pi, this also means you can access GPIO/ADC/PWM/whatever you have drivers for.

There is also an interface for Arduino, but this requires a PC to run the actual server, and the Arduino is just a peripheral. The embedded linux boards can run the entire thing by themselves.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#136
post #65

I'm reminded of the online coke machine: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~coke/history_long.txt I'm also (many times a day) reminded of some Douglas Adams bits. 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a car…

>Before long, computers will be as trivial and plentiful as chairs...

Nonsense. A modern CPU has so many parts, no single human can understand its circuitry. And the complexity is ever increasing. The chair comparison is extremely poor; we live in an environment that is ever increasing in complexity and even today, most people don't understand the array of modern technology they're surrounded with and I don't see that trend stopping. You grow up with chairs; you know how a chair works and could build one. You grow up with x86 CPU? Ha, try to build one.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#137
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not krisdol, but I presume the "empty plastic boxes" is a reference to the fact that the amount of hardware necessary to stream video is now miniscule. My Roku is the size it is not because it needs to be that big to hold components, but so that it looks substantial to consumers and doesn't get lost in a ball of cables. And interop for me would mean that instead of N proprietary platforms that must be targeted se…

I agree with your take, but I don't see that happening; I prefer to take care of media acquisition on my own because I don't trust these companies to do any differently than the media companies they seek to, ultimately, replace. Roku has the private channel feature that I think makes it more interesting than the other players, and I wish more effort was exerted to explore the possibilities with private channels. Have…

I haven't. I use the Roku to put things like Netflix and Amazon on the big screen. I remember trying a few different things to put content from my server on the Roku, but I could never get it to work smoothly; there were hitches both with the on-Roku software and with encoding issues. Instead I just bought an Intel NUC for that.

In a few years I hope I can replace them both with some sort of Android device, but for now I don't mind two devices.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#139
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…

[deleted]

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#140
post #60

FWIW 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.

I agree, Whistle is a great product for dog owners. However I'm not sold on the "social" features, to me it's just another example of something that tries to be a social network when it shouldn't.
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