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One In Five Developers Now Works On IoT Projects

dcblogs writes Evans Data Corp., which provides research and intelligence for the software development industry, said that of the estimated 19 million developers worldwide, 19% are now doing IoT-related work. A year ago, the first year IoT-specific data was collected, that figure was 17%. But when developers were asked whether they plan to work in IoT development over the next year, 44% of the respondents said they are planning to do so, said Michael Rasalan, director of research at Evans.

252 comments

  1. I'm 4 of 5 by heezer7 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I had to google IoT....

    1. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by dcollins117 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I had to google IoT....

      Me too. I had no idea that many people worked at Institutes of Technology.

    2. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by Smallpond · · Score: 5, Funny

      I had to google IoT....

      I just asked my toaster.

    3. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by psergiu · · Score: 3, Funny

      And the toaster told you it means Internet of Toasters, right ?

      --
      1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
    4. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by circletimessquare · · Score: 2, Funny

      there isn't an IoTa of awareness

      --
      intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    5. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by Polo · · Score: 1

      I'd vote for Intelligent omnipotent Toasters.

    6. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by infolation · · Score: 1

      At least it hasn't jumped on the Recursive Acronym bandwagon and called itself the Internet Of IoT.

    7. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by ATMAvatar · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Your toaster may be internet-enabled now, but my teapot has been internet-enabled for years. It even has its own HTTP status code (418)!

      --
      "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
    8. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      To be fair, Slashdot titles cannot be longer than a few chars. Like we're in 1992

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    9. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      I had to google IoT....

      Well, you could also have clicked on the link in TFA, for a change!

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    10. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by iggymanz · · Score: 4, Funny

      Holly: "Strike a light! I'm a genius again! I know everything! Metaphysics, philosophy, the purpose of being-everything! Ask me a question, any question, and I'll answer it."
      Talkie Toaster: "Any question?"
      Holly: "Yes."
      Talkie Toaster: "How to break the speed of light? How to marry quantum mechanics and classical physics? Any question at all, truly anything and you will answer?"
      Holly: "Yes."
      Talkie Toaster: "OK, here's my question: Would you like some toast?"
      Holly: "No, thank you. Now ask me another."
      Talkie Toaster: "Do you know anything about the use of chaos theory in predicting weather cycles?"
      Holly: "I know everything there is to know about chaos theory and predicting weather cycles"
      Talkie Toaster: "Oh, very well. Here's my second question: Would you like a crumpet?"
      Holly: "I'm a computer with an I.Q. of 12,000. You don't seem to understand; I know the meaning of the universe."
      Talkie Toaster: "That's not answering my question."
      Holly: [irritated] "No, I would not like a crumpet! Now ask me a sensible question, preferably one that isn't bread related."
      Talkie Toaster: "Very well. I have a third question. A sensible question. A question that will tax your new I.Q. to its very limits and stretch the sinews of you knowledge to bursting point."
      Holly: This is going to be about waffles, isn't it?"
      Talkie Toaster: Certainly not. And I resent the implication that I'm a one-dimensional, bread-obsessed electrical appliance."
      Holly: I apologise, toaster. What's the question?"
      Talkie Toaster: The question is this: Given that God is infinite, and that the universe is also infinite... would you like a toasted teacake?" --- Red Dwarf ep. "White Hole"

    11. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by circletimessquare · · Score: 1

      c'mon man, don't mess it up

      it's called the IoT of Things

      --
      intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    12. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

      I output Toast.

      --
      I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    13. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by jd2112 · · Score: 2

      I had to google IoT....

      Well, you could also have clicked on the link in TFA, for a change!

      You must be new here...

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    14. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      Actually a bit newer than you, 244 precisely.

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    15. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously! Define your fucking acronyms.

    16. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had to google IDIoT...this whole story is not credible.

    17. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by Threni · · Score: 1

      Nice one, Centurion. Like it. Like it.

    18. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    19. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I googled it in the distant past, and when that didn't help, I looked it up in Wikipedia. That didn't help either.
      Fact of the matter is, IoT is extremely ill-defined.

    20. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1
      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    21. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      The job of TFS is to tell me whether or not I am interested in TFA. If I have to read TFA to understand TFS, then TFS is NFU. [No F***ing Use.]

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    22. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by DrXym · · Score: 2

      I doubt many programmers would know what IoT means because it's an acronym for utterly meaningless umbrella term.

    23. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 1

      I am sure IoT has something to do with synergies with cloud technologies.

      We "knowledge workers" should get right on it!

    24. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They run NetBSD servers. :-)

    25. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by Bent+Spoke · · Score: 1

      Inane Obscure TLA

    26. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

      I had to google IoT....

      Me too. I had no idea that many people worked at Institutes of Technology.

      Actually, I first thought of Game of Thrones, but I read things funny sometimes.

      Internet of Things wasn't the first thing (no pun intended) that popped into my head and I've been programming things for years. Some of them even On the Internet (patent pending).

    27. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it's called the IoT of Things

      I think you mean "The IoT of Internet Things".

    28. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For the sake of completeness http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2324

    29. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by lexman098 · · Score: 1

      They're liars, every frackin' one of them.

    30. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought it was "Inversion of Trust". (Compare it to the IoC pattern in software.)

    31. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by StikyPad · · Score: 0

      And that, friends, is why "British comedy" is an oxymoron.

    32. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by Kittenman · · Score: 1

      I'd vote for Intelligent omnipotent Toasters.

      I, for one, welcome our new Intelligent Omnipotent Toaster overlords.

      Now, pass me a waffle.

      --
      "The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
    33. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by QRDeNameland · · Score: 2

      A good overlord never waffles.

      --
      Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
    34. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

      The newest version will automatically take a picture of your fecal matter as you press the flush button on your iPhone!

    35. Re:I'm 4 of 5 by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      back to your Jackass reruns, Philistine!

  2. Computers are things. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Computers are things: Computers are on the internet: my code is on computers...

    1. Re:Computers are things. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Computers are things: Computers are on the internet: my code is on computers...

      Burma Shave?

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  3. lot of that going around by turkeydance · · Score: 2

    hope they get paid a lot of money.

    1. Re:lot of that going around by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not going to speculate about the security problems that this Internet of Toasters fad brings. I just hope that the developers know what they are doing.

      Unfortunately, one in five developers should never have been let near a compiler in the first place, so the results will be predictable. At least I'm in a position not to get fucked.

      Hopefully, future toasters and refrigerators and light switches will still toast bread, refrigerate milk, and toggle light bulbs if their connection to the internet is severed.

    2. Re:lot of that going around by davester666 · · Score: 1

      no, because they have to compete against someone who lives in a shack with a toilet they share with the 40 shacks around them..

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    3. Re: lot of that going around by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The way things go you may indeed have no choice and course the asshole that screwd enum while enjoing aroma of toasted milk.

  4. What's more irritating? by AdamStarks · · Score: 5, Informative

    The whole "Internet of Things" craze, or article summaries that presume everyone knows the acronym?

    1. Re:What's more irritating? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      The whole "Internet of Things" craze, or article summaries that presume everyone knows the acronym?

      And still I don't know what that means. I guess the old chestnut "Google Is Your Friend" is in order here...

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    2. Re:What's more irritating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      LoT = Lord of Things; one key to rule them all. And in darkness, disable them.

      PRISM compliant logo pending.

    3. Re:What's more irritating? by Harlequin80 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Internet of Things has actually managed to surpass my hatred of "The Cloud"

    4. Re:What's more irritating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Imagine giving devices, like data loggers and sensors, an IP address.

      CONGRAUTLAMALATIONS! YOU'VE INVENTED THE INTERNET OF THINGS.

      Seriously, that's all this bloody well is. Sensors communicating with IP. Possibly with some "big data"-style analysis tools.

    5. Re: What's more irritating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Get off my lawn, I'm still hating the word blog.

    6. Re:What's more irritating? by ljw1004 · · Score: 1

      What's more irritating? The whole "Internet of Things" craze, or article summaries that presume everyone knows the acronym?

      Neither. I agree with the hype about IoT. I think it will be as big a change to society 40 years' time as the Internet has been so far.

      Now what is irritating, though, is all the Slashdot posts complaining about IoT...

    7. Re:What's more irritating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think I was the dork who invented the term. I said it accidentally to my boss who repeated it to sever of his bosses. Then they started using it at M2M conferences....

      It is just remote sampling of data. Pumping it thru some wireless service. Then acting on it at the server level in some way.

      Thats it.

      They got *very* excited one day when I added in remote control of stuff. I had to as that was the only way to get some controller to cough up its data. They then started speculating on webs of things and 'Internets of things' all talking to each other.

      They started making the remote ends 'smart' and talking to each other. When they are missing the whole point that they should be stupid sensors hovering up as much data as you can and let the backend server take care of it.

      They ended up with 500-1500 dollar controllers and projects that never end. One dude took my whole set of code and rewrote it. Not because it needed it. But because it didnt exactly match his style guide. Even though I had one. It didnt match his. 2 years later he had the exact same thing as I did with no new features and no customers (they got bored and found someone else to do the remote sensing). That group could have owned large segments of the market (they were 2 years ahead of everyone). Now they have nothing as everyone caught up very quickly.

    8. Re:What's more irritating? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      The job of an editor is to make text readable without resorting to Googling things. I think the even older chestnut of "why does slashdot even have editors?" is far more appropriate.

    9. Re:What's more irritating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IoT will continue to sound really cool until the first time an internet worm bricks your refrigerator... or it starts serving ads.

    10. Re:What's more irritating? by arth1 · · Score: 2

      Internet of Things has actually managed to surpass my hatred of "The Cloud"

      Both will end up as roadkills on the information superhighway...

    11. Re:What's more irritating? by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Neither. I agree with the hype about IoT. I think it will be as big a change to society 40 years' time as the Internet has been so far.

      Now what is irritating, though, is all the Slashdot posts complaining about IoT...

      Ah, would you perchance happen to be the submitter?

      Because most others here think buzzwords like these are pretty damn lame, and says more about the user than the technology. Let technology lead where it may, and don't try to put premature labels on stuff.

    12. Re:What's more irritating? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Internet of Things has actually managed to surpass my hatred of "The Cloud"

      When you start hating lingo, it means you are old.

    13. Re:What's more irritating? by pooh666 · · Score: 1

      esp the god damn lowercase o just makes my skin crawl.

    14. Re:What's more irritating? by Harlequin80 · · Score: 1

      I have been old for a very very very long time then.

      Truly the "Internet of Things" is "Totes Adorbs"

    15. Re:What's more irritating? by Arkh89 · · Score: 1

      Wait for that Cloud of Things...

    16. Re:What's more irritating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Internet of Things has actually managed to surpass my hatred of "The Cloud"

      Wait a few weeks and they'll be talking about the Cloud Of Things...now with added Synergy.

    17. Re: What's more irritating? by bloodhawk · · Score: 1

      I have learned to contain sufficient hate in my heart now for blogs, facebook, twitter, cloud and internet of things. I hope they don't come up with anything else that needs adding to that list :(

    18. Re:What's more irritating? by catmistake · · Score: 1

      LoT = Lord of Things.

      salty things, but only if you subscribe to objectifying women

    19. Re:What's more irritating? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      It's ok, it will be connected to the cloud. Otherwise how would you get your personalized ads?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    20. Re: What's more irritating? by Harlequin80 · · Score: 1

      Pintrest?
      Whatsapp?
      Snapchat?
      Slashdot Beta?
      G+?

    21. Re:What's more irritating? by Bill+Dog · · Score: 1

      I still don't hate those as much as the term "Web 2.0". (Or especially its adjective form, "Web 2.0ey".)

      --
      Attention zealots and haters: 00100 00100
    22. Re:What's more irritating? by istartedi · · Score: 2

      Internet of Things has actually managed to surpass my hatred of "The Cloud"

      You need to put the two together... for synergy.

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    23. Re:What's more irritating? by fractoid · · Score: 1

      Oh, so that's what "IoT" is? Fucksake. As if "the internet of things" is somehow more special than the idea that as the tech gets cheaper, more and more things will connect to wireless networks. If this is going to be the next "cloud", I hope at least the cloud-to-butts browser addon gets updated so I can read about the Internet of Butts.

      --
      Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
    24. Re: What's more irritating? by bloodhawk · · Score: 1

      all of those items are much easier to ignore or avoid, at least for me.

    25. Re:What's more irritating? by fractoid · · Score: 1

      I'll avoid them by "surfing the net" instead.

      --
      Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
    26. Re:What's more irritating? by guruevi · · Score: 1

      The thing is real hackers have been doing this shit for years.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    27. Re: What's more irritating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck the cloud in the ass and show it on the newz.

    28. Re:What's more irritating? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      I know it, but this is just another worthless hype-fest that will produce nothing of any use.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    29. Re:What's more irritating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or ransoms your milk back to you for 20 BTC because some asshole in Ukraine doesn't have a life or any way to get a job.

    30. Re:What's more irritating? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Don't you worry. Based on a Microsoft presentation last year you can leverage the power of Azure to combine the cloud with your internet of things application and achieve world domination in the field of buzzword integration.

    31. Re:What's more irritating? by Barlo_Mung_42 · · Score: 1

      Remember "Information Super Highway"?

      Still makes me twitch a little.

    32. Re:What's more irritating? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      The funny thing is your hatred is only really directed at the marketing of two things which have been used elsewhere from decades. Both are actually good ideas.

      The idea of remote access to information, remote backup, and online services have been around for longer than the internet. Just now when someone uses a fancy name like "The Cloud" people freak out about it.

      Likewise the idea of continuous monitoring of assets to gauge reliability and potential cost savings opportunities has been around since factories were first built. But it's only now that someone has given it a crappy name IoT and marketed it to common joe outside of the process / automation industry.

    33. Re:What's more irritating? by Harlequin80 · · Score: 1

      Specifically it is the terms I hate, not the technology behind them. Its the same as I hate terms like twitterati.

      The Cloud annoys me because you have been able to rent servers. IoT annoys me because it just feels like a bollocks name.

    34. Re:What's more irritating? by Harlequin80 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I was actually thinking about leveraging the parallel symmetries that exist between the paradigm shifting next generation technology that is the INTERNET of THINGS and the once in a generational market disrupting future shaping technology now known as The Cloud to achieve never before seen levels of synergy, segment alignment and leading edge thought processes, allowing us to disrupt old world dinosaur markets and take us into the new age of Big Data.

    35. Re:What's more irritating? by jandersen · · Score: 1

      The whole "Internet of Things" craze

      The 'craze' consists mainly of these few articles that try to whip up a mad frenzy of mild interest. I'm sure, in five years' time it will be forgotten, and then maybe in ten years we'll occasionally be surprised by discovering that there are actually a few areas in which it is used and proving useful. It is in fact not a bad idea as such, being able to just connect certain things to the wider internet without having to bother with configuring NATs or similar things; they probably won't be things that are security sensitive in any way, but I can think of several things where it might be convenient. One thing that springs to mind could be all kinds of remote sensors with built in GPS; each would have a unique address and would know its position, so you could scatter them in the environment and they could communicate their data and position from time to time. And while that may sound a lot like spy cameras, it would actually be much more interesting as a cheap and easy way to collect date about, say, temperature, pressure, pollution etc. That is where we are going to see the real 'IoT', not in idiocies like a connected fridge or oven.

    36. Re:What's more irritating? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      As if "the internet of things" is somehow more special than the idea that as the tech gets cheaper, more and more things will connect to wireless networks.

      Yes, the idea is that this time has come. It hasn't, but believing that it has will usher it in as the increased demand produces the parts we need to actually do the thing. In the meantime a lot of startups will rise and asplode.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    37. Re:What's more irritating? by bug1 · · Score: 1

      Thats not bad

    38. Re: What's more irritating? by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      How'd you get a blank post past the lameness filter?

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    39. Re:What's more irritating? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      IoT annoys me because it just feels like a bollocks name.

      I'll drink to that! Though I think the Cloud isn't too much better.

    40. Re:What's more irritating? by Bent+Spoke · · Score: 1

      I for one am relieved that the Internet of Non-things is finally over.

    41. Re:What's more irritating? by Pallas+Athena · · Score: 1

      Yes, exactly what I need - a smoke detector that will show me a personalized add for fire-extingishers INSTEAD OF SOUNDING THE ALARM.

    42. Re:What's more irritating? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      The whole "Internet of Things" craze, or article summaries that presume everyone knows the acronym?

      And still I don't know what that means. I guess the old chestnut "Google Is Your Friend" is in order here...

      If I read my tea leaves correctly, your stuff will have an ip address - and at least at first they'll try to do it via wifi. Might be an issue when you have 50 things trying to connect, as well as all your neighbors. But let's assume that all that is working.

      Let's look at your refrigerator. It will probably have a touch screen monitor on the front, that will be able to give you information about the internal operations and maybe even a video preview of what's inside.

      And commercials. You'll probably have to watch a food commercial before you can open the door. No more of this getting up for a beer stuff while regular TV is on a commercial break. The promise of food after watching will train us just like a dog will do tricks for a treat.

      With rfid on all your foodstuffs, the refrigerator will be able to inventory and report on what is getting low.

      You'll then watch some sponsored commercials trying to get you to switch brands or reorder the same brand item. Deals and coupons to be had.

      You'll be able to install apps for weight loss on your refrig to only allow a certain number of calories to be extracted a day for the person on a diet.

      If you are on a diet, you'll be able to watch commercials for Weight watchers, Zumba Exercise, and other stuff.

      There can be a touchpad rug sensor that records your weight and reports it to your physician.

      Then you can watch commercials about Hydroxycut, or there is some new prescription meds out for that.

      Then you can watch commercials about Bringing lawsuits against the Weight loss medicine companies. Remember, they only get paid when you WIN!

      Then your neighbor's kid will find out how to screw with the settings, and you'll need two factor identification to use your fridge. You'll see commercials advising the best anti virus apps for refrigerators.

      Did I mention all the commercials?

      Screw that crap - I'll keep my beer in an old styrofoam ice chest.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    43. Re:What's more irritating? by leonardluen · · Score: 1

      i like "The Cloud" mostly because you can play on peoples fears of what happens to their data when the cloud starts raining and send them into a panic.

      it also helps that 51% Of People Think Stormy Weather Affects 'Cloud Computing'

    44. Re:What's more irritating? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      You know, at least it got the context correct. You can't blame the advertiser.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    45. Re:What's more irritating? by Deep+Esophagus · · Score: 1

      That sort of thing just doesn't happen in cyberspace.

    46. Re:What's more irritating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I once got a job in an ad agency because on a trial day I re-wrote a client proposal document, that was saying nothing meaningful whatsoever, in the style you so beautifully parody above. My father had said to me years earlier, "bullshit baffles feeble brains". They got the gig, and I got the job.

      Re-imagining that legacy moment at this present eventuality in time I can now conceptualize that that is one rationale for my subsequent inability to habituate with my own personage.

    47. Re:What's more irritating? by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      IoT is web two point oh... point oh.

    48. Re:What's more irritating? by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      The thing is real hackers have been doing this shit for years.

      True, but this is the point where it gets "momentum" in society. A tipping point, like going from an Internet where most people are technologists or students, to an Internet that contains everyone, including your grandmother.

      Or at least, that's the presumption. IoT is overall a terrible idea, adding almost no real value while opening up every day objects to hacking.

    49. Re:What's more irritating? by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Problem is, just like the cloud, there is some real stuff there only it gets hidden behind all the marketing and hype. Ie, the smart grid is basically an internet of things and it started rolling out long before anyone said Internet of Things. People stored data on servers before anyone called it the Cloud.

      Once we've got some things networked that needed to be networked then we start seeing more things that logically should be networked. Then someone in marketing starts seeing things that could be networked but should not be networked and the hype begins to build.

      Then there's the confusion between "internet" and being networked, or using IPv6 versus being on the internet. Most of this stuff won't really be on the internet but be part of a private network. Some people are even calling control of bluetooth devices from a smartphone to be Internet of Things, which is clearly is not.

    50. Re:What's more irritating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's funny, since I'm actually working on this stuff, is that some of the standards emerging are just wrong for the task. Ie, we're not using some parts of a networking protocol intended for low power networked devices running off of batteries, precisely because the protocal uses too much power for a low power device running off of batteries. But you have to use the standard to some degree so that it can be listed on your marketing literature.

    51. Re:What's more irritating? by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      IPv6 solves a lot of these problems as it is. Maybe one benefit here is that the IoT pushes the IPv6 standard more strongly. A lot of devices have been using IPv6 for quite some time and it's in wide use in the industry, even though the devices are not directly connected to the internet.

    52. Re:What's more irritating? by QRDeNameland · · Score: 1

      I can't speak for GP, but I don't have a problem with lingo or jargon per se, it's *meaningless* market-droid buzzwords that bug me. I don't see people complaining much about the vast amount of never-ending jargon in the tech world, until it comes to things like "Web 2.0", "Cloud", and "Internet of Things" that vaguely repackage existing concepts designed to appeal to the PHB hive mind.

      So, yes, I'm old.

      --
      Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
    53. Re:What's more irritating? by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      Cloud of Internet Things

    54. Re:What's more irritating? by tehcyder · · Score: 1
      Cloud Of Contemporary Knowledge.

      I'm just going to check my COCK out, Sir.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    55. Re:What's more irritating? by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Yes, the idea is that this time has come.

      The idea behind IoT is that it's a desirable goal to have in the first place. I don't think it is -- it's just another vector for attacks, just another target for malware, and another way for things to draw steadily more power over time.

    56. Re:What's more irritating? by tingentleman · · Score: 1

      Can I achieve this with web-scale Angular js?

  5. Or maybe by Gaygirlie · · Score: 1

    Or maybe people just used the term "embedded" previously and are now using "IoT" because of it being fashionable and are hoping for more money? You know, people do like to hop on whatever trend is currently getting lots of attention, even if it just means relabeling what you already have..

    1. Re:Or maybe by Smallpond · · Score: 2

      Not the same. Embedded development was mostly about reducing cost by replacing custom mechanical and electronic devices with microprocessors and software. IoT is about taking inexpensive things and adding features in order to boost revenue, and also to create new revenue streams by collecting and selling personal data.

    2. Re:Or maybe by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 3, Informative

      yup, not the same thing. IoT also is known as m2m or machine to machine. it tends to be sensor-based machines sending, then some analysis back-end (server) crunching thru the numbers (recently, realtime processing) and possibly sending back control signals ('turn this thing off', 'lower that value there').

      embedded is just a part of that.

      (I just got off a gig that was IoT related, fwiw)

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    3. Re:Or maybe by gweihir · · Score: 1

      So basically making money by ripping off people and spying on them? About what I thought.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    4. Re:Or maybe by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Or maybe people just used the term "embedded" previously and are now using "IoT" because of it being fashionable

      Many of those embedded systems don't even have network interfaces, let alone are capable of participating on an internetwork using TCP/IP.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Or maybe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This has been happening in the HVAC industry for 25+ years. They originally called it "Direct Digital Control" (DDC), in contrast to the older pneumatic control systems. I worked with some of this stuff 10 years ago, and it was a well-known field even then. Granted, it wasn't directly on the internet, but it had gateways and bridges that allowed it to be. (The company I worked for sold a particular brand that used MS/TP and Arcnet networking for the actual controllers, and connected them back to an ethernet gateway for integration into an IP-based network.)

      No, "IoT" is more than that. It's the consumerization of embedded and automated systems. So instead of having installed systems with well-thought-out logic and segregated networks, we'll all be hip deep in useless, poorly-configured, ad-hoc-installed, incompatible garbage that's taking up all of our IP address space.

    6. Re:Or maybe by Whorhay · · Score: 1

      So what you're saying is that the internet has always been an internet of things? From its earliest implementation a terminal would sense input (usually from a human), relay that information if appropriate to a remote computer over a network. The remote computer would receive the traffic and respond in whatever way it was programed.

      To me this is just another stupid buzzword/phrase just like the cloud. People, usually marketers just keep coming up with new words for things that have been around for a while in an attempt to drum up more business.

    7. Re:Or maybe by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      internet of things (from what I've seen, working on it at a big-name comms company) is all about SENSORS and REALTIME data.

      if you are streaming loads of sensor data to some sink, somewhere, that is the current classic example or use-case of IoT.

      expect this to be worked out more in industry than at the consumer level. the consumer level is getting the buzz (at forums like this) but in industry, they are talking about expensive sensors (high end a/d systems that robots depend on), power over ethernet to distribute power to the sensors and also ip connectivity, along with (believe it or not) usb-over-ip routing to send sensor data over ip networks.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    8. Re:Or maybe by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      right. and one solution (that home users won't like but industry will) is to use usb sensors.

      huh? yeah, usb sensors. and usb/ip transports. and PoE for power.

      lower end sensors are analog. a cpu will convert it to digital and stream it to some remote sink.

      mid-end sensors will be digital (pure) or digital-usb (transported).

      high-end sensors will be native ip-based.

      all 'ends' are covered.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  6. FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    JESUSFUCKING CHRIST

    1. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A quick search says "IOT" is the Amex stock ticker symbol for Income Opportunity Reality Investors Inc.

      A financial company is obviously much more useful compared to "IOT" referring to "Internet of Things" where you get to connect a refrigerator to the internet so that some random hacker can turn it off.

    2. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by Barny · · Score: 1

      So cute, does your mummy know you use that language?

      --
      ...
      /me sighs
    3. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      seriously, wtf.

    4. Re: FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your circular reference aside, how can claim to have geek card and not know what IoT means today?

      Dude! Get out of the basement and try to stay up to date now and then or turn in your card.

    5. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's SKYNET!!!!!

    6. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      use the proper name, at least:

      "Jesus H. Vishnu"

      damn. some people....

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    7. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Informative

      http://lmgtfy.com/?q=iot

      Smart, but if we're going to substitute the jobs of editors with Google then maybe we should go all out. Instead we're paying useless editors who don't actually do their job and circumventing it through a tongue in cheek website that provides you with a Google search.

      Also I'm in China you insensitive clod. Can you Bing it for me instead?

    8. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      Mom: "How the *%*$ did you get an F in vocabulary??!!"
      Kid: "How the *%*$ should I know?"

    9. Re: FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe the sentiment being expressed here is that of a seasoned sysadmin.

      Allow for me to explain.

      1: Introduce another Acronym you need to know to decode article.
      2: Have to go spend time looking up Acronym.
      3: Look up Acronym, it's something I've already heard of. And this next part is key. It is something I have classified as completely useless trivia.
      4: Like being spat in the eye, I now get very, very angry.

      When managers decide to go off hunting projects and spending company capital in junkets and useless make-work IT projects, it always ends in bad things.

      And that, my friend, is why seasoned sysadmins get angry. Because when management does that shit, it means it's time to generate a resume' and start looking a year out at a new job, and new bullshit.

    10. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's "EYE OF TECH". Everything you do using technology is recorded in a server somewhere so you overlords can use it screw you in the future, like kafka and 1984.

    11. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Relax. Not anything important whatsoever. Just the next hype for the clueless.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    12. Re: FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One of the signs one is engaged with language impaired person is overuse or bad use of acronyms. Google and wikipedia are not a cure. Taser or tar and feathers may not help but releave part of the stress of dealing with idiots.

    13. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by Flammon · · Score: 1

      It's just another TLA

    14. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Smart, but if we're going to substitute the jobs of editors with Google then maybe we should go all out. Instead we're paying useless editors

      Who is this 'we'? I run adblock (and I'm eligible to have ads disabled anyway) and I don't recall ever cutting Slashdot a check.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    15. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      It's not all about you. I'm talking about the absurdity of some idiot working here actually getting paid by anyone to what appears to be do nothing.

      Heck in my next life I'm going to be a Slashdot editor. Easiest job on the planet.

    16. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      JfC

    17. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      It's not all about you. I'm talking about

      ...so it's all about you?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    18. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What is even more interesting is that all of those developers switched to working on IoT without knowing what it is!

    19. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Fuck you really never have anything intelligent to say do you.

    20. Re:FUCK YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS IOT by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Fuck you really never have anything intelligent to say do you.

      Try this on: All you seem to be able to manage is to complain. How does that make you better than a Slashdot editor, who at least occasionally does something like work?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  7. Here we go again. by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2, Insightful

    With almost half of all developers thinking of switching to working on the IoT next year, I smell yet another bubble. IoT mania will be the new App mania.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    1. Re:Here we go again. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      I suspect that the mania will be tempered by the fact that it will be fairly easy to classify all sorts of projects, that you were already doing, as "IoT" if you wish to seem super cutting edge and so on without actually making any changes.

      There's a vague sort of notion about what "IoT" is supposed to be, cobbled together from some mixture of analogies to SCADA and industrial control systems and science fiction; but it is broad and ill formed enough that all sorts of things that can connect to a network in some way, and any and all software associated with them, can be covered without stretching the truth too hard.

      Plus, until the various squabbling factions decide how to actually make the 'things' interact usefully with each other(the current preference seems to be 'appoint either Google or Apple as Feudal Oligarch', with 'don't even bother, everything you buy will have its own terrible app!' as the runner up), the 'internet' bit is really just being used as a convenient remote access to the control panel(and for monetizing users, of course), which is much less hairy and challenging than actual interactions among things in some conveniently configurable and/or emergent-without-being-pathological way.

    2. Re:Here we go again. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      With almost half of all developers thinking of switching to working on the IoT next year ...

      No, half of the "developers" said they were working on IoT in a survey they had to complete to get a free magazine subscription. There is no reason whatsoever to believe the results of that survey have any connection to reality, or that the people taking the survey were even developers.

    3. Re:Here we go again. by stoploss · · Score: 1

      I suspect that the mania will be tempered by the fact that it will be fairly easy to classify all sorts of projects, that you were already doing, as "IoT" if you wish to seem super cutting edge and so on without actually making any changes.

      That was my initial reaction to the "1 in 5" stat: "I guess the definition of IoT now includes all mobile platform development."

    4. Re:Here we go again. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      Pretty much all embedded devices smart enough to support TCP/IP, as well. I'm pretty sure that my router is currently the most 'IoT' device in my house, though also the least conceptually novel.

      There are some honestly interesting, tricky, and (at least partially) novel problems in 'IoT'. Making devices that are networked, can talk to each other, and actually do something useful with that ability is a real challenge. Even more so if you want compatibility between multiple vendors, support for use cases the vendor didn't more or less build for you(ideally without requiring that the user be a software engineer), or some semblance of assurance that there aren't a zillion security and privacy issues, innumerable covert channels, and other disasters.

      My apathy is mostly derived from the fact that most 'IoT' doesn't actually seem to be doing much of that. Plenty of stuff that lets you use the internet as a very long serial cable to connect to its config interface(which is fine, the internet is a great way, if secured, of very, very, cheaply connecting from arbitrary distance; but brutally non-novel), some walled-garden 'ecosystems' that support very limited interaction of devices between two vendors who have explicitly agreed to cooperate and updated their products to make that possible; but otherwise it's mostly the same old IP-capable firmwares that devices expensive enough to have the capability have used for at least something like two decades. Useful; but not terribly new, and often implemented so badly as to be a liability.

      It's honestly a trifle disheartening. While arguably in need of some serious maintenance(especially the 'security' of the earlier versions), SNMP is arguably closer to an 'IoT' design(pretty much just add the ability for devices to advertise their MIBs to other devices on the network, rather than having the admin hunt them down and load them, and you are closer to being ready than most actual products are). That isn't really a flattering thing.

      SNMP is quite useful; but it is a bit crufty and conceptually ancient. The fact that everyone's shiny, new, 'IoT' things, with their markedly-more-capable-and-way-cheaper embedded hardware typically can't advertise their capabilities and manipulate one another in some vaguely sane way at the same level as some seriously old hardware is not terribly impressive.

      Even if the actual implementation is some XML-soup-and-'cloud'-bullshit horror, conceptual parity or superiority would be nice to see.

    5. Re:Here we go again. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't recall hearing about any SNMP connected toasters.....

      Just say'in.

    6. Re:Here we go again. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      Doesn't FreeBSD run on toasters and have SNMP support? I was pretty sure that it did.

    7. Re:Here we go again. by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      sorry, but IoT is nothing - NOTHING - about cellphones or mobile data. those come from USERS. this is not about USER data. its about DEVICE data.

      think 'sensors' and you will be headed in the right direction.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    8. Re:Here we go again. by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      (ob disc: I spent some 25+ yrs in the SNMP field; now working in IoT, at least I was until my last gig finished)

      snmp has absolutely zero to do with IoT. snmp is a good (...) netmgt protocol that is very lightweight, standard (well...) and has been around for a few decades. as you know, its poller-based, mostly, with traps there as accelerants to help pollers zoom in, faster, to any events worth knowing about. snmp sucks for streaming loads of data upwards and really has no mechanism for that. has no mechanism for filtering at its source or data compression for transport.

      what you want for IoT is to have, essentially, endless streams of source data going thru 'smart filters' along the way (last place I was at, we used 'hacked routers' to do our smart filtering) and then getting to some analysis node. the node may just collect data or it may run some rules and decide if a 'talk back' is needed or some control/feedback loop to change something in the real world.

      the 2 cases are really different. snmp is 'slow' and never EVER realtime (not even traps, technically) and is mostly poller based (req/response). IoT is 'transmit continuously' based and MUST have low latency and a reliable (tcp) transport for all its crucial data points.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    9. Re:Here we go again. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying that SNMP is the correct mechanism for IoT, just that the state of discovery and interaction between IoT 'things' is so dismal(except where specially handcrafted by the vendor) that SNMP's MIBs look positively advanced by comparison.

      Crazy-cheap silicon makes connecting things to networks relatively simple; but it doesn't solve the much more difficult problem of making those things interact in a useful way without either intricate top-down command and control or a ghastly nightmare of emergent oddities and security problems. At present, there appears to be very, very, little headway in making the 'things' that are supposed to be internetworking aware of one another, much less usefully so, with people either rolling their own totally isolated little thing or attempting to be the gatekeeper for all device interaction. It does not inspire confidence.

    10. Re:Here we go again. by stoploss · · Score: 1

      I understand what the definition of IoT is. My comment was about the specious "1 in 5 developers works on IoT projects" stat. That's patently false by the definition of IoT.

      Given that IoT is rapidly achieving buzzword status, you'll likely be dismayed to find that the term will become coopted and the definition distorted in order to enable claims like in this article.

      ...much like any single server in a datacenter is now "the cloud", even if you own and maintain the server yourself.

  8. Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Here's a list of reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things:

    1) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I sleep.

    2) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I pee.

    3) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I make kaka.

    4) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I pleasure myself.

    5) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I wash my body in the shower.

    6) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I relax in the tub.

    7) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I brush my teeth.

    8) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I make passionate love to my wife.

    9) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I brush my hair.

    10) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I read a book.

    11) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I read Slashdot.

    12) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I bake cake.

    13) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I put in my contact lenses.

    14) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I get ready to play golf.

    15) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I do my laundry.

    16) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I think about rugby.

    17) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I tie my shoes.

    18) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I celebrate the 4th of July.

    19) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I water my flowers.

    20) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I eat ham.

    21) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I use my stapler to staple documents.

    22) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I chew bubble gum.

    23) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I check the oil in my car.

    24) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I look for my TV remote.

    25) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I blow my nose.

    26) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I rearrange my stamp collection.

    27) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I listen to the Backstreet Boys.

    28) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I do my calisthenics.

    29) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I search for a paper clip.

    30) Internet of Things devices could send information about me to advertisers.

    31) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I sleep.

    32) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I pee.

    33) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I make kaka.

    34) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I pleasure myself.

    35) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I wash my body in the shower.

    36) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I relax in the tub.

    37) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I brush my teeth.

    38) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I make passionate love to my wife.

    39) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I brush my hair.

    40) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I read a book.

    41) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I read Slashdot.

    42) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I bake cake.

    43) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly coll

  9. Bad Site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The site requires you to register in order to read their articles. Don't both clicking the link. There's the free text:

    By Patrick Thibodeau
    Computerworld | Jan 28, 2015 9:45 AM PT

    One-in-five developers now works on IoT projects
    There are signs of explosive growth in Internet of Things development, and savings are being better defined

    By 2020, professional kitchens, restaurants and other large food providers will be using appliances with sensors and scanners. They will track inventory and provide real-time ordering linked to pricing. Sensors and cameras will be embedded in ovens, refrigerators and even pans and will do things such as track temperatures and ensure food isn't overcooked or spoiled.

    This "connected kitchen," as Gartner imagines and defines it, will contribute in five years at least 15% in savings in the food and beverage industry.

    Building a connected kitchen, and all the other things the Internet of Things (IoT) is promising to deliver, will take a lot of development work. There are signs that this development is beginning to happen.

    1. Re:Bad Site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why would a pan need to be connected to the Internet or a network in order to tell you that the food is in danger of being overcooked? Just beep and flash some lights. Real cooks and chefs don't need such things anyway.

    2. Re:Bad Site by kwbauer · · Score: 1

      No, no, no!!! It is so that every movement of the pan can be tracked and all temperatures tracked just in case an employee or customer sues the restaurant. At least, that is what the lawyers and insurers will say.

    3. Re: Bad Site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who said we want to pay for tge cook cheap and uneducatec will do and soon we get away with those too.

    4. Re:Bad Site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How will spending 6 times as much for your kitchen save money when it doesn't actually increase productivity?

    5. Re:Bad Site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now a clever site would see traffic coming from /. and unlock the article. Goodwill and marketing and all that.

      .

    6. Re:Bad Site by Cid+Highwind · · Score: 1

      So you can share every movement and temperature fluctuation with your friends on panterest, obviously!

      I bought the "Bobby Flay filter" through in-pan purchase, so it always looks like I'm doing something with steak and blue corn and ancho chiles, even when it's really just mac & cheese from a box.

      --
      0 1 - just my two bits
    7. Re:Bad Site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am confident that Gartner would NEVER over-hype a nascent technology, nor would they EVER peddle a fictitious hockey-stick sales projection (year 5 is gonna be huge!).
       

  10. Internet of Things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You could have expanded IoT at least once in the summary so I wouldn't have to click the link.

  11. Please ID IoT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Could anyone ID IoT for me please?

  12. I'll be joining them soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I'll be writing software to make refridgerators randomly dispense ice, and turn off ovens when the food is half done.

  13. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by Gaygirlie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Pretty much all of those apply to a modern cellphone.

  14. huhuh... by epyT-R · · Score: 1

    Everyone knows the internet is for porn.. It is the internet of thingies..

  15. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I know people that won't leave home without their cellphone, it's crazy. I was thinking I'd just buy them all some ankle bracelets.

  16. So... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

    Any guesses about how many existing 'embedded system that connects to the internet in some fashion' projects were dubbed 'internet of things' in order to bring this new buzzphrase to prominence?

    Yeah, yeah, I know, at some point the scale and pervasiveness of embedded connectivity may reach a point where it is different in kind, not just degree, from past use; but I submit that we aren't there yet by a nontrivial margin. For the moment, "IOT" seems to mean 'has a terrible smartphone app' or 'last model, you connected to the serial port to configure the system; when we revised the hardware it turned out that adding ethernet would be cheap and lots of customers wanted it, so we added it.'

  17. Re: Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    61. Profit!

  18. Internet of Things? by cdu13a · · Score: 1

    Its that collection of things around your house such as your furnace, your fridge, the lock on your door, and your coffee maker, etc... that will stop working because your kid/spouse/parent clicked on a link that claimed to have naked pictures of whoever the current hot celebrity is.

    1. Re:Internet of Things? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It doesn't matter. We have a social model that demands that money move around. It doesn't matter if it serves any true purpose. This is how we've all agreed to organize our resources.

      Can we do better? Absolutely. Will we? Never.

  19. Working on it right now by greg1104 · · Score: 3, Funny

    [gsmith@thing1 ~]$ ping thing2

    1. Re: Working on it right now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You sure that's not the Internet of Pings?

    2. Re:Working on it right now by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 3, Funny

      that's nothing. I have a bit of the IoG (internet of ghosts) working:

      % ping elvis
      elvis is alive

      see! I told you!!

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  20. The same amount as 10 years ago by dprimary · · Score: 1

    10 years ago 1 out of 5 developers worked on things that talked to each other, via IP we just didn't have a buzz word for it. Most new buildings in the last 5 years the network segment for the "things" is larger then the network segment for people.

  21. What's with the hyphens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "One in five" is sufficient to convey the information, there is no ambiguity to resolve so you no hyphens needed.

  22. Yes, the IoT is coming... by tlambert · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, the IoT is coming... as soon as IPv6 is fully deployed with stateless autoconfiguration so we'll have network addresses for all the things.

    I hear both Verizon and Comcast are really happy about the idea of offering routable addresses for everyone, without finding some way to monetize it.

    1. Re:Yes, the IoT is coming... by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      Yes, the IoT is coming... as soon as IPv6 is fully deployed with stateless autoconfiguration so we'll have network addresses for all the things.

      I hear both Verizon and Comcast are really happy about the idea of offering routable addresses for everyone, without finding some way to monetize it.

      Come now. You know that's not how it's going to work.

      The household things will not talk direct to the Internet. They'll connect via NAT to a hub-like base station device you have to buy separately and connect to your broadband router. It will use a proprietary protocol that bears a striking resemblance to something open-source (except with extensions on it) to talk to the devices. You will communicate with the devices via a custom website or smartphone apps. Your access to your devices will be contingent on you paying your monthly subscription fee for said service, of course. Even when you try and control the devices from your own LAN the commands will be routed out to $connectedhomeprovider and then back to your home's hub device, so if your Internet service is down (or their servers) you will still have no access to your connected IoT devices, even when they are sitting right next to you.

    2. Re:Yes, the IoT is coming... by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      I have not seen it mentioned here, but there is also EIoT; E is Enterprise. a whole nuther thing. some companies want sensors (think: industry) and they send huge volumes of test data 'upwards'. the trick (from one vendor, at least) is to data-reduce it intelligently and then forward it up toward the root. you don't have to store the data (per se) but by smart filtering, you end up forwarding only 'useful' data and it can be acted on immediately.

      so, the consumer end is only a tiny part of it. the real part is for industry, but no one seems to remember (or realize) this.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    3. Re:Yes, the IoT is coming... by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

      I think you have that wrong. They will connect via an encrypted tunnel over port 443 to an AWS cloud instance to log all your activity and provide an "interface" for you to use anywhere you want. Should you decide not to use that interface, your Thing is a Paperweight. But they might still be able to display advertising on it...

  23. Wow by Idou · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's aIoT.

    --
    Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
  24. IoT? Oh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Didn't realize the Illuminates of Thanateros were so cutting edge!

  25. Marketing Dipshits Do That On Purpose by TrollstonButterbeans · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Marketing types love acronyms because ...

    1) You don't know what it is, therefore they have the power because you have to ask them WTF they are talking about.

    2) It presents an opportunity to explain what it is.

    3) A new acronym is an exciting new concept!!! New word!

    4) The feel of knowing something and being able to talk about something and no one else understanding the private conversation.

    5) And some people respond to "magic letters" as being the easy secret they have been waiting for. Agile, ERP, CRM, URANUS, etc.

    (In all fairness, if your job is to sell and promote something corporatey, you do need to have methods for getting attention and engaging people. But it seems like there was a Dilbert cartoon on this.)

    --
    Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
    1. Re:Marketing Dipshits Do That On Purpose by SigmundFloyd · · Score: 1

      1) You don't know what it is, therefore they have the power because you have to ask them WTF they are talking about.

      On the web, that translates to "clickbait". A well-edited news aggregator site should counteract these petty tricks by providing notes. Slashdot didn't, of course.

      --
      Knowledge is power; knowledge shared is power lost.
    2. Re:Marketing Dipshits Do That On Purpose by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      URANUS

      I'm sorry, TrollstonButterbeans, but astronomers will rename Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all.

    3. Re:Marketing Dipshits Do That On Purpose by gsslay · · Score: 1

      I found this post IAU.

    4. Re: Marketing Dipshits Do That On Purpose by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like "cloud computing", Lol. = server on the internet. I kept trying to get people to define it for me, because it was spoken like it was something new, an actual technology that needed a unique, decriptive name. This shit kind of ruins technology. It dilutes it, for sure.

    5. Re:Marketing Dipshits Do That On Purpose by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And only the least competent puts out ads that does not clearly state what it is, what it does, how easy it is to get, how valuable it is, where you get it, and how much it is. Fantastically beautiful ads that does not convey these things are ineffective ads. Using acronyms which limits it's communication is to that degree ineffective. It's true that you need to catch the attention of the viewer who in an instant decides to continue reading or not, but if you want that person to actually reach out and buy then you are shooting yourself in the foot by not including all the above data. Hiding behind lesser known acronyms is really bad marketing strategy.

  26. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    60) Everything listed above is really, really, really fucking creepy.

    Especially the part where you listen to the Backstreet Boys!

  27. Buzzword hegemony by Kohath · · Score: 1

    They've created a buzzword so generic that it has already conquered 1/5th of software development. Bravo, pundits! Bravo!

  28. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

    ...or a samsung 'smart' tv.

    (from what I've heard. wish this was actually a joke, too)

    --

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  29. Hello??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is there a hello world for the IoT?

  30. this is great news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As my startup invented Internet of Things

  31. It's an unecesary label for small things by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

    I've worked on 'IoT' but only in the sense that IoT things are assumed to be small and low power, so small, low power designs are needed.

    However making something small and low power is also a means of making is embeddable in other ways, such as in many places across a huge chip. The technical problem is the same. The need for small and low power is not IoT. However it is the justification to PHBs for doing what you do even if your primary application is something other than IoT.

    In the mega corp I work for, I've been handed two recognition awards (plaque and cash) for meeting IoT challenges (I.E. making a design of mine 20X smaller) when it's primarily so I can put it the middle of other circuits at the point of use rather than bussing data across the chip. This yields many engineering benefits.

    But IoT is the thing, so you sell it as an IoT solution and management pays attention.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    1. Re:It's an unecesary label for small things by pooh666 · · Score: 1

      You said IoT so many times I just hate you and don't want to read your comment.

    2. Re:It's an unecesary label for small things by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 2

      IoT, IoT, IoT, IoT.

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    3. Re:It's an unecesary label for small things by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      one data point for you: in the Eiot stuff that I worked on (e = enterprise) we used 'usb sensors' (analog and digital sensors that went to an a/d dongle, then into usb, then into a usb-ip bridge of sorts). this feed power (poe) to the sensors using existing poe infra at big companies and you only have to have cat5 cables to get power and ip connectivity to your sensors.

      iot is a superset and includes low-end stuff (for us consumers) and high-end stuff for industry; and when its for industry, its 'eiot'.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  32. Internet over the Tubes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Must be in the USA.

  33. 1 in 5 uses of statistics are b***shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I call shenanigans.

    There is no way that 20% of all developers are doing IoT, unless you define IoT to include all mobile app development or any device that has the ability to talk over any kind of comms channel (eg local bluetooth connection from device to diagnostic tool or a wireless keyboard for a tablet etc).

    1. Re:1 in 5 uses of statistics are b***shit by Iamthecheese · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Which makes a person wonder why Dice would want to publish this inflated number. Trying to get low level coders for less money? Trying to create hype for certain stocks?

      --
      If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
    2. Re:1 in 5 uses of statistics are b***shit by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      Looks like it was a study by Gartner (can't be 100% sure, with the article behind a wall).
      And we know why Gartner makes up statistics: because real research is hard and doesn't pay well.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    3. Re:1 in 5 uses of statistics are b***shit by RandCraw · · Score: 1

      19% makes sense only if "IoT developer" includes everyone whose job title includes the words INTERNET, OF, or THINGS.

  34. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dont forget making boring as fuck love with your wife cuz you're tired.

  35. Makes me glad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Makes me glad before going into CS I studied Electronics Engineering. I've seen so many nutters who could just barely get software working, and when they said 'build a computer' they meant "assemble a computer from pre-built components". But when I studied EE, I designed a computer from the wiring diagrams and chips, up. I still enjoy writing software, and putting together electronics, and getting them to do things that most people never consider (even software engineers who only know software). And the future isn't so bleak.

  36. Embedded Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, marketing discovered embedded Linux computers... yawn... who woulda thunk it...

  37. What the hell is IoT? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is it a next-gen version of IDIoT? I worked for plenty of those.

  38. I was going to... by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    ...pooh-pooh the entire idea, but then I realized a recent project of mine was putting various aspects of my salt aquarium's systems on my LAN using an RPi+.

    So I'll just crawl back in my hole now.

    At least I became aware of a new (to me) acronym. :)

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  39. New Job Posting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    5 years IoT experience

    6 year XML

    3 year .NET with SQL

  40. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by jd2112 · · Score: 1

    ...or a samsung 'smart' tv.

    (from what I've heard. wish this was actually a joke, too)

    'Smart TV' is almost as much as an oxymoron as 'Reality Television'.

    --
    Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
  41. captcha by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    was codeine.
    exactly what i needed to read this post without hyperventilating.

  42. Evans data is apparently worthless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, 44% of developers intend to try an Arduino sometime this year, or something.

    We didn't add 20% more developers and 20% of existing developer jobs didn't disappear. Their math simply does not work.

    5%, increasing to 7%, maybe.

    1. Re:Evans data is apparently worthless by umghhh · · Score: 1

      2/7=28% which if you really want you can round down to 20% all is well then.

  43. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A TV is a stationary object, and is easier to put behind a firewall. My Samsung TV is forbidden to communicate with any IP-address (in either direction, for any type of traffic) except my NAS. Android have support for firewalls, but they are more difficult to make secure, and you still rely on the hardware being trustworthy.

    IoT computers can have built-in modems, or be linked to "smart" electricity meters which are more difficult to put behind a firewall. Another downside with IoT is that they are not possible for the user to review, so there are virtually no attempts in making them secure enough to prevent third parties from accessing the data without an agreement with the service provider.

    There are plenty of reasons to avoid having a large number of insecure closed-source devices connecting sensors inside my home directly to the Internet.

  44. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by MoronGames · · Score: 1

    That's the vast majority of people.

    --
    hey!
  45. Re: Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The iot is yet another ex. of useless meaningless 'words' made up to sound like in and of itself it has intelligence and or 'power' behind it. I look at the concept as being an excuse to become evermore reliant on not only tech but the corporations and the govts. behind such tech. In essence, one more excuse to NOT communicate. Not only that, it subverts the very idea of transparent communications within society.
    What people need are devices which don't need any power source (solar is the only option at present) and which work all by themselves doing just what they need to and nothing more. I don't need, nor want, my fridge to call me telling me it's low on milk. At best, fuzzy logic is about as much brains as the average appliance needs. Being connected to the net is asking for constant non-stop bombardment of electromagnetic waves and I will personally tell you and your local morons at the think tank where to shove them.

  46. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

    Yep, pretty crazy to refuse to leave home without a device that could quickly summon lifesaving personnel in case of an accident, right? Or a tow truck in case of a breakdown. Or a map to help you find your way. Or entertainment in case you're stuck waiting for a half hour before your appointment somewhere. Or a way for anyone to reach you at any time for anything.

    Do you know when I finally broke down and bought my first cell phone? My dad and I were driving on a wintery day and saw an accident in front of us and immediately called 911 on his phone. Luckily, the kid was not injured, but I decided that I never wanted to be without the ability to make that call for someone if I had to. When we were growing up, my Mom would have absolutely loved for her kids to have the security of a mobile phone, and mentioned it on several occasions. She mentioned it would be wonderful to have those "Dick Tracey watches" we saw in comics / movies so she could call us at any time, no matter where we were.

    The internet of things will have some killer niche applications, but it's not going to be the transformational experience for most people like cellphones/smartphones were. I'm just having a hard time seeing the same incredible utility that a smartphone offers for most people.

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  47. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, but do you really need a mini-computer to call 911? A prepaid cell phone tucked away in your car for use in emergencies does the trick, costs a tiny fraction as much, and has the added benefit of not turning you into an asshole who Instagrams every mundane life event whilst ignoring the humanity around him.

  48. Babel of IoT of many things by Mirar · · Score: 2

    It's just a pity that all ioT talks different languages. If only there were a secure, simple protocol so that they could talk to each other...

    SMNP would have worked, but it completely stupid in its ambition to be a superstandard....

    1. Re:Babel of IoT of many things by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      *secure* is my big issue, these days. without security being well thought out, iot stuff can be a disaster. and I'm not seeing a lot of thought (not really) being put into the whole iot stuff, which worries me a lot.

      snmp is a red herring. it won't ever be used for iot and doesn't make sense there, other than to manage the systems that hold the sensors. (speaking as a seasoned snmp guy who spent 25+ yrs doing snmp for lots of big co's).

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  49. Skipping the acronym, on to the contents... by bradley13 · · Score: 1

    Yes, TFS should have defined it's acronym. Failing that, the editors could have caught it - typically, they didn't. Irritating.

    On to the actual content: 1 in 5 developers are developing software for devices with embedded software that are likely to wind up with their own internet addresses. Given the high quality, secure software we are accustomed to seeing in routers, PCs, servers, etc.. Given the high level of security awareness we see in the developers in this area. I just gave a remedial lesson in SQL injection, damn it, isn't this stuff taught in primary school?

    Given all of this, just think what we have to look forward to: more mediocre developers hard-coding security holes into every device with an embedded processor. Big companies like Verizon with their supercookies will soon be tracking your toilet flushes. The marketeers and the surveillance state will be vacuuming this up - the marketeers to sell you toilet paper, big brother so that the SWAT team can kick down your door while your pants are around your ankles.

    O frabjous joy. Is it too late to strangle the Internet of Things in its crib?

    --
    Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
  50. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Last time I left my phone at home, my dog broke her leg (on her first walk!) and I had to ask a passer-by if I could use his.

    I haven't left my phone at home since. why would I?

  51. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 2

    I agree to some extent. The cellphone is the critical part, but the rest of it is definitely a nice bonus. I bought my first smartphone also rather late in the game, a little over two years ago, because my $20 flip phone finally died.

    Look at the benefits a powerful mobile computer gives you. It's a built-in navigation computer. You can actually research and look up who you want to call, say, if your car breaks down (better than simply dialing information). If your internet at home goes down, you can navigate to your ISP's website and get tech help numbers (this happened to me). And of course, it's a great entertainment platform - I can watch videos, read a book, or play a game anytime I'm forced to wait around. For many people, their phone can probably now replace even their home PC.

    Having a smartphone doesn't turn you into an asshole. There were plenty of those that existed long before those devices were invented. If they're not interested in engaging humanity around them, I probably didn't want to talk with them in the first place. I actually don't use my phone a whole lot, but I love the additional security and functionality it gives me when I can make use of it.

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  52. Typical bait by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

    Ouf of 130+ comments, how many are just to talk about what the heck that acronym is -a lot.

    --
    Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    1. Re:Typical bait by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      What's there to talk about? Everyone knows that acronyms are a class of abbreviations - specifically, the kind you can pronounce as a word (e.g. "Nato"), so "IoT" is not one of them.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  53. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 2

    Pretty much all of those apply to a modern cellphone.

    A cellphone phone is a thing and it's usually connected to the internet. An internet of things no less.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  54. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    Are you saying that every IoT device has a camera? Because I think you're a paranoid loon.

  55. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by Barlo_Mung_42 · · Score: 1

    I kind of understand the hate for advertisers. On the other hand ads pay for a great many of the free services I enjoy so I except that they're not going away. The ads that bug me the most are the ones that don't pertain to me. It's better when the ads do a good job showing me something I care about. Unfortunately it's worst of all when they think they know me but are way off base like Audible that keeps showing me ads for books they know I've listened to. I'd rather they make good suggestions.

  56. You Don't Need A Minicomputer... by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You don't need a minicomputer to call 911. You don't need a minicomputer to text your wife that you're running late. You might be surprised what a smartphone is useful for though.

    I've had a smartphone for about six months now, and before that I didn't really think I needed one. Now I know I don't need one, and right now I don't even have cell service, but I have found a number of uses for it anyway. I've used mine as a flashlight, a level, as a compass, and to check my pulse. They make you wish you had a real camera, thus fueling the economy, and they will do in a pinch if you need photographic evidence of something. It makes a great guitar or instrument tuner. It will translate text on a billboard. It saves paper for grocery lists. And there are about a half million things that any networked, powerful computing device would be useful for: games, alarm clock, programming, et cetera.

    However, I think I have an even better example. I came home for the holidays to Valdez, Alaska in 2011. As undoubtedly nobody knows, Valdez is by far the snowiest city in America with about 325 inches (8.25 m) of snow in a given year. That year was an extraordinary year for snow. By late January 350 inches lay on the ground, and this in a place where snow showers in May were not unheard of. Boats sank. Buildings collapsed. Everyone who could was shoveling. After the second time I cleared our roof the snow pile reached the second-story windows on every side of the house. This became a slight problem at about the same time when the heating fuel started to get low — the (chest-high) fill pipe for the house was now buried three times its height in snow. You'd think that these sort of permanent-house-features would be easier to find in this sort of situation. I spent about three days digging for the damn thing, but then remembered something a friend had mentioned: the magnetometers in smartphones can be used as metal detectors. I tromped in, borrowed my mom's cell, and found the pipe almost immediately. I'd come within a few inches of it, but then been digging in the wrong direction. It wasn't exactly a life or death situation, but it was pretty dire, and it was pretty much the only tool available that could have helped in that situation.

    I get your point that smartphones enable some people to be rather conspicuously vapid, but I'm not sure that they wouldn't be just as irritating with some other toy. I do think it's wrong to disdain the tool because of the users. I'm glad you don't need one. I'm glad I had one when I needed it. I'm pretty okay with having one now, even if I don't use it much. Most especially I'm glad that my mom doesn't live in a place that gets thirty feet of snow in a year. However, if you do happen to visit that terrible place, I highly suggest you bring a smartphone. You never know when it might come in handy.

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
    1. Re:You Don't Need A Minicomputer... by Toshito · · Score: 1

      You don't need a minicomputer to call 911. You don't need a minicomputer to text your wife that you're running late. You might be surprised what a smartphone is useful for though.

      I don't know if you need a minicomputer for that, but you definitively don't want to lug one around, since it's much bigger than a microcomputer, which is already much bigger than a smartphone.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minicomputer/

      --
      Try it! Library of Babel
    2. Re:You Don't Need A Minicomputer... by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      I spent about three days digging for the damn thing, but then remembered something a friend had mentioned: the magnetometers in smartphones can be used as metal detectors. I tromped in, borrowed my mom's cell, and found the pipe almost immediately. I'd come within a few inches of it, but then been digging in the wrong direction.

      I had a similar situation once, except instead of snow, it was rock and dirt, instead of a feed pipe, it was the exit to the cavern I had inadvertently sealed over, and instead of Valdez, it was Minecraft.

  57. It's about time. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's complicated in the transition era.

    I have to go to bed and actually sleep, for my intelligent mattress cover to order the locking of the front door if my phone has no charge left.

    Also, I can't sleep in, since when I wake at the usual hour, my coffeemaker starts, even if I don't want to get out of bed.
    The smell makes it impossible to sleep.

  58. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    A cellphone phone is a thing and it's usually connected to the internet. An internet of things no less.

    I'm pretty sure that you know that these "things" are things which have a purpose other than being a computer, which a cellphone doesn't. (POTS being obsolete today, though still useful)

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  59. Re:What ISN'T irritating? by TheRealHocusLocus · · Score: 1

    Let technology lead where it may, and don't try to put premature labels on stuff.

    Yesterday I was arms and elbows in a water meter box scooping out clay and wet mud from to expose all the fittings, to check for a leak.

    So I reached for my trusty Sonic Screwdriver that I can point into the box with a setting that ultrasonically loosens and separates the clay from the metal and plastic, or give the handle a twist to another setting that reads relative concentrations of free chlorine molecules in the air near the tip with a series of beeps as they dissociate from the drinking water, the beeping faster as you bring it towards the leak. No chlorine? It's just rain water, no leak here.

    But I grabbed my "Internet of Things" screwdriver by mistake. The little LED flashed orange for 20 seconds as it established a Wifi and cloud connection to Scandinavia then turned blue. Laying on the dashboard of the truck, a smartphone played a little tune and its screen cleared and said, "Welcome to Screwdriver 1.0 please select clockwise or counter-clockwise and click 'Submit'."

    So like any clever monkey prying into an ant nest, I used the IoT screwdriver to stab into the clay and work it loose from under the fittings so I could fish them out in globby clumps. Then I stooped there watching everything for drips, while reflecting on the marvels of modern technology and how Big Solutions are imagined in giant tanks of Think thousands of miles away, and these solutions reach globally outward looking for Little Problems to solve.

    We need more people at work to design a true Sonic Screwdriver. The Industrial Age is not complete until we have one. When it is perfected it could be connected to the Internet for access to p0rn.

    --
    <blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
  60. Exhibit A:Nest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think you have that wrong. They will connect via an encrypted tunnel over port 443 to an AWS cloud instance to log all your activity and provide an "interface" for you to use anywhere you want. Should you decide not to use that interface, your Thing is a Paperweight. But they might still be able to display advertising on it...

    Exhibit B: Kevo locks which were one of the only first-wave bluetooth locks that didn't connect to the cloud and got so universal bashed for it by reviewers that they are retrofitting cloud connection to them. Kevo had to move fast so they're using a hub for now, but rest assured the next major revision will bake that cloud connection in the basic hardware.

  61. Radical new technology! by Livius · · Score: 1

    It's, you know, things...

    But here's the twist: they're on the Internet!

    And, no, there isn't any more to it than that. In other words, what the Internet has been for the last 50 years with nothing original added except new marketing hype(tm).

  62. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  63. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  64. What is developing? by Monty+Worm · · Score: 1
    I mean, today I altered a recipe in IfThisThenThat to change the behaviour of my Philips Hue lights slightly. Am I now a IoT developer?

    Okay, I'm already a developer, but I work for a telco building our internal platform, but how low a bar is being a developer for this journalist?

    --
    ... and today's pet project has ... been discarded for lack of time.
  65. funny shit by louden+obscure · · Score: 1
    --
    Serenity now, insanity later.
  66. Out of work soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is zero customer demand for such crap

  67. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know people that won't leave home without their cellphone, it's crazy. I was thinking I'd just buy them all some ankle bracelets.

    May I introduce the modern, metrosexual, socially approved upgrade.

    Best of all, they've got you paying for it.

  68. IPV6 Addresses for all by Dareth · · Score: 1

    IPV6 Addresses for all...

    But if you want ports open and available, you have to pay extra.

    --

    I only look human.
    My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
    1. Re:IPV6 Addresses for all by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      There are upsides though. Instead of some random number like 192.168.x.x, you just have to remember fdbc:b4f0:0b6f:ecaa:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx using this simple mnemonic (in honor of the Big Game (not TM) this weekend):

      First Down Brings Cheers,
      But 4th [down] Feels [like you are a] 0,
      Oh, but sicks football
      Easy as Can AAahhhhhhhhhh!!!!! (The relaxed Aaah, not the screaming one.)

      Then for the interface ID just use something equally easy to remember, like:

      Angry Bullet Ants Are
      Bad For Eating Because
      Bites Bites Bites Bites
      Bites Bites Bites Bites

  69. They do the same they always did by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is just that now is called fucking IoT

  70. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Technically it's a microcomputer. A mini-computer is about the size of a cabinet or desk, and my pocket isn't quite big enough for that.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    The more you know...

  71. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not new, it's a refinement. An improvement in quality of determining your exact location.

  72. Used HTTP 418 for obnoxious crawlers by kbahey · · Score: 1

    No kidding ...

    For many years, I have been returning HTTP return code 418 (I'm a teapot) to obnoxious crawlers.

    For example: Dealing with resource wasting crawlers in Drupal. Also here and here.

  73. Get off my organic green carpet! by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    They changed "mainframe" and "server hosting" into "cloud", "client/server" into "rich client", "statistics" into "data mining" and "big data", the original Mac look into "Shading-free GUI's" or the "flat look", and "embedded" into "Internet of things". It's not the new technology I have trouble keeping up with, but rather the new names for old shit.

    Next you know the young whipper-snappers will take "variables" and call them "dynamic constants" and rave about the New Way of Programming.

  74. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All of this is good but I want to understand where/what my smartphone is going/doing. This is something that is a great mystery to me. To make this more clear, I would rather carry my ham radio with me for the purposes of reaching 911 if I needed rather than my smart phone. I understand how my radio works and when I turn it off, it's really off. The smart phone is designed so we don't see what it's doing. The carriers and the phone makers love this so they create their closed ecosystems to exploit that. Sure you can root your phone but for the average Joe, this is out of their capabilities or it's simply too much effort to work around it. Not we have IoT. I'd rather do this myself than to *buy* something that makes IoT easy for me to find out it phones home behind my back. An option that uses your existing Internet is fine with me because I can easily sniff the wire there. I'm guessing there will be a big push for IoT devices that use it's own 4G/3G so they can hide what data they are collecting from you. They will pay for this by subsidizing the cost of that connection. They will sell it under the guise that it'll work
    when your home Internet is down, house on fire, etc, etc....

  75. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

    A cellphone phone is a thing and it's usually connected to the internet. An internet of things no less.

    I'm pretty sure that you know that these "things" are things which have a purpose other than being a computer, which a cellphone doesn't. (POTS being obsolete today, though still useful)

    I think so. Thing is a pretty broad term.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  76. I'm 7 of 9 by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    Me too, and I've been working in field for 15 years and have a CS degree. Sounds like a bunch of BS to me.

    Also working in IT I know about a Bazillion acronyms. Working for government has expanded that by about a Kazillion. A good rule of thumb, is that unless you are very sure your audience will know wtf it is you are talking about, use the full term first prior to abbreviating it. Otherwise you sound like an elitist asshole, some idiot talking out of your ass, or just someone that can't communicate properly. In all, a poorly written title and summary, so par for the course I guess.

    I once got an email that was entirely made up of acronyms connected by small actual words like "the" and "is". It was more than several sentences long. It was not created as a joke. It was a mashup of IT, Government, and Management acronyms. Many of which could have been interchangeable (i.e. Information Technology VS Infrastructure Technology, etc...). So unless you knew not only all the abbreviations, along with the exact context it was given it would have been mostly gibberish. I actually laughed out loud upon reading it, and sent it around for a laugh. The best part was when I re-sent it to the author, they hadn't even realized that they had done it, totally unintentional, just trying to get an email off quickly.

  77. Needs better publicity (not) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Time for a Internationally defined Internet of Things!

    (or IdIoT for short)

  78. 1 in 3 now working? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And 1 in 3000 has delivered a working product.

  79. Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things by StikyPad · · Score: 1

    And your mom.

    (Sorry, it's been too long since I've seen one of those.)

    That's what she said.

    (I am so sorry. I promise to get out more.)

  80. Why this is happening... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Engineer: That's it. Done. We know what they said, when they said it, and to whom.
    SchmidtBorg: That's not enough.
    Engineer: Sir?
    SchmidtBorg: I want to know when and what they eat.
    Engineer: Okay...
    SchmidtBorg: And I want to know when they peepee. And kaka...

  81. No it doesn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You have no idea how a fucking cell phone works, neither do the morons who modded you up.

    Slashdot sure is filled with sheep cunts

  82. They already did. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

    Next you know the young whipper-snappers will take "variables" and call them "dynamic constants"

    In Bluetooth (especially Bluetoothe Low Energy (BLE)) they already reanamed them. They call one a "characteristic" (when you include the metadata describing it) or a "characteristic value" (when you mean just the the current value of the variable itself).

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  83. Game... by cwsumner · · Score: 1

    I see your Internet Of Things, and raise you a few Hackers.
    What a house of cards! 8-)