Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft's Home Of Tomorrow Has No Bathroom
Starman9x writes "Over at the The Toronto Star
reporter
Rachel Ross
got a tour of
Microsoft's home of the future.
She writes with an appropriate amount of humor, given all the easy targets Microsoft has set up. While the writeup is light and witty, there is an unspoken Orwellian undertone to it -- after all, do we really want Microsoft to have that much control over things?"
Now, cue the various comments complaining about this 'home of the future' just because Microsoft did it. It would be interesting to see what sort of thing Apple, Sun or Novell could come up in comparison ..
.. first post?
More information on the Microsoft home is available here and here.
Oh, and
Just think of what it would look like if the toilet crashed :)
http://www.xpurple.com
I guess that's for consistency...windows leaves all kinds of shit all over your system, so why not your house as well?
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
"A large number of people think (the solution to) productivity has been solved," explains Thomas Gruver, group manager for the Center for Information Work.
Man, those Microsofters really do live in a different world. On what planet do they find people who think that they've got that productivity problem taken care of?
I write in my journal
its not a bathroom, but a recycle bin. it can go for awhile without emptying, just until you fill up a certain percentage of the house that you allow. actually, each partition of the house has one, though reliability can be flakey at times, oddly sucking away at all the other resources of the house (electrical, water, etc..). though for the most part works, but keeps you forever wondering why they call it a recycle bin
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
Ready...
Set...
GO!
I guess we'll be takin the crash dumps in da kitchen.
Be honest, how many times have you hit refresh since the article was posted?
No shit!
Now where am I gonna put all my bathroom reading material?
All cool till you have several generations of people who grew up with this stuff and know no other way of life and all of a sudden a big wind storm and the power is *OUT*.
:)
Generators would be even more necessary than now
Fuzdout
..My sig ran away. Has anyone seen my sig?
It's a demo house. Would you want people trying out your toliet? And what about the customized toliet "reading material" hmmm, I think not.
Oh, and why was comment creation disabled for half an hour? New slashcode feature.
"..with the right rules set up in software many standard contracts could be quickly approved via computer assuming all the fields are filled in correctly."
Hardly new and innovative there. It's already been possible with PDF for a long time.
In fact government departments in Australia use PDF for electronic forms.
The TV also has a message about grandma. According to the television, she is having a "normal day." Heath explains that the message is part of a larger system envisioned for senior care. Sensors in a retirement home, she explains, would monitor her activities to make sure everything's okay.
Oh yeah, I would love to sit down to watch CSI, and be greeted with Mom fell and broke her hip, has bed sores, and vomited during bingo.
ugh..I think I'll pass on something like that.
Wouldn't the bathroom of tomorrow have the three shells?
This is nothing but a hidden attempt by microsoft to create Weapons of Mass Disruption !!
:-)
Imagine a virus which can bring down your house and your microwave and your toilet
Would the United States take unilateral action on corporations propagating technology which can be used as WMD ?
Well, it looks as if bill gates has finally decided to admit he is a composter.
I wonder how those veggies taste...
Speaking at Defcon 12 - Credit Card Networks Revisted: Pen
I've heard that had to close it down due to a large amount of damage caused by two mice trying to get a piece of cheese. Even the robot janitor has quit.
This is a common occurrence with "Houses Of The Future". Prior to this it was two dogs trying to get a bone.
All of the home's basic functionality is available in a pocket PC-turned-light-switch.
Just what I want...to try to turn the lights on and realize that the light switch has blue-screened.
Can you imagine trying to read a recipe overlaid upon the ingredients you are trying to cook with? Maybe display it on the wall or something, but to imagine your worksurface limited in such a fashion and call it convienience is simply absurd.
Microsoft dont need toilets because they already shit on the users.
Beautiful! Somebody has finally found a cure for this neferious disease.
OR
Has somebody solved the proof of productivity (solution being solved and all that)?
"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
No.. Now they want all the first posters to actually READ the article before saying "First Post" !!
BTW, on a serious note, is this really the case ? and is it going to be a regular affair, or was it a technical glitch ?
(joke first then comment)
They just assumed everyone was gonan piss on it anyway;)
</this commentis not pro-microsoft>
Fancy that?!?
--
"we live in a post-ideological world..." - Billy Bragg.
Conversation between 2 burglars :
"Which house shall we pick?"
"I've already chosen one. It's running Windows Home Edition"
"But those have biometric scanning"
"Yeah. A buffer overflow will take care of that"
"I don't think so." (busy trying to hack into the wireless LAN)..."seems they've patched it"
"Rats! I didn't want to do this. The home owners don't deserve it, but here goes...send in Slammer..."
Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
yeah, but at least this time I went and read the article. Maybe it's /.'s new RTFA timer...
Kip Hawley is an idiot.
wouldn't it feature an mp3 player for the shower with karaoke setting?
:)
or how about a large flat panel display readable from both the john and the whirlpool bath with voice activated mouse controls for reading online and watching video?
might want to skip the vid cam
God I hope so, it gave me time to find all the funny links that I thought the rest of the .'ers would appreciate. It's a shame when good comments don't get a viewing because in the first 30 minutes, 300 comments of goatse.cx have been posted and modded down, and and people are reading the same 25 >2 posts. That is IF they're reading at >2.
-Christopher Wu
http://www.christopherwu.net/
with microchips."
Yo! Microchip. Go get me a beer and don't give me none o yo back talk.
You know, I've been trying for years, but I still just can't figure out what's so hard about twisting that little rod thingy to adjust my miniblinds. It's simple, easy, quick, effective, mechanically simple and dosn't raise my electric bill.
I don't *feel* like a Luddite.
KFG
Some have already been tested in senior centers. It's still in the early stages of development, but such a system isn't entirely a fantasy
Speak for yourself, lady, but my fantasy isn't monitoring seniors all day.
a few little hacks, a couple of spy cams^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hhome automation devices, and i'm totally in the house of the future.
Ugh. Microsoft house. Other than the obvious "Security comments" and pissNshit
...demonstrates how a resident might enter using a retinal scanner instead of a
jokes, lets get down to some seriousness. And by the way, what's with ChrisD NOT allowing comments on creation??
---Visitors to the house can leave a message via the touch-screen monitor built
into the exterior wall or record a message if no one's home.
What?? We already have voice intercomms, and some have a rudimentary X-10-like
cam in there. Other than being a node on a network, what's soo special? Hell,
I've even speced up a security network using Linux and such tools.
key. Any such biometric screening device could be used...
Retinal, yeah, but what about "Any biometric device"? If it's a hand print,
gelatin (thanks to the japanese guy who 'found' it out). And to beat ANY
biometric crap, all you need is the following:
Eyes : Spoons
Hands : Saw, axe...
Face shape: Axe and cutting block... (eww)
Point is that biometric doesnt matter. A key would probably stop that unnessary
dismemberment.
---All of the home's basic functionality is available in a pocket
PC-turned-light-switch...
Yeah, and we can trust the wireless protocols? We cant even trust the 802.11
encryption people, let alone MS for security. Who's to know that you could walk
near and hijack a house computer system?
---It's like Web TV and a personal video recorder combined (add~~ read email
wherever)
Why would you want a tether like a PDA to haul around the house to control basic stuff? The last thing is to be harassed by email for this and that when my girlfriends over. Hell, I WANT CONTROL OVER EMAIL only when I'm sitting at my computer. I could give a shit less. And if it's really important, they'll call.
And about that TV setup... Soo it's like MythTV?
---would monitor her activities to make sure everything's okay.
And how would we prevent that those same sensors wouldnt be in a non-invalid
house? Any audio/video sensor (read nearly everything) is that kind of sensor.
If I'd have that kind of hardware, it'd be on a NON-INTERNET'ED network, with no physical connections to any network, with exception to the phone line. And that would be only for emergency phone calls (like fire sensors in roof have been set off...).
Another thing is this auto-cooking shit. I wouldnt expect any computer can give
reasonable instructions on how to cook. Cooking's an art, mastered by those with
experience. How can some 2 bit computer deal with recipe substitutions cause you dont have that one good it demands? Or will it DEMAND KRAFT CHEESE when you
bought that slab of american for 1.4$ per pound? Computers should follow MY
rules, not the other way around.
---All of the computer displays in the future house will be hooked up to a
central computer that coordinates their activities. This is critical for
broad-based features such as homework lock-down, which parents can use to
disable TV, music and other home entertainment until the schoolwork is done.
Uhhh, cant that already be done with X-Windows and cron jobs?
And of course, you gotta have that SoHo stuff for those never-off-the-clock
business users. That's a slashdot article in all its own. Still, all this GPS
here, Voice analysis there and add yet more buzzwords.
Point: There's tons of stuff in any house that you dont want ANYTHING taking
control of, with the exception of the person there. I sure dont want some
windows security system that goes in lock-down mode whenever the cat jumps
around knocking some book down, or have it call the fire department on a bad
computer cooking stint. And what about errors? There's tons of bugs in this
kind, no, ANY kind of system on this magnitude. I wouldnt trust ANY OS, even
Linux to take care and log every little transaction in and out of my house. And
the last thing I want is a transaction log that some law enforcement agency can
download if they have the certain e-signature allowing such search and seizure.
The supreme court has shown that they dont care for our rights.
Oh well, this has turned from a objection by point to a obnoxious rant. This is
just stuff that I worry about when "shit from the future" happens to be
partially true. It makes me think that there's actually a way to stop it.
Im Amerika das scheissenpapieren ist bergotten uns des UberMarketten mit dein plastchekarten.
Clickety Click
The eToilet. Where do YOU want to go today?
"My God, this must be a truly remarkable corn chip, to be so widely and confidently touted."
Hack into a home's computer system, and know exactly who is in the house at any given time as well as when each family member is expected home. Talk about convenience.
"The house of the future has no bathroom.
;)
And I really have to go...There's a fully furnished front hall, foyer, living room, bedroom, kitchen and dining room: all tweaked with future tech. But no porcelain throne...The lack of loo is amusing, but understandable..."
if ur gonna make a point, stick to it. don't concede to microsoft that toilets arent necessary in a "futuristic model" just because its a "model".
i'm sure there are plenty of tech toys to add to the restroom...has anyone ever seen the home improvement "man's bathroom"? it'd be nice if they built upon that and included it because, hey...we need restrooms!!! if not, please direct me to the M$ powered outhouse...lets hope the toilet doesnt...crash
Imagine walking home... it's been a long day.
As you enter, you are greeted by a warm Muzac entry sound. "Welcome Home" It chimes in an even, an unoffensive voice.
As you walk in, you are followed by wall mounted screens delivering custome tailored advertising. Who knew I could grow another 6" safely and without any effort?
You hang up your coat and you are chimed by a tone, that says "Thankyou for using MS coat rack" Ding!
You go to the kitchen to put away groceries, but before you get there a 6 foot holographic paper clip stops you. "Your grand mother is not eating her food. Do you wish to feed her"
"No it's ok, I'll talk to her later Mr. Clippy"
"Are you SURE you dont' want me to feed her. It's not healthy for her not to eat"
"She's made it 80 years on her own Sir, she knows when to eat"
"Older peopler need to eat, human, or they could starve!"
"Fine, what ever. Give her some food"
You can hear sounds of mechanical arms wurring in the distance, and an old woman screaming... ugh just another bug.
You go to put away the food, but as you insert some fruit and turn around, you see it spit out of the fridge. "What now?!"
"This fruit is not compatible with this refridgerator"
"It's a banana you talking box of ice, just take it"
"MS Fridge 3.1 does not recognize this typen of fruit. Are you sure you want to store it in MS Fridge?"
"YES!! I want to store it in MS Fridge!!"
"Open the door manualy to continue."
You put away the rest of the food, with only a few more discussions regarding the unlicensed eggs, which aparently were not grown at McMSoft Farms, and therefor do not have the correct nutritional value. And the fit the cubbard through over you buying flower... It insists that MS Breads are a more efficient use of your leasiur time.
As you go to the TV, you realize that you won't be watching TV tonight since all that's on is the BSD show.
Sudenly out of nowhere a lazer shoots you inthe pocket and burns a hole, destroying a tape you had in your pocket. "Hey!! what was that?"
"You were carrying ilegaly coppied music. I have corrected the issue for you."
"It was a mix tape from a friend!!"
"All copyrighted materials must have digitial copy right signitures, or they may be stolen. You don't want to steal do you?"
"It's from his band you nit! Never mind, I'l just go take a shower"
You dissrobe (hoping the computer isn't watching this time) and turn on the shower.... ICE cold.
"Computer turn up the heat, please"
"The heat is on"
"No it's not, it's freezing"
"The watter is hot at 37 degreees"
"In Celcius!!"
"Error: Unknown variable.... Reporting bug.... Bug fix will be available when you upgrade to MS House XP: The Next Generation"
You scream into the night as you run naked into the woods, trying to escape the MS Tree 3000's (better greener foilage). You find your self a nice cave and grow hemp in the field. Not because you like hemp, but because you heard it causes memmory loss, and you want to forget.
I would rather be ashes than dust!
No Shit? /bow
That makes sense considering both companies are mickey mouse operations.
*insert rimshot here*
Romana: "How did you know?" Doctor Who: "Ah, well, knowing is easy. Everyone does THAT ad nauseum. I just sort of hope"
I read the whole thing.
A whole new world has opened up to me! I can make intellegent comments that are ontopic! I can rationally discuss the issues! I can send a Fax from the Beach!
And the people that will bring it to me? A&chrisd!
Interesting, but I think I'd find a lot of the features more annoying than useful.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Wow...all that technology and no place to log in!
... because it isn't there? Does everything Microsoft have to be Big Brother?
Microsoft couldn't improve the bathroom of tomorrow? Come on! Where's the innovation?
My ideas....
- Auto-sensor for build up of noxious odors.
- Wireless connect in bathroom, naturally.
- A scale that keeps track of who is on it so it knows when to lie.
- A soap container that doesn't leave a white-yellow wax pond.
- An XBox to hold my toothbrush (doubles as a hair dryer).
- A medicine cabinet mirror that Photoshop touches up your appearance before you go out. Even better, a mirror that dims to match the ambience of a bar you are going to so that you can see exactly how pretty you are before your true looks are discovered.
- Temperature sensing based on biometrics.
- Flat panel for pornographic - er - custom content viewing.
- Any old style RIAA literature to shit on.
- A toilet that doubles as a bidette (sp?) - with override.
I would take the trip to Redmond to see that one.
As it is, I hope they have newspaper on the ground.
T.
This space for rent.
too bad he couldn't get the "soviet russia" part right ;)
Not that someone would think that any Microsoft products could have bugs, but... well shit happens.... maybe is for that that the house has no bathroom
Of course there's no toilet. That's what "Microsoft Bob" was designed for. You simply excrete your waste while performing standard household tasks, without interruption - and Bob cleans it up! Amazing!
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
All of Microsoft's crap goes into your PC... you don't need a bathroom!
"I get a message from another co-worker that Contoso's big cheese is slated to go on TV in two hours. He'd like to
announce a new line of widgets too, one that's faster and cheaper than silly Fabricam's. We have such a widget in
development but I'll have to find out if we have the facilities to speed up production so we can beat Fabricam to
market."
She should have added:
"I save all the effort and just lie, after all, Microsoft does it all the time."
Tm
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
It seems like Bill Gates has problems with bathrooms. :-)
:-) = I am happy
:^) = I am happy with my big nose
C:\> = I am happy with my OS
No toilet?! No shit?!
Home Economics class back in High School. One of the projects we did was to design our dream home, I spent alot of time on it and when I went to show it to my friends all they could say is, "where's the bathroom?". Yes, it was true, no bathrooms. Kind of a weird DejaVu when I saw the title to this posting.
These digital homes of the future will only be as smart as the owner. People will yell and scream and curse at their house just like they do to their printer. The main server that runs the whole party will require pretty good knowledge of computers. Unless of course, you are rich and have a 24 hour geek squad a phone call away. Technical difficulties will arise, upgrades will need to be done, and to do it yourself (economically) will require *wanting* to know the guts of the system. Not to mention, a bit of knowledge about whatever language is making everything tick. The interesting thing about these "future" homes is that they are just a concept right now. They will become widely built and used only if simplicity is pursued by the people designing and building them. Whoever comes up with a very simple GUI for some "master controls" that doesn't require every single appliance, light, alarm, and garage door opener to be compliant to only one protocol, or worse, MADE BY MS, will be a very rich person. Of course, the average /.'er could handle the 'super house' (and most likely would not let any other person put their muckers on the design and implementation of it), but the average 'i have 40 gigabytes of ram!' person won't be able to.
More importantly, Microsoft doesn't have a single view of the future. The tours present possible scenarios, not a blueprint for product development.
This is the most important part of the article. Not everyone will want *everything* that MS's digital home showscases... but customizability (is that a word?) of these future homes will be the key. Opting for the econopackage presented by your home builder would be a bad idea. A home owner would end up without enough features that they could make good use of, and too many things that they don't need, or worse, don't know how to work.
It will be interesting to see how these become mainstream.
You have paid for a total of 0 pages and so far 0 have been used up (0 today).
All of the computer displays in the future house will be hooked up to a central computer that coordinates their activities. This is critical for broad-based features such as homework lock-down, which parents can use to disable TV, music and other home entertainment until the schoolwork is done.
"That feature's not popular with teens," Heath says.
You know kids would just find a way around that, to hijack the main computer for their own sinister uses while blaming it on gator or something.
Have these people ever actually read to a child. I mean part of the idea at least is for children to use their imagination but if you're going to swamp them with colours, sounds, and animation (on the TV fer chrissake) why bother reading. The sound just becomes another input.
It's like "Here kid, this is what it's supposed to look like OK. Whadayamean you want the cow to be a whitwe with black spots? Microsoft cows are brown."
It's not supposed to be entertainment.
Microsoft wins stay of Toilet order
.Diaper as an alternative.
Microsoft received a reprieve on Monday from a court order requiring the company to install Plumbing INC's toilets. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted Microsoft a stay of a Jan. 21 decision from U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz in Baltimore, who gave the company 120 days to begin including Plumbing INC's toilet in every establishment of Microsoft Home(tm).
In a statement sent to reporters, Plumbing INC's vice president of legal affairs said: "We regret the 4th Circuit Court's decision. The preliminary injunctions granted by the district court will benefit consumers and the plumbers."
Plumbing INC has sued Microsoft for $1 billion, claiming Microsoft had tried to thwart the commercial success of toilet in hopes of establishing
I like the part where sensors in the retirement home are keeping an eye on grandma and tells you that she's had a "normal day". Imagine getting an update about the day when Grandma decided to stuff society, lighted a joint , burnt her bra and started to get it on with old mr. Smith in the room next door.
"I used to have that really cool,funny sig
What did you think was so useful about M$ fantasy land??
You must want to *see* more "senior care".
He painted a unicorn in outer space. I'm askin' ya, what's it breathin'?
They omitted the bathroom in the demo, because engineers haven't been able to unlink the toilet flushing sound from this wav file. (Seems an irate employee hid the code deep in the OS, and the ones who are left haven't been able to locate it yet...)
"...visitors can leave a message using a touch screen at the front door". Touch screen? Oh YEAH, I can just imagine how long THAT would last before the neighborhood teenagers vandalized it.
While the reporter certainly played up this aspect of the tour, the impression I get is that there's no aspect of MS's corporate culture that isn't touched by a hyper-competitive worldview. The fact that this shows up in the marketing of their "office of the future" would indicate that they feel this is something that anyone might identify with... which feels like a corporate-level unconscious manifestation, similar to automatic writing / free association.
(smile already, I'm only part-serious.)
What I can't decide whether this section of the tour is an amazing instance of idealized projection by MS's marketing staff, or an example of how a good marketing team can identify with situations completely unfamiliar to them (i.e. being genuinely threatened by a competitor).
(yes, that was sarcasm...)
Sure, I'm overstating the situation, and sure, their target audience for this tour is really high-level execs who - to some extent - are paid to view the world this way.
Still, it's a pretty sad when even in the magical future the CEO schedules press conferences without having a clue as to what he's going to say; maybe MS should look into building futuristic, non-stupid executives.
Oh well... here's hoping those fictional robots go on a fictional killing spree!
I want to call this a Metcalfe's Law problem or a Convergence problem only because it's almost 2am here and I can't think...
But I can't get my doctor to send me paper mail about my next appointment or recent test results. School is lucky if it knows where my child is supposed to be, much less keeping me up to date beyond the static class schedule. What are 200 hundred radio frequency tags in my shopping cart going to do to my grocery bill? Reminds me a bit of the defunct WebVan: "OK everybody we have this great service, EVERYONE better adopt it QUICK or it's doomed. Hello? Hello? Where is everyone?"
Also, the US population isn't growing that fast. How about helping us economically retrofit existing houses with current technology? Or should we just turn them into Low Income Projects and sprawl out even further to build our MS Homes?
Operator, give me the number for 911!
...Will be Bill Gates' mansion, because he's the only person who'll be able to afford to own a house out here!
"All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - George Orwell
My wife and I are nerds and have designed automation into our home. We have systems for security, lighting control, media equipment control and HVAC all talking to each other via serial and Ethernet. We are programming everything ourselves, because we can and because we think we'll do a better job than anyone we could hire.
We've been in the house for six months and haven't finished the lighting controls. It takes a while to figure out how you want things to work. Everything works reasonably well and some things are really cool.
However, anything more complex than having a button that turns out all of the lights when you're ready to shutdown for the evening gets surprisingly subtle.
For example, we programmed the system to automatically turn on the hall lights when we get home. The rule is simple enough, if this door opens, and it's between sunset and sunrise, turn on this light. But then, we have a warm winter and get a lot of bugs on the entry and when I take out the garbage, I turn off the light so the bugs don't swarm into the house, then open the door and the light comes back on!
We easily fixed this, but what happens to tomorrow's consumers who buy a mass-produced system that tries to be a LOT more clever than what I just described and it goes wrong? These are the people who couldn't figure out to set the time on their VCR, who don't know how to turn off Word's autoformatting "features" and instead have to learn how to work around them. How are they going to live in a home that is complex beyond their comprehension and that does things they don't want and can't fix?
The answer is they won't. This high-tech home automation for the masses is a fantasy. Software is going to have to get orders of magnitude better before it's even thinkable.
Rover from Microsoft Bob has a new home!
Really though...I don't care if it IS Microsoft that is doing it, it is NICE to see someone doing it.
Smarthouse technology is cool. I don't mean X10 controls on your basement light, I mean real smarthouse stuff.
Dan
Just what I need, Microsoft keeping track of my grandma! Well, if they couldn't get Windows into her house, maybe they can get me to put some Microsoft technology in her house for her...
Honey, have you downloaded the latest service pack for our house yet?
But that's to be expected. Speech recognition is one of the technology challenges currently facing software developers. If the system worked right now they'd move it to Microsoft's house of today, a nearby showroom officially known as the Consumer Experience Center where the company shows off current technology.
Perhaps if the system worked right now, they'd call it Macintosh OS X.
Seriously, Mac speech recognition has (quietly) gotten pretty good, just recently. For nearly ten years it's been one of those things that I play with occasionally and think, "When they get this right, it's gonna be cool."
It's now very cool. With an hour or so of set up, a few nights ago, I can now surf the web (among many other tasks) completely hands free. I say, "Drudge" and Safari opens drudgereport.com. I say, "move page down" and it scrolls. I say, "Weather" and weather.com is loaded. I say, "Switch to..." and it switches to whatever app I want, already running or not.
All while iTunes is playing.
Any keyboard shortcut can be defined in one app or system-wide to be triggered by any spoken word or phrase you choose.
Combine it with Applescript and.... shell scripts and... this is VERY cool.
Mac users, if you haven't tried Speech stuff on your Mac recently, try it again with 10.2.
I recently demonstrated it to a neighbor who only knows Windows and his response was, "So how much would it cost me to get a Mac that can do that?"
Microsoft, once again, is WAY behind the curve.
I thought Microsoft's animated *assistant* appears after you drop a hot load on the sofa.
"It appears that you have moved your bowels in a most inappropriate way. Would you like to add the turd to the clipboard for later use?"
If you think
The visitors just didn't know how to use the three seashells. :)
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
Script kiddies will be able to turn off your fridge, lock your doors and get root on your toilet. That's assuming, of course, that The Home of the Future is as secure as current Microsoft products. If you ask me, having your entire home run on a network that will probably be accessable from the Internet is a Bad Idea. A very, very Bad Idea
Dare I ask why anybody would want to have their toilet on a publically accessible network? The only even remotely plausible reason I can come up with is a toilet that automatically checks what you leave in it for signs of disease (if I'm not mistaken, there are already toilets in Japan that do this) and can tell the doctor on their own. This isn't anywhere near a good enough reason for me to have my personal crapper wired up though. I don't want Joe Hacker to know about when I'm taking a shit, thank you very much....
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
Talk about Network Neighborhood!
-Jason
I swear, I laughed out loud!
My thoughts exactly! After all, who wouldn't want to download all of their Outlook viruses and Hotmail spam as they sit in the La-Z-Boy, listening to Bob Marley amid the pulsating red-and-green walls?
50 computers require 50 Windows licenses. Smart move.
But when will Sun do the same with their technology?
Antti S. Brax - Old school - http://www.iki.fi/asb/
I guess the house would come with some sort of default code to enter it, and 50% of people wouldn't change it out of lazyness.
A message from the system administrator: 'I've upped my priority. Now up yours.'
Microsoft does not need^H^H^H^Hdeserve this much control.
/. troll becuase "Hotfix Q1873672 has been out for your microwave for 3 months!!1 It's your own fault you can't walk upright anymore!!". Hmm.. must be time to patch the house again.
It's bad enough the world has to deal with things like the SQL Slammer, but there's no way in hell I'm going to risk waking up one morning to the Toaster Twister and Coffee Cruncher, visit the bathroom to great the Rectal Reamer, and find out my mailbox says STOP ERROR 0x00000e24 - INACCESSABLE BOOT DEVICE.
Only to be topped off by being yelled at by some
NO SIR.
I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.
wow, so it IS true. Mac is going x86 to kick the shit out of winblows.
lemme see here. i've been dragging and dropping for how long on mac os???
m$ jokers.
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
Starman9x
p.s. actually, the title I gave it when I submitted it was based more on the current "palladium/where do you THINK you're going" type .sig that many people already use; obviously Chrisd thought the paid/professionall editors at the Star are a bit better at figuring out what is "catchy" than I was with my feeble attempt at humor, for which I thank him :)
...in which the current dumb-user-centric model has ascended to the point that it begins to conquer volition and personal descision making. The computer tells you what ingrediants to pick in the kitchen, it worrys about how many guests you have, and then tells you a recipie apropos to them... perhaps, soon enough, an earpiece will tell you what to say to them...
This level of automation is only apropriate to the mentally handicapped or infirm! Computers are wonderfull things, if you want to understand them and tell them to solve a problem... but if ms's ideal vision of the future is a world in which you are incapable of deciding on your own what to do, a world of insurgent 'user friendliness' to the point that the computers are directing our behavior [in a socially usefull and constructive way, no doubt] instead of using them as tools... it's ugly, and it's the ultimate fulfillment of user-friendliness. I just can't wait for the 'so I'm a women now' birds and the bees wizards to instruct parents and children on that special path of adolescance [only $99.95 for this special upgrade pack!]
Scary.
---
the pen is mightier than the sword, the sword is mightier than the court, the court is mightier than the pen.
One thing they mentioned is that the microwave could tell how long to cook the food by a barcode. Personally, I would like to see all products coming bluetooth (or similiar) enabled. Your refrigerator could automatically keep tabs on the contents, microwaves and ovens would automatically determine the heat/length of cooking.
When you want to go shopping, your house could spit out a list of things that you will need to pickup based on the amount in stock and your typical purchasing habits.
Scenario One:
Heath : Computer, why did you select the quantity for four. Its just me in here..
Computer : Sweetheart, I thought I should cook for the three gentlemen hiding in the attic with guns too..
Scenario Two:
Heath : Please select quantity as two for myself and my boyfriend.
Computer : Your boyfriend was here with the blonde from the coffeeshop. Believe me sweetie, he ate.. Oh how he ate!!
Rapid Nirvana
OpenDoc is still around? (I actually read that paragraph, you see.)
--
est modus in rebus
If this home was exactly the same, but developed by a university and running Linux, how many of the complainers do you think would suddenly change their tune? :)
--
est modus in rebus
methinks the computerized home of the future is more about technology "fading into the background", making things more convenient but in an unobtrusive way; not the technology being the centerpiece of a "gee whiz" kind of house that would appeal most to a 14-year-old.
but maybe its just the dissonance between a "showcase house of the future", where tech is the centerpiece, and the tech we all really will want and/or need.
The complete integration of technology into our daily lives seems helpful and nice at first sight. But reconsidering makes me wonder if it's that good at all.
To me the MS like future makes us just more part of a system, of a big machine (Günther Anders' "Weltmaschine") - more time efficiency, smooth and flawless interaction of the human cogwheels.
Where's the freedom of the individual? Where are the 15 minutes you need to recognize your existence?
I wonder whether the growth of the world machine is ever gonna stop. If we are not careful the networked society of today and tomorrow is the beginning of the end of individuality.
-- I love the smell of Blue Screens in the morning.
Is anyone else reminded of the scene in Hitchiker's Guide in which Arthur is trying to get a cup of tea from the Nutrimat?
Arthur: Why is the air being filled with cheap perfume?
Ventilation system: But you like scented air. It's fresh and invigorating!
Arthur: Damn! Why is the floor moving?
Floor: Massage away your tension...
Arthur: TURN THE SOOTHING MUSIC OFF!!!!
may not have a bathroom but does it have a backdoor?
I know you are psychotic, but please make an effort.
In Japan all the new houses have toilet bowls operated by remote control. You can adjust the seat heating and fine tune the flush and there are nozzles that squirt your butt for fun and hygiene. They are about as standardized and easy to use as VCR remotes and the instructions are in Japanese, providing a powerful incentive to learn the language. Seems like the perfect niche for Windows WC or whatever.
I bragged about my Karma at a job interview but I didn't get the job.
Can I preorder one? Would I want too? The answer to both of these questions is a resounding but not surprising "NO".
A Fatal OE Exception has occurred, Sig will now reboot.
MARVIN: "It is..."
ARTHUR: "What?"
MARVIN: "Ghastly. The noise. Absoulutely ghastly. Just don't even talk about it. Look at this door. All the doors in this spacecraft have a cheerful and sunny disposition. It is their pleasure to open for you, and their satisfaction to close again with the knowledge of a job well done."
DOOR: "Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmm"
MARVIN: Hateful, isn't it? Come on, I've been ordered to take you up to the bridge. Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they tell me to take you up to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? Cause I don't."
FORD: "Excuse me, which government owns this ship?"
MARVIN: "You watch this door. It's about to open again. I can tell by the intolerable air of smugness it suddenly generates. Come on."
DOOR: "Hummmmmmmmmmmm....glad to be of service."
MARVIN: "Thank you the marketing division of the Syrius Cybernetics Corporation."
DOOR: "Hummmmmmmmmmmm....you're welcome."
With the greatest respect and admiration for Douglas Adams. RIP.
So.. Am I the only one that realized if I had spare cash laying around I could already implement everything in that "house of tommorow"?
Shoot Pixels, Not People!
I hope there will be a modchip available, so i can make my home more compatible with my personal preferences. Cause the last thing i want is that gay clippy thing in my face at 6am telling me to get out of bed cause i am going to be late for work. I don't want a computer to script my life, especially one with Micro$oft inside.
A Fatal OE Exception has occurred, Sig will now reboot.
Or didn't you notice how the Enterprise and its shuttles on Star Trek don't seem to have any toilets either? Maybe it works like the food replicators in reverse, or maybe everybody just wears Depends.
This is a deal breaker. I want a DSL line or a wireless access point in the bathroom. I want no part of a future where the throne room has no Internet access.
Does this
password: open
:-[
oh dear
That was classic intercourse!
Ironic since that's where their software should be....badda bing!
-= This is a self-referential sig =-
This is more like the house of the past rather than the future. Everyone in the TV generation knows the houses in the 50s didn't have bathrooms either. Looks like MS is taking a giant leap backward. What's next, fins on the Microsoft Car???
Seriously, if this feature is actually needed in a household, you have bigger problems than your TV not knowing who you are.
Why is it that taking responsibility for your actions is seen as a bad thing these days? What is wrong with asking your kids to get their homework done, and explaining to them why it is a good idea to do it?
Brock
Help children born unable to swallow - www.tofs.org.uk
Surely an MS house should have more than the average number of bathrooms, a la Dennis Pennis?
DP (doorstepping Michael Winner outside awards ceremony): Michael, is it true your new house has five bathrooms?
MW: Yes
DP: Is that because you put out so much shit?
Exit MW, confused
They will never know the simple pleasure of a monkey knife fight
Where nothing can go wrong...
go wrong.
go wrong.
go wrong.
"That's no moon"... Obi-Wan Kenobi
Retinal scan at the front door tells the house who is in, now you get email, messages, soup cooked the way you like, lighting set up the way you like ...
Who's to say you didn't come home with spouse and kids, guests, neighbors, or who knows who? What does it do if the spouse or kids or guests arrive after you, separately? Now whose settings does it use?
Seems that Microsoft hasn't shed their single user single tasking legacy.
Besides that nonsense, the idea that you would always want your soup heated the same amount is terrible. Recipes based on ingredients you put on a counter; pardon me, I think I'd pick the recipe first, then shop for the ingredients I don't have.
Everything described here seems so primitive and so Microsoft. The map shows where the kids are supposed to be. That is not useful, it gives all the appearance of safety and none of the reality.
The idea that Microsoft security could enforce a homework lockdown by the parents on the kids, ha! Parents would let the computer read to the kids in their place, a real miss the point instance, like everything else.
The work situation; a competitor has invented a better widget. What is our response? Announce our own better widgit which doesn't exist yet! Where have we heard that before? They come up with nonsense of scanning all the suppliers etc, see if the production can be sped up, as if our company was running at slow speed to start with.
This house is unimaginative and nonsensical. If this is the best they can come up with, they haven't got much research for the buck.
Infuriate left and right
The RCA home of tomorrow at the end of Space Mountain was, by far, the best HOT ever.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
It's a long way to Redmond.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
I guess you'll just have to go in the Recycle Bin.
broad-based features such as homework lock-down, which parents can use to disable TV, music and other home entertainment until the schoolwork is done.
Imagine this:
Day 1.
[bespectacled kid muttering under his breath reading bugtraq] I wonder whether my parents have installed patch 1436-B?
one hour later
[bespectacled kid muttering under his breath while logging in to the master computer] Gosh! they put our cat's name as root password?one week later...
[stocky kid during lunch to bespectacled kid] hey how about hacking into our house, and I promise not to beat you again?
>>Back in the future, Heath is showing us around the teen bedroom of the future.... The teen, Heath says, will have the biggest and best computer monitor in the house.
Well, not in MY house! Not unless "the teen" gets off his or her ass and gets a job to pay for it!
This reminds me most strongly of a short story called The Machine Stops. Written in 1909, it anticipates display screens, robotic doctors, video conferencing, etc. You might find it interesting.
Chuckles aside, I don't really feel comfortable with the idea of an automated house. Concerns about Microsoft and having their software running my home aside(I would never buy a Microsoft house), the prospect of having thigns adjusted when someone enters is potentially annoying. What if lights turn on or off or adjust level of illumination while you're doing something. What if someone prefers to have metal blasting when they come in and you happen to be next to the speakers when they open the door.
Sure, small problems but there is more. One of the common themes in science fiction is the one where human technology has risen in scope and scale, reducing the need of people to work or move. It should be obvious, by comparing the different strata of technology across the world, that the ease created by technology creates a general laziness within a population. As nice as conveniences could be, I can only see many of them creating more sloth and laziness amongst the population.
Not to mention the prospect of a wired, net active house being co-opted by hackers. Don't be so naive as to think that security would be so seriously improved as to make hacking impossible. Technology increases on all fronts. I wouldn't relish the prospect of hackers gaining control of environmental functions and other parts of a wired in house. Imagine the water periodically going frosty as you shower. Chilling thought, eh?
I will admit that some things, such as biometric access and a little digital notepad on the door are interesting and much more useful than harmful. But everything has a point of excess, where too much of a good thing sours it. We should be careful about having too much tech.
Kalen D'arrie
Yeah I know you're trying to be funny and it's always easy to crack on Microsoft. But then there are actually other people doing the same kind of work. I remember doing a few small projects for this home. They have small video cameras on the ceilings of all the walls pointed straight down to track every single person's movement.
:-)
Checkout Georgia Tech's <a href="http://www.cc.gatech.edu/fce/ahri/">Aware Home Project</a>.
Fortunately, their home has a bathroom in it.
Stupid me posts as code... this is the LINKY
Interesting article, but a phrase used made me stop and look again.
I'm in the UK, and here the slang 'boob' is used to refer to a womans chest. I understand that in the US 'boob' is used to refer to someone of limited intellect.
Now the phrase 'boob tube' in the US clearly means TV for the intellectually challenged.
Unfortunately in the UK 'boob tube' means a particularly tasteless item of 80's fashion that was basically just a wide elasticated belt style top for women. Try putting 'boob tube 80' in google...
Kinda makes that paragraph scan slightly differently
Microsoft is behind the curve? Well, yes - Microsoft doesn't have this type of functionality built in. Although, when you've got Windows running on your IBM-clone, you can be pleased to know that software for it is actually produced. No one writes software for the Mac except Apple. So basically, if Apple doesn't provide something - you're screwed. On the other hand, if Microsoft doesn't provide something, there are plenty of other software companies developing for Windows variants so, chances are, it will come along. And of course there are speech recognition programs that a Windows user can use and do the same thing you are doing. Although personally, I don't want to have to talk the whole time I am at my computer.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
A figment of Douglas Adams imagination. A company so large and makes so many shoddy products that the only division making a profit is the complaint department that now spans 3 planets...
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
If the thing went bad do you really want to be looking through Unix Core dumps from it to debug it? :-}
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Where do you want to go today?
Not here at home that's for sure.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
In Microsoft House, toilet uses YOU.
This message has been scanned for memes and dangerous content by MindScanner, and is believed to be unclean.
If the toilet crashes, does the shit hit the fan? Literally? How can you tell a BBOD (Blue Bowl of Death) from regular Tidy Bowl? Finally, a home for Microsoft's crappy software. Way too many one-liners with this story.
The first problem is that you wouldn't be able to close the door. Anyone could walk in and build on a new addition (though they'd have to post the floorplans for it outside so all can see).
Actually, Gentoo house is a forest. Compile the lumber yourself.
I wonder how far into the absurd we can descend with this thread.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Can you imagine a home without windows?
where's all that Karma?
...you really shouldn't store bananas in a refridgerator. They belong out on the counter. Keeping them cold just ruins them...
Do you really want Steve Ballmer hunched over a monitor somewhere and sweating while watching you lather up in the shower?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
You're so right. No one writes software for the Mac.
-T
More to the point of the topic... I remember reading an article by Andy Ihnatko a while back, wherein he described a home-automation project using X10, AppleScript, a Mac and a series of cheap microphones scattered throughout the house.
See, the big problem with most speech recognition systems is the problem of speaking within earshot. A mic up close to you will do a pretty good job of pickup obviously, and make the computer's job much faster and more accurate. But if you're already sitting in front of the computer, the speech recognition isn't much good for things other than the supplemental ("Insert Time and Date"). You already have the keyboard and mouse in front of you, which are much faster than many speech commands.
If you want to walk around your house and issue spoken commands, it's much more feasible to just buy a bunch of cheap PZM and omni microphones from Radio Scrap and put them everywhere. You don't even need that many; just think of the places you tend to 'park' (couch, standing by sink in kitchen, front hall, etc.) and aim appropriately. Doesn't take a lot of bleeding-edge stuff, but the design of how it works is much, much tricker, as one other poster pointed out.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Major innovations which will change the way we live... because people will be willing to pay for them incrementally:
What the average schmoe will be absolutely unable to afford:
The bigger better jobs will go to home offices, maybe... just maybe... as thoroughly extravegant and self-loving as the Microsoft vision.
So where does that leave the average person?
In a one-room apartment with artificial windows (not wonderful wrap-around ones, unless you splurge), a fold-out bed, a washer and drier quiet enough to sleep next to (because that's what you'll be doing), a minimal kitchen (because real-estate and time is more precious than the cost of the new and improved forms of fast food)
All the while, you will dream of leaving the factory/fast food franchise/service industry to move towards some job you can perform from a home office outside the city.
But that's just one vision.
No one comes to my door without calling my cell phone first to find out if I'm home. Any one who is coming to my door without calling is some sort of door-to-door marketer/religious person, and I don't want them to leave a message. This seems like an invitation for those cards you get on the windshield of your car when you park downtown, only on your front door.
The important thing is that unlike a traditional key, a biometric system would identify each resident as they entered and prepare the house accordingly.
For Heath, this means that as she enters the house, the shades go up, the lights go on and Elvis starts singing.
I (shades down/lights at medium/soft jazz), my girlfriend (shades up/lights on/pop), my best friend (shades down/lights on full/metal), his girlfriend (shades up/lights on low/classical), and my parents (shades down/lights up full/NPR) all walk in at once... house explodes.
More realistically, though - what music I want/how bright I want the lights/etc. depends on my mood, how I'm feeling, and how my day was. It's not always going to be the same, in fact it's rarely going to be the same from day to day. Therefore, I would need to specify every time I walked in - which is no different than I have now.
And why check your e-mail in the front hall, when you can do it from the comfort of your living room on your TV? The television in this house is a whole lot smarter than the average boob tube. It's like Web TV and a personal video recorder combined.
So a list of Heath's favourite programs is displayed on screen.
The show will pick up where she left off the last time she sat down to watch TV.
Great... so, last night, I was watching pr0n - today I invite my girlfriend over to watch a movie and it pulls up... whoops.
A text message comes up on screen from a friend - it's all part of the Disneyland-style demo designed to give a sense of how the house might work. She tells the friend she's busy right now, but quickly sends off directions to their next meeting together.
A text messages comes up on screen from my mistress... while I'm watching TV with my wife. Whoops.
Or, an obscene text message from my teenage daughter's boyfriend appears while I'm watching TV with her... causing me to ground her for a month. I can see obvious problems there.
In essence, though computers are faster than I am, they really are not smarter than I am - they can't anticipate my moods/decisions nor can they cope with infinite possibilities and circumstances, including ones they have never encountered before. I want tools that do what I tell them to, not anticipate what they (or some anonymous programmer) thinks I might want.
-T
Fire regulations in most countries would require
all electrically operated doors to fail open should the power fail.
How big a UPS would your home need to keep it safe during a brown-out?
They're probably still smarting from that sequence in AfterY2K a while back....
In fact, I bet that Robert Heinlein would have approved of these more than the House of the Future. If he agreed with his main character in The Door into Summer. Probably.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Geez, you people still travel on horseback, don't you? Hate these new-fangled "wheel" things that might keep rolling downhill after you want to stop.
Or maybe you only drive manual-transmission cars because automatic transmissions just don't do everything exactly the way you want them to?
This is called a "house of hte future" because we aren't ready to make a production version of it right now. How shocking. Complaining that the technology isn't ready is missing the point.
This is talking about how to make things better. Yes, there is a *lot* to develop before it is ready for production use, but guess what, it will never be ready for production use unless people work on it. Congrats to MS for working on it, and for understanding that it is "future" and not "current" tech. (You did read that paragraph in the article, right?)
Yes, there will be growing pains. There will be systems that don't work quite right. Guess what, if market forces work the way they are supposed to... bad systems will either improve or die, and good systems will get even better.
But systems won't improve if people don't work on them. I'd like to see groups other than MS working on it (and guess, what, there are other groups doing this type of R&D also), but a lot of this simply goes under the generic heading of "Making software work with people better" which is a good thing from anyone.
Frankly, my concerns are less with getting the systems to work right, and more with getting the laws properly made so that your data about you in your house belongs to you only. Engineering problems are easy, legal/privacy problems are hard.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is... Oops. Frank, I've got your sig again! Where's mine?
I am turning my home into a low budget high tech house (sic) and I have thought about running wires and mounting a pc (or 2) in there. One would be for reading the news while on the throne. Which would allow for the removal of the magazine stack / rack.
The other would be water proof and play music in the shower. I would use shorten instead of mp3, but that is me.
..Microsoft will sell these at a loss, and the Linux Community will snatch them up and get Linux running on them.
I do't think most peopel want a house like this. We have the technology to do much of this now, hell we have had the technology for keyless entry for years, but we still use keys. How many people have to(or can) conduct business from home? 1% of the population? In this community it is probably higher, but overall its pretty damn low.
SOme of the stuff is cool, but I would only consider it if I controlled how the computers work.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"Happiness is like pissing your pants...everybody can see it but only you can feel the warmth!" :oP
Oh, lordy -- I just had the most horrible vision involving M$ Home and outsourced tech support.
"But sir, your toilet is supposed to work that way... No, I'm in India. Why do you ask?"
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
you have to frequently reboot the oven... that would spoil the Thanksgiving dinner... :(
Linux's home of tomorrow does have a bathroom... you just need the permissions to use it.
With controls over our lives with MS's Home of Tomorrow -- all that you need to do is stay over at a hospital.
Karma stuck at 50? Add 2-5 inches.. err.. 2-5x Karmas Count to your pen1es.. err.. Karma all naturally and private
...you'd have to manually program in each barcode and tell the microwave how long it would take to cook...
Or the microwave could just remember how long you cooked it the last time. Or it could reference the UPC against an online database of cooking times (kinda like cddb, but for food.)
--Kevin
"It's a very tangled subsystem." --Windows kernel guru
The last thing I want to hear when I get home from a hard days work....D000d! 3y3 h4xx0R3d Ur h0wS3!!
Am I the only one who realised that "no bathroom" also means no *SHOWER*??! (Besides, no toilet!)
EUUGHHHHHHH! SMELLY!!
Perhaps Bill Gates has decided that humans will have evolved passed the need to bath and urinate and deficate...I don't think so!
As for a M$ toilet, I would assume the same old "click and drag" method of disposal would still apply.
Fuzdout
..My sig ran away. Has anyone seen my sig?
I trust Microsoft with my housing exactly as much as their "Trusted Computing" initiative trusts me with my computer :)
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
Matthew Perry voice: "Could I BE any more of a house???"
Dr. Mike Mozer is a professor of Computer Science (specializing in artificial Neural Networks (ANNs)). He has renovated an old school house near Boulder, Colorado and given it multiple sensors, and controls, and hooked all of this up to an adaptive learning system. For example his house has motion sensors and can control the lights, so when you walk into the bathroom the lights come on automatically.
He never had to program this particular function, but because the house "saw" that everytime there was movement in the bathroom the lights were turned on, it learned to turn the lights on itself. Similarly, a microphone in the living room can determine that the TV has been turned on, and dim the lights to the correct level. I believe the house also predicts what fans and AC/heating to turn on based upon time of day, temperature outside, time of year, day of week, etc. And the best part is you don't have to figure out the optimal logic yourself, but the house learns it from watching your behaviour.
You can find more information about this experiment here The best part is that much of the work was done by graduate students, and much of the funding came from grants.
Computers don't make mistakes. What they do, they do on purpose.
I believe that's "Open Sesame."
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
I am glad microsoft is around and has a lot of money. Otherwise no one would be able to afford to research the fun digital toys of the future. And I am damn glad it isn't a linux driven house, because if you don't have enough pipe to the outside world you can't download the 300MB kernel upgrade and spend the next day waiting for your house to be done compiling it.
Anonymous Cowards - Oh God, How I hate you
There would be a toilet and a shower in a linux house, but you would need to debug the crappy GNU code yourself and hope to recompile your toilet before you have to crap. or everyone would have a different distro of linux and you would never be able to figure out how your friend's toilet works
Anonymous Cowards - Oh God, How I hate you
How are they planning on implementing this technology? Are they only going to build it into new houses? I got news for you, there ain't much space left in the US for new homes anywhere near a metropolitan or suburb area. Upgrade existing houses? That will probably cost more than building one from scratch....you're talking rewiring the phone/electrical system, installing wall mounted speakers, screens, and sensors, and lord knows what else. The house I live in right now was built in 1925...it barely has any 3 prong electrical outlets.
I won't even get started on the security and privacy issues of this whole concept, but I'm betting that the cost could be subsidized by advertisers and manufacturers interested in paying through the nose for the marketing data and advertising oppurtunities available in something like this.
This article scared the hell out of me. I am not excited by this technology in the least.
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
Doesn't anyone remember DOG GONE MODERN, the Warner Brothers' cartoon where two dogs wander into the "Home of Tomorrow"?
Morover, if there's a biometic lock on the door, what kinds of easter eggs might the DoJ require in order to "combat terrorism"? Perhaps the doors automatically lock if anyone with an arrest warrant is detected on the premises? Chemical sensors alert the police if marijuana smoke is detected? Your health insurance provider is alerted if tobacco smoke is detected? If too much fatty food is prepared in the kitchen, another alert goes to your health insurance provider?
And here'a a thought about MS Toilet(tm): what's to stop them from building in a urinalysis kit and reporting the results to your employer, the police, or whoever else is interested? "Hi Bob, this is Fred at State Farm. I notice that since your 15-year-old daughter became pregnant, you've started drinking a lot. Now, I realize this is a trying time for you, but we're going to have to raise your rates in order to offset the added risk. By the way, we notice that your son has been flushing a lot of condoms in the past month, but we aren't detecting any estrogen in the urine passed around those flushes. Also, we detected several different DNA matches on the semen in those condoms. Would you like to see a list?"
Interociter
-=What do I want? I'm an American. I want more.
hey I want my houseputer to serve me, not that I'm gonna be just another houseputer process.. I would prefer it to do quite a different thinks, like: :)) :) :) gentle voice + voice recognition is preffered, houseputer console shall exist but mostly for maintenance and setup...
-guarding the house when NOBODY_AT_HOME is set to 1, making logs
-energy saving together with comfort - I don't need the central heating to heat when nobody's home, and start heating/cooling in advance, so that when I come, temperature will be fine
-watching for windows/doors not closed locked properly, just like in car
-sensing fire and water/gas leaks
-to have my music collection stored on very large capacity media, easily accessable
-99.9999999999% reliability (or more
-e.g. automated medical analysis of urine
-to kiss me nicely even if I come home late
Also, another displays to gaze on is really the last thing I wish
I'm not insane. My mother had me tested.
Orange (UK mobile phone operator) has been at this kind of thing for ages...
r an geathome.asp
http://www.orange.com/English/forwardthinking/O
(all the links on the right underneath "Orange at home")
I've been there and it _was_ pretty cool.
Two things that I didn't see in the article.
One of the ideas is that every product sold will have an RF tag. supposedly in a couple of years the tags are going to be down to a penny or two. The tags id whatever you bring into your house and add it too the "house inventory". one thing that scared me was when she mentioned that the house could check your insurance policy and if you weren't covered by you current policy they could contact you to upsell. uhhh, obviously designed w/ the business rather than the customer in mind.
another thing about the door. the door is magnetically locked. you bio scan in and it lets you in. there was no keyhole that I saw. what happens when the power goes out? either you are locked in or the door is open. neither is acceptable.
the house was pretty cool though. it had a great digital art sculpture. some random piece of artfully bent plastic. when you get close it illuminates from inside with pictures and videos from your media library. if you see a picture you like, say your trip to greece, you touch the picture and then all the pictures are from that trip or media group. Tres chic. a great way to display all that digital media we have been collecting.
What if your version of Microsoft "Home" is pirated?Do you have to live like a fugitive in your own home? What about registration? Are you going to be unknown to anybody other than the people living in the house?
What are you going to do if you toilet freezes on you when your almost done? You'll get a message " No toilet paper for you today naughty boy"
I'd rather not have to "activate" my house every time I want to add something new. And would you really want a company that has this much trouble with the notion of security to be controlling access to your house? And knowing Microsoft you have to get the Microsoft car so that it would be compatible with the house.... it's all in the bundling you see... Now on the other hand if you stuck the Osbournes in the Microsoft house you'd have comedy gold! :-)
Yes. Is this Mr. Jabber? Hello sir. We're just calling to tell you that we really appreciate your business. Also, we've observed that if you transfer your current American Express Purple SecureCard balance to VISA today, you can save up to $37 this year.
Also, your car is 14 miles overdue for an oil change and the service can be performed at the station across the street from your place of business. Since you usually arrive at work 15 minutes late, we have taken the liberty of setting your alarm clocks a little early. We'll also be billing the oil chance service to your Visa.
Thank you for using Visa.
Oh, and by the way, your grandma has fallen, and she can't get up. We'll gladly send medical assistance, for the customary fee of $39.99.
I'll be damned if I live in that world.
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
Go to EB or Babbage's or Office Max or Best Buy or any store that sells both Mac and PC software. Compare the number of titles for the Mac to the number for the PC. Then, after you've realized I'm smart and you're a fucking douchebag, apologize to me. Okay penis wrinkle?
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
The bee up my butt about OSS is that I never used to hate any OS. I have linux running my router box, and have a Unix server here at work for the CAD people. I have 5 SGIs here at work and I can use them all with no troubles. My problem is that I get online and start reading and everyone tries to make Linux sound like it's some rediculously amazing piece of software that is only held back by some evil plot of Microsoft. Microsoft is a business, whose constant upgrading has pushed the hardware market forward at a rate so fast it's hard to believe. And I read quotes like "With my old linux I can run my 200mhz Pentium 2 and I don't have to upgrade". Why do people think that's a good thing. If microsoft wasn't forcing the consumer to buy new hardware what would be the computer industries reason to develop new hardware? I say if the cost of getting to watch 64 bit 3Ghz processors come out is that I had to turn a paperclip off, then so be it. I wouldn't hate linux if it's party wagon wasn't so engulfed in itself. A bunch of elitest who feel that because they can use linux they have accomplished some amazing feat and they are beyond all other OS users. Why are so many articles about Linux beating Microsoft, if all you guys care about is making a great OS for yourselves then why do you care if it becomes an industry standard? The point is that I think Bill Gates is more altruistic then most men in power and he shouldn't be painted so poorly in the public eye. He saw what the industry needed to get started and he gave it to us. Don't tell me about him stealing the first OS, because I don't care, even Linux is "stolen" from a lot of Unix IP. I guess the point is, Microsoft is never even given a chance when it tries to do something that could be great, because your all to bitter, like ex-girlfriends that can't be happy when their boyfriend gets a new job.
Anonymous Cowards - Oh God, How I hate you
Actually the best material about the MS house was written back when Bill G's new home was nearing completion. I particularly liked the furniture stacker. There wasn't enough space in the room for all of the furniture so it was stacked in the corner. You'd unstack what you needed and stack it back up when done. The other was when the toilet backed up. Everyone had to exit the house and then reboot the water main from the street and then go back in the house and use the toilet.
I realize that I wasn't anywhere near accurate with the GPL-house I was just going for a little humor/irony. We'll have to submit that new tag to the W3C to make things like that more obvious.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Apparently all those Kingdom Halls that they've built simply are impossible.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
This level of automation is only apropriate to the mentally handicapped or infirm!
Or the married. My wife does all that already. Contrary advice would last about 30 seconds.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.