back to article UK.gov sinks another £1.6m into Internet of Stuff spec HyperCat

Blighty has announced another £1.6m in funding for its Internet of Stuff standard HyperCat, courtesy of the government’s Technology Strategy Board. In a bid to go all Tim Berners-Lee on the much-hyped Internet of Things, UK.gov has teamed up with tech heavyweights like IBM and ARM to deliver an interoperability standard for …

  1. Spud

    Rise of the machines

    "unlock the full potential of the internet of things by creating a world wide web for machines"

    Will these machines be closely monitored by GCHQ and NSA for their porn habits, links to terrorism or the fact my fridge could be organising the machines into some sort of SkyNet !!! Once these things go self aware we're in trouble !!!

    HyperCat ... just sounds like some funky network cable to replace Cat6

    1. dotdavid
      Terminator

      Re: Rise of the machines

      "my fridge could be organising the machines into some sort of SkyNet"

      HYPERCAT: "Come with me if you want to has cheezburger"

  2. Elmer Phud
    Pirate

    Re-inventing the wheel

    " the HyperCat specification will unlock the full potential of the internet of things by creating a world wide web for machines"

    Why not just buy the standard scamware off the shelf? It's not as if there aren't already some superb products available where machines are connected together even though the meatware doesn't know.

  3. thomas k.

    a world wide web for machines

    Why not, what could go wrong with that?

  4. frank ly

    Is this a UK government IT project?

    Just wondering, you know.

  5. Mage Silver badge

    WWW

    Nothing related in significance to Hypertext.

    Nor will you have other cats when you click on a Hypercat link

    1. launcap Silver badge
      Stop

      Re: WWW

      > Nor will you have other cats when you click on a Hypercat link

      I think my dominatrix senior female cat (name is Kelda.. and she lives up to that name every day!) might have something to say about unapproved minions^Wcats coming into the house..

  6. Harry the Bastard

    "publish the HyperCat specification as an independent and publicly available standard through the British Standards Institute"

    does this imply the usual bsi paywall? that should encourage widespread adoption

  7. RainForestGuppy

    Damn, I thought HyperCat sounded like the successor to the much missed cross channel Seacats.

  8. Alan Brown Silver badge

    “The UK has an opportunity now, through HyperCat, to be central to the IoT revolution, levelling the playing field with the ubiquitous American giants and inspiring British industry to deliver £100 billion of value by 2020 – Great Britain can grow back its industrial teeth,” gushed Flexeye chief Justin Anderson.

    Promoting a particular "standard" as giving an advantage to a particular group.

    Yeah right. In the second puff of whatever he's been smoking he'll start seeing unicorns and pixies.

  9. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    WTF?

    So enabling *universal* plug-n-play of the IoT

    Isn't the first order of business when securing a PC disable the UPNP functions?

    I think it is.

  10. Will Godfrey Silver badge

    No doubt with extra features to 'help' distressed individuals who can't seem to find their 'door' keys.

  11. Chris G

    Yippee!

    "“The UK has an opportunity now, through HyperCat, to be central to the IoT revolution, levelling the playing field with the ubiquitous American giants and inspiring British industry to deliver £100 billion of value by 2020 – Great Britain can grow back its industrial teeth,” gushed Flexeye chief Justin Anderson."

    The UK is going to start manufacturing again!..................??

    What does he envisage Britain doing to make 100 Billion in less than 6 years?

    Perhaps as he has already been snorting it, he could get Tinkerbelle to sprinkle pixie dust across the country.

    Just need to get the spelling right: Hype Cat there FIFThem

  12. Blofeld's Cat
    Coat

    Hmm...

    "Ring ... ring ... ring ... click ... beep ..."

    "The answering machine is unavailable at the moment, so this is the fridge speaking. If you want to leave a message I'll stick it under one of my magnets..."

    1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Hmm...

      Priceless! Still has me grinning a day later. I can just see it happening too :)

  13. SVV

    Sorry, waste of money, already been tried.....

    Universal Description Discovery and Integration :

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Description_Discovery_and_Integration

    OK, it was for SOAP webservices rather than REST webservices but that's the only difference. By the way it failed horrendously, because although the idea of writing code to parse the service descriptions and automatically be able to start using them was very seductive and got lots of people excited back in 2000, the reality soon dawned that this was so difficult in practice that it would be impractical.

    OK, I know that REST is currently quite popular, and SOAP is considered a bit verbose and difficult ( which it is, but not massively so, and it has way better security and robustness), but why are our government spaffing millions on this because they think that there's 200 billion to be made from wi-fi equipped lightbulbs and toasters? Does the UK still manufacture this sort of stuff? And weill countries who do make this stuff not be able to create something easily themselves if by some miracle it was found to be practicable and useful?

  14. E 2

    Is "HyperCat" an acronym, if so what does it stand for?

  15. Truth4u

    this idea is so bad

    what is the standard for, why would the devices talk? for fun?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: this idea is so bad

      for fun? Foreign Undercover Network? Possibly....

  16. josh_wieder

    What a f*king boondoggle.

  17. mikecoppicegreen

    Why?

    There's a massive IoT standard development effort going on worldwide - called oneM2M - some parts are already published, some nearing completion. This is supported by seven standards bodies, including ETSI, etc, and there are many of the big hitters in communications & data participating in the work.

    There are a number of other initiatives around IoT going on. Many of these are based on participation by a number of multinationals.

    Yet UK government persists in the idea that we have something radical to add? It may be true, but with all the big commercial hitters backing other specifications, I doubt it will come to anything.

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