Candles, the latest IOT foolishness

sphexx

sphexx

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This project is digital so absolutely nothing can go wrong... absolutely nothing can go wrong... absolutely nothing can go wrong... absolutely nothing can go wrong... :wideyed:
 
Apart from - just because you can do something doesn't mean you should - and that even in the range of all IoT this must feature as one of the most useless, it would be just a disaster waiting to happen.

Dave
 
Tringa said:
Apart from - just because you can do something doesn't mean you should - and that even in the range of all IoT this must feature as one of the most useless, it would be just a disaster waiting to happen.

Dave
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Or useful thing ... my first thought was arsonists ;(.
 
sphexx said:
Safety is a big selling point because you can then avoid having matches in the house because “everyone knows how dangerous that is”:eek:.
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:LOL: as said previously, Nothing can go wrong can it?
:D
 
reminds me of the story (myth?) about how much money the USA were alleged to have spent developing a pen that would write in zero gravity, while the Russians took pencils.....
 
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broc said:
reminds me of the story (myth?) about how much money the USA were alleged to have spent developing a pen that would write in zero gravity, while the Russians took pencils.....
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Unfortunately a lot of ‘progress’ happens that way via grandiose projects eg HS2, a rail line where, say, better internet access would be pore appropriate and needed anyway. :)
 
broc said:
reminds me of the story (myth?) about how much money the USA were alleged to have spent developing a pen that would write in zero gravity, while the Russians took pencils.....
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I think there was a cross over between 'national pride'!
The USA spent billions creating their Apollo manned space program but have had trip ups along the way and the "Space Pen" was the everyday epitome of that..............the USSR (as was then) showed what could be achieved with a much simpler vehicle and simplest of writing implement ;) NB and compared to all the now retired NASA vehicles the Soyuz capsules are still in use!

sphexx said:
Unfortunately a lot of ‘progress’ happens that way via grandiose projects eg HS2, a rail line where, say, better internet access would be pore appropriate and needed anyway. :)
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I would guess that a fraction of the approx £100bn HS2 costs could provide affordable multi Gigabit internet across the whole 100% of the country and on the basis that flood relief spending has to "show" a benefit of £8 for every £1 spent................I wonder which might provide a better ratio of cost vs benefit ~ HS2 or nationwide high Gigabit internet. One very industrially successful country that was the first or at least one of the first to have Gigabit Internet is South Korea!
 
broc said:
reminds me of the story (myth?) about how much money the USA were alleged to have spent developing a pen that would write in zero gravity, while the Russians took pencils.....
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Yup - Myth!
 
broc said:
reminds me of the story (myth?) about how much money the USA were alleged to have spent developing a pen that would write in zero gravity, while the Russians took pencils.....
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Although an earlier example (not an expert on this) is the complex but unreliable Panzer that the Nazis developed to beat the rather ‘agricultural’ Russian tanks. Or the there‘s the Kalashnikov ... seems to be a pattern here ;). The rocket story might be down to a Werner Von Brain versus whatever German rocketeers the aRussians captured :).
 
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sphexx said:
On Troy Hunt‘s update today he describes a Kickstarter, that looks to succeed, marketing a real flame candle that you can light with an app on your phone. What could possibly go wrong? :):oops: :$:eek:. Safety is a big selling point because you can then avoid having matches in the house because “everyone knows how dangerous that is”:eek:.

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...ame-candle?ref=discovery_category&term=Candle

https://www.troyhunt.com/weekly-update-179/
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Not always prudent to be honest, especially in a forum ..I mean any forum..where there can lurk some less than friendly characters, regarding ignorance of something..lol..but I will be and admit that I’ve never heard of the IoT. A good name. I see it includes the likes of parcel tracking, speaker systems, home appliances . Introduced by Kevin Ashton,.(.born in Birmingham) at a presentation at Proctor and Gamble in 1999 where he worked. Experts estimate there will be 50 billion items under it’s umbrella by this year.

Not many people know that..:D :)
 
JohnC6 said:
Not always prudent to be honest, especially in a forum ..I mean any forum..where there can lurk some less than friendly characters, regarding ignorance of something..lol..but I will be and admit that I’ve never heard of the IoT. A good name. I see it includes the likes of parcel tracking, speaker systems, home appliances . Introduced by Kevin Ashton,.(.born in Birmingham) at a presentation at Proctor and Gamble in 1999 where he worked. Experts estimate there will be 50 billion items under it’s umbrella by this year.

Not many people know that..:D :)
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It includes those toys that listen to and talk back to children from servers in China, cute, the Chinese I mean not the dolls ;).
Actually one of the worst things is the watches that people give to children to keep them safe by tracking them from their phones. It’s been shown that the password is simple and people can remote hack into them and change their reported position and talk to the kids as though theyvwere the parents ... what could go wrong?
 
Not many people are clued up about Internet security, so the more homes that are filled with IoT devices the more scope there is for misuse & interference.

So called 'Smart' web enabled devices such as door locks, central heating thermostats, domestic gas & electric meters, not to mention CCTV cameras & baby alarms are all vulnerable to attack.
 
broc said:
the more homes that are filled with IoT devices the more scope there is for misuse & interference.
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I totally agree, and I've been saying all that for years, more so as the technology advances, but apparently I'm paranoid
:woot:
 
Another example of doing things for the sake of it......
Recently we were looking at replacing our 20 year old Miele dishwasher as it had a leak (now fixed). I came across a dishwasher that was IoT enabled that you could control from an app on a smartphone, WHY? Am I missing the point?

At the moment we load things into the dishwasher, add detergent, select the appropriate programme and set it away, all done while standing in front of the machine. A period of time later (usually before going to bed) we check it & if it is finished turn it off. Why would I want to control it & check status from my mobile phone? We trust it to do the same thing every time we use it.
 
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broc said:
Not many people are clued up about Internet security, so the more homes that are filled with IoT devices the more scope there is for misuse & interference.

So called 'Smart' web enabled devices such as door locks, central heating thermostats, domestic gas & electric meters, not to mention CCTV cameras & baby alarms are all vulnerable to attack.
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People are very trusting about stuff they don’t understand and also think “they” (presumably HMG or maybe the Queen;)) wouldn’t allow anything bad to happen :(. It’s odd really since they are so suspicious about “big cameras” etc for example :(.
 
broc said:
Another example of doing things for the sake of it......
Recently we were looking at replacing our 20 year old Miele dishwasher as it had a leak (now fixed). I came across a dishwasher that was IoT enabled that you could control from an app on a smartphone, WHY? Am I missing the point?

At the moment we load things into the dishwasher, add detergent, select the appropriate programme and set it away, all done while standing in front of the machine. A period of time later (usually before going to bed) we check it & if it is finished turn it off. Why would I want to control it & check status from my mobile phone? We trust it to do the same thing every time we use it.
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Haha! The above referenced Troy Hunt who lives in Gold Coast QLD but lectures worldwide found in Scandinavia recently that his phone or laptop was logging into a mysterious address and found it was connecting to his IoT refrigerator on the other side of the world!
 
sphexx said:
Haha! The above referenced Troy Hunt who lives in Gold Coast QLD but lectures worldwide found in Scandinavia recently that his phone or laptop was logging into a mysterious address and found it was connecting to his IoT refrigerator on the other side of the world!
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:LOL:

Well there you have it, you can check your food balance from 1000's of miles away, if only it could pop down to Tesco's and re-fill it self.
Actually I s'pose it could have a word with Alexa and that could order the food. all you need then is one of these to put it away (y)

View: https://youtu.be/MspVCc0_R3g?t=46


:D
 
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broc said:
I came across a dishwasher that was IoT enabled that you could control from an app on a smartphone, WHY?
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I've had a washing machine for a a few years that you can do that with, but I can't answer your question because like you I've never connected it to the phone,
As you say, I am standing in front of it to load it, just need to shut the door and press the start button :thinking:
 
broc said:
Another example of doing things for the sake of it......
Recently we were looking at replacing our 20 year old Miele dishwasher as it had a leak (now fixed). I came across a dishwasher that was IoT enabled that you could control from an app on a smartphone, WHY? Am I missing the point?

At the moment we load things into the dishwasher, add detergent, select the appropriate programme and set it away, all done while standing in front of the machine. A period of time later (usually before going to bed) we check it & if it is finished turn it off. Why would I want to control it & check status from my mobile phone? We trust it to do the same thing every time we use it.
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If you are missing the point then I am missing it too.

This example of the IoT seems particularly nuts. Is the idea that you load the dishwasher, put the detergent in but don't switch it on so you can walk away from it and then turn it on via your phone?!

I can understand a reason for switching it on later, eg cheaper electricity, but quite a few even fairly old dishwashers have delay settings

What is needed is internet enabled crockery that, from a phone, can be 'told' to get into the dishwasher, an internet enabled detergent dispenser and then the machine can be turned on by an app:).

I think the internet and the Web are up there with the most amazing inventions of all time but just because something can be controlled in this way doesn't mean it is the best way of doing it.

Dave
 
It's almost like a 'fashion' statement.... things must be Internet enabled......

In the same way 'salted caramel' has become the 'must have' flavour combination, or appliances must have a piercing blue LED glaring at you. A few years back it was in-built LCD or LED digital clocks in everything with a plug on it.

I was talking to a heating engineer the other day, he was telling me he had just installed a digital shower for someone, they could now set the temperature & turn it on from their phone.....another fine piece of technology, something else to go wrong. What's wrong with just turning on the shower mixer?

I think too many product designers today are seeking problems for their solutions, rather than the other way round. Just look at all the functions in modern digital cameras ;)
 
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Tringa said:
If you are missing the point then I am missing it too.

This example of the IoT seems particularly nuts. Is the idea that you load the dishwasher, put the detergent in but don't switch it on so you can walk away from it and then turn it on via your phone?!

I can understand a reason for switching it on later, eg cheaper electricity, but quite a few even fairly old dishwashers have delay settings

What is needed is internet enabled crockery that, from a phone, can be 'told' to get into the dishwasher, an internet enabled detergent dispenser and then the machine can be turned on by an app:).

I think the internet and the Web are up there with the most amazing inventions of all time but just because something can be controlled in this way doesn't mean it is the best way of doing it.

Dave
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I think the manufacturers do it because they can. Long before IoT they were adding things like clocks to things for no good reason but I guess it’s very cheap to do once you have a chip there. I guess they see them as extra selling points that may attract some buyers and differentiate initially from competitor.

Edit; writing this as @broc was posting above — clocks!
 
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broc said:
Just look at all the functions in modern digital cameras ;)
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I do and every so often I find one or another just the thing I want. Otherwise, I just ignore them. :sulk:
 
"With a single tap on your smartphone, you can now light-up a real scented candle that will ignite magically."

But which scent? Vanilla? Lavender? Gwyneth Paltrow?
 
So, you get an IoT candle out, put it on the table, and tap your phone. Nothing happens. You look closer, and realize the app is connected to your other IoT candle.
Then you notice the sideboard's on fire.
 
Tori_T said:
So, you get an IoT candle out, put it on the table, and tap your phone. Nothing happens. You look closer, and realize the app is connected to your other IoT candle.
Then you notice the sideboard's on fire.
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Actually you can have about 10 candles connected together so you may light them forgetting you’ve put one somewhere else :)
 
I have loads of 'phone controlled devices - I 'phone Mrs Nod and tell her what I want her to switch on.


P.S. Anyone know where to get a 'phone removed (with a guarantee of discretion...)
 
Can't do it since the haemorrhoidectomy! However, I CAN use my Dictaphone...
 
These butts are made for talkin',
And that's just what they'll do (with apologies to Nancy Sinatra).
 
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