Does my fridge actually need to talk to the internet? Do my lightbulbs? Are the gains from having an addressable coffee maker worth the downsides when things break (or are broken due to security being an afterthought at best) over having a coffee maker that's just a coffee maker?
It's not any different than any other code all of us write on a weekly basis, when you start tacking on unnecessary features and increasing the complexity you will inevitably compromise the stability and simplicity of the features it must have to do its job. It's why the Unix philosophy exists to begin with.
Do you think that big tech and any iot “utility provider” should be held to a higher standard? (Probably IMO)
PS. Didn’t mean to go on an anti HN rant. Love this place. Just seems extra negative to me lately.
B) Devices _need_ power and water (depending on the device). There's no reason my Dyson fan has to talk to an external server to be controlled by an app on my phone, but it does. It's an unnecessary dependency.
I feel like this community especially, but we in tech tend to forget that everything fails. It is inevitable. We get all riled up about “iot this” and “I never use connected devices that” but honestly I feel like our digital reliability is just as high as the “analog” tooling so many of us proudly retreat to.
Shit fails. Once a month when it happens in a manner like this the HN community gets up in arms like we are the sole arbiters of reason when it comes to technology.
Downvote away :-)