I first read about Internet of Things in contexts where it seemed to make a lot of sense: monitoring bridges and pipelines for integrity, "smart grid" coordinat

I first read about Internet of Things in contexts where it seemed to make a lot of sense: monitoring bridges and pipelines for integrity, "smart grid" coordination to optimize electrical grid services, networked sensors for better preventive maintenance and higher productivity from existing capital equipment (e.g. mining facility trucks, crushers, power plants...) It's sad that the term has come to be dominated by ill-conceived consumer devices. I still have to remind myself that people are picturing "waffle iron that sends email" rather than "networked strain gages on bridges" when they savage IoT as a concept.