"There’s a few of us who are keepers of that knowledge. It’s almost our responsibility to be able to continue that way of thinking, that way of working."

Uhmmm ... the line of thinking that has your smoke detector talking to remote servers and dealing with a social layer (logins, smart apps, etc.) ?

That line of thinking is a cancer. It's a scourge on all of us that needs to be stamped out wherever we see it.

A pox on him and his house!