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Why the Internet of Things Is More 1876 Than 1995
An anonymous reader writes "Some folks would like you to think that 1995 was the year everybody was brought online and that, starting this year, we'll bring everything else along for the ride. If that seems far fetched to you, Glen Martin writes about how the Internet of Things has more in common with the age of steam than the digital revolution: 'Philadelphia's Centennial Exposition of 1876 was America's first World's Fair, and was ostensibly held to mark the nation's 100th birthday. But it heralded the future as much as it celebrated the past, showcasing the country's strongest suit: technology. ... While the Internet changed everything, says Stogdill, "its changes came in waves, with scientists and alpha geeks affected first, followed by the early adopters who clamored to try it. It wasn’t until the Internet was ubiquitous that every Kansas farm boy went online. That 1876 Kansas farm boy may not have foreseen every innovation the Industrial Revolution would bring, but he knew — whether he liked it or not — that his world was changing."'"
http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=##altslashdot
Does Alpha geek really need to be a thing?
Fuck beta and the horse it rode in on.
...when Goatse was real and scared everybody off my lawn. Now that was automation!
Table-ized A.I.
But if you want to know the details, you need math. Quantum mechanics is interesting because it's like a manifestation of linear algebra. Why does an operator reduce a wave function to one of the eigenstates of said wave function? That concept is one of the most central concepts to quantum mechanics, yet you wouldn't understand what eigenstates or wave functions are without some knowledge of math. If you explain it using only words, you're still beating around the bush, and basically it's the math that you would be describing.
Can we stop using these ridiculous buzz words/phrases?
Internet of things? Really?
Measurements of the masses (actually, the luminosities and temperatures) of high-redshift galaxy clusters indicate a high fraction of baryonic mass, removing one of the justifications for positing dark matter. This finding is even more fishy-sounding. To understand this, realize that the group in question has deliberately chosen the most-distant and therefore hardest-to-study clusters to study, and adopted temperature-mass relationships that are calibrated in the local universe (and may not apply at these great distances) in order to find that their sample differs from the standard model predictions. Without even bothering to list all the ways in which they might be wrong, let me simply state that even if they are right there is a lot of independent support for the dark matter + dark energy picture that neither of these groups is addressing.
The one, single biggest weakness with the whole IoT-movement is the lack of any sorts of standards. Devices from one manufacturer use this protocol to talk to one another, the devices from another manufacturer use another protocol, neither of them can communicate with one another, and to top it off many devices even within a single manufacturer's own line of products don't know how to communicate amongst themselves. This means a huge, tangled mess of dozens of controlling applications and physical control-panels and whatnot, and it's all ripe with security-issues, too. With no standards or anything there's no logical way of controlling all of your IoT-devices in a unified way, let alone to control their security and updates.
On a similar note, there was recently talk on Ars Technica about this subject when the CEO of WIFI Alliance tried to make the case that all IoT-devices should simply use WIFI, but that would be folly. His primary argument was that even though WIFI uses more power than e.g. Bluetooth-LE it provides more bandwidth and that the amount of power WIFI uses is irrelevant. That argument obviously ignores the fact that if, on average, every household in the future had e.g. approximately 50 IoT-devices in their homes we would then see the power-drain on the electric-networks increase by 50 * 117M ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ) * WIFI-power-drain just within the United States alone -- a definitely non-neglibigle amount. Also, your fridge, coffee-maker and the likes have absolutely zero need for all the bandwidth WIFI would bring, so Bluetooth-LE or something similar would be the saner choice -- less power-usage, still more than enough bandwidth for the small amount of data being transferred. However, you'd again need some sort of a bridge for bringing the WIFI-devices and Bluetooth-LE-devices together, and again, you'd need sane standards in order to come up with such bridges.
I'm ranting a little, I haven't been sleeping too well and my thoughts are racing, but my point here is that even if the tech was there for the big push for IoT-devices we lack standardisation efforts, we lack the need for such devices, and I'm not sure the environmental costs would be worth the advantages either at this point in time.
Look, I don't know what you kids are using these days, but I still buy all my games on Steam just like they did in 1876.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
MOD DOWN FLAMEBAIT
I thought all the betatards were going on strike or boycotting or something?
Can I have that in a car analogy instead?
You seem to care about the beta, so you should fuck off and join the boycott and let the rest of us get on with reading.
If it bothers you that much, adjust your beta page to not view comments moderated at zero or less. Oh wait; alpha geek forgot beta boys can't do that.
Kind of shot off topic there... God wants us to figure out the universe. (contrary to what many troglodyte bible-bashers want their followers to think) The problem most geeks have with religion, I suspect, is that the dipsticks of the rank and file see the English language KJV translation of a hebrew text that itself wasn't written down until a few dozen generations after the "religion" was "organized" and presume that the limited observations of a spoiled prince convert are actual scientific observations. The bulk of scripture has nothing to do with science, but rank-n-file thinks it does, turning off most geeks who might genuinely want answers to questions and are rather put off by the vehement bible-thumping of narrow-minded...
steampunk
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Nuf said.
You seem to fail to realise someone can hate beta and hate stupid 'fuck beta' comments too. Not mutually exclusive.
What would be the point of continuing to read/use Slashdot after Beta becomes mandatory?
Fact: Barak Hussein Obama is not a member of the Roman Catholic Faith!
Who really cares? He's the President, not the Pope.
Keep sitting on you're fat ass and do nothing while they ruin the site. Smart one buddy, good idea.
Fuck beta
And if it's not killed quickly, Slashdot will return to the state it existed in during both years.
On a happier note: A replacement is in the works
The article is just blithering without much useful content. They couldn't even get the right illustration. The steam engine shown is just some random engine with Corliss valve gear. This is the engine that powered much of the 1876 exhibition. It was big, impressive, and inefficient, even for that exhibition.
The "Internet of Things" may be the Next Big Thing from the industry that brought you 3D TV.
The "conflagrations" of the War Of 1812 had passed...
That's about as relevant as saying "The conflagrations of WW1 had passed..." in a piece about the US Bicentennial.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
When are they going to accept the fact that there is absolutely no need for 99.999% of the population to ever check the internet for the status of their dryer, their dishwasher, their fridge, their freezer, or their toaster oven and microwave.
It is the single most over-rated, over-sold, over-hyped, and absolutely useless concept ever brandished by the technocrati. The only ones who care about the concept at all are people who want to sell you stuff that is "internet aware."
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
What everyone misses is the magic of Kansas City. Everything's up to date in Kansas City. They gone about as fer as they can go. They went an' built a skyscraper seven stories high. About as high as a buildin' orta grow.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
You know what's ruining the site much faster than beta? 'Fuck beta' posts.
At least with beta the site will keep working for close to a month. In contrast, the 'fuck beta' posts are ruining the site right now.
You say fuck beta? I say fuck you.
I've a dozen eggs, true
But they're all cracked
My Frigidaire
A subtle hack
BURMA SHAVE
(Your turn, Smitty...)
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
My great-grandfather graduated from Milwaukee High School in 1878. He first attended a "normal school" with the intent of becoming a teacher, but found the opportunity to learn stenography and to operate a writing machine. The Scholes & Glidden machine had been developed in Milwaukee in 1874, and the manufacturers set up schools to teach students how to use them. These were very temperamental machines and were tricky to use. (At that time, you could not see the text that had been typed without lifting the platen). His first professional job was as a type-writer for the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in New Haven, Connecticut. Meanwhile, his long-time pen-pal in Chicago had learned how to use the machines at her father's office. They began exchanging letters in type-written form, which must have been considered, for that time, as high-tech as any Internet romance would have been in 1995. They were married in 1883. My great-grandfather and his brother-in-law went into business together, selling the machines across the Midwest.
What is, really, clearly and terribly useful about "the internet of things" to begin with? At most, it seems mildly more convenient. Would I like to control my thermostat via my phone? Sorta, kinda, a little. Would I like to check in my fridge via webcam for milk while I'm at the store? I guess that's a little neat. Would I like to control my toaster via my smartphone? Unless I can control the bread, and jam, and the knife spreading it, then no.
It's mild convenience at best. Don't know why people are getting so EXCITED! over it.
Powerline ethernet seems to be an established standard (I think you can use endpoints from different manufacturers?), it seems a way better network transmission source than WiFi, which has to be configured to access.
I would say perhaps they should consider light fixture networks, but often things like a fridge are not in an area where a light would be on when you'd want an alert from it (like the temperature had increased over a threshold).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
That works for the dryer, but not so well for the washing machine, unless you don't mind your clothes smelling a bit moldy.
I've accidentally left the wash in the washing machine for a few days, and it was fine... that's in Denver.
But I know exactly what you are talking about since I also at one point lived in Houston.
Anyone, not everyone has washed clothes needing critical attention.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Can I have that in a car analogy instead?
.
Yeah, it's like us realizing the inevitability of NASCAR turning into robot wars as Google perfects the self-driving car....
Generally I agree with you that most things do not need to be "Connected".
But I have to admit a microwave with a self-setting clock would be nice. And I also wouldn't mind a fridge that would alarm on component failure (as I just had a fridge go out).
But the degree to which they are connecting these things, is way over the top.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Hope they don't chose the beta route first!
It might be the year of Linux on the Desktop.
I think the smart fridge thing is more interesting for inventory management at your local grocery store, than for an individual person. It would be worth a lot to them to be able to track when people are going to run out of specific items, so they can have the right amount of inventory at right time.
OTOH, almost every time I go grocery shopping, I buy something I wouldn't have needed yet, simply because I didn't remember if I had it or not and get one just in case. So being able to check your fridge contents while at the store might also be useful.
Btw. Before trying it, I thought the beta hate might be just nerd rage, but I'm starting to understand.
fuck beta... what's beta?
"It wasn’t until the Internet was ubiquitous that every Kansas farm boy went online."
Welcome to tautology club.
Powerline ethernet
Seriously? Lets just have all devices interfering with everything!
That's different from being on the air how? FCC Rules mandate non transmitting devices must (typically) be able to handle incoming interference, and transmitting devices must not generate interference. Everything is already getting interference from your cell phone, tv signal, wifi, radio, bluetooth, wii/playstion remotes, kids walkie talkies, HAM radio, the sun, the sky, and every other damn thing in the universe.
In this case you just need to install a signal scrubber on your homes mains-in line (before your electrical panel) and now (barring van Eck hacking) you get a reasonably physically secure private network infrastructure. I wouldn't count on it to transmit my private banking information (unless encrypted, and safe from van Eck intercept); BUT, it would be safe from remote injection of false data for all but the most determined agency (provided you secure or isolate your outdoor outlets.)
That's why I'm keeping my bellbottoms.
Come back and talk about 'smart' after you learn that "you're" means "you are".
Kind of shot off topic there... God wants us to figure out the universe.
I expect he'd be quite happy to see us begin that quest by tossing the bible out.