Manufacturers are in a race to get everything internet connected so the consumer will have an enhanced experience with their world of gadgetary, appliances and vehicles. What is your position on IOT's? Do you foresee malware in your fridge instead of cheese, perverts commanding your SmartTV, your car overriding your intentions, or your alarm system subjected to ransomware? Then again, maybe you appreciate the ability to control and interact with a plethora of products that will make your life more productive, easier and possibly enhanced?
Interneting Other Things might be somewhat ok in that a warning to get off the pc and attend to what`s in the oven would be good. On the other hand I really can`t see myself scanning my pop-up toaster in the mornings with HMP before I use it. Swings and roundabouts I suppose. Regards Eck
I think it's probably best to connect as less devices as possible. I mean, does my fridge really need a connection to the web? I don't think so.
For appliances, I see no useful purpose at all. In one of the documentaries, they mentioned a smart grid where the grid could ask appliances to power down to avoid a brownout. Seems to me that the money would be better spent increasing the carrying capacity of the grid instead of trying to see how close to 100% capacity you can run. I can't think of any real benefits to making any home devices remotely controllable. Remotely brewing a pot of coffee so it's ready when you get there still requires you to prep the coffee maker. Why not just set a timer? Better yet, stop expecting instant gratification and wait the 5 minutes it would take to brew it. If one really wants an automated home, most of what they've described as benefits could be done with self contained systems that don't need to be remotely controlled. Even if I was given all this IoT stuff for free and could easily secure the network it runs on, I don't think I'd accept it. That's not how I want to live. I prefer a more natural, down to earth environment and would rather interact with nature than with machines and electronic devices. Definitely don't need IoT for convenience reasons. Life is already convenient to the point that we have to exercise because we're too sedentary. People don't need more reasons to sit on their cans.
I voted for the first four options. Making anything to have internet access is really overkill. Not to mention the negative health impact.
I have been researching RAS (reliability, accessibility and serviceability) on appliances, which has actually been very difficult. RAS was originally only applied to computer hardware and was later applied to computer software after XP was introduced. I found that appliances had a very high reliability/serviceability rating ... 99.8% overall, but all of those results pertained to mechanical based devices. 'Availability' figures were never gathered.. Since the introduction of the circuit board and electronic based systems, reliability has dropped to 30%. So today, a new fridge, stove or a washing machine will be expected to require a major repair within the first 2 years of use, whereas it used to be 10 years. . Serviceability is now at 0%, because the circuit boards are primarily sealed units that require replacement as they can not be repaired. To replace a circuit board in a washing machine will cost $400 up. In a high end fridge it can be up to $600. With the introduction of an internet connection that has to be a major concern to any consumer. There are no diagnostic tools made available to repairmen for circuit board analysis. Most consumers are replacing the entire unit rather than pay for a repair ... if it is expected to be every 2 years, on average, you can't blame them. If you do not know what the problem is, then IOT is only going to exacerbate this problem. If they got rid of the idiot lights and put in a diagnostic panel at least you could turn the failing component off ... or turn of what you do not want to use, like the internet connection.
IMO, electronics have made a lot of things much less reliable than their mechanical predecessors. Last winter, a disabled friend called me during a nasty snowstorm. Her furnace had stopped working. Thanks to all the red tape and hoops people on disability have to jump through, getting a licensed repairman out there was going to take days. They wanted 2 written estimates before they'd help with repairs. By that time, everything in the place would have been frozen solid. I took 2 electric space heaters out there and tried to get the furnace going. Even with wiring diagrams in the furnace door, it took me quite a while just to figure out what all that extra crap was and how it worked. This thing sensed vacuum on the air intake to the burner. if the vacuum wasn't sufficient, it wouldn't open the gas valve. I got it running by bypassing the vacuum sensors on the air intake for the burner. It ran in this bypassed mode for about 3 days before we could get a repairman out there. The problem was a hairline crack in a plastic cover over the back of the burners. This had to be one of the most retarded designs I've ever seen, using plastic in a location that not only experiences huge temperature cycles but is also less than 6 inches from the flames. IMO, this thing was designed to fail. This furnace is supposed to be a super-high efficiency model that extracts as much heat as possible, so much so that the chimney pipe is plastic. It's about 7 years old. That was the 3rd time I've had to go out to fix that thing. Efficient, yes. Reliable, hell no.
IOT is pointless complication of stuff that's already working quite well. No thank you, at least not for awhile.
IoT means added costs and security/privacy concerns but whether that will deter people from adopting certain IoT technologies mostly boils down to a person/organization deciding whether having a device/appliance be internet-connected is relevant/worth it. Imagine asking people to ditch their smartphones or computers. Different folks will have different degrees of comfort with making such trade-offs. For some, the answer may be yes. For others, simply no. I am not really in favor of IoT in the consumer space. I think most stuff that enterprises are pushing for connectivity does not need to be connected in the 1st place. I can understand that IoT may serve a purpose in specialized use cases though. The thing I worry most is whether we can sustain the complexity behind IoT. We are still lacking in regards to solving the problems we have with current "smart" devices. Adding more into the mix might not be such a good idea if it is rushed through without consideration and proper planning.
In some situations, remote access or control of a device can be useful. With a heating/cooling system for instance, I can see being able to switch between a couple of preset settings such as the normal room setting and a lower setting that maintains the home. There's no need for anything beyond that and the remote system shouldn't be able to do any more than that. It should be very much like a limited user account on a PC. Most importantly, it should be disabled until the user specifically chooses to enable it. For other things like lights, kitchen appliances, hot water, etc I don't see anything of value in being able to alter their behavior or remotely monitor them. Those who make this stuff should apply a little common sense, starting with limiting this to things where remote access would actually serve a useful purpose. They don't need to jam this crap into everything just because they can. What we need here is appropriate technology. If the only purpose it serves is marketing, it's not appropriate. I remember when ceiling fans were becoming popular. Manufacturers started jamming electronic speed control into them. When did a ceiling fan need precision speed control? Who cares if it rotates at exactly 50 RPM? All the added electronics do is make it more complicated than necessary, more expensive, and more prone to breakdown.
Good point, the more tech in something then the more chance of something going wrong and the harder to determine what that actually is. Look at all those cars,radio`s and refridgerators still going strong in Cuba from the 1950`s. More with less. Regards Eck
Ever watched the newer Die Hard movie about the Fire Sale thing? I can imagine that if everything is computer controlled and being part of the network, cyber-criminals would love to target them and could be easily making state-level chaos while drinking soda from a remote location.
Isn't the whole idea of IoT to advertise stuff at you. So spying on what you use. You go to a store to buy chips and you get a text to buy soap. There will be non stop texts from the stuff in the house to your smartphone. Then you log on to the desktop and the email is full of buyme and tryme stuff. I think I hate already. If the lawnmower goes IoT then I go rambo.
