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TL;DR: he stayed over at a friend's place in a densely packed condo unit. Condo building has a home automation system with binary codes that has a limit of 16 c

TL;DR: he stayed over at a friend's place in a densely packed condo unit. Condo building has a home automation system with binary codes that has a limit of 16 combinations. With 40 units nearby, each unit controls at least 1 other automation system in a neighbor's apt, so one of his neighbors was accidentally toggling his light. Even better are the replies from other Twitter users on the same thread on what they experienced with their home automation systems. Here's one that tickled me: "We had an Airbnb guest once who (probably accidentally) connected his Spotify Connect to my living room sound system. Months after he was gone, death metal would start without a warning, volume went up, silence after 5 seconds. It took weeks before I figured it out" It's crazy how sometimes these automation systems that are supposed to make our lives easier, make it more complicated instead. I wonder when the issues that we see today with smart houses and smart TVs will show up in the upcoming generation of "smart" cars.

zzo38computer 7y ago
I do not use home automation, and I do not use smart houses and smart TVs. But if I did want to have an automation system for some things, I would prefer to wire everything (rather than making it wireless) so that it doesn't have the problems you mentioned. Too many thing now they do wireless, even though I want it to be wired instead.
- stjohnswarts 7y ago
  That ups the cost by a LOT though, so people don't. I have no desire for a "smart home", smart tv is about it, I have some external wireless cameras. No camera in my home except on my phone. You can't hack it if its not there.
6510 7y ago
I think when things get bad enough we will return to simplicity. (keeping some of the good stuff) This week I see 2 coffee machines to complicated for me to make coffee. 1 kitchen light I couldn't switch on and a dishwasher I couldn't get to work. Every time a group of people gathered around the automation then gave up. I just had a message exchange where I explained (to the owner) how to get music out of a laptop, bluetooth dongle, amplifier setup. Windos really wants you to switch on bluetooth from the configuration screen every time. The dongle needs a reset periodically (or just vanishes) and the amplifier likes to change its input channel. Between bluetooth and mp3 the quality is complete shit by 1980 standards.
- catalogia 7y ago
  Some modern coffee machines are so bewildering, it makes me feel like Arthur Dent trying to explain to an alien computer how to make tea. It really makes H2G2 seem remarkably prescient.
  - tetris11 7y ago
    "So first you have to turn it on, because it offs itself every chance it gets. Then you have to wait for it to do a cleaning cycle as indicated by this unnoticeable red dot, and god forbid you don't have a cup under there. Once finished, you empty the junk water into this plant..."
    - VBprogrammer 7y ago
      Microwave ovens have similarly obtuse interfaces. To the point that I've been known to go out of my way to buy one with an old fashioned mechanical timer to avoid the whole shit show.
      - pas 7y ago
        I found almost every one of them has "express" buttons, basically just smashing start adds one or half a minute. I so far found one microwave oven that required the whole ritual each and every time. It was so bad I forgot to set it to max time, so we can just pause it and resume it (like cheap kitchens that abuse consumer-grade microwaves do) - though maybe it was so bad there wasn't resume. So if you opened the door before it thought it was time, you had to set it up again. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
        catalogia 7y ago
        The '+30' button is all that I ever use, which makes me think dials are probably better. A dial would be simpler, one quick turn instead of several button presses. I can't say I was previously annoyed with my microwave, but now I don't think I'll look at it the same again.
kuu 7y ago
Similar to the related story, in our office the speakers of a meeting room are "smart speakers", so anyone who is on the same LAN can join and play Spotify on these speakers. I have to admit we had done some little pranks with that :)
garmaine 7y ago
Not sure why this is downvoted. It's an accurate summary.
- justin66 7y ago
  I didn't downvote, but offering a tl;dr of something that takes 30 seconds to read is a braindead thing to do.
  - s_m_t 7y ago
    It took longer for twitter to (fail to) load than it took for me to read the tldr
  - mprev 7y ago
    Brain dead is harsh. There are too many twitter threads that go absolutely nowhere and yet build a fraction of a story into multiple tweets. I have only enough attention in a day for so many things structured as a story. I’d rather save that attention for things I know I’ll enjoy rather than the episodic retelling of a battle over a light switch.
  - toast0 7y ago
    All i could get from the link was that the person was having some trouble with a fan, I guess, and that twitter threads must be readable for someone, but they don't usually work for me (Chrome on Android, no plugins). I especially like how tapping 'show this thread' doesn't actually do anything; but it is a welcome change from getting the usual 'you've loaded too many pages' error I usually get when clicking a twitter link. So, I was happy to get the tldr.
  - aspaviento 7y ago
    One man's trash is another man's treasure.
- 6510 7y ago
  Maybe they don't know Twitter is to complicated to use.
jacobush 7y ago
I have done that with Spotify. :)
andai 7y ago
> My inclination is to go Full Lawful Good and turn off everyone’s lights tonight at 10pm to make sure we all get a good night of sleep and wake up rested and ready for a productive Saturday.
djrogers 7y ago
It’s not a home automation system - those are extremely common wireless fan/light controllers. It’s just an RF remote.

zzo38computer 7y ago

I do not use home automation, and I do not use smart houses and smart TVs. But if I did want to have an automation system for some things, I would prefer to wire everything (rather than making it wireless) so that it doesn't have the problems you mentioned. Too many thing now they do wireless, even though I want it to be wired instead.

stjohnswarts 7y ago
That ups the cost by a LOT though, so people don't. I have no desire for a "smart home", smart tv is about it, I have some external wireless cameras. No camera in my home except on my phone. You can't hack it if its not there.

6510 7y ago

I think when things get bad enough we will return to simplicity. (keeping some of the good stuff) This week I see 2 coffee machines to complicated for me to make coffee. 1 kitchen light I couldn't switch on and a dishwasher I couldn't get to work. Every time a group of people gathered around the automation then gave up. I just had a message exchange where I explained (to the owner) how to get music out of a laptop, bluetooth dongle, amplifier setup. Windos really wants you to switch on bluetooth from the configuration screen every time. The dongle needs a reset periodically (or just vanishes) and the amplifier likes to change its input channel. Between bluetooth and mp3 the quality is complete shit by 1980 standards.

catalogia 7y ago
Some modern coffee machines are so bewildering, it makes me feel like Arthur Dent trying to explain to an alien computer how to make tea. It really makes H2G2 seem remarkably prescient.
- tetris11 7y ago
  "So first you have to turn it on, because it offs itself every chance it gets. Then you have to wait for it to do a cleaning cycle as indicated by this unnoticeable red dot, and god forbid you don't have a cup under there. Once finished, you empty the junk water into this plant..."
  - VBprogrammer 7y ago
    Microwave ovens have similarly obtuse interfaces. To the point that I've been known to go out of my way to buy one with an old fashioned mechanical timer to avoid the whole shit show.
    - pas 7y ago
      I found almost every one of them has "express" buttons, basically just smashing start adds one or half a minute. I so far found one microwave oven that required the whole ritual each and every time. It was so bad I forgot to set it to max time, so we can just pause it and resume it (like cheap kitchens that abuse consumer-grade microwaves do) - though maybe it was so bad there wasn't resume. So if you opened the door before it thought it was time, you had to set it up again. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
      - catalogia 7y ago
        The '+30' button is all that I ever use, which makes me think dials are probably better. A dial would be simpler, one quick turn instead of several button presses. I can't say I was previously annoyed with my microwave, but now I don't think I'll look at it the same again.

kuu 7y ago

Similar to the related story, in our office the speakers of a meeting room are "smart speakers", so anyone who is on the same LAN can join and play Spotify on these speakers. I have to admit we had done some little pranks with that :)

garmaine 7y ago

Not sure why this is downvoted. It's an accurate summary.

justin66 7y ago
I didn't downvote, but offering a tl;dr of something that takes 30 seconds to read is a braindead thing to do.
- s_m_t 7y ago
  It took longer for twitter to (fail to) load than it took for me to read the tldr
- mprev 7y ago
  Brain dead is harsh. There are too many twitter threads that go absolutely nowhere and yet build a fraction of a story into multiple tweets. I have only enough attention in a day for so many things structured as a story. I’d rather save that attention for things I know I’ll enjoy rather than the episodic retelling of a battle over a light switch.
- toast0 7y ago
  All i could get from the link was that the person was having some trouble with a fan, I guess, and that twitter threads must be readable for someone, but they don't usually work for me (Chrome on Android, no plugins). I especially like how tapping 'show this thread' doesn't actually do anything; but it is a welcome change from getting the usual 'you've loaded too many pages' error I usually get when clicking a twitter link. So, I was happy to get the tldr.
- aspaviento 7y ago
  One man's trash is another man's treasure.
6510 7y ago
Maybe they don't know Twitter is to complicated to use.

jacobush 7y ago

I have done that with Spotify. :)

andai 7y ago

> My inclination is to go Full Lawful Good and turn off everyone’s lights tonight at 10pm to make sure we all get a good night of sleep and wake up rested and ready for a productive Saturday.

djrogers 7y ago

It’s not a home automation system - those are extremely common wireless fan/light controllers. It’s just an RF remote.