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> Of course, nowadays, everything in your kitchen can be “smart,”and I highly recommend replacing all your old, non-communicative appliances with ones you can c

> Of course, nowadays, everything in your kitchen can be “smart,”and I highly recommend replacing all your old, non-communicative appliances with ones you can control from anywhere in the world Yeah I'm not so enthusiastic. I honestly just want stuff that doesn't break. "Smart" stuff seems to not work more often. My Nest thermostat didn't keep the temperature controlled correctly and I had to revert. My smart outlets routinely lose connectivity to wifi. My Ring doorbell goes works most of the time but is unreachable at others, same with my sprinkler system. The time spent troubleshooting negates any time saved with "smart" functionality. When I was recently getting a new fridge? Opted for the "dumb" Bosch. Same went for the oven and dishwasher.

uselesscynicism 5y ago
>Yeah I'm not so enthusiastic Enthusiasm? Did we read the same article? The author is being sarcastic. He pretty clearly regrets getting a refrigerator with the ability to beep and text.
Invictus0 5y ago
Is it really not clear that this article is a satire of smart devices?
- katzgrau 5y ago
  Oh God. It sounded just like one of my hopelessly-optimistic-about-all-things-futuristic friends. In my defense, in 2021, satire reads a lot like sincerity for a lot of topics.
radu_floricica 5y ago
My first android phone was absolute crap. Sometimes it takes a generation or three for a technology to be worth it. It just means you may not want to be an early adopter. For what is worth, smart devices are already ok - just not for all brands. Xiaomi has a smart chip in everything, including something as "dumb" as electric kettles, and it works. Or at least it doesn't break anything.
- katzgrau 5y ago
  It seems that the most telling factor is what percentage of the software is new code. Successive versions of a baseline like Android can solve a lot of problems, but how much new code is there sitting on top to achieve some new use case? For new smart devices, either the manufacturer or an outside firm is tasked with writing new code to achieve some end, and that's where the problems usually are. So it seems like as long as there are developers writing new code, our tech is going to be buggy and not quite living up to those futuristic expectations.

uselesscynicism 5y ago

>Yeah I'm not so enthusiastic Enthusiasm? Did we read the same article? The author is being sarcastic. He pretty clearly regrets getting a refrigerator with the ability to beep and text.

Invictus0 5y ago

Is it really not clear that this article is a satire of smart devices?

katzgrau 5y ago
Oh God. It sounded just like one of my hopelessly-optimistic-about-all-things-futuristic friends. In my defense, in 2021, satire reads a lot like sincerity for a lot of topics.

radu_floricica 5y ago

My first android phone was absolute crap. Sometimes it takes a generation or three for a technology to be worth it. It just means you may not want to be an early adopter. For what is worth, smart devices are already ok - just not for all brands. Xiaomi has a smart chip in everything, including something as "dumb" as electric kettles, and it works. Or at least it doesn't break anything.

katzgrau 5y ago
It seems that the most telling factor is what percentage of the software is new code. Successive versions of a baseline like Android can solve a lot of problems, but how much new code is there sitting on top to achieve some new use case? For new smart devices, either the manufacturer or an outside firm is tasked with writing new code to achieve some end, and that's where the problems usually are. So it seems like as long as there are developers writing new code, our tech is going to be buggy and not quite living up to those futuristic expectations.