Boss, I'm late for work because someone hacked my alarm clock

[sleipnir214]

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,713183,00.asp

Comments? ______________________________________________________________________
TANSTAAFL!

 

[svanels]

Web enabled? Speech enabled house hold appliances. Com on guys!

Imagine you discussing with your refrigator about the chicken you just bought, because he/she or it (the refrigerator) just read on the Internet about the dangers of cholesterol, and refusing to store it.
Suppose they will receive spam also.

We have enough problems with people, imagine you also have to resolve a sit-down action of your microwave!!! because you are a month overdue with paying your electric bill.

On the other hand it would be handy when un-authorized persons (my kids) are assaulting the fridge late at night



Steven van Els
SAvanEls@cq-link.sr

 

[CajunCenturion]

Speech enabled household devices to accept voice commands is one thing, imparting intelligence in the devices is something else entirely.

Is it really that funny that those who really understanding the technology are the ones who do not take it to the limit?

I have no problem with using the available technology in a variety of ways. The concern I have, is becoming dependant on technology.


Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[svanels]

Accepting voice commands would be a nice thing but the equipment has to respond also.

Me to cofeemaker 6:30 am ---> make coffee!!
Coffee maker 6:35 ---> coffee ready

or

6:35 nothing yet

Me to coffeemaker --> where is my coffee!?

Coffeemaker --> you didn't buy the coffee yesterday my dear!!


A rather discuss these things with my wife!

Steven van Els
SAvanEls@cq-link.sr

 

[jad]

what would be better is (depending on day of week):

Me 7:20 ---> *grunt*
under floor heating 7:20 ---> heat up
loud noise making device 7:22 ---> make loud obstinate noise
Coffee maker 7:25 ---> coffee ready
toaster 7:25 ---> toast start
loud noise making device 7:25 ---> make loud obstinate penetrating noise
Me 7:25 ---> *grunt*
big clodding pushing device 7:25 ---> force me out of bed.


similar to current perfect world scenario:

Me 7:20 ---> *grunt*
Wife 7:22 ---> make loud obstinate noise
Wife 7:25 ---> coffee ready
Wife 7:25 ---> toast start
Wife 7:25 ---> make loud obstinate penetrating noise
Me 7:25 ---> *grunt*
Wife 7:25 ---> force me out of bed.

sort of.

 

[Tarwn]

LOL, I knew there was a reason I was going to get married...

_{01010100 01101001 01100101 01110010 01101110 01101111 01101011 00101110 01100011 01101111 01101101}
^{29 3K 10 3D 3L 3J 3K 10 32 35 10 3E 39 33 35 10 3K 3F 10 38 31 3M 35 10 36 3I 35 35 10 3K 39 3D 35 10 1Q 19}
Do you know how hot your computer is running at home? I do

http://www.tiernok.com/hscripts/systemp.asp

 

[svanels]

I wouldn't exchange my wife for the "loud noise web-enabled speaking device", imagine these long cold rainy nights, talking to some "intelligent" piece of equipment!!

Steven van Els
SAvanEls@cq-link.sr

 

[Stevehewitt]

LOL, I like this thread!

On a serious note, I think people are over estimating things. People won't be talking to fridges. Think about it.
There will be one of those "Mira"'s (or a tablet PC on a wall! ;-)) connected up via 802.11b probably (or something newer no doubt) to things like fridges, clocks and kettles. So in the morning you can get up and go to your Mira thingy, where its also part PDA, and you can press a button and your kettle will turn on, the fridge will inform you that your low on milk and adds it to your shopping list online and the clock syncs with BT's time server online as everyone will have a broadband connection. You can then take your PDA from another wireless connection to your Mira and it has your shopping list, emails, To do and other stuff all done automatically. It will also remind you 10 mins after the kettle has boiled that you will need to refil it and that your electricity bill has been taken from your bank account.

Sounds good to me!

Thanks,

Steve Hewitt

 

[Onyxpurr]

I am a wife! Where do I sign up?! (Although admittedly it is my husband that does all those things, I just do the nighttime work.) <grin>

 

[svanels]

I wouldn't let the computer taking care of my wallet!! That would be the walhalla for hackers (or crackers). Fortunately I live in region where these fancy things are rare (yet). Computer to cook, computer to do shopping, computer to pay the bills. At least when I am out camping, no computer, no laptop or pda's, just a hammock, a creek, a good book... and of course my wife!

Steven van Els
SAvanEls@cq-link.sr

 

[jad]

i was just saying that since we have child no. 2 on the way, and wife isn't sleeping too well, that in the morning you could substitute her for loud noise making device ...

as it happens i don't drink coffee ... and i get up before her ...

I'm not saying i'm a technophobe, in fact i'm a technophile, but the amount of technology in our house is very minimal at present. we now have a laptop to work on, being a small house with 2 children doesn't give us a desk space, so we need a laptop. 2 years ago we got a video recorder.

however we don't have a cd-player of any kind, and although we have a tape player and a radio, they are 2 different devices.

better than my father-in-law ... he had an electric hedge cutter, but traded it in for a pair of shears to cut his hedges, and did likewise for an electric mower to a push mower.

 

[sleipnir214]

I wouldn't mind living in a smart house -- if any of the concepts worked well. All of the smart house concepts I've seen or researched don't deal well with the randomness of human life -- and if you have kids, the randomness of your life is generally a high-order chaos.


Want the best answers? Ask the best questions:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

TANSTAAFL!

 

[Onyxpurr]

I think being programmers ourselves makes us a little leary of new inventions. The common user is only aware of the benefits, not the pitfalls of new technology. Fo instance I never purchase the latest version of Windows. I let the other users test it out and let a couple of versions be released before I trust it.

Sidenote: I went to Kinkos yesterday and just about freaked out. The one near us works off of debit/credit cards. You put your card in the reader, it gobbles it up, and won't spit it out until you're done. Then you have to do the same things for a receipt. Not that I don't like the convenience but would happen if it ever decided to not give it back because of a bug? I know I already do this for atms, but I like to reduce my ratio of possibilities that I might not get my card back.