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The Home Of The Future
CitizenC writes, "C|Net is currently running a story about the home of the future!
Excerpt: First the Net went portable. Now it's going practical. Forget about plug-and-surf Web computers
such as the iMac; we're talking about stoves that store recipes, and toilets that e-mail personal
information to your doctor. It sounds like just so much new-millennium hype, but Net-enabled
appliances are the first wave of a complete revolution in home design--a revolution that's
happening right now. "
It's bad enough without runing WinTE . . . I'd really rather not have it running backwards due to bugs that Redmond denies . . .
.), the stereo, and the jukebox.
Eventually, I'll have a household network. It will connect computers, the extensive model railroad (which will probably be actually controlled by an apple II . .
The phone, oven, refridgerator, and toilet will *not* be part of it. Nor will the garbage and catbox.
If all the future of technology holds is the promise of toilets that can email, I'm gonna grab an old 386 with linux on it, move out to the boonies, and live out my life in peace and sensibility.
Technology could be used to start a real revolution, but instead we call networked toasters a "revolution" and leave it at that.
I love technology, I really do. But the way these IPO hungry corporations treat it, I'm starting to think John Zerzan may have a point.
Michael Chisari
mchisari@usa.net
As much as I would like to think I'm a person with a certain amount of sophistication and a sense of humor well superior to the Farrelly Brothers', I can't help noticing (and getting a grin from) the fact that the smart toilet is from Matsushita.
Learn to spell: nickel, missile, lose, solely, amendment, speech, kernel, probably, ridiculous, deity, hierarchy, versus
Yeah, the problem is alerting the users.. you see, we tried a flautulent sound alert, but some people found it more offensive than the craptions. We're working now on the more politically correct 'human biobyproduct digital communication network'. We also have the problem of bandwidth - 8 gallons is too small for messages more than 20 characters or so. Layering the craptions has been met with limited success. We're currently working on a bathtub-to-toilet conversion kit to ship with the concraption, but engineering says there's still a minor detail to work out with regards to the size of the 'exhaust' port.
Alas, my wife nixed the ethernet port in the bathroom. (Worried about those webcams, perhaps.) Still, it would have been cool to sit in the Japanese ofuro and surf the net...
Stupid people will be persecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law.
One of my planned projects is to write a CGI-based web scheduling system (in my copious spare time, of course) so that from any computer in the house, we can check what's on the schedule. (Or, what I'm supposed to do that I've forgotten.)
Stupid people will be persecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law.
So write a web-based interface to the crontab file and have your linux box turn on a buzzer or something. You could even set it to play one of the Brandenburg concertos at max volume on work days (from an MP3 file), and Morning in Marin by Santana for the weekends.
Hmmmm... I may do that... (Hmmmm... Is there such a thing as a computer controlled audio router/patchbay? There must be...)
Stupid people will be persecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law.
Okay, so it's not that high-tech, but some of the technologies that make it possible for someone with no time to figure out include:
All I need now are simple instructions for setting up a webcam under Linux (and a source of cheap webcams), to get NetATalk up and running (My wife's a school teacher, and has mac's at home to match the ones at school) and to find something that will let a Linux box see a directory on another system as if it were one of its one (like mapping a network drive with Windows/Samba.)
This is fun stuff!
Stupid people will be persecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law.
what i want, is for foods to have a special barcode that contains a code that has cooking instructions, so that when you scan the code it knows how to cook it, as long as you dont scan the regular barcode :P
Just think what a stalker could find out about you if they could easily hack your house. It would be bad if someone could turn your stove on high, disable your fire alarms remotely (or even from the side of the house). The possibilities are endless. I am reminded of the adage "Whenever there is power to do great good, it can also be used for great evil."
I trained my cat to use the toilet - I wonder what sort of groceries and/or medical treatments this "smart toilet" would try and put me on based on cat feces?
And how would a toilet know who was the owner vs. a guest for proper response? I wouldn't want my doctor notified I had something nasty if it was really a friend who had dropped by...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
>>>>Geeks with Guns march on congress over DMCA act
]try as i may, i cannot find ANY thing funny in the last one
hmm, did you see Homer's remake of Mel Gibson's remake of Mr Smith Goes to Washington?
Now THAT was funny.
--
+&x
I can't wait to get the ScreenFridge or something like it. We already use the fridge as the ultimate message machine (we even keep a log on it as to when the dog was last taken out and what he "did"), so why not make it digital? You could have recipes on it or just leave notes. It could have cool screensavers like "Magnetic Poetry." And once the gradeschools get up to speed, you could post your kid's "e-test" that got an "A"
There are a lot of other apps, too. Think of a bed that knew on which side you were sleeping and on which side your significant other was and then adjusted the comfort to suit your wants (or medical needs).
Don't forget about the fact that all this internetting of appliances will need bandwidth. With the bandwidth needed and since this stuff will be sufficiently far in the future, we will finally have almost enough bandwidth for the best thing I can possibly imagine (besides mind controlled computers that don't need keyboards or mice):
Movies on Demand
I would totally love to tell my television to start playing any movie I want whenever I want.
This stuff will be cool.
IANAL, but I play one on
Next thing you know, Doubleclick will be sending you ads for metamucil and high-fiber foods, based on data collected from your toilet and your refridgerator.
--"You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think."
Oh, yeah, I can see it now. Someone starts hacking famous people's toilets to send emails.
On the Ricky Martin fan page....
Ricky has flushed his toilet 12 times today. 5 times for urine only, 3 times for feces (One re-flush to clear a really big log), 3 times for no apparent reason, and 1 time for a dead fish.
Peta. Ignore the person who says it's pica.
Starting from 10^3 and going up: kilo mega giga tera peta exa zetta yotta (then grouchi and harpi, if you believe the Jargon File)
--
Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota
One of the main goals of this project is the implementation of security - the system has to be accessed remotely from cell-phones and/or laptops over wireless internet links so that is why I chose the native java TINI micro from Dallas Semi.
The java lets us specify some pretty strong security at the server level - and since it is server side and the processor is native java it isn't even too slow =)
As an aside - the java also makes the implementation of basic webpages that are readible by cellphones/pda's using WML, WAP or HDML quite easy to do. This is another goal for the project - so the yuppies *grin* that can afford to fit out their house with this system can access it in the Mercedes over their cellphone and open the door/turn off the alarm etc...
Plus there is one little problem with this. You can't burn down a house just by getting the stove on. Let's just say I leave my house and don't happen to have anything on the stove. Now most stoves that I have seen are based on the concept of an automatic pilot or atomatic spark. You have a piece of material that conducts static electricity and emits a spark to light natural gas and create flame. Now from what I have seen there are also preset physical limits on how much gas can be released at any given time. The only case where this can really do anything is if I have a manual stove (like me). You have to turn the gas on manually and then get a stick match and light said stove. If an arsonist wanted to burn down your house or even blow it to kingdom come all they have to do is get a device that just does a delay timer or remote operation spark and let the gas run, get in their car and be driving down the road when they hit the switch.
Note the above dosn't apply if you have an electric or use microwaves.
Slashdot social engineering at it's finest
Doesn't it seem odd that all the innovations they mention are clearly flawed concepts from the start?
People have been working on "smart homes" for 20 years now and there are always glaring blind spots in theor ideas. These "smart home" technologies are consistently designed as if the engineers had never maintained a household in their lives. They solve problems that nobody has, and don't address the common household drudgeries we all want rid of. No wonder "smart homes" haven't taken off.
F'rinstance, why would you want to turn your fridge surface into an electronic screen as an "improvement" over paper and magnets? You wouldn't be able to post the kids' drawings and good schoolwork unless you scanned them. And you couldn't grab the grocery list and stuff it manually into your pocket on your way out the door. Do you want to forfeit control over your food expenses to your household appliances?
Why would you want recipes from the internet via your microwave? You usually have to shop for ingredients before trying a new recipe. And besides, how are you supposed to see what the finished product looks like (without turning the micro into another, less versatile, web browser)? I'll stick to cookbooks, thanks.
And forget Aibo, why hasn't anyone come up with a robotic vacuum with AI so it figures out not to suck up Legos, pocket change or notes with phone numbers on them?
I don't want something that "checks" my laundry (i.e. hassles me to take my clothes out of the dryer) or makes my coffee for me (doesn't that mean I have to grind the beans and put in the filters the previous night?) or tells me that I've eaten too many Christmas cookies and need to lose weight (don't even get me started there...).
I don't want something that helps you or me be a good housewife, I want it to BE the housewife.
"How do I know it's really you?" "Uhh... because." "Yeah, okay."
I'm not into MUD, but after playing with Linux for a few hours, and when trying to find something I've misplaced in real life, I have this urge to "locate sneakers" or "whereis hairbrush".
Angry IT woman in big clompy boots. And talking lint!.
You're missing (I think) one of my points.
You WILL spend $100-500 dollars extra on these things. Why? Because that's all that will be around. There will not be any option, once they take off, because taking the older (cheaper) items off the market is one way that companies make money.
The other option is to rebuild the compressor in your old fashioned fridge every ten years or so.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
I don't like it. Not one little bit!
Seriously, is there anyone who gives a rat's ass about this stuff, except for the companies who (will) make it? I don't want a 'web-enabled' fridge, I don't want a 'web-enabled' toaster, and I sure as hell don't want a 'web-enabled' coffee maker!
And yet, make no mistake--in five years, whether we want it or not, we'll not be able to buy a non-net appliance. Utility doesn't matter. Customer wants don't matter. Safety doesn't matter, as long as the government doesn't complain. Profit matters, and these things will make tons of profit for Sunbeam et al, on the backs of the consumer, at the expense of utility, desire, and safety.
It's stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid; and I won't have any part in promoting it. I hope most other people won't either, but that's not how the world tends to go.
To be fair, I spend most of my day living and breathing computers, and thoroughly enjoy getting _away_ from them in the kitchen. Maybe it just feels like an invasion of my 'low-tech' space, amongst the knives and pots and pans.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
A planet were auto-defrosting refrigerators occasionally will decide that they want to defrost no matter what.
A planet, ultimately, where systems whith the level of complexity and interrelation that the article implies (like, a cluster of servers) require personnel totally dedicated to administration.
Will your ma turn sysop ? Mine sure will not ...
Estamos como estamos porquè somos como somos.
I view the net fridge (or net almost anything) as rather useless, and I think it's hilarious to see the recipe thing come up again -- isn't that what our PCs were supposed to do way back in '82 or so?
What I think is *really* valuable about this is that it ports functionality from hardware to software. Almost all the things I've loved in products have been fundamentally software. My VCR has a neat feature where pressing the record button repeatedly will make it record for 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1:30, etc. I love microwaves with a +30 seconds button, or ones that will start cooking immediately if you press a numbered button without selecting a specific cooking mode.
What "smart" appliances allow is for you to keep the features you like when the underlying hardware changes. Now *that* I'll pay for.
That, and being able to set my thermostat to go on in the morning based on the time my alarm's going to go off.
There was an IBM ad not long ago where a technician comes to a house to fix a refrigerator. But the family is convinced the refrigerator isn't broken. They tell the man that they don't need a repairman because it isn't broken. He responds that he knows it isn't broken - yet. The caption then reads something to the effect of, "Appliances that call for their own help. Who'd have thought?"
However, when you think about it, this wouldn't be as great as it sounds. First of all, who wants to have a stranger come to their door unexpected? A con-man could tell you that your refrigerator called him, and you'd be none the wiser. But, even if the appliance tells you it called for help (It didn't in the ad.), who knows who else got that message. Maybe it wasn't just your doctor...
"I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy." -Richard Feynman
Many times when I've spent over 36 hours mudding without sleep, I have a natural inclination to type "open door" when I want to open a door, "eat cheese" when I want to eat a cheese, etc. When are these homes going to be smart enough to do that?
Wow, I'm glad they finally developed this technology. I've been trying for years to find a way to automatically tell the world my bathroom habits. And it really sucked not having a stove connected to the internet. After all, the 6 extremely simplistic dials that make up the average oven would be much better controlled via FTP commands originating in Madagascar. And opening my fridge would be made much easier if it had a T1 connection. If neccessary, I might be able to open my fridge when I'm not there! (wow) This would be extremely useful, since I sometimes get hungry while at school. This way, I could just dowload some cheese and milk and eat at the library computer. Oh, wait. This is the stupidest thing EVER. Whoever thought of this is clearly on crack.
--ikedidawg, proffesional eater of cheese