Google's NEST can't stand the heat, needs patch for use in kitchen A couple of weeks back, Google's recently-acquired Internet of Things division Nest stopped selling its smoke detectors because the devices could, under some circumstances, fail to report a fire. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission yesterday published a recall notice for the “Nest Protect: Smoke + CO Alarm” for the same …
"Why the hell do smoke/CO detectors need to be connected to TehIntraWebTubes anway? What a totally daft concept. Dial-up to an alarm monitoring service, perhaps ... but a permanent connection the the 'net? Really?"
If you'd looked at the product, and I expect any future similar one, the answer is so it can tell you via app notification/email/phone/etc that your battery is dying/boiler is leaking CO/house is full of smoke. Sure you could (and in the last case at least should) have it call you, but some might not always want it to.
There are plenty of useless 'Internet of Things' concepts, but this one is moderately useful.
'Moderately useful'? Perhaps. But still a really bad idea.
These things will be connected through local Wi-Fi, which is often insecure in a domestic installation. You could disable these security systems by getting access to the local Wi-Fi link and spoofing a message from Chocolate Factory Central.
Having a physical security system that can be attacked over the internet is just a bad idea.
OK, I'll bite.
What good is the "ap" notification going to do for you? What use is it? Is it helpful?
"My horse's stall needs it's shit removed" isn't exactly handy when I'm a couple hundred miles from home ... nor is "the barn is burning to the ground".
When I'm home, all of these things are obvious.
"What good is the "ap" notification going to do for you? What use is it? Is it helpful?"
For normal people, having an 'app' (not an 'ap') is useful because say, oh for example you might want to stop in at a shop and buy a battery for the smoke detector, or at least set a reminder to change it if you have some at home. In the case of a CO detector, it puts you in a position to know there might be a safety hazard at home before you step through the door. Surely a man of your wide experience and amazing knowledge shouldn't need that pointed out.
"My horse's stall needs it's shit removed" isn't exactly handy when I'm a couple hundred miles from home"
That's nice, however unless your horse's horseshit is as prone to setting off smoke alarms as your own horseshit is to setting my horseshit detector, it's not really relevant, as we were talking about 'smart' smoke/CO alarms, not horses.
"nor is "the barn is burning to the ground"."
No fire department to call? Let me guess, only you are qualified to fight fires on your property, because of your tremendous firefighting expertise.
"When I'm home, all of these things are obvious."
And when you're not? Are are now claiming you can be in two places at once? At this point, nothing would surprise me.
"I'd really like to see you confidently placing a 911 call solely based on a message you got from your home thermostat you are in no position to verify. Also fun would be seeing you confidently not placing said call, btw."
Yep, fair comment. In which case a call along the lines of "'howdy neighbour - would my barn by any chance be burning to the ground and if so, could you call the FD?" might be a reasonable modification to the procedure. Either way, you still have evidence that something may be out of the ordinary, rather than arriving home to find your barn, your outbuildings, your house, perhaps your vehicles and possibly your neighbours house are ashes.
I can say from experience that the Nest Protect is not ready for prime time. We've been through 3 of them in a few months. One time we got a false positive (understandable if we were cooking or something, but in this case there was NOTHING wrong and the device was actually upstairs in my daughter's nursery), and the other times the unit started audibly beeping and put a message on our phones that it had failed. No reason given, just that it failed.
I actually like the idea of the device, but the problems we've been having are unacceptable. Nest was eager to exchange and eventually refund, which was nice, but they didn't seem all that interested in figuring out why we had repeated problems.
"I actually like the idea of the device, but the problems we've been having are unacceptable. Nest was eager to exchange and eventually refund, which was nice, but they didn't seem all that interested in figuring out why we had repeated problems."
Pity. I wonder how widespread that is; not likely to gain much acceptance if there's fundamental issues, as opposed to simply receiving stock from the same, bad batch.
The "640K" quote is often falsely attributed to Bill Gates. In all reality, when configured properly the original 5150 could access around 760K of "low" RAM (if you could afford it!).
The real "should be enough" quote was Steve Jobs, when demoing the original Apple Macintosh at the Home Brew Computer Club, a couple weeks before the official unveiling. He said, and I quote "256K should be more than enough for home users" ... and he had a point. We had flight simulators running in 64K of RAM at the time.
Sometimes I look at the modern world and despair over the sheer waste ...
Actually, AC, I refused to become a part of Apple. I was deeply embedded in the variation of UNIX that became BSD in that time frame.
Probably a bad idea, looking back. I wonder what the person holding Apple badge number 9 is worth today? Ah, well. I'm happy. That's all that matters.
http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-early-employees-2011-5?op=1
Employee #9 was the first secretary.. I guess your WPM just didn't cut the mustard
jake: "I wonder what the person holding Apple badge number 9 is worth today?"
AC: "http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-early-employees-2011-5?op=1
Employee #9 was the first secretary.. I guess your WPM just didn't cut the mustard"
And that, jake, is what happens when you lay your horseshit on so thick that your can't see in order to refer to your notes. Something to remember in future, HTH HAND.
AC... you are the wind beneath my wings.
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