The Home as a Node on the Internet

Humility writes "EETimes, a weekly trade magzine for electrical engineers, has a story about the integration of networked computers into domestic residences and artwork. This is a little more far reaching than just wiring up your home with a bunch of MP3 players and speakers. I think it's quite interesting." Fully networked houses on display at The Museum of Modern Art. Sweet! I wonder if this guy's place qualifies? It should.

Comments

"No internet in 88"?

[Tom Christiansen]

"At the time, there was no Internet, the term '24/7' had yet to be coined and it was unheard of to get proprietary information from the client's employer - an investment bank - piped into the home," Daniel Rowen, who designed the apartment with fellow architect Frank Lupo, told EE Times.

No internet in 88, eh? I suppose Bill Gates and Al Gore hadn't invented it yet.

Sigh.

I wonder what that thing I've been on since the very early 80s really is? I'd swear that it was the internet. Has the media truly forgotten where this all came from?

And by 1988, I certainly had internet from home, including a private link into my employer's inner sanctum of customer and engineering data. And I from there was able to tap into our clients' own private systems as needed when I was doing customer service. Now, it wasn't the clients' business info we were getting, but still.

Has the mass media ever gotten anything right?

Brings a whole new meaning to Home Security

[MAXOMENOS]

I can see it now.....homes wired to the hilt, including lights, garage door, security system... all maintained by a small, inexpensive box with some sort of free UNIX, commercial UNIX, or MS system running on it. The whole thing can operated through command line interface or though an X-based interface. Wonderful!

But what if your home security is as weak as most corporate network security? Next thing you know, your home system is infected with a virus (especially if it's MS based)......some cracker uses a buffer overflow exploit to get root, allowing for easy break-in, or worse, the haunted house from Hell...your house gets ping-flooded and shuts down for as long as it takes for your friendly neighborhood HomeOnTheNet(tm) representative to come by and reboot...some stupid script kiddie uses a downloaded executible to open the bathroom/bedroom curtains when your self/wife/sister/daughter (or husband/son/brother) is nekkid...there are all kinds of analogues to stupid computer security goofs. What are you gonna do, call in an expert to keep it secure? A lot of the so-called experts can't keep boxes secure today, as the archives on attrition.org should demonstrate.

What will save most people is the fact that their lives are just too boring to pay attention to. As for everyone else, they'll have to be on their toes, all the time, to avoid far more annoying cyberpranks than ever before. At minimum they'll need a secure firewall; if they're a celebrity, they'll need to hire a trusted system administrator who's an expert in maintaining secure systems -- and those aren't exactly easy to find. All in all, it makes me wonder who would want their home system on Internet in the first place.............