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This was inevitable, it's always been a secondary thing for British Gas. I worked on the predecessor to Hive back in about '08-'10, the engineering consultancy
by samwillis 3y ago
This was inevitable, it's always been a secondary thing for British Gas.
I worked on the predecessor to Hive back in about '08-'10, the engineering consultancy I worked for designed a version of the "hub" and a number of their security and energy monitoring sensors.
It was the first thing I worked on that made it out into consumers hands (v2 of the hub). I remember one day buying a copy of Wired magazine, and it had an article about them. Seeing a product I had designed in that magazine was a really memorable moment.
Back then they were not part of British Gas but a Cambridge UK startup called AlertMe. A really good bunch of people with a vision for the smart home. The plan was clearly to start with the security products, then energy monitoring was a secondary market. However after getting a big contract with British Gas to supply monitoring to all their customers, they pivoted almost completely to that - and ultimately they were acquired by them.
As I said, they were a really interesting team, their CTO was a former early Acorn employee who had lead RiscOS.
- timthorn 3y ago> As I said, they were a really interesting team, their CTO was a former early Acorn employee who had lead RiscOS He was profiled a few years back, as discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24226740 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24226740
- alias_neo 3y agoSounds like it would have been really cool in its original form, right up my street. Shame big corp came in and destroyed it, I hope everyone was paid hansomly in the takeover at least.
- robertlagrant 3y ago> I hope everyone was paid hansomly in the takeover at least That might be a mixed blessing; horses are expensive![0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansom_cab https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansom_cab
- vijayr02 3y agoHardly. It's just a matter of getting them to overwork, and when they collapse you call the knackers to slit their throat and boil them down. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_(Animal_Farm) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_(Animal_Farm)