Disney Takes Another Stab at the House of the Future

Disney has announced that they are going to take another stab at showing us the "House of the Future". The 5000-square-foot house will appear normal from the outside but will house gadgets like lights and thermostats that automatically adjust when someone enters the room and countertops that can identify food placed on it and suggest recipes. "Millions of Disneyland visitors lined up a half-century ago to catch a glimpse of the future: a home teeming with mind-blowing gadgets such as handsfree phones, wall-sized televisions, plastic chairs, and electric razors and toothbrushes. [...] The $15 million home is a collaboration of The Walt Disney Co., Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., software maker LifeWare and homebuilder Taylor Morrison. Visitors will experience the look of tomorrow by watching Disney actors playing a family of four preparing for a trip to China."

Comments

Any day now

[Anonymous Coward]

In addition to the standard house-of-the-future home automation, the house will also include its own micro-fusion electric generator (running on tap water), a landing pad for the flying car, and Duke Nukem Forever running on a secure update to Microsoft Windows.

Re:Any day now

[Anonymous Coward]

Clippy:
It appears you are burning your toast. Would you like some help with that?

UAC:
You are attempting to microwave a Cup-o-Noodle
[Allow] [cancel]

Don't forget the most important feature!

[morgan_greywolf]

Full support for multiple DRM technologies is built into everything!

Re:Don't forget the most important feature!

[Locklin]

I'm sorry, you want to use your toaster in the bathtub? You have to purchase extra permissions to do that: $50 at amazon.com.

Remember, breaking usage agreements is STEALING. You wouldn't steal an old ladies purse, would you?

Any unauthorized appliance usage, or sharing of appliances is deemed a criminal offense and will be instantly reported directly to Microsoft.com. Your house will enter a "restricted usage" mode, and will drop to below freezing until sufficient licenses are purchased.

Bathroom jokes

[SoundGuyNoise]

Oh the possibilites... - What happens if I'm in the shower and the OS crashes? Will it never turn off? - Will the toilet only accept one kind of input? - Will the house "phone home" to let said manufacturers know what I do in the house? (For statistics only, no personal information of course) - Will my furniture be compatible with the floor? - What if the fridge is stuck in an infinite loop and keeps ordering me eggs? - Can it defrag my junk drawer?

Impossible Future?

[drapeau06]

Shouldn't a "house of the future" be smaller than current houses? If they are to be available to all humans, I mean.

Also, I still have hope that USians will start using the metric system someday... so overall, I'd suggest that a more sensible house of the future would be about 100 or 200 square metres.

Re:Home of the future...

[AvitarX]

What would be cool though is fridge that checks it´s contents and tells you recipes along with thigns you could make with just a little extra.

It would solve the "there's nothing to make, but the fridge is full" dilemma.

Re:I would like to see...TWO BRICKS BEING SMASHED

[sm62704]

Microsoft has a hand in it, so considering how they write their software I doubt you can remove or replace anything in thhe house without the walls turning blue, black, or crashing down.

If you remove the laser razor is it "House Of The Future Lite"? I'll bet you can only use Microsoft Light Bulbs and Microsoft Lamps because the bulb screws, light sockets, and wall plugs are all nonstandard and proprietary.

Re:Time to join the Luddites...

[aywwts4]

You forgot number four.

Ultimate:

I hacked my home by running a buffer overflow exploit on my blender, loaded linux and now my house can fly to the moon.