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paulddraper's answer gave two examples of new abilities - the ability switch to vacation mode after starting a long trip, and the ability to turn the heat on sh

by dalke 11y ago

paulddraper's answer gave two examples of new abilities - the ability switch to vacation mode after starting a long trip, and the ability to turn the heat on shortly before arriving home. You write: "With this IoT stuff, though, I feel like someone is trying to sell me glow-in-the-dark sunglasses" I think a better example is, why in the early 1980s would you want to buy a microcomputer? Here's an example from 1983 concerning the IBM PCjr - https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1320&dat=19831230&id=isYxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=m-kDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2959,4276070&hl=e https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1320&dat=19831230&id=... . It came with 12 miniprograms, used 'to put the first-time user at ease', include 'a word game, a recipe organizer, a home-loan calculator and a checkbook program'. Does that sound like it's worth $1,000 in 1983 dollars ($2,300 in 2016 dollars)? FWIW, my personal experience is that it wasn't worthwhile on an early 1980s micro to keep track of recipes or the checkbook. Certainly others thought otherwise, but for many people the practical uses were also an excuse to buy a machine that you could play games on. So, perhaps think of the many IoT devices as fun games for the early adopters, rather than a serious cost savings that the last adopters would want?

marssaxman 11y ago
That makes sense. I wish I knew what the IoT equivalent of a video game was, though. And while early-80s computers may not have actually done that many practical things, there were at least lots of speculative articles enthusing about the practical things they would be doing in the near future, and decades' worth of science fiction imagining impractical things they might be doing in the farther future. With the IoT, I don't know of any such writing. Presumably it exists, and I'm hoping somebody can point me to it, but I simply haven't encountered anything of the sort. Another commenter talked about the excitement of being able to manipulate real-world objects. Maybe when engineer types get excited about "IoT" it is really just because this is the first time they are imagining that firmware hacking could be within their reach? Firmware is old hat to me and mixing the internet into it sounds like a recipe for disaster, but maybe if people are used to thinking of themselves as web developers, and don't realize that it's already easy to manipulate hardware and this has nothing to do with the Internet, they would read "IoT" as "I can control it". For me, though, "IoT" implies that "it is no longer mine to control".
- dalke 11y ago
  > With the IoT, I don't know of any such writing. Home automation gizmos, and speculating about them, have been around for a long time. Here's a quote from a newspaper article from 1990 - https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19900913&id=G6ccAAAAIBAJ&sjid=h3oEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4661,3343910&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19900913&id=... : "With a bedside remote control you'll be able to operate any electronic equipment in your home without lifting your head from the pillow" Again, I agree with you. I haven't seen much need for such things. Then again, I don't even have a smart phone. Oh! Here's another analogy; IoT is like the home robots of the early 1980s - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HERO_%28robot%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HERO_%28robot%29 .

by dalke 11y ago

marssaxman 11y ago

That makes sense. I wish I knew what the IoT equivalent of a video game was, though. And while early-80s computers may not have actually done that many practical things, there were at least lots of speculative articles enthusing about the practical things they would be doing in the near future, and decades' worth of science fiction imagining impractical things they might be doing in the farther future. With the IoT, I don't know of any such writing. Presumably it exists, and I'm hoping somebody can point me to it, but I simply haven't encountered anything of the sort. Another commenter talked about the excitement of being able to manipulate real-world objects. Maybe when engineer types get excited about "IoT" it is really just because this is the first time they are imagining that firmware hacking could be within their reach? Firmware is old hat to me and mixing the internet into it sounds like a recipe for disaster, but maybe if people are used to thinking of themselves as web developers, and don't realize that it's already easy to manipulate hardware and this has nothing to do with the Internet, they would read "IoT" as "I can control it". For me, though, "IoT" implies that "it is no longer mine to control".

dalke 11y ago
> With the IoT, I don't know of any such writing. Home automation gizmos, and speculating about them, have been around for a long time. Here's a quote from a newspaper article from 1990 - https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19900913&id=G6ccAAAAIBAJ&sjid=h3oEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4661,3343910&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19900913&id=... : "With a bedside remote control you'll be able to operate any electronic equipment in your home without lifting your head from the pillow" Again, I agree with you. I haven't seen much need for such things. Then again, I don't even have a smart phone. Oh! Here's another analogy; IoT is like the home robots of the early 1980s - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HERO_%28robot%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HERO_%28robot%29 .