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I think it's rather short-sighted to refer to one application of technology as useful and another as not needed. Is the computer controlling the engine to be mo

I think it's rather short-sighted to refer to one application of technology as useful and another as not needed. Is the computer controlling the engine to be more fuel-efficient needed? No. Is the car even needed? No. But we have found a use for that technology that improves our daily lives. Perhaps for you a fridge with a screen is not useful; however for others it may be.

f6v 5y ago
> Is the computer controlling the engine to be more fuel-efficient needed? No. Is the car even needed? No. We can continue ad absurdum, but it's clear that more screens is added to our lives to: 1. Consume more content 2. As a result, see more ads 3. Finally, buy more stuff I'm not against technology, but electronics producers have been going out of their way to continue growth. That's fine, but I'd love to have a robot doing dishes and cooking for me. Instead, there's a fridge that "Cameras recognize the food in your fridge so you can search for recipes based on what you have." [0]. That's such a marginal benefit. [0] https://www.samsung.com/us/connected-appliances/#get-app https://www.samsung.com/us/connected-appliances/#get-app
- tazjin 5y ago
  With those gimmicky features there's also only a slim chance that anyone is actually using them because it's often hard to impossible, especially for people with less interest in tech. For example, in a large company like Samsung some product manager might show up and require that users of the food scanning feature have a Samsung account. Now you have to register for a Samsung account on your fridge, but the embedded web view is being redirected to a new thing with 35% heavier Javascript which doesn't really run on your fridge anymore and that's the end of that. This example is made up but it wouldn't surprise me if things very close to this have happened on these fridges, and they definitely happen all the time in consumer electronics.
  - cgriswald 5y ago
    > With those gimmicky features there's also only a slim chance that anyone is actually using them because it's often hard to impossible, especially for people with less interest in tech. True life example: I have a washer. It was sold as being internet-connected. There are some mildly interesting use cases I could see for being able to control or check the status of a wash remotely. Well, it's internet-connected, sure, but you can only connect it to your network with WPS, many app reviews suggest the remote app doesn't work, the feature set is small, and the features it does have are hobbled in ways that make even that set pretty useless—seemingly in order to prevent lawsuits.
  - marcosdumay 5y ago
    > especially for people with less interest in tech Hum... I can program in something around a dozen languages, can find my way around the Linux kernel code as well as enterprise software, can administer OSes... Yet, I am completely unable to set my fridge's clock (why does it have one?) since I lost its manual. I have spent some time trying. IoT and smart things are a great equalizer. Nobody can handle them. Some times it's even not possible.
    - salawat 5y ago
      The great VCR clock boss. Ah... Those were the days. Those were how I learned to finagle things that the manual was gone for. Still not sure whether I should consider the result brain damage though. I can set a VCR clock, but I can't grok people. Longer I live the more I wonder if I learned patience for the wrong thing.
      - marcosdumay 5y ago
        Oh, I've never met a VCR that the clock I could not set. But they usually had a panel with lots of instructions and well named buttons. That's nothing like today's devices. For the notice, my fridge has a single button, and 2 independent displays (temperature and clock). Both short and long presses change the temperature.

f6v 5y ago

> Is the computer controlling the engine to be more fuel-efficient needed? No. Is the car even needed? No. We can continue ad absurdum, but it's clear that more screens is added to our lives to: 1. Consume more content 2. As a result, see more ads 3. Finally, buy more stuff I'm not against technology, but electronics producers have been going out of their way to continue growth. That's fine, but I'd love to have a robot doing dishes and cooking for me. Instead, there's a fridge that "Cameras recognize the food in your fridge so you can search for recipes based on what you have." [0]. That's such a marginal benefit. [0] https://www.samsung.com/us/connected-appliances/#get-app https://www.samsung.com/us/connected-appliances/#get-app

tazjin 5y ago
With those gimmicky features there's also only a slim chance that anyone is actually using them because it's often hard to impossible, especially for people with less interest in tech. For example, in a large company like Samsung some product manager might show up and require that users of the food scanning feature have a Samsung account. Now you have to register for a Samsung account on your fridge, but the embedded web view is being redirected to a new thing with 35% heavier Javascript which doesn't really run on your fridge anymore and that's the end of that. This example is made up but it wouldn't surprise me if things very close to this have happened on these fridges, and they definitely happen all the time in consumer electronics.
- cgriswald 5y ago
  > With those gimmicky features there's also only a slim chance that anyone is actually using them because it's often hard to impossible, especially for people with less interest in tech. True life example: I have a washer. It was sold as being internet-connected. There are some mildly interesting use cases I could see for being able to control or check the status of a wash remotely. Well, it's internet-connected, sure, but you can only connect it to your network with WPS, many app reviews suggest the remote app doesn't work, the feature set is small, and the features it does have are hobbled in ways that make even that set pretty useless—seemingly in order to prevent lawsuits.
- marcosdumay 5y ago
  > especially for people with less interest in tech Hum... I can program in something around a dozen languages, can find my way around the Linux kernel code as well as enterprise software, can administer OSes... Yet, I am completely unable to set my fridge's clock (why does it have one?) since I lost its manual. I have spent some time trying. IoT and smart things are a great equalizer. Nobody can handle them. Some times it's even not possible.
  - salawat 5y ago
    The great VCR clock boss. Ah... Those were the days. Those were how I learned to finagle things that the manual was gone for. Still not sure whether I should consider the result brain damage though. I can set a VCR clock, but I can't grok people. Longer I live the more I wonder if I learned patience for the wrong thing.
    - marcosdumay 5y ago
      Oh, I've never met a VCR that the clock I could not set. But they usually had a panel with lots of instructions and well named buttons. That's nothing like today's devices. For the notice, my fridge has a single button, and 2 independent displays (temperature and clock). Both short and long presses change the temperature.