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IBM's Five Predictions for the Future
StonyandCher writes "IBM has released its second annual set of 'Next Five in Five' predictions. The company's crystal ball also revealed that the long-simmering trend toward "smart energy" devices will proliferate wildly. "Dishwashers, air conditioners, house lights, and more will be connected directly to a 'smart' electric grid, making it possible to turn them on and off using your cell phone or any Web browser," a company statement asserts."
Next-generation spam:
Nice house you've got there. Wouldn't it be sad if all the appliances suddenly went wild?
Terrorists can't threaten a country's freedom and democracy. Only lawmakers and voters can do that.
Any time anyone says that I can do something like power down appliances from my browser, I don't buy it. Either my appliances should be smart enough to power down on their own, or they should send me email telling me that it's time to shut them down. Polling for power consumption through a web site is pretty much a worthless idea.
If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
While these "smart grids" and "smart phones" and "smart appliances" are getting smarter, the idiot behind the wheel or at the keyboard is getting dumber and more pampered by the minute. We're getting so sheltered and pussywhipped that we won't be able to function as an independent species within a few decades. And no, I didn't read TFA, I'm too smart for that.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
So, according to IBM, there will be demand for how many computers? seven or eight?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Terrorists can't threaten a country's freedom and democracy. Only lawmakers and voters can do that.
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Does anybody know whether it's going to be compatible with RFC 3251 Electricity over IP?
Anybody wanting to develop a smart electricity grid should take a look at that document, includes lots of information about hazardous voltage drops and other pitfalls that can be avoided.
"Why didn't you power me down before you left? Do you think money grows on trees? When I was your age we shut off ALL appliances before leaving the house, by HAND! And another thing..."
Agreed. They can't even get the lights timed properly where I live; it's unlikely that any vehicle/roadway interfacing will happen anytime soon.
I don't think it'll ever happen, for two possible reasons:
1) Traffic engineers are utterly incompetent, as a rule. (Any traffic engineers reading this? This means YOU! You suck!) I've never seen well-timed lights, in any American city I've lived in or visited, on either side of the continent. It's not that the technology doesn't exist; it does: sensor-based lights are all over the place, which can sense the amount of traffic. But do they put this to good use? Of course not. There actually used to be a time, before "smart lights", when traffic lights were timed in relation to each other, so drivers on a main thoroughfare could travel along at the speed limit, theoretically, and rarely have to stop for cross traffic. Then, they came along and put in "smart lights" so that we'd supposedly never stop for nonexistent cross-traffic, but instead, every time a single car pulls up, it throws off all the traffic on the main road. Again, complete incompetence on the part of the traffic engineers. They should have stuck with a system where the lights were timed in relation to each other, but the presence or absence of traffic on cross-streets merely modified this behavior to be more efficient, by adding or subtracting cycles for the cross-traffic. How hard is that? They've had decades to figure this out, and they haven't.
2) Traffic engineers might not be that bad, but they're implementing stupid rules required by local governments whose real interest is not traffic safety and efficiency, but rather revenue from traffic tickets. This is probably getting much worse due to modern "red-light cameras", which give tickets to drivers running red lights. Many people have noted that many lights, when they had these revenue generators installed, suddenly got MUCH shorter yellow lights, obviously in order to increase revenue. Of course, the traffic engineers are still to blame if they implement this; "I was just following orders" ceased to be an acceptable excuse at the Nuremburg Trials, after all, and since many people die at intersections each year, these engineers aren't just to blame for a lack of efficiency, but actual deaths, which in my view makes them eligible for the death penalty.
http://xkcd.com/277/
Oh really. Tell me, what do you know about traffic?
I have a computer sitting at home hooked up to a stereo, with a webcam. I frequently remote desktop into it to retrieve some document or another. One day I got a diabolical plan, turned the webcam on and logged myself into two IM accounts, hooked up my microphone and started yelling "Here boy! Come here Sam (my dog's name)!", and laughed when my poor bewildered bullmastif showed up on a (very slowly refreshing) webcam wondering where the hell my voice was coming from.
The dude intently staring at his laptop saying "Here boy, come here!!" draws a lot of attention in a cafe, but it was worth it.
Why bother looking like a freak just to confuse a poor dog? Because I can!
I'm hopeless.
You must be a blessed man. I tried this idea, and not only did she turn out not to be silent (far from it) but the on-going maintenance costs were way beyond what I thought the initial purchase price was going to be.
Even worse, the divorce and replacement costs would be enough to bankrupt me, so I'm stuck with this old model.
"Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar
If she's not running well it may be due to poor maintenance. Make sure there is no excess moisture collecting in the bottom; this will corrode her abilities eventually if left untended, and since it must be seen to eventually, you may well find someone else tending to it, creating undue costs to you.
If you have the means and/or tools, some will respond well to having their rack tightened a bit, which increases her appeal and useful life to you.