4 ms·

Not trying to nitpick, but we live in our current house for 8 years. And when we moved in we "inherited" city-provided trashcan, which was probably there for an

Not trying to nitpick, but we live in our current house for 8 years. And when we moved in we "inherited" city-provided trashcan, which was probably there for another 8 years easily if not more. It is a plastic one. Why does trash can need to be replaced every 5-10 years?

hw_penfold 8y ago
This is the weird part about the internet of things. No one has any generalized rule for differentiating which things should be smart, and which things should stay dumb. One thing that consistently jumps out at me, though, is the lack of legitimate consumer demand. The motives for buying smart devices are shallow, for the individual. Trying out new toys with disposable income, purely out of boredom, tends to sum up why most people opt for slightly smarter dumb things. I can think of many powerful applications for smart devices, and almost none of them are in the home. Parking garages, or almost anything transportation related, short term lockers at public places like gyms, any hospitality setting, where nothing actually belongs to an individual, but routine maintenance is required. Any vending machine is kind of already on the internet. Break rooms in office settings, and so on. In some respects, I don't even want my desktop computer to be an autonomous internet enabled device, and it's the smartest thing I own. I don't regard it as a reliable server of information. I don't want anything personal to become a reliable server of information, because any information it might serve is almost assuredly, implicitly personal.
maxxxxx 8y ago
In LA they pick up trash with trucks and a mechanical arm. This seems pretty hard on the trash cans. Mine tend to break in some way every 3-5 years.
- hippich 8y ago
  In my case it is picked up either by mechanical arm, or by a guy bringing it to the end of the garbage truck and truck doing the rest (did not find why they run different trucks each time) Seems to last just fine.
sidstling 8y ago
It’s not personalized trash cans, it’s public ones at streets and beaches. You wouldn’t really need IoT in the trash can if it’s emptied on a schedule, but a lot of public trash cans see very different usage amounts over the year. As for durability, well, people destroy them. Your average public trash can at a park or a beach could need replacement several times during a summer thanks to things like one-usage grills. ;) In those cases the IoT device has the added advantage of being able to warn the fire department.

hw_penfold 8y ago

This is the weird part about the internet of things. No one has any generalized rule for differentiating which things should be smart, and which things should stay dumb. One thing that consistently jumps out at me, though, is the lack of legitimate consumer demand. The motives for buying smart devices are shallow, for the individual. Trying out new toys with disposable income, purely out of boredom, tends to sum up why most people opt for slightly smarter dumb things. I can think of many powerful applications for smart devices, and almost none of them are in the home. Parking garages, or almost anything transportation related, short term lockers at public places like gyms, any hospitality setting, where nothing actually belongs to an individual, but routine maintenance is required. Any vending machine is kind of already on the internet. Break rooms in office settings, and so on. In some respects, I don't even want my desktop computer to be an autonomous internet enabled device, and it's the smartest thing I own. I don't regard it as a reliable server of information. I don't want anything personal to become a reliable server of information, because any information it might serve is almost assuredly, implicitly personal.

maxxxxx 8y ago

In LA they pick up trash with trucks and a mechanical arm. This seems pretty hard on the trash cans. Mine tend to break in some way every 3-5 years.

hippich 8y ago
In my case it is picked up either by mechanical arm, or by a guy bringing it to the end of the garbage truck and truck doing the rest (did not find why they run different trucks each time) Seems to last just fine.

sidstling 8y ago

It’s not personalized trash cans, it’s public ones at streets and beaches. You wouldn’t really need IoT in the trash can if it’s emptied on a schedule, but a lot of public trash cans see very different usage amounts over the year. As for durability, well, people destroy them. Your average public trash can at a park or a beach could need replacement several times during a summer thanks to things like one-usage grills. ;) In those cases the IoT device has the added advantage of being able to warn the fire department.