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I agree with the view that the current IoT-stuff is mostly scam and utter garbage. No doubt. People are playing around and startups want to hit a homerun desper

I agree with the view that the current IoT-stuff is mostly scam and utter garbage. No doubt. People are playing around and startups want to hit a homerun desperately. But these early stages won't last too long... Having said this, I can clearly see the obvious benefits of smart "stuff". Door Locks/Security, Fridges with automatic bookkeeping and groceries lists on the go, Pans that optimize your steak interactively, temperature/air management through orchestration of air conditioner/heater/windows, automatic Breakfast (orchestration of coffee machine, toaster, eggboiler, ... ), ... and so on, just a few things from the top of my head. Of course something like IFTTT helps a lot here in these early days to test workflows. But before there are rainbows and unicorns, we need to advance quite a bit more. Devices must be way cheaper commodities. Protocols and "Hubs" must be standardized, hardened and secured, something that only can happen with true OSS and the experience that comes from playing around right now. And last but not least: we need just a few years of waiting so that the younger more tech-savvy generation becomes a more dominant buying force. The IoT doesn't need a "killer app" or something like that... it will silently progress in to our life more and more.

marssaxman 11y ago
I guess what I'm hoping for here are some links to what Microsoft people would call "scenarios", little stories explaining how people would use these hypothetical IOT gadgets and how their lives would be made better as a result. I'm being completely literal when I say that my imagination is not up to the job: you clearly have some things in mind behind the references in your second paragraph there, but I don't know what you are envisioning. None of these tasks sound remotely complicated the way they are, and I really cannot imagine how stuffing a bunch of fragile, hard-to-maintain automation into the gadgets used to accomplish them could possibly make them any easier. Why is this hypothetical younger tech-savvy generation going to want IOT devices? What benefit are they going to be perceiving in them? What sci-fi are they going to be reading that gives them a picture of an IOT-enabled future they want to live in?
- anonyfox 11y ago
  I'd say first and foremost it's exciting as a (purely virtual) software developer to actually do things in the real world through devices. Excitement drives hype, and so on. For the usage side, i think the actual useful stuff is when many of these devices are capable of interacting intelligently. For example take room air management: I want to sleep in cool conditions, wake up warmth, save energy while I'm at work, come home into a acceptable warm temperature, and whenever I'm home I also want to breath fresh air. This needs a interaction between the air conditionier, heater and windows, plus my smartphone to enable them learning my daily routine: wake up times through the week/weekend, when I leave, when I start to return home, when I arrive at home, when I go to sleep, and this cycles optimized through the seasons and outside weather conditions. Also I want to "fine-tune" this orchestrated system easily with my phone, not controlling every single device on its own. And finally: save energy whenever possible. Add in more family members ad their schedules. So basically we need a myriad of ensors/devices, plus some machinelearning that runs on dirt-cheap hardware, plus some kind of local cloud hub, which itself can be securely accessed remotely. I hope you get the idea

marssaxman 11y ago

I guess what I'm hoping for here are some links to what Microsoft people would call "scenarios", little stories explaining how people would use these hypothetical IOT gadgets and how their lives would be made better as a result. I'm being completely literal when I say that my imagination is not up to the job: you clearly have some things in mind behind the references in your second paragraph there, but I don't know what you are envisioning. None of these tasks sound remotely complicated the way they are, and I really cannot imagine how stuffing a bunch of fragile, hard-to-maintain automation into the gadgets used to accomplish them could possibly make them any easier. Why is this hypothetical younger tech-savvy generation going to want IOT devices? What benefit are they going to be perceiving in them? What sci-fi are they going to be reading that gives them a picture of an IOT-enabled future they want to live in?

anonyfox 11y ago
I'd say first and foremost it's exciting as a (purely virtual) software developer to actually do things in the real world through devices. Excitement drives hype, and so on. For the usage side, i think the actual useful stuff is when many of these devices are capable of interacting intelligently. For example take room air management: I want to sleep in cool conditions, wake up warmth, save energy while I'm at work, come home into a acceptable warm temperature, and whenever I'm home I also want to breath fresh air. This needs a interaction between the air conditionier, heater and windows, plus my smartphone to enable them learning my daily routine: wake up times through the week/weekend, when I leave, when I start to return home, when I arrive at home, when I go to sleep, and this cycles optimized through the seasons and outside weather conditions. Also I want to "fine-tune" this orchestrated system easily with my phone, not controlling every single device on its own. And finally: save energy whenever possible. Add in more family members ad their schedules. So basically we need a myriad of ensors/devices, plus some machinelearning that runs on dirt-cheap hardware, plus some kind of local cloud hub, which itself can be securely accessed remotely. I hope you get the idea