> And it's also another reason to
>stay the Fucking Hell Away from anything that's jumping on the
>Internet of Things bandwagon (where they can tell you've installed a
>replacement part and can automatically dispatch the guy with the
>dongle before you even realize that the device won't work until he
>arrives). No thanks, I'm perfectly happy with my fridge just beeping
>annoyingly when it's left open, versus sending me emails and texts to
>complain.

You know, I have no specific problem with the basic concept of the Internet of Things or smart devices. I wouldn't pay a premium for it but I wouldn't necessarily mind a fridge that tells me "don't drink that milk, buddy, you'll regret it" or "my ice maker is about to fail catastrophically" or even something more outre like "someone opened me four times while you were at work. Do you have kids? I hope you have kids. Or smart pets. Otherwise some creepy shit is going on."

But the thing is, the fridge would need to tell me that. I own the fridge. I am the fridgemaster! It reports to me and only to me. Not to its manufacturers. Not to whatever firm the manufacturers outsourced the service to. Me.

Most IoC stuff seems to want to report to a central server. I'm not enough of a wirehead to know the extent to which this is necessary (in that it isn't possible or economical to make every single device a completely standalone unit) or to what extent it isn't and they just want all my data for themselves.

-Merc
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