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Nest Founder 'Wakes Up In Cold Sweats' Fearing The Impact Of Mobile Technology (fastcodesign.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the anti-social-media dept.

theodp writes: Fast Company's Co.Design reports that Tony Fadell, who founded Nest and was instrumental in the creation of the iPod and iPhone, spoke with a mix of pride and regret about his role in mobile technology's rise to omnipresence. "I wake up in cold sweats every so often thinking, what did we bring to the world?" Fadell said. "Did we really bring a nuclear bomb with information that can -- like we see with fake news -- blow up people's brains and reprogram them? Or did we bring light to people who never had information, who can now be empowered?"

Faddell added that addiction has been designed into our devices, and it's harming the newest generation. "And I know when I take [technology] away from my kids what happens," Fadell explained. "They literally feel like you're tearing a piece of their person away from them-they get emotional about it, very emotional. They go through withdrawal for two to three days." Products like the iPhone, Fadell believes, are more attuned to the needs of the individual rather than what's best for the family and the larger community. And pointing to YouTube owner Google, Fadell said, "It was like, [let] any kind of content happen on YouTube. Then a lot of the executives started having kids, [and saying], maybe this isn't such a good idea. They have YouTube Kids now."
The article suggests Fadell is describing a world where omnipresent (and distracting) screens are creating "a culture of self-aggrandizement," and he believes this is partly rooted in the origins of the devices. "A lot of the designers and coders who were in their 20s when we were creating these things didn't have kids."

106 comments

  1. This says it all by barrywalker · · Score: 4, Funny

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    1. Re: This says it all by aaronb1138 · · Score: 1

      More like Dollhouse...

  2. Another doomsdayer. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Every technical revolution has its critics. And we need to listen and heed but not fear. The problems will get worked out. Life will continue to improve and mankind will carry on until another extinction asteroid strikes earth.

    Sleep easy pal.

    1. Re:Another doomsdayer. by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      Every technical revolution has its critics. And we need to listen and heed but not fear. The problems will get worked out. Life will continue to improve and mankind will carry on until another extinction asteroid strikes earth.

      Sleep easy pal.

      The choice is ours as to what we decide to allow a technology to be used for. Technology is a set of tools, nothing more like any other tool set, even including a relatively-simple carpenter's tool set. A claw-hammer can be used to frame a house or brain a spouse.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    2. Re:Another doomsdayer. by TWX · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't agree that he should sleep easy. I will agree that what he's worrying about (at least per the article summary) is not the concern, but the whole, "Internet of Things," really should be instead called the Internet of Insecure and Exploitable Things.

      Consider that tech companies, that theoretically understand the technology they're principally responsible for the development of, have trouble with information security and systems security. We have operating systems for even commercial applications of limited-scope like ATMs and Point of Sale systems that are vulnerable to many of the same exploits as desktop consumer operating systems. Do you expect Rheem or Daktronics or AO Smith or Carrier to be able to do even as good a job as a Microsoft or an Apple?

      Now consider that not only do these systems communicate on the network generally, but the manufacturers are implementing the model where the customer has to use the vendor's systems on the Internet to control the device. Some do this for consumer devices because it's a convenient way to bypass the problems with ignorance of the user, and some do it for commercial applications to use the Meraki model, to get the customer to pay and pay and pay because without the contract the device simply doesn't work anymore. Either way, the communications loop is not just from the end-user system like the phone, tablet, or computer on the user's LAN to device also on the LAN, but from the device to the firewall, across the Internet to whatever system the vendor has propped-up, then back across the Internet to whatever LAN the end user PC is on.

      Daktronics uses Windows Embedded for their modern marquees, and there's no real security on the marquees. They run a website that the software on Windows Embedded connects to in order to check for changes to the marquee. Once the initial account is created for the organzation, the users can add more users, and in many cases the sign-shops that set up these accounts basically with full admin privileges, so that the users can add or delete more users. In a large organization simply managing legitimate users can be a real chore as neither the sign-shop nor Daktronics place emphasis on end-user security.

      Now, those servers that Daktronics maintains would be potentially quite a prize, if they can be exploited and if the protocols that update the signs allow for more updates besides the imagery on the sign then that pathway allows for there to be an exploited device on a corporate network that is not necessarily well understood by the IT department and may not be able to be serviced like a normal PC, despite running an OS very much line a normal PC has.

      That's only one example. One can probably find similar problems with most other, "Internet of Things," devices. I would encourage every IT department to harshly segregate these devices on the network, no traffic to anything on the corporate network except for possibly ICMP to verify up/down, Internet traffic limited to only those servers required for management, and then only those ports required for that communication. Deny the ability to touch the corporate network, deny the ability to reach any third-party command-and-control servers.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    3. Re: Another doomsdayer. by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 0

      The guy expressed some fears about his kids, and you try to turn it into a discussion about a bunch of gadgets? Way to miss the point.

    4. Re:Another doomsdayer. by mikael · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Previous generations had similar problems. It's just they have forgotten about them. Spreading rumours? That happened with kids writing messages about each other and putting them on the school noticeboards. Rumours could spread simply by word of mouth without any need for Twitter, Facebook or IM. Teenagers would spend hours talking to each other by telephone. When we lived in terraced streets, mothers would be desperate not knowing where her daughter was, when it was dinnertime. Then, she would have to call around everyone else to find out where she was.

      Teenagers spending too much time playing video games. In the past, they would spend too much time surfing, skateboarding, hanging around the shopping mall, playing football, baseball or any other activity.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    5. Re:Another doomsdayer. by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      "Do you expect Rheem or Daktronics or AO Smith or Carrier to be able to do even as good a job as a Microsoft or an Apple?"

      We wouldn't trust these manufacturers to develop secure IoT interfaces for their hardware all by themselves, and we don't have to. That's what IT security companies are for.

    6. Re:Another doomsdayer. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Previous generations had similar problems. It's just they have forgotten about them. Spreading rumours? That happened with kids writing messages about each other and putting them on the school noticeboards. Rumours could spread simply by word of mouth without any need for Twitter, Facebook or IM.

      Yes, previous generations had similar problems. But it is happening on a much greater scale now: It used to be 'just' the people you knew and hung out with. These days, you get not so nice 'remarks' from random strangers from all over the world, harassing you on Twitter/Facebook. And in the past a rumor would dwindle out over time up to the point that no one could remember it: But now, once it's on the internet, it tends to stay there and pop up over and over again and follow you around for pretty much your entire life. Things have changed,

    7. Re:Another doomsdayer. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Fuckhead .. physical and mental activities call-up different current co-functional behaviors and prepare varying futures. A balance works best; one-dimensional obsession fails if external context changes. Not everyone can survive let-alone flourish as P.A.M. Dirac.

    8. Re:Another doomsdayer. by Etcetera · · Score: 1

      Previous generations had similar problems. It's just they have forgotten about them. Spreading rumours? That happened with kids writing messages about each other and putting them on the school noticeboards. Rumours could spread simply by word of mouth without any need for Twitter, Facebook or IM. Teenagers would spend hours talking to each other by telephone.

      You're missing the point. Just as the telephone (and long distance telephone) was an exponential leap in communication -- a communications revolution -- that drastically affected society, constant data interaction (the tipping point seemed to be smartphones with 4G-ish speeds) is ALSO an exponential leap.

      The problem is that this second leap combines the mutliband communication power of the internet with the psychological attachment issues of a Skinner box, partly as a result of most of the Internet being funded by advertising dollars and sponsorship. Facebook, YouTube, and many other things wouldn't feel the need to be (quite) so addictive if they were simple subscription services instead of demographic tracking opportunities for selling micro-targeted ads.

      Want more proof that it was a revolution? I'm hard-pressed to think of *any* science fiction stories or films of the 20th century that accurately predicted the psychological impact of always-on mobile data access that we're seeing now. Sure, plenty of stories imagined the technology (think Star Trek TNG's PADD's, etc), but no one seems to have predicted the impact on human sociology that we're already seeing. It wasn't expected.

      --
      Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
    9. Re: Another doomsdayer. by mikael · · Score: 1

      That's true. The sudden appearance of home internet connections back in 1993. It was a rapid jump from dial-up modems with kermit/crosstalk terminal servers to TCP/IP stacks with SLIP/PPP all within a year. That allowed web browsers, usenet readers and email to be used by everyone.

      Modems went from 9600 baud to 19.2K 38.4K, 56K and then ADSL/DSL. Bargain PC's dropped down in price to $600 before being replaced by netbooks, tablets and smartphones running Facebook/Twitter and Linkedin apps.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    10. Re:Another doomsdayer. by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      And it's not just kids. When you developed too much baggage in one place, you could move to a new location, job, etc., and get a fresh start. These days, someone is bound to look up your history, and as we used to joke about, it all goes on your "permanent record", only back then, it was just a joke.

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
  3. OMG get over yourself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If he had not invented the smartphone, someone else would have. It wasn't nearly as original an idea as he thinks. It was written of in popular fiction for decades prior. It was a natural evolution of the technologies that already existed, and its entrance to the market was inevitable.

    Maybe it would have taken a few more years. Big deal. The end result would have been the same.

    1. Re:OMG get over yourself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not about smartphones folks. It's all about connectivity. There is a reason why we're selecting good home district, good school district etc. However Youtube and Facebook connect each with each only providing rudimentary filters which are not enough and easily avoidable. As a consequence kids getting access to all the content without the parent's consent and that where the problem is.

    2. Re:OMG get over yourself by johanw · · Score: 0

      > As a consequence kids getting access to all the content without the parent's consent and that where the problem is.

      The problem is control freaks parents that get out of control? Good, technology leads to more freedom here.

    3. Re: OMG get over yourself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Current designs are not necessarily the most beneficial and utilitarian. Rather, they are designed to be addictive to promote constant usage with minimal benefit.

      For example, many 'free to play' mobile games are built on a model similar to video lottery machines. Purely designed to prolong play long enough to cause a percentage of users to deposit money.

    4. Re:OMG get over yourself by mikael · · Score: 1

      Look at some of the adverts in the old Byte magazines. One floppy disk manufactuer practically predicted 16" tablets with rounded corners and being able to render 3D graphics.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    5. Re:OMG get over yourself by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 0

      "One floppy disk manufactuer practically predicted 16" tablets with rounded corners and being able to render 3D graphics."

      Yep, that's why we all use Verbatim laptops and Dysan tablets today.

    6. Re:OMG get over yourself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He didn't invent the smart phone. I had a palm/handspring treo which I'd consider smart although very primitive by todays standards. Not to put Apple down though, they made it work whereas those before them didn't.

    7. Re: OMG get over yourself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, parents have a natural responsibility to monitor what their kids do and guide them to what is good for them and away from what is bad for them.

      Teaching my kids about the addictive nature of some products is on my agenda. Restricting their use of some apps until they are mature enough to understand these problems is an unfortunate necessity.

  4. fitting by n3r0.m4dski11z · · Score: 1

    "Products like the iPhone, Fadell believes, are more attuned to the needs of the individual rather than what's best for the family and the larger community."

    designed by apple in california, the center of individualism, objectivist USA.

    --
    -
    1. Re:fitting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Commiefornia, objectivist? HA!

  5. Tony Fadell is full of himself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The information age began long before Nest or the iPhone. Also, the Nest is a piece of shit.

    1. Re: Tony Fadell is full of himself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And he seriously needs to take his meds.

    2. Re:Tony Fadell is full of himself by Etcetera · · Score: 1

      The information age began long before Nest or the iPhone. Also, the Nest is a piece of shit.

      He's not talking about the information age, he's talking about constantly-available mobile data access to the information.

      Kids (mostly nerdy kids) being stuck in front of a desktop computer a la the 90s and early 2000s is not the same thing as everyone glued to their smartphones 24/7, or tablets being used as pacifying devices from the age of toddlers on up.

      --
      Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
  6. none of the above. by nimbius · · Score: 5, Informative

    you brought them an overpriced thermostat they dont control.

    https://yro.slashdot.org/story...

    you brought them a piece of electronic garbage that leaves them without heat in the dead of fucking january

    https://tech.slashdot.org/stor...

    and finally...perhaps the most unforgivable sin, you brought them a gadget that sells their personal information to their own utility companies.

    https://yro.slashdot.org/story...

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:none of the above. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My guess is that the future won't so much be the Black Mirror type issues, but more of the 'please drink verification can' sort of thing.

  7. Um... hyperbole much? by rsilvergun · · Score: -1, Troll

    If he's bringing up fake news that basically means two things: Trump & Brexit. Aside from the lower classes taking it in the shorts a little more than usual (and some of the middle class thanks to Brexit) there haven't been any material changes. I suppose it'd be nice if things had gotten better instead of worse, but maybe it's the cynic in me that's been fed on 30 years of declining wages but, well, fat chance.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:Um... hyperbole much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      there haven't been any material changes.

      Did you miss the part where we elected NAZITRAITORRUSSIANORANGETURBOHITLER to be President? It's LITERALLY THE END OF THE FUCKING WORLD

      It has been SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN that AT LEAST 15 million Michiganers switched their votes from Hillary to Drumpfleupagus after reading twitter posts by PUTIN'S fakenewsbots!

    2. Re:Um... hyperbole much? by johanw · · Score: -1, Troll

      > Did you miss the part where we elected NAZITRAITORRUSSIANORANGETURBOHITLER to be President?

      It seems so. I was under the impression that Hillary lost the election, and now you say she won?

    3. Re: Um... hyperbole much? by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1

      We are not engaged in a land war against Russia in Syria right now. I think that means Clinton didn't win.

      Those guys who wanted to build that pipeline across Syria (the real reason a lot of globalists wanted a regime change in Syria) must be sweating bullets at this point.

    4. Re: Um... hyperbole much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unrelated question:

      When the fuck did Slashdot get so based?

  8. Maybe ... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 3, Funny

    "I wake up in cold sweats every so often thinking, what did we bring to the world?"

    ... he just has male menopause.

    I think there's a Nest thermostat setting for that, but then Google will use that information for marketing.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  9. SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Gay+Boner+Sex · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I am starting to think that BeauHD, Miss Mash, and "editor" David are all the same person.


    Would someone PLEASE tell me what is going on here?


    The one good thing we saw from the previous administration was that we can go out and marry whomever we please now. The rest of it, was, well, continuing ENDLESS WARS, ramping up on TORTURE, going HAYWIRE and ARMING MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS TO THE TEETH, and oh, going BALLS TO THE WALL with this endless NSA SURVEILLANCE STATE, and trying to cram down our throats this "TPP/T*P" "agreement" "system" to destroy what's left of our labour bases and....dare I continue?

    What is going on here? You start reading a summary and are like, great, Tech news summary, and three or four sentences in, you are faced with this bizarre ultra fake news conspiracy theory "Russians hacked into my brain" story still being spewed. We aren't talking the Jill Stein or Bernie groups here. This is specifically the Hillary narrative vomited upon a news site over and over again. This is bizarre. What special interest group PURCHASED SLASHDOT?

    WHO IS BEHIND BIZX, LLC.?

    1. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      Ah, hey, no big deal, Donald Cuck just gave Syria back to Assad like Putin wants because, you know, it was a tremendous deal... But it couldn't be helped because of everyone talking about Podesta.

    2. Re:SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      u mad bro?

    3. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bars are wonderful things, you shitsack.

    4. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Gay+Boner+Sex · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Again, we see all these AC shills. Stupid, vapid AC shills. The comments are dull enough that they aren't trolls.

      It isn't hard to defeat them. Just have them answer a question on why Assad is so "evil" and why he must be wiped off the face of the earth. You know, just like how we wiped Saddam out to replace him with IS(IS) a decade later in a city now resembling a bombed-out World War I town that could have easily passed as a first or second-world semi-prosperous town until the USA invaded and destabilized the region.

    5. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I've got plenty of modpoints and don't mind voting down the rest of your posts if you keep this going.

    6. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Clearly you only vote Republican because the Soviet hypnomasters have brainwashed you! Guards, take this fool to the university! Perhaps a few years of gender equality studies will straighten you out, simpleton.

    7. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      not when they're having gaybuttsex in the bathrooms

    8. Re:SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But it gives you some place to go, you cum swilling fuckstick.

    9. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Gay+Boner+Sex · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Do it, Beau. I'll just create another UID and spampost to get my karma back up to excellent. It's like feeding alka-seltzer to the pigeons, you moron.

    10. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Gay+Boner+Sex · · Score: 0

      These days, it's in a fifteen year old Tahoe. I had the windows replaced with 3/16 cold roll steel. The car is firmly planted on the pavement; my face is not. They don't call it "parking" for nothing. Tired of the treatment we've been getting lately.

      Tired of BeauHD and Mrs. Mash, too.

    11. Re:SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Gay+Boner+Sex · · Score: 0

      Kinda like Key West. Autosegregation. We can go off to the nice places and leave you straight people alone.

      The vast majority of us aren't in those hideous "pride" marches. Leave that to the university-educated "WXYZBBQ" crossdressing creeps. I like the shaft. My lezzie friends like the dildo. So-called transgender freaks are mentally deranged. Y chromosome plus a genetic mistake makes you a gay male. Getting your weiner hacked off with a scalpel and claiming that you have an X chromosome when it is still a Y chromosome plus the aforementioned genetic mistake makes you need therapy.

    12. Re:SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Yes, the one wonderful aspect was empowering gays to create more neighborhoods full of strip clubs, bars, sex shops, and drugs.

      Finally, an answer to why we should support gay rights! Bring on the strip clubs, bars, sex shops, and drugs!

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    13. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps a few years of gender equality studies will straighten you out, simpleton.

      What comrade? Surely you mean it will give him a good bend. Being straight is a hate crime!

    14. Re:SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      They don't cut it off. They turn it inside out.

    15. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You didn't notice? The reordering of posts, the missing posts. Black hole comment ID's that lead nowhere. A handful of accounts, nomatter what they post, will be voted up. Those accounts change over time. Many disappear after every election. This has been going on for a few years. Go ahead and look around. After a story is up for awhile, the posts are reordered. Timestamps show what happened. The comment ID's are sequential, yet very occasionally some lead nowhere. The post is just gone.

      If you think that making another account will matter, if you think karma matters, you are wrong. You are playing against the house that does not have a need to, nor a track record of, playing by the rules. The house always wins.

    16. Re:SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What is going on here? You start reading a summary and are like, great, Tech news summary, and three or four sentences in, you are faced with this bizarre ultra fake news conspiracy theory "Russians hacked into my brain" story still being spewed. We aren't talking the Jill Stein or Bernie groups here. This is specifically the Hillary narrative vomited upon a news site over and over again. This is bizarre. What special interest group PURCHASED SLASHDOT?

        WHO IS BEHIND BIZX, LLC.?

      Jews, of course!

    17. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Any slashdot id over 2 million is essentially an AC. I certainly filter them as such.

    18. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by nitehawk214 · · Score: 1

      I never thought I would say this, but, Gay Boner Sex has an interesting idea here.

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
    19. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by nitehawk214 · · Score: 1

      The rest of the stuff he spews is batshit crazy, tho.

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
    20. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have 5. At most.

    21. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by KGIII · · Score: 1

      No.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    22. Re: SLASHDOT'S POLITICAL AGENDA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have 5. At most.

      per account

  10. Found the LUDDITE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    ONLY apps can app apps, NOT LUDDITE software like LUDDITE Nest!

    Apps!

    1. Re:Found the LUDDITE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But what if Nest ran apps?!?!?

      Wait there's an app for that.

  11. Cut the cord, sometimes by SeattleLawGuy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Amazing how negative the responses to this are so far.

    Cut the cord, sometimes. That's a positive thing. And huge for a kid. And it's not a problem with a device, just with becoming too dependent on it.

    I was fortunate as a child to have months where television was unavailable or incredibly limited, and where the video game systems weren't connected or the computer wasn't in the house. The result? A lot of outdoor adventures and a lot of reading. I still enjoy Netflix and video games, but if you want kids to read, make that the dominant available form of entertainment for a while. And find them places to adventure in where they can learn some independence.

    It's like at scout camp. Take the electronics away for a while. Children learn.

    --
    Real lawyers write in C++
    1. Re:Cut the cord, sometimes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Then you went to law school and had your brains and balls removed and became another liberal crap weasel.

    2. Re:Cut the cord, sometimes by tepples · · Score: 0

      I was fortunate as a child to have months where television was unavailable or incredibly limited, and where the video game systems weren't connected or the computer wasn't in the house. The result? A lot of outdoor adventures

      Good luck with that nowadays with police being more aggressive at picking up unaccompanied minors walking to and from said "outdoor adventures".

      and a lot of reading.

      Good luck with that nowadays with police being more aggressive at picking up unaccompanied minors walking to and from the public library.

    3. Re:Cut the cord, sometimes by Etcetera · · Score: 1

      Good luck with that nowadays with police being more aggressive at picking up unaccompanied minors walking to and from the public library.

      If you have a teen curfew in your area, take that up with your local city council. If you don't have a teen curfew in your area and that's happening, you might have bigger problems going on...

      --
      Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
  12. LOL, you didn't do anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You didn't bring anything to the market that had an impact. Just everyday garbage. Sleep well, moron.

  13. What did we bring by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Did we really bring a nuclear bomb with information that can -- like we see with fake news -- blow up people's brains and reprogram them?"

    Probably not.

    "Or did we bring light to people who never had information, who can now be empowered?"

    Definitely not.

  14. FAEK N00Z!!1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    So of all the proven and hypothetical negative effects of the phones-fucking-everywhere culture, from narcissism and depression and other social media-induced mental health problems to psychologically and financially exploitative mobile apps to cultural acceptance of 24/7 corporate surveillance of our movements and communications to large spikes in traffic accidents and deaths, you're most worried about a few twitter bots spreading lies about candidates you didn't like and that by all accounts had zero measurable impact on anything? Ok then.

    It seems the free spread of information is only good when it's information that supports your political viewpoints. The rest of the time we need our trusted MSM and hollywood celebrity gatekeepers to tell us what the "truth" is and what issues we should be worried about.

  15. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 0

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  16. Garbage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Same things were said about movies, radio, TV, comic books, rock music, pinball machines, video games, personal computers, and now cell phones with large screens.

    It's just generational bullshit.

    1. Re: Garbage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yeah, they were so wrong. Look how we are on an upward trajectory. Yaaay us.

  17. And a ton of others by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 2, Informative

    If he's bringing up fake news that basically means two things: Trump & Brexit.

    And pizzagate and golden showers and Russian hacking and many, many others too numerous to list.

    There's a metric buttload of less important fake news flowing around the MSM nowadays.

    Just today a number of MSM outlets(*) report that Polish first lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda snubbed President Donald Trump by refusing to shake his hand during his visit to Poland on Thursday.

    Of course, this is trivially debunked by simply looking at the images of the meet.

    At this point I'm not even sure why they do it; I mean... is it really effective to falsely report something in an attempt to tear down Trump? Does false reporting advance them towards some goal?

    Far right news outlets are calling out all the MSM fakeness, and because of this the integrity of the far right outlets has been steadily rising. That's starting to take a toll on the believability of the MSM.

    Are they really going to continue this process of "just making shit up and printing it" until people simply don't believe them any more?

    I would think that's a path to disaster, but then again I don't work at a newspaper. Maybe it's all part of some elaborate plan.

    (*) WaPo, HuffPo, and Daily Express, among many others

    1. Re:And a ton of others by stephanruby · · Score: 2

      As a Trump supporter, do you still consider Russian hacking to be fake news when President Trump tweeted the following?

      The real story is that President Obama did NOTHING after being informed in August about Russian meddling. With 4 months looking at Russia...
      https://twitter.com/realDonald...

      After all, you can't have it both ways. You can't say that something doesn't exist and then turn around and blame Obama for doing nothing about that non-existing thing.

      What do you think is Trump's excuse now? That meddling doesn't equal hacking? That meddling doesn't mean that Russian intelligence tried to influence Trump's campaign and Trump's team? That the fact that they tried to meddle doesn't mean that they succeeded? Or that the fact that Russia tried to meddle doesn't mean that there should be a US investigation on the matter, nor does it mean that there should be an investigation of Trump's team?

    2. Re:And a ton of others by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are the proof of what is 'wrong' with the society brought up on 'the internet', specifically that you've bought in 'hook, line & sinker' to a narrative driven only by those information sources that you read. E.g. you've decided to place yourself in to your own 'walled garden' & have lost all ability to do critical thinking.

      1) Trump has never said that Russia didn't try to influence the election.
      2) NONE of the security agencies have ever said they have proof of Russia hacking the DNC (how could they, none of them ever had access to the DNC server that was hacked) or behind Podesta's email being compromised.
      3) Comey specifically testified to his belief that Russia (and others) have been trying to influence elections forever & they'll continue in the future.So what makes this past election any different?

      The story isn't that Russia attempted to influence or meddle in an election. The story is that governments (including western ones) have been trying to influence elections (sometimes succeeding) forever. Worse yet the story is that the MSM has been doing their own brand of 'election influencing' via the stories they choose to run or don't run (where is the histeria over Clinton's/Obama's involvements with Russia?) and this has only gotten worse. CNN ran 93% negative stories about the current Trump administration...how is that even reasonable for a supposed 'objective news source'?

      Bringing this back around to the summary of this article, the issue isn't 'mobility', the issue is that people have been given the opportunity to wall themselves off in to 'echo chambers' that fit their own belief systems such that people are seemingly losing all ability to perform critical thinking. Hell 'fake news' wouldn't even have any impact if people spent more than 1 minute thinking about what they read, letting their 'bullshit meeting' kick it, do a bit of extra reading from multiple sources to validate the veracity of a statement & only THAN forming an opinion on something. You my friend, demonstrate this to a T.

    3. Re:And a ton of others by stephanruby · · Score: 1

      Thus far, I've only mentioned Russian hacking as fake news because the original poster, Okian Warrior, mentioned it. And also, the only other person I've quoted was President Trump. Say what you will about echo chambers, but I drive for a living, and so I also do listen to lots of AM radio, most of which happens to be super conservative.

      And at least, when I replied to Okian Warrior, I didn't reply as an anonymous coward. By using an actual user name, I've actually left the door open for him to reply to my response so we can have further back and forths. In your case however, since you've replied as an anonymous coward, I'm not even sure if you're the original poster or not, nor am I even sure if you would even be able to easily track your own post or any of my responses to your post.

  18. Be strong, Tony by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

    "And I know when I take [technology] away from my kids what happens," Fadell explained. "They literally feel like you're tearing a piece of their person away from them-they get emotional about it, very emotional. They go through withdrawal for two to three days." Products like the iPhone, Fadell believes, are more attuned to the needs of the individual rather than what's best for the family and the larger community.

    He must've recently watched The Wrath of Kahn and decided the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

    Keep your kids' phones locked up, Tony!

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  19. Polish president calling MSM news fake by Okian+Warrior · · Score: -1, Troll

    The president of Poland himself called out the incident as fake.

    When the leader of a foreign country calls out your news services for fake news, you think maybe there is something to the claim?

    Contrary to some surprising reports my wife did shake hands with Mrs. and Mr. Trump @POTUS after a great visit. Let's FIGHT FAKE NEWS.

            — Andrzej Duda (@AndrzejDuda) July 6, 2017

  20. CNN is FAKE NEWS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Death to CNN! Long live the new flesh!

  21. don't worry by ooloorie · · Score: 1, Insightful

    "I wake up in cold sweats every so often thinking, what did we bring to the world?" Fadell said. "Did we really bring a nuclear bomb with information that can -- like we see with fake news -- blow up people's brains and reprogram them?

    Don't worry about it, your success was mostly based on various ripoffs (Windows CE, iPod) of work pioneered by others. Heck, even the iPod design didn't survive. In different words, the mobile computing world would look pretty much the same, with or without anything you ever did.

    1. Re: don't worry by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1

      When he said "we", he did not mean himself and a hamster he keeps in a pocket. Get a clue, he meant the whole tech industry.

    2. Re: don't worry by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      When he said "we", he did not mean himself and a hamster he keeps in a pocket. Get a clue, he meant the whole tech industry.

      You don't say!

      That's what I was making fun of.

      You really are a bit dense, aren't you?

  22. Uses for an iphone and ipod by ishmaelflood · · Score: 2

    Well I'm sure the average slashdotter is thinking of something involving KY jelly, but I use my iPod to listen to music (it works very well) and my smartphone for sending and receiving phone calls and texts (it works very well). I don't wake up in cold sweats worrying about either device. TFA is whiny snowflaking.

  23. KILL THE GNOME FIRST by TheRealHocusLocus · · Score: 2

    Until we find and kill the gnome that keeps turning on YouTube's AUTOPLAY option repeatedly despite cookies and preferences, there is no hope for human kind. Please join with me. It will take our combined effort to defeat it.

    --
    <blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
    1. Re:KILL THE GNOME FIRST by jenningsthecat · · Score: 1

      Until we find and kill the gnome that keeps turning on YouTube's AUTOPLAY option repeatedly despite cookies and preferences, there is no hope for human kind. Please join with me. It will take our combined effort to defeat it.

      No need to actually kill the gnome in order to save humanity - just go behind its back. Install Greasemonkey or its equivalent in your browser, download and activate the appropriate script, and say goodbye to Autoplay.

      What's that you say? You never tried a Google search to find out how to eliminate the bane of your existence? And it doesn't matter anyway, because your browser of choice doesn't support running userscripts? Shame on you, enemy of humanity!

      --
      'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
    2. Re:KILL THE GNOME FIRST by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      This one http://firefox.add0n.com/contr... seems to work pretty well, keeping youtube pretty well under control. Nothing yet to block piece of shit uploaders with crappy headlines and fake imagines. I really hate those asshats whose videos are nothing but a string of commercials tied togethor and claim to provide information, seriously fuck you YouTube for not allowing blocking of shitty uploaders.

      Don't forget all you suckers who got addicted by YouTube payments, just like a drug dealer, YouTube played the scam of easy access on them. Then once that had a whole bunch addicted, they cooked up the PR=B$ lie about the advertisers complaining and demanding the blocking. Hah Hah, suckers, you were just being played as addicts, once addicted now you will play their tune or they cut you off. Remember you are not a youtuber, you are a video content creator and YouTube is a file distributor, just one of the many you should use, 'at the same time', why give YouTube exclusivity if the fuckers wont pay for it and worse treat you like an addict, cutting you off unless you play the game of corporate propagandist stooge, until your subscribers cut you off and you lose anyhow. Whilst Google play rinse and repeat, YouTube will find others to replace you and put them on the front page and when they burn out losing their subscribers, find new suckers.

      How come so few people realised Google the arse holes played the addict game on you with YouTube free cash for everyone, wake up.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    3. Re:KILL THE GNOME FIRST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think rather would prefer to limit the number of third-party scripts that can access all my browsing content.

      What's that you say ? You never realized that by installing these scripts you allow people (and the people that might hack their accounts) to see your private browsing, your banking, and so on ?

  24. Neuralink baby steps? by CopaceticOpus · · Score: 1

    If young people feel like tech devices are a part of their person, it will be so much easier for them to adapt to direct brain interfaces!

    I don't even know if I'm joking...

    1. Re:Neuralink baby steps? by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      Then DDOSsing them will be all the more satifying...

  25. It models life. by JimSadler · · Score: 0

    Make a comparison. The doves {usually left leaning} see great value in lifting everyone up and educating, healing and sheltering all people. The hawks on the other hand feel that if capitalists are unrestrained they will ruin many lives but make the rich better off. They feel that a nation that allows this can raise more wealth, build a much stronger military and capture the wealth of the world. So now we have youth scurrying about with inflated sense of self importance compared to former generations who had stronger social values. But keep in mind there are wonderful people and resources working in the mix. Wikipedia, Linux. Libra and Open Office, YouTube, Ted Talks,open education projects like Mathematica YouTube all have ferocious social value. These types of resources are world bending and shaping. And we are seeing medical diagnostic equipment that functions at a level never before reached by human. The transvaluation of values is a very tricky thing. Many may complain about pistols with two much power and too many bullets in their clips. But a cop forced to fight against violent criminals behind barricades will value that extra deadly pistol quite highly if he is the one holding it during the fight.

  26. "Think of the children!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "A lot of the designers and coders who were in their 20s when we were creating these things didn't have kids."

    "Think of the children!" is how we've gotten into a lot of messes in the first place, and ultimately tends to do them a disservice.

  27. The extended mind by bug1 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    You are taking away a piece of them;
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    1. Re:The extended mind by jenningsthecat · · Score: 1

      You are taking away a piece of them; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      From that, I infer that we've made ourselves vastly more susceptible to various kinds of 'brain damage equivalents' such as network and power failures, loss or theft of devices, etc. Actually, that explains A LOT about the state of the modern world...

      --
      'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
    2. Re:The extended mind by bug1 · · Score: 1

      It does have profound influences on society, especially when you consider our 'extended mind' can also be a 'shared mind'.
      e.g. the Internet, and thats where all the drama is about 'fake news', and increasing efforts to control our extended mind through censorship, eavesdropping etc.

      Its always been there though, through mainstream media, i think the difference is that as we become more empowered through accessible information we are becoming more aware of it.

      We are still waking up, but once awake our democratic systems will correct the flaws that exist in current institutions.

      Podcast about it the extended mind below;
      http://www.abc.net.au/radionat...

    3. Re: The extended mind by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are children have become apart of the borg collective. God help us all. Wait? Is god apart of the borg?

    4. Re:The extended mind by Etcetera · · Score: 1

      ^ Mod parent up.

      Additional dependencies = additional vulnerabilities, connotation partially intended

      --
      Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
  28. I am become death, the destroyer of worlds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did we really bring a nuclear bomb with information that canâ"like we see with fake newsâ"blow up peopleâ(TM)s brains and reprogram them?

    You made some crappy worthless products history has already forgotten about. Ones that caused real damage to real people in the process.

    We've all seen lots of shit like this on various HVAC forums over the years.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2016/0...

    https://www.reddit.com/r/homea...

    Energy harvesting scheme in particular you all knew when you did it that it would cause problems yet ..."C" wire too hard = lost sales = customer bitching = fuck it. This wasn't unintentional. It was deliberate.

    According to Fadell, this is largely a matter of unintended consequencesâ"but that doesnâ(TM)t free designers and developers from responsibility.

    You all know what you were doing (selling your customers out) and why you were doing it (to make money). Building actual functional products gets about as much attention as smartphone voice quality.

    Fadell wants there to be a Hippocratic oath for designers, where they pledge to work ethically and âoedo no harm.â âoeI think we have to be very cognizant of the unintended consequences, but also acknowledge them and then design them outâ"make sure that we are ethically designing,â

    Yea sure... back in the real world we have firms hiring physiological experts to maximally get users addicted to their "platforms" to maximize advertising profits. Unintended consequences. I'm sure the drug industry didn't intentionally cause an opioid epidemic either... It was all "unintentional". If your going to bother reflecting on "ethics" you should probably start by admitting what you really did and why you really did it. Not that any if it matters.

    1. Re: I am become death, the destroyer of worlds by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 0

      The article, and his concerns, were not about Nest, or home control devices at all. Did you just read 'Nest' in the title and pull the ripcord on your rant engine?

    2. Re:I am become death, the destroyer of worlds by Megane · · Score: 1

      Yeah, okay, you're ranting off-topic because you got triggered by the N-word, but I have to laugh. Years ago I bought a RadioThermostat model resold by 3M (for $100), and even lucked into a second one later for almost nothing. First thing I did was hook up the stupid C wire; both houses I installed them in were made in the '60s and had a five-wire cable to the thermostat, with the blue wire not connected. The other thing that Nest apparently failed to do was make it easy to tell when the thermostat had stopped talking to the server. The web page for my thermostat shows the time of last contact, which happens every 5 minutes or so.

      It also uses a cheap segmented LCD and doesn't run fucking Linux, just a couple of low-power micro-controllers. If it weren't for the WiFi radio, it could run a year on three AA batteries. It's just a fucking thermostat, not some kind of "home comfort hub" bullshit. I don't need it to "learn" anything, I just need a simple schedule and an away setting. Oh yeah, and it's even possible to control it over your LAN with JSON requests and to change the "cloud" server URL if you don't want to use theirs.

      Too bad I live in the middle of Texas, where it doesn't get cold enough for that "rig a fail-safe mechanical thermostat in parallel" tip to be useful.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  29. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 0

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  30. It's OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You basically did nothing for the last two years with your product... you'll be fine...

    Literally, the only feature you implemented in nest is the one I sent via the 'suggestion box.' I'm not taking credit for it because it was obvious, but that was fairly coincidental. It was also the only worthwhile improvement you made. Wake up in cold sweats? Shit, if you worried so much why don't you do something worthwhile with your product?

  31. How cute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fuck this piece of shit. It's unfortunate that all these assholes that make this tech weren't thoughtful BEFORE making their millions...!

  32. MODERATORS take note by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Providing information relevant to parent post now got modded as "troll"?!

    If the information is fake, post and point it out.

    Shame on the moderator who did this.

  33. Blocking of $#!+ty YouTube uploaders by tepples · · Score: 1

    fuck you YouTube for not allowing blocking of shitty uploaders.

    If YouTube were to add such a feature, how would it provide for "shitty uploaders" to be identified? Would the definition depend on a particular user, or would it be service-wide?

    The one thing YouTube does better than, say, your own private MediaGoblin instance is the related videos column at the right side of the video. What's the alternative to YouTube for finding related videos?

  34. Narcissist much? by GrumpySteen · · Score: 1

    Dude is trying to care about other people, but he's so absorbed in his narcissism that he thinks the danger of being distracted by a cell phone he helped create is somehow equivalent to the danger of nuclear arms.

    I guess his heart is kinda in the right place, but it seems he's completely out of touch with the real dangers that exist in the world. Maybe if he volunteered with Peace Corps or Red Cross or one of the other organizations that helps people who are actually facing real problems beyond "I'm too busy playing candy crush to make friends", he'd be less angsty about his contributions to technology.

  35. No IoT for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The business model for IoT is to gather consumer data and sell it. To do so, they offer Things that function like toasters and door locks and thermostats always did. Except that they are hugely vulnerable to software malfunction or malicious interference.

    Someone here opined that this will all get worked out in time. Not in my lifetime, I think. When I am finally forced to buy a Thing that needs its mother ship, there will be anti-Thing software to spoof it and keep data in and intruders out.

  36. Jules Verne envisioned the smart phone by Latent+Heat · · Score: 1

    in his long-lost short story Le Telephon-Photographique

    http://www.theonion.com/articl...

    "Rudeness becomes ubiquitous, as the device's infuriating notification-chimes invade every corner of public life," McGraw said. "When the ethically bereft begin transmitting images obtained under questionable circumstances, espionage becomes so prevalent as to threaten the integrity of the French populace."

    (or at least the Onion was on to this 13 year ago)

  37. Police who kidnap children by tepples · · Score: 2

    Police in some parts of the United States do in fact "have bigger problems going on" with respect to their pursuit of free-range children on trumped-up charges of neglect.

    In fact, it took a federal law in January 2016 to keep local authorities from harassing parents of children who walk to school.

  38. Unbiased and actually rational by cloud.pt · · Score: 1

    I believe we all still think about the dangers of ubiquitous and unlimited information/communication (or at least have someone dear with that opinion, whom we attempt to understand).

    I always try to tell myself (and others) that the "AFK", physical, "real world" society we live in is no different than phenomenons like TV, mass media or the internet. This applies equally to whatever mean we use to access it, like the www, because in a way or another, it will be biased (notorious examples are Google/Apple on mobile, or gov'ts, ISPs or even registrars for the web in general).

    The major differences that exist in, say, the interactions between 2 human in a room, and 2 billion in a social network or an online game is, well scale obviously, "speed" (or whatever you wanna call the lack of spatial placement no longer having meaning, which makes us all ultra fast communicating), and most of all, the dynamics of that scale and "speed". The dynamics might be the only single thing that has a positive OR negative effect on the interactions, when compared to the 1st scenario, but I believe that, as limited, nature-bred animals we are, these dynamics are what eventually make us human and not irrational beings as opposed to amoebas.

    That second guy in a room can be a paid troll. He can be your father. He can be a feminist, a humanist or a neonazi. As much as he can be the best person to talk about any given subject in an assertive, informed way. You never know anyone's opinion, sometimes you don't even know yours until the time comes to act upon it.

    You shouldn't really lose your sleep over what you can no longer prevent. The guy made the iphone, but the past is the past, and we no longer need an Einstein to tell us that. If you wanna trouble your mind with the effect of information overload, do it on your radius of action, to those around you you can actually have a positive influence about it (not only your real friends and family, but anyone who takes any shit from you). It's not 100% gonna be useful for everyone, but it sure can't hurt to share some wisdom om how to cope with the modern times.