Weaving the Brillo into Android

I'm not sure what winter solstice gifting tradition a computer celebrates, much less a search algorithm or tentacle-like technology company, but whatever it is (maybe, just 'Holiday'?), Google-Alphabet wants Things.

(Image courtesy Google, Inc.)

Last week, they announced the developer preview for Android Things, a (sort of) new OS for the Internet of Things.  It's only 'sort of' because it replaces 'Brillo' which has been around for a year or so.  'Replaces' might be too strong a word as well.  Maybe 'Renamed' or even 'Re-branded'.  Which of course begs the question: "Why?"

Amazon Go-es After IRL Retail... Again

The biggest news in the IoT this last week was Amazon's announcement of their updated Brick-and-Mortar shopping experience: Amazon Go.  The major selling point is simple: check-in, grab what you want and leave.  There is no check out.  The system simply knows what you have picked up, bills your Amazon account and that's it.  It does all of this in real time while you are in the store.  There is no TSA-style sensor pad at the exit point to walk through, no scanning of bar codes or RFID tags.  It just knows.

The Internet of Change

I'm Not Late

Two weeks off and I'm back to... do whatever it is I do in this space.  Talk about the intersection of human life and human technology, if I want to put a high minded spin on it.  Really, it's me thinking out loud.  Pontificating.  Being the Polonius I want to see in the world.

So, in that vein, I want to think out loud about a new book that Thomas Friedman, columnist for that 'International Jewel' the New York Times, wrote.  It's called Thank You For Being Late and is about how the rate of technological change has affected our lives as human beings.

The Internet of Policy

So That Happened

With the completely mis-forecasted win by Donald Trump in the US Presidential Race this last week, there is going to be changes in policy and direction that will affect the Internet of Things on all three fronts: governmental, enterprise and consumer.  The big question is what those changes will be and that is not easy to predict.

On one hand, Mr. Trump has painted himself as a business man.  From that perspective, automation is a good thing.  It cuts long term costs and improves quality.  On another hand, he wants to bring jobs back to this country and automation is not good for that.

On a third hand, Mr. Trump is also not a fan of anyone who disagrees with him.  That leads to the potential for a surveillance society and an increase in the need for the Internet of Things.  On the other (fourth?) hand, he has threatened to 'unplug the Internet' if necessary, a crucial component to any distributed automation.

All of those Kali-esque hands lead me to one conclusion:

I have no freakin' clue how this will affect anything

(Courtesy of FunkyJunk.com)

Let Me Help

So, instead of trying to predict what his Trumpness will do and how it will affect this emerging technological area, I'd like to make some recommendations: what I would do if I were in his shoes.

First, I would issue a statement that recognizes that the Internet of Things is not going away.  If the government bans all of that stuff, from wireless cameras to Nest thermostats to automated light bulbs, they will simply go underground.  The convenience and such is too much to allow stuffing the genie back into the bottle.  In many ways, it is like the rise of the Smartphone: once you have it, you're not going to willingly give it up.  Recognition does not mean that it should be allowed to happen un-regulated.  That is not in the public interest.

Security Regulation

And that first regulation needs to focus on how secure these devices are.  Something similar to FCC approval for radio devices, but is more focused on the preventing hacking and IoT botnets.  Does the device require the user to change the default password before it can be used?  Does it conform to the latest Wi-Fi security standards?  Can it detect basic attacks and respond?  What is the process for upgrading the firmware to handle new types of attacks?  This would have to be a oft reviewed set of standards as security needs change quickly.  Underwriter's Laboratories (UL) does have a certification for IoT devices, but it appears to be more about making money for them and less about protecting the consumer.

IP Freely

Next, I would push for a stronger, mandatory switch for all IoT devices to be IPv6 compliant.  The good old 192.168.x.x and 10.0.x.x that most home users use as their only subnet only allow for so many connections.  IoT devices require more.  IPv6 is really more about the connection from the router out to the rest of the world and not from the device to the router, but with the rise of the cloud connection/control of these devices, forcing the wider range allowed by IPv6 would get everyone off their asses and start using the new protocol.

Cloud Control

The final part of my plan would be to have some regulation around the corporate clouds to which most of these devices connect.  Right now, many (most) IoT consumer devices require that the device connect to specific servers run by the manufacturer.  What protections are in place to prevent these corporations from spying on their customers?  Right now, we all click through an unread T&C document that probably waves our rights to privacy with these devices.  A new boilerplate set of terms needs to be created and mandated for connected devices sold in this country.

Reality Check

Despite the opaque nature of the future, I have low expectations that any of those things will happen. As a business man, the Trumpster is more likely to reduce regulation than increase it.  To let the Invisible Hand of capitalism decide what products are best.  With that in mind, make sure that you protect yourself: update firmwares often, change passwords often and keep your virus protection up to date.

Google In Da Houz!

I received my Google Home on Friday and have been messing around with it all weekend.  Overall, I like it.  I even like it better than the Amazon Echo Dot that I used to have (and still have as it is now up in my master bedroom on my bedside table so that we can whisper sweet nothings to each other).  But nothing, especially a first generation product, is perfect.

I'm not going to compare it to the Echo Dot (better speakers, adds Google Play Music) because tons of reviews have already done that.  Instead, I'll focus on the unboxing, setup and smart home control stuff.

Unboxing and Setup

The Big G is doing the same thing that all big tech companies do: making the unboxing more of an unveiling.  There is a text riddled sleeve that slips off to reveal a box with a tab sticking out.  (I added the Alice-in-Wonderland text, but I 'wonder' why Google didn't?  Not classy enough?)

The Internet of Voting

Of course I'm doing a political post.  But don't be too afraid, I promise not to talk about candidates or emails or actual politics.  But I will talk about issues.  One issue: Electronic Voting.

(Courtesy, The New York Times)

The Ideal

Imagine a world where we drop the 'Representative' out of 'Representative Democracy.'  All issues are submitted to the population for a vote.  We all get a notification on our device of choice, read up on the issue and submit our choice.  We all get an actual say in the direction our city, county, state/province and country goes.

Heck, why stop at country.  Trade agreements, sanctions and UN resolutions could go world wide to everyone and a real 'Will O' the People' could be enacted.  Everyone would have a say.  There would be no arguments about secret cabals controlling everything.  It would be beautiful.  #dogsandcatssleepingtogether

The Dyn DDoS Was My Fault

The biggest news article for the Internet of Things this last week was the attack on Dyn's DNS servers that took down a variety of sites in various locales (mostly eastern US seaboard).  It was a persistent Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on their systems and, while I do NOT claim responsibility, I think I might have been at least partly responsible.

Google Trust: Doubling Down

For the past two weeks, I've discussed the role of big data in my life, both as something to use with at least one eye open and as the terrain that my daughter must navigate as she grows.  And then October 4th happened.

On that day, Google announced a variety of products with most of the focus going to their new Pixel phones.  But they also announced their Allo messaging app, a new 4K Chromecast and their Google Home voice assistant.  It was that last that caught my eye.

Web Parenting

Last week, I spent some time discussing whether or not the techno-corps (Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, et al) were trustworthy.  The short answer is that I trust them to do what they say they are going to do in their Terms and Conditions.  I do not trust them to protect my personal information because 1) they can be forced to reveal that information by my government and 2) there is no such thing as a perfect defense against hacking.

But that's not the end of my thoughts on this topic because I am a parent.  My Middle School Daughter (the MSD that has been missing from several months of these posts) is swimming in these technical waters as well.  Teaching her how to navigate them is my responsibility, one that is almost more difficult to explain than why we have to say "Please" when we ask for things (instead of "Boop" or "NOW!").

Always Google

Keep in mind that she has never known a world without Google.  Knowledge is no more than an "Okay, Google" away.  Encyclopedias and research libraries are foreign to her.  She has had a presence on Facebook almost since before she was born thanks to her mother, her grandparents, her aunts and uncles and me.  She's had no control or consent to these social media postings, but she also does not complain about them.  At least, not yet.

The point is that on-line is part of where she lives.  It's not the only place she lives but it is a part.  She hangs out with her friends on Hangouts.  She posts her artwork on Instagram.  She comments (endlessly) on YouTube.  She has three email accounts.  (But not Google+: "Nobody uses that, Dad!" eye-roll)

Technical Parenting

Most other parents that I know tend to restrict their children's use of technology: smartphones, tablets, the Internet.  The feeling is that kids need to spend time in reality, facing the physical world and its challenges.  And there is certainly some truth to this: the only way we all learn to roll with the punches is to by having survived a few punches.

However, the punches are no longer only physical punches.  Where is she going to learn how to deal with phishing scams?  Cyberbullies?  Nigerian Emails?  Not by avoiding them but by encountering them and asking questions.   Usually of me.  That is behavior that I want to encourage.

If I restrict her use of technology because of what might happen, then I teach her that technology is to be feared, or, worse yet, that it is forbidden fruit that must be used in secret.  Then she will not ask me questions about it because she will be afraid of being caught.

Instead, I am her technical support.  It's a role that I sometimes enjoy, sometimes dread, but at least it creates a habit of coming to Dad to get help.  I ultimately want her to be able to answer her own questions around technology, but for the moment this is a better solution.

Cyber Boundaries

Understand that I do not agree with all of the choices that she makes in her use of technology.  She feels entitled to comment on everything on YouTube, something that I do not do because I do not want to start a flame war.  But all of her comments get forwarded to my email thanks to Gmail auto-forwarding.  On top of that, the content that she consumes is not interesting to me, but she wants to share it with my and so I make the effort.

And there are boundaries.  Her Instagram account is private and I know who she has allowed to view it.  I follow her and know what she posts.  If she kicks me out, then the account goes away.  I know the channels to which she has subscribed on YouTube; I don't watch every video, but I know the general tone of each channel.  Some of them use swear words, but instead of restricting them, we have talked about it.  If she starts using those words in casual conversation, then she knows that the phone will go away for a while.

Features not People

The bottom line is that my daughter needs to learn to live in both the real world and this on-line world.  It has always been a part of her life and it always will be.  Both have rules of behavior and conduct, but she is not going to learn them by avoiding either of these worlds.  I certainly do not want Google, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or Amazon raising my child.  Fortunately, by being her technical support, I can help her understand that these companies are features of the on-line landscape, not people who can be trusted.

Will this apporach always work?  No, but it seems to be working for now.  When it stops, I'll have to change how I parent the internet.  But change is nothing new; it's what technology is all about.

My Cord Cutting Journey, Part 1 [Guest Post]

My Cord Cutting Journey Part 1

By One and Zeros

[

Editor's Note: I've asked a friend of mine to write up his cord cutting experience.  He has gone through it more recently and embraced it more deeply than I have.  I hope that you enjoy his journey as much as I have. 

                                                                                                                                              - Schmoid

]

A Brief History

I can track my love of all things tech to two very distinct moments in my life. The first occurred shortly after my high school graduation in 1982. My father gifted me an Audio Receiver and speakers. The setup was straightforward and the quality of sound was, to an 18 year old, superlative. But it was the first time the thought popped into my head that the experience might be better with a larger, and yes, more expensive pair of speakers. I grabbed every audiophile magazine I could find from the newsstand and spent months obsessing over that perfect pair of speakers. I was hooked, and that started my audiophile compulsion. The computer side of my tech love affair didn’t manifest itself until 1992 when I met my future ex-wife. It was yet another gift from my father: a 486SX computer with 4 MB’s of RAM. I knew very little about computers and the gift was meant to stimulate my interest so I could be better prepared for the business world. Mission accomplished. And like my audiophile lifestyle, this new passion came with the desire to constantly upgrade.

Trusting The Web

Recently, I was asked by a friend (the same friend that introduced my to drones, BTW) if I trusted Google.  In the context of our conversation of the time, the implication was that that might not be the wisest thing to do.  At the time, my answer was highly qualified:

"I trust them to do things that are good for Google.  And abusing what they know about me and everyone else that uses their services is will only be good for them in the short term.  If they go to far, then people will stop using their services and they will stop making money for their shareholders."

 - Schmoid

 Which is only a sort-of answer.  And, as things like this often do, it got me thinking.  Should we trust the large tech companies that know so much about us: Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.?  I don't really like my answer above, so I'm going to type my way into a better one.  Come along for the ride, why don't you?

Drones Are a Thing

It's time we talked about drones.  GoPro is launching the Karma, the new registration rules have gone in affect and I got the opportunity last weekend to fly some.  With all that going on, it's a criminal shame that I have not tapped in my hot take on these things any earlier.

Are UAV's 'Things'?

(courtesy The Verge)

But before we get rolling, a point of order: drones/quadcopters/hexi-copters/UAVs/whatever are things, but are they 'things' for the 'internet' to be 'of'?  After all, most of them are not directly connected to the internet or even to a network.  Having said that, I do not believe that I need to use my 'because it's my blog and I say so' trump.  The starting point of the Internet of Things is the rise of  the smartphone, cheap chips, sensors and connectivity.  Drones take advantage of that same paradigm.  Most are controlled through a smartphone, often with little input from the purported pilot.  They use various wireless networking protocols for that control and to send the video feed back.  So, while not directly connected to the internet, they are a product of the same culture.  From that view point, they are subject to my keyboard.

Tackling Cordcutting

To this ol' Schmoid, one of the essential tasks in the modern, Smart, home is to cut the cord.  Finding alternative ways to watch/listen/consume content other than the traditional cable/satellite company and, thereby, reducing your bills and time watching advertising is smart.  It just is.

Streaming Downs

Of course there are challenges.  Football in the US right now being a big one.  There are contracts between the league and the networks.  There are black out dates.  There are advertising revenues and player endorsements and usage rights and 'express written consent'.  Somewhere in there are the fans, but they don't matter as long as they watch and buy.

Given the start of the NFL season and the recent attempts by Tom Wheeler (hallowed be thy name) to change how the cable box works, it seems time to revisit this topic since I last touched on it in June, 2016.  Follow along, intrepid explorers, and lets see where my typing fingers take us.

Internet of Philosophy: Consumer

Over the past two weeks I've been throwing words at the internet about how I think certain IoT systems should be implemented.  Specifically, Municipal (Government) and Enterprise (Business).  But really, all of that blah-blah-blah is just an introduction to this post: the Consumer (Home) side of it all.  After all, I'm not a government official nor am I employed in any way by a business.  However, I do own a home and I do consume.

The not-so-old adage that 'If you're not paying, you're the product' is what got me thinking about all of this in the first place.  Whether that saying is a complaint, a compliment or just a bunch of extruded male bovine waste is up for some debate.  However, is a decade that has seen the rise of Software-as-a-Service and attempts to add subscription models to everything (thanks Obama Amazon), it is worth taking a some time to analyze how it might apply to the SmartHome space.

Internet of Philosophy: Enterprise

Last week I started in on a series of articles around three implementations of the Internet of Things: Municipal, Enterprise and Consumer.  I covered off on the Municipal side of things within that opening article and this week I want to dive into what Enterprise or Commercial IoT is all about.

Enterprise Internet of Things

The Basics

When the government is installing an IoT system, they are doing it under the auspices of better serving their constituency.  Business installations are different.  They are all about maximizing return, whether that is for the business owners or for the shareholders.  While there is certainly a cost saving side to governmental IoT, that's all that there is for businesses.  If it won't increase profits, why do it?

Profits, then: the difference between expenditures and earnings.  IoT can help the businesses increase profits in two ways: lower costs per unit produced and lower liability.

Internet of Philosophy: Municipal

Intro to a Three Parter

Today, I'm going to start a three piece run on three different areas/levels/implementation spaces for the Internet of Things: Municipal, Commercial/Industrial, and Consumer.  For each, I plan on discussing the basics, pros and cons, and a potential guiding philosophy (hence the title) that may help those that build systems within each of these spaces.

I'm doing this because the Internet of Things is too all-encompassing a term.  Too often I read articles that appear to be about smart homes but are really about enterprise implementations.  As I filter my IoT reading for smart homes, it got me wondering how many articles with enterprise or government sounding titles were really about consumer level IoT.  There are no clear cut boundaries and, in the long term, there should not be as everything gets integrated.  But for the nonce (TIL of brit-slang nonce), these systems aren't connected or really working together in any way.

This separation is due mostly to funding.  Is the taxpayer, the stock holders or the private citizen paying for it?  Occasionally, it's all three as is the case with the slow, grinding move towards a smart power grid.  Usually, though, we pay for IoT systems as a member of only one of those groups.

The Internet of Retail

What You Think It Will Look Like

When people talk about the Internet of Things, there are two examples that come to most peoples' minds: big corporate logistics and smart homes.  Those seem obvious.  The first is all about how large corporations keep track of their inventory, automate their supply chain, and cut costs around their energy use (and keep track of their employees via key cards and GPS).  There are easy benefits for all of us to understand: if these large corporations can cut costs, then the products or services that they provide will also be cheaper.  The smart home is similar: easy benefits in convenience, energy savings and security.

However, there is another place where the IoT is taking off: retail.  Here's an example of where they will want to go:

(Minority Report, courtesy of DreamworksSKG and 20th Century Fox)

Minority Report was released in 2002 and we're still a long way off from having that level of (intrusive) personalized, targeted advertising.  But we're getting closer.

Rant: There Shall Be Only One

(Image courtesy of Logitech via Mashable)

Windmill Tilting Badge, Level 1

I am working on my Curmudgeon Merit badges and yelling at a multi-national corporation for stupidity is one that I have not completed until last week.  Then Logitech pissed me off.

The Data of Things

"What do you write about?"

I've been trying to explain this blog to a few people and have been having trouble coming up with a decent elevator pitch.  "The Internet of Things is..." and that's where I get stuck.  In my second post of all time, I tried defining it and ended up with "whatever I say it is."  Which is fine, but maybe not that helpful, even for me.  Today, I want to take another crack at it.

The formal definition if you type "What is the Internet of Things?" into Google is:

"...a proposed development of the Internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data..."

Grocery Disruption

Last week, the most interesting development in the Internet of Things and the automation of our lives was not how Microsoft plans to let you control your home through their HoloLens or the coming alliance between The Thread Group and The Open Connectivity Foundation.  It's not even the fear of Russians hacking voting booths.  Instead, it is that FarmBot opened for Pre-orders.

(Source: www.Farmbot.io)

The Internet of Money

The Internet of Things is a definite revolution in its own right, but it is also part of something bigger: the Internet of Money.  The first real "Big Data" collection was/is financial: stock trades, money markets, consumer debt.  It all got stored on computers.  That led to things like Flash Trading, Mortgage Backed Securities and, more recently, BitCoin and its siblings.  Some of it bad, some of it good, mostly just changes brought about by the increasing access and automation of data without any moral compass beyond "it'll make things easier (and there are fees to earn.)"

From Funnel to Cycle

The Internet of Things fits in here because it starts to expand automation from data automation to thing automation.  Which is why we're all excited about it.  But for the companies that are investing in this buzzword, it goes beyond making it easy for you to set your thermostat or have the lights come on when you open the door.  All of that is the hook.  Ultimately, they want to automate your purchase decisions.

This has already been massively accelerated due to the internet.  If you look at the pre-internet consumer decision journey, it is a funnel:

Source: Business2Community.com

With the rise of the Internet and, more importantly, recommendation engines (based on individual buying data = big data), this turned from a funnel into a cycle:

Source: wearesocial.com

Recommendation engines operating on the "If you like this, then you'll like it again and also things similar to it" mean that we consumers no longer have to start at the top of the funnel for each and every purchase, but can work within a trust circle (that inner, smaller loop.)  But we still have to make the purchase every time.  We have to actually click on "Add to Cart."

From Cycle to Out-Of-The-Loop

The big change to the Internet of Money brought on by the Internet of Things is that now, the cycle only needs to happen once.  Instead of us making that lower re-loop when we need to replace something, the purchase has already been made and we no longer have to be part of the loop.

This has been going on in industry for a while.  "Just in Time"  inventory (keeping only enough parts in stock to last a re-stocking cycle) is a similar process, but had purchasing agents involved.  The newer system that everyone from retailers to manufacturers to restaurants have been working on for the past two decades is to connect their inventory management systems together, allowing purchase orders to be automatically sent out when inventory reaches a critical state.

Here's Where You Come In (Or Not)

What smart home manufacturers want is to create a similar inventory management system for your home.  If your home system knows when you are low on milk (through your smart refrigerator,) then it can order more and have it sent to your home.  It gets charged to your registered account (plus shipping and tax and a fee) and you can cross off a thing you no longer have to worry about.  In theory, the fee is less than the gas that you would use to go get that same milk.

All of this assumes that you have a smart appliance, that you take the time to teach it your tastes in various brands, that it won't start recommending other brands (or simply ordering them) because of some kick back between the various milk cartels, that you have consistent power and a solid internet connection.  Then, after all of that is set up, you won't have to worry about buying milk ever again.

What a world.

The Final Plea - Why I want to be VP

I've written a fair amount on what I would do as Vice President under Hillary and the Machine and some of my qualifications, but I'm not sure that I've adequately explained why I want the job.

Bringing the Weird to the HRC Ticket

There are news articles saying that Hillary and The Machine are looking for someone well versed in National Security.  They are saying that Bubba is pushing for Tom Kaine.  These are wrong.  She needs someone Weird.

This election cycle has been one of the weirdest in this writer's memory.  Certainly the weirdest since I became politically conscious enough to follow politics at all.  And Trump is maybe the weirdest part.  He bought himself a Hollywood walk of fame star, presumably for his 'work' on "The Apprentice".  His tweets are ... I'm not sure weird does them justice.  And there's the hair.

His VP pick, Governor Mike Pence of Indiana, is not weird.  He may be a lot of things, but for a candidate, he is a career politician with experience managing an executive office.  His the kind of person you would expect a major party candidate to pick for Vice President.  He is not weird.  Hillary is the Mike Pence of her ticket.  She also is not weird.  She needs someone who can close the weird gap.  Someone who can bring the weird and balance the ticket.

Closing the Weird Gap

What are my weirdness qualifications?  First off, I'm writing this series of posts asking to be Vice President.  I am a nobody in the political world (or in lots of other worlds... they have no idea who I am on Margathea or on Frogstar Planet B.)  Also, I make Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy references.  That's at least Megadodo Junior Editor achievement in weird.

My second piece of evidence is my Instagram profile.  It consists of nothing but pictures of blue post-it notes with nonsense quotes on them.  Instead of telling a story with pictures, I'm taking pictures of words.  Weird.

Finally, I'm not going to give you a third instance of being weird, thereby violating the 'Rule of Three' principle of writing.  Which is weird.

Hire me Hill-Bear.  I want to help you close the weird gap.

#schmoidforVP

What I Will Do As Vice President

I've watched enough episodes of "Veep" (0.5) to know that the job is mostly cocktail parties where people try to peddle influence.  I've watched enough episodes of "West Wing" (all of them) and "House of Cards" (all of them so far) to know that there is more to the job: glad handing foreign dignitaries when the real President doesn't have time, playing bad cop with Capital Hill and pushing secondary agenda items for the party.

Choose Me for VP

Mid-week WTF edition

The news is full of (shiz-to-my-nizzle) who the HRC will choose for Vice President.  Will it be a male brewer from Colorado or a female firebrand?  Will it by an Hispanic from HUD?

I suggest that none of these are the best choice.

Instead, pick me.  

Why?  Because as a middle-aged, divorced father of one I bring a lot to the table.

Pokemon Reality

The last two weeks have reminded me that I'm old and I blame Pokemon Go.  I'm a half-generation too old even to approach it as a nostalgia item.  Also, the MSD (Middle School Daughter, for those of you that had forgotten) is too tied up in UnderTale and listening to 8-bit soundtracks to care about Pikachu and friends.  No, my generation got Garbage Pail Kids and ain't no one making a phone game out of those.

(Source: Geekyrant.com)

So, I'm old because I don't want to go chasing around the southwestern american desert in the summer racking up data charges looking for virtual cockfighting contestants.  Instead, I want to look at the whole phenomenon as the first real use of Augmented Reality in a marketing campaign.

Qioto

Source

Today, I want to take a second to make a more personal post.  This will be less about the Internet of Things (however I choose to define it) and more about this blog and IoT information resources.  Fair warning.

Straight Outta Nowhere

A couple of months ago, I received direct message via twitter from some dude asking if I was interested in writing for his up and coming website.  After some back and forth, I decided that, yes, I have the time for this.  More importantly, as I learned more about what they were trying to do, I realized that I wanted to write for Qioto whether I had the time or not.  (Then I was employed, so time really was an issue.  Now I'm not traditionally employed and the actual writing is not much of an issue.)

Autonomous Morality

Ego Morality

Today's topic is how 'morality' will be programmed into autonomous vehicles.  There has been some recurring press on this issue over the last month and I've had some time to formulate my thoughts on this topic.  It is tough as, like most of first-world humanity, I think I'm moral but I've never faced the really tough life-and-death moral decisions that put that assertion to the test.  Most of my morality training has come from Star Trek, and that's not bad, but it is fairly basic and presumes that I'm sitting on the bridge of a star ship in orbit, debating the gray areas of the Prime Directive.  I hope I never have to even that.  Should it happen though, I'm pretty sure that if I have the time to think through the decision, I'll do the right thing.

But, that's the catch: 'if I have the time to think it through'.  The area where this is most likely to happen in my current life path is when I drive.  It is easily the most dangerous thing that I do on a daily/weekly/monthly basis (I ski and take some bigger risks there, but am only able to get in about twelve days a year).  Driving is a task that, when it goes south, will happen too quickly for my frontal lobe to override my learned motor skills and lizard brain reflexes.  Reflexes that have been fine tuned over hundreds of thousands of years to keep the individual alive.

Home Chain

Blockchain This

I've been doing a lot of thinking about Blockchain recently because there have been several articles about how it might be the answer to Internet of Things security concerns among many, many other things.  Companies with names like Microsoft, Intel and IBM have started whole divisions and more, betting big that Blockchain style distributed security is how the world will work.  It is the ultimate panacea that will save us all from ourselves.

That's (Smart) Entertainment, Part 2: Devices

Previously, On the Internet of Schmoid...

Last week, I blew through nearly seven hundred words to come to the inescapable conclusion that WiFi changed the world.  That Sonos was the first real example of how the Internet of Things was going to change the custom installation world.  And all of that was really earth shaking news to all of you.  But only if you haven't ventured out of your 1990's home theater watching endless loops of the Matrix in the last two decades.  So, um yeah.  Let's move on.

This week, I'm going to step out on a limb and make some actual hard core recommendations.  Two to be precise: Harmony and Chromecast.  Whether these are things that you should buy for yourself or not, that I leave up to you, but they should be part of the consideration set.  The reason I'm going to focus on these two devices in not because they offer the best picture or sound or are even best in their class.  What's more important it that they changed how people think about their entertainment control.

That's (Smart) Entertainment, Part 1: Services

That Old Thing?

Home entertainment is arguably the first category of consumer electronics to truly go 'smart' in the smart home sense.  People have been trying to automate the couch viewing experience for decades now with mixed results.  Companies like Crestron, Control4 and Kaleidescape have been working on signal distribution, control for as along as the content has become digital.  And while those companies and many more have done some incredible things, the world has changed in a few fundamental ways that have forced them, the component (TV, receiver) manufactures and the distribution companies themselves to re-evaluate the concept of 'Home Entertainment.'

Smart Power

Only As Smart As What It Eats

One of the basics of any Smart Home that is often just assumed is that all of our switches and bulbs and voice activated toilet brushes run on electricity.  To take it farther, most of them control electricity whether by turning a light on or off, activating an appliance or changing your home's temperature when a presence is detected.  All of these things are either starting or stopping the flow of electrons through out your home.  These electrons are the food that your house eats.

But Schmoid, I can hear you say, electrons are electrons.  There aren't some that are better for your home than others, right?  There aren't high protein electrons or gluten-free electrons.  There's just electrons and they don't change on any level whether they were generated by burning coal or exposing photo-voltaic panels to sunlight.  You are correct, I reply.  But electrons aren't the only aspect here.  There's also 'Smart'.

Smart, Natural, Google Home

Let the Games Begin!

The last two weeks have seen some announcements in the home automation voice assistant space.  The big news is that Google bowed their 'Google Home' product, an answer to Amazon's Echo.  Apple also is rumored to be working on a home version of Siri with maybe a camera.  And, just for kicks, Amazon released an in-browser version of Alexa more to explore the concept than anything really earth shattering.

For the sake of brevity (a first for me), I'm going to ignore Apple's home assistant for now.  They haven't made any official announcements and the camera thing... well, even the rumors are a little unsure how real that is.  It would be nice for context on who is issuing commands so that I can over ride the MSD's requests, but the privacy issues may be too much for most of us to bear.  Enough on that.  On to Google Home.

Moby Schmoid

Book Review Time

I want to depart from the basic tech commentary for a week and discuss a different aspect of technology and that's art of making a living in the tech space.

I was recently sent this NYT review by my mother (thanks, Mom.  I think).  From that, I bought Disrupted and read it over the course of a month.  It should not have taken me that long because it is not a long book or a difficult read, but I had to put it down a few times.  I'm not really going to review the book as a piece of literature (or not much), but I do want to talk about how HARD IT HIT ME.

Applied Appliances

Big and Manual

Those big home appliances: the washer, the dryer, the refrigerator, the range and the dishwasher.  They seem such natural devices to connect to a home network and then out to the internet.  After all, they are big and stationary and plugged in and perform tasks that take significant time.  Would it not be great if, when connected, they did... what?

And that's the challenge: the use case.  There is not one that is truly compelling for any of these.  The manual nature of the tasks that these appliances help perform force us to be present at them, using them, monitoring them.  There is no robotic arm that will move the laundry from the washer to the drier and then fold your clothes and put them away for you.  The dishes still need to be loaded and then unloaded.  The same with the food in the refrigerator.  All of these things require us to be there and be doing.  The result is that it is just as easy (easier?) to press the buttons on the appliance as it is to reach into a pocket, open an app, wait for it to load and then do exactly. the. same. thing.

Wearable Reality

One Too Many Hands

This week, instead of bagging on the state of home automation technology, I thought I'd step out into the realm of speculation.  Specifically, the future intersection of wearables and augmented reality.

That these two technologies, one emerged and the other emerging, have anything in common may seem either really obvious or not.  On the one hand, augmented reality will require a headset or glasses or contacts or something worn over the eyes (at least in the near future).  And that something will need to be connected, defining it as a 'wearable'.

On the other hand, the end goal of augmented reality is to create a seamless bridge between actual reality and the augmentations.  The headset/glasses/contacts need to disappear from the user's perceptions as much as possible allowing them to get lost in the experience.  The augmented reality that people at Microsoft and elsewhere are talking about is that experience, not the hardware.  Think of it like a Hollywood movie: we are excited for the story, not the projector.  The same holds true with AR: end users need to be focusing on the new capabilities and not how they are created (unless the creation tool limits those capabilities).

But what I really want to discuss is a third way (hand?) of looking at AR which may make it the ultimate wearable.  If we are using AR to define our reality and to share this redefinition with others who are also augmenting theirs, why not define our clothing, our look, our style through AR?

Walking the Open Path

Not an Apology

The a couple of weeks ago I wrote a post bagging on SmartThings.  While I stand by what I wrote there, I want to clear up any misconceptions that I might have created.

I am a SmartThings fan.  It is as a fan that I feel compelled to point out issues when I see them in the hopes that I can remain a fan.  Stability issues and developer complaints are not fun and no one on any side of the community (corporate, developer, end-user) wants them.  On the other hand, these issues are the result of one of the core reasons that I am a fan of SmartThings: openness.

AR 'and' VR

Not 'or'

I've seen a lot of writing that compares Virtual Reality to Augmented Reality.  They treat these two technologies as if they are in competition.  That one will win out over the other in some weird Techno Thunderdome of marketing and consumer choice.

(with various exploits, brute force and denial of services attacks instead of halberds and chainsaws, with the invisible hand of laissez faire economics bouncing the two competitors around: Two techs enter, One tech leaves!)

In reality (without Thunderdomes... so sad.), these two technologies serve different use cases with only a little overlap.  Both can exist side-by-side and most people will ultimately adopt both.

How Smart Are Things?

Oof, My Backend Hurts

Two items came to my attention this week regarding SmartThings:

• Some of the developer community picked up their toys and went home.  This appears to be in response to an increasing level of stability issues since Samsung took over SmartThings nearly two years ago.  I tweeted about this and got a nearly immediate response from the SmartThings twitter account.  Here's some more context.
• SmartThings published an apology/here's-what-we're-doing letter to their customer base, followed a few days later by another one.

I use SmartThings.  I've been a fan of their product since just before Samsung took them on and have visited with them at CES2015.  I think that, as a whole, the company's direction is the right way to go.  This stems from two things:

1. They are committed (still, maybe despite Samsung) to including as many other smarthome products into their ecosystem as will agree to work with them.
2. They have fostered a rich developer community that was (and, despite some vocal few, still is) working to expand their products' capabilities well beyond anything originally intended.

Some history

I started into the smarthome space because of NewEgg.  They had a deal on some WeMo wall switches and I bought a bunch.  I have enough electrical knowledge to install these without too much trouble.  And they worked great... for turning my lights on and off from my phone.  And that's where I ran into issues.  Like most smarthome enthusiasts, as soon as I started connecting things, I wanted them to do things on their own, to respond to changes in my home and not wait for me to tell them what to do.  Belkin's WeMo app has some of this: scheduling lights on and off, responding to motion sensors, etc.  

But there are limits to the official Belkin app's capabilities: no geofencing, no ability to respond to multiple conditions (if this AND this, then that), no ability to use one switch to control multiple lights in through the virtual realm.  Finally, despite the switches being full 802.11g devices, connected to the same router that my phone is connected to, the system still required that all commands go out to and then back from the Belkin cloud.  Security issues aside, this also significantly decreased their response time. (And no 3-way switch solution.  I'm slowly replacing the Wemo switches with Z-Wave as my paychecks allow).

One work around for all of this is the Android app WemoManager by MPP that sets up a local server on your phone or tablet that replaces the Belkin cloud.  It also adds all of the capabilities that I was looking for.  So, problem solved... until I started looking beyond the light.

I added a Nest thermostat.  Great.  Then some web cams.  Easy, peasy.  Then the garage door with a cobbled together Raspberry Pi relay system.  More complex, but fun to get into the guts a bit.

Installing all of this was great.  Using it was not.  I had separate apps, web pages and widgets to control it all.  I knew how to control it all, but it was a bit of a mess.  This point was brought home when I tried to install it all on the Middle School Daughter's phone (received at age 11 and then taken away anytime she pays more attention to it than to me or her homework).  She looked at all of the bits and pieces and gave me a "What-evs, Dad."

Enter SmartThings

Then, as if some God of User Interface heard my daughter's cry (maybe the spilled seed of Hephaestus?), SmartThings appears with their talk of inclusion for both manufacturers and hobbyists but geared towards the more casual user.  It sounded perfect.  I bought hub v1.  Then hub v2 a year later.

And it does work.  Mostly.  The Belkin Wemo switches don't adhere to the SmartThings "Smart Lighting" SmartApp consistently, but I am willing to believe that more of that rested on Belkin's shoulders than on SmartThings because the Z-Wave switches I've since installed are flawless.  The whole system will go down at odd hours, usually late at night, and then come back up ten minutes later, buzzing my phone both times.  Finally, there is still a cloud component that concerns me, especially as I've removed the Raspberry Pi garage door system and replaced it with a Z-Wave relay that works through SmartThings.

What's an Early-ish Adopter to do?

SmartThings remains the best all around, all "things", family friendly solution available on the market.  I just wish that was saying more.  The bar has not been set very high by any other single hub ecosystem currently available.  Many of the less inclusive products like the Philips Hue work more consistently, but they are also more limited in their applications.

So, for now, I'm sticking with SmartThings.  But I'm also keeping my eye out for something with better support, a better community and a better interface.  It may not be far off.

The Internet of Potatoes

An App? The Switch is Right. There.

There have been a few people who have questioned the point of the first world smart home.  They claim that while the energy savings is nice, it isn't significant.  The security is nice, but it comes with its own set of not-so-secure issues.  So, really, they ask, isn't the point of a smart home so that you can spend more time on the couch or in bed instead of getting up and doing?  To which I reply:

Yes, and your point?

The article tagged above about the laziness of the Internet of things goes on to talk about the bifurcation of consumer connected devices: wearables are aimed at getting us to move more yet smart switches and appliances are designed to allow us to move less.  What the article ignores is the concept of 'prioritization.'

Won't Someone Think of the Grey Cells?

One of the many points of IoT is to allow us to concentrate more on the things that are important to us and less on the hassles.  To stop wasting portions of our mind on mindless details that are better taken care of by mindless things.

If I want to watch a movie on my TV, why shouldn't the TV know to dim the lights?  That's a hassle that keeps me from concentrating on the movie.  Getting a notification that my laundry is done saves me time and keeps my clothes fresher, while remembering to check them at a particular time without notification is a recipe for failure.  Could I dim the lights?  Yes.  Could I remember to change my laundry by myself?  Yes.  But there are probably better ways for me to spend my time.  For instance, optimizing my exercise routine and getting usable data that tells me if I'm hitting my goals.

Focusyn

What I'm really talking about is the ability to identify and focus in on critical tasks.  What is important for me/you/them/it to do RIGHT NOW.  Work?  Then don't let your environment distract you.  But also don't let the lack of a perfect environment keep you from delivering your best.  Relaxing?  Then relax like there will never be another moment in which to chill.  Let everything else take care of itself.

Because now it can.

You Have Already Lost

IoT Security, take 2 (at least)

A couple of weeks ago, I took a stab at the current buzz issue dealing with the Internet of Things: Security.  The bottom line from that attempt: update the defaults and you don't have anything to worry about*.

After reading many articles on IoT security, I feel that I may need to amend that rather blithe recommendation.  With all of the information that corporations, governments, and service level workers have on each of us, your security is no longer in just your hands.  You are now at the mercy of whatever information security policies that all of those entities have put in place.  The result:

You have already been compromised.

And it is not even your fault because it is almost impossible to live in a western, first world economy and avoid having your personal information stolen.through your security.  Think of all of the ways that we offer our information to people without vetting their ability to protect it:

• We hand our credit cards to waitstaff who then walk away to a back room and do who-knows-what.
• We trust that there is nothing funny with the ATM or credit card reader whenever we swipe.
• We give our address and other payment information to credit card companies, on-line shopping sites and other places and assume that they have policies in place.  That's turned out well for Target, Sony and several others.
• We set up our personal email accounts with large corporations who make their money by selling our information (albeit at one remove) to other large corporations who want to sell us something.
• We trust our government with our information.  A government whose own level of bureaucratic  security is no match for the military grade attacks that it is receiving.  For that matter, the government itself is looking to ensure that all of our security is delicately compromised, though only they will have the key (#sure).

Not doing these things is all but impossible in an advanced economy.  What's even worse is that as soon as one security hole is patched, another appears.  This is a 'warhead versus wall' paradigm ('para-dig-em') and the warhead always wins.

What is a person to do?

There are several options.  First, you can cut all ties with technology and live in the wilderness and ignorance scared of Those-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.  If you are like me, this is not an option worth considering.  How can I chill without NetFlix?  Who would I call out to for my music?  #notgoingtohappen.

What else, then?  Most of the big data security breaches have been to gather personal information so that thieves can steal identities and make purchases using credit cards or bank info.  Only some of that is relevant to the Internet of Things and SmartHome technology.  The best way to deal with a fight you've already lost is to have a plan and know what to do ahead of time.

Securing Your Security

What is relevant to IoT and home automation is planning.  When starting out with your SmartHome system, there are two basic approaches:

• Roll your own.  This approach assumes that you are setting up your own servers, cloud and doing most of the pairing and integration work yourself.  Programs like HomeSeer and OpenHAB rely on you to do more of the work, but also allow many more levels of customization and, because they are local and generally not tied to a large corporate server, more secure. You can even step off the deep end and use a Raspberry Pi.
  
  The downside is compatibility.  While you'll be able to find sensors and switches and such, larger items will be more difficult.  Connected refrigerators and smart door locks are usually locked to the manufacturer's cloud and won't integrate with a home built jury-rigged system.
  
  
• Use an existing 'ecosystem'.  Here we're talking about something like Apple's HomeKit, Google's Brillo/Weeve/Works-with-Nest, AT&T's Digital Life, Comcast's Xfinity Home, and Samsung's SmartThings.  Here the initial heavy lifting is done for you.  There's no need to learn how to open ports on your router or determine the best mesh network for your needs.  Instead, look at the manufacture's list of compatible devices and go.
  
  Here the downside is that you are relying on their cloud security to keep your home secure.  Who are the faceless minions that maintain their servers?  Why might some group of hackers, corporate rival or government want to attack them?  In fact, what is that manufacturer themselves doing with the data that they collect on you?  You don't know.  Even if you read the Terms of Service document, it's really had to know.
  

The real choice here is control versus time/convenience.  Why are you getting in to home automation?  If it's more about security, then roll your own.  On the other hand, if you like the convenience of switching things on and off from around the world, having your TV turn on when you roll into the garage, but don't have the time to delve into nested if-then statements, go for a pre-built platform.

But if you do go for the pre-built system, try to stick to one.  While you can add Alexa to SmartThings to Hue to Nest, each additional service does not double your chance of exposure, it raises the stakes exponentially.

I think I've ground this into the dirt.  Beaten a dead horse.  So I'll end it.  Here.

*My advice should be taken at your own risk.  My sense of responsibility for your actions is a fart in the wind.  That's enough CYA for now.

VR in IRL

And here I am...

This week, Sony announced their VR headset for the PS4 for $399 (sort of).  With the HTC Vive on Steam and the Oculus Rift (oh, and the Samsung Gear VR), there are now a growing number of ways for people to truly immerse themselves in alternative realities.

But... but... what's the point?  Not that this stuff isn't entertaining.  It will be.  Not that there isn't a lot of money to be made in hardware and (even more) in content.  There is.  But how will this affect how we live our lives... in non-virtual reality?

... imprinting on my couch.

There are a few obvious answers that I'll list here just to get them out of the way:

• Couch potato-ness will increase.  Duh.
• Invest in catheter futures.  Bathrooms don't work in VR.
• Invest in pizza robots.  Food doesn't nourish in VR.
• Porn.  Lots of porn.

But what else? Is there anything useful in all of this or is it just for entertainment?  To answer this, I asked my local expert: my Middle-School Daughter (MSD).

Schmoid:  Hey.

MSD:  What?

Schmoid:  How do you see VR helmets being actually useful?

MSD:  Huhn?  Why are you asking me?  You're the one that's supposed to be the tech expert.

Schmoid:  Because I want to see what the next generation thinks they will be doing with this stuff.

MSD:  What evs. [pause while she gets over how weird her dad is]  I guess they would be entertaining.  I could feel like I'm actually in Minecraft.

Schmoid:  Fine, but how is that useful?

MSD:  Because it's awesome.

Schmoid: [giving up on an unwinnable argument] What about school, then?  What if you went to school online and it felt like a classroom?  Would that be useful?  All you'd need to do was get out of bed in the morning and throw a helmet on.

MSD:  Maybe, I guess.  But what about lunch?

Schmoid:  You'd take the helmet off and eat.

MSD:  Dad!  That's not what I meant.  What about talking with my friends?

Schmoid:  You guys would just open another chat and meet for lunch.  Still virtually.

MSD:  And PE?  It would be really awesome if I didn't have to go to PE.

Schmoid:  I'm sure that there would be some form of exercise that you would still have to do.

MSD:  Then... meh.  It would still be school.  But it would be cool if I got an extra hour of sleep.

The One Percent Life

It was from that conversation that I figured out what VR will ultimately do to our actual reality lives.  Those that can afford it will be able to work and collaborate more easily with others that are also VR enabled.

Virtual schools will be able to automate attendance and have all students in a class answer every question asked without having to put one student on the spot.  Grading will be managed by expert systems, asking help from the teacher only on ambiguous input.

For the workplace, cubical farms will become a thing of the past.  Or not as they will be virtual cubical farms where a supervisor will still be able to look out over their floor and know who is doing what.  Meetings can meaningfully involve people from around the globe, unlike the teleconferencing of today.

Trade shows.  My god, trade shows.  No more tired feet and scrambling to hit all of the booths and wait in line to see the latest thing or meet the 'it' person.  And the booths would no longer be bound by the laws of physics.

The worlds of Gibson and Stephenson and The Wachowski siblings (and Ernest Cline because it's hard not to love Ready Player One... oh, and Tad Williams' Otherland books) would all be ours to have.

They why would we ever need to leave the comfort of our homes?  Because there are jobs that support the infrastructure of the suburban VR warrior clan that need to be done in reality: garbage collection, electrical grid maintenance, food preparation, cleaning services, construction, assembly, etc.  Basically, all of the service and support level jobs that are considered blue collar.

Education will be separated into those that can attend the virtual classrooms with their richer experience and those that will still attend an IRL school with their fellow lower income bracketeers.  Work will be segregated into the stay-at-home white collar VR manager and the service workers ensuring that an all-beef patty is available at a moments notice.

The Cake is a Lie

Will this actually happen?  Some of it.  I'm guessing that cubical farms and trade shows will continue to exist in real life, though there may be virtual components to them.  Some schools and meetings will go full VR, but there will always be something lost in the uncanny valley of facial nuance translation that will continue to give face-to-face a premium.

Instead, what VR will do is what all new technology does: emphasize and accelerate many of the details of our existing lives.  Think social media: Facebook did not change the world, but it did allow us to share our worlds with a wider audience.  Smart phones did not change the world, they just let us say the same things we've always been saying to more people in more ways.  VR will do the same.

What will be interesting is which details it ends up emphasizing.