17 Replies to “I, For One, Welcome Our New Self-Driving Overlords”

  1. The last paragraph tickled my funny bone.
    “I already owned an overpriced gadget, my Fitbit, that encourages me to get off my butt by vibrating whenever I’ve been sitting for too long. And I now also own an overpriced gadget that encourages me to stay on my butt by allowing me to turn on my coffeemaker without getting out of bed. They can’t both be right.”

  2. I agree, buy the dumbest appliance you can purchase. The power went out. I live in a Hamlet that is supplied with water from the county so we still had water pressure. I thought I would take a shower but water was not hot enough. As I had my inverter generator going I hooked it up to the hot water heater. The hot water heater uses natural gas to heat but has an IC to control the gas. The generator would not power up the water heater. When the power came back on the hot water heater didn’t work. Either the generator or the numerous power fluxes blew the IC. The fireplace has a pilot light and an old fashioned mercury controlled thermostat so we were warm. I still haven’t received a bill for the new controller but imagine it will be over $200.00. I wonder how long a pilot light would have to run to use up $200.00 worth of gas?

  3. The first thing I did when we got a new HVAC with a new thermostat was find – and do – the instructions for turning off the internet access. I don’t need that. I barely “need” to have scheduled temperature changes. I could just as easily live with a simple thermocoupled thermostat.

  6. “I barely “need” to have scheduled temperature changes.”
    Your house will appreciate being kept at a fairly stable temperature and humidity, and the savings of periodically turning down the heat are largely mythical. It costs a lot of money to raise the temperature of a house.

  7. My question is how many devices are spying on us without our knowing ? It’s one thing to sign-up for internet tracking … it’s quite another for your Keurig coffee maker to report your usage thru a stealth chip embedded in the circuitry.
    We are all going to be hiring bug sweepers like in a James Bond movie to disinfect our homes.

  8. “My question is how many devices are spying on us without our knowing ?”
    None of them, because they all are, and we know it. If it’s net connected, it’s being logged.

  9. well. there was a long time blackout dead of winter back in the 60s. my parents’ place was the ONLY one with a friggin faucet for the furnace adjustment, and thus the ONLY place on the block with heat.
    I have a procedure laid out in the event of a blackout today, including
    – cut the main switch,
    – turn off all but preselected breakers,
    – fire up my 1500W generator in the shed,
    – plug a custom male-to-male extension cord INTO a specific kitchen O/L,
    – plug the other end into a normal ext cord from the generator,
    thus ‘pushing’ voltage INTO the outlet ( a trick I learned working as an electrician’s assistant, back before the wynnedfarm cabal fcuked it all up with their ‘improvements’ of the appreticeshit cystem)
    – voila !!! electricity available until hydro is restored !!
    p.s., the real trick here is the ‘pushing’ thing puts voltage on the main bus bar for that side of the panel (via the breaker serving the O/L with the male-male custom adapter), and thus any and all circuits with their breaker still on, (which is why only a select few are left on, see above)
    I then give very strict orders to the tenants they are NOT allowed to plug in anything but lites and alarm clock/radio etc so as to not tax the setup.
    cooking is then done on the bbq and/or the firepit.
    I got a feeling the famous wynnedfarm cabal is going to make this a necessity for many ontarioweans; the problem with THAT being this generation hasnt got a ding dong CLUE what Im even describing. but oh ya, they know ALLLL about ‘same sex rights’ bla bla bla.
    NONE of this allows, nor do I, the INCURSION of this scary plethora of ‘convenient’ digital devices (said in that staccato robotic ‘star trek’ voice)
    this from a dude who made a really good living in IT for 30+ years and topped it off with another 5 yrs in construction. guess which gave me the bigger sense of accomplishment.

  10. The remote control paragraph was humorous and telling. I can control my TV and cable box via one remote, but need a second for the DVD, and a third for the Netflix box. Now, in the old days (2010), when your remote died, you just went to Shaw and got a new one that you simply pointed at your TV for several seconds until they connected. Of course you had to enter the code for your TV, but that was it. Now, the replacement remote has to be programmed via a USB connected to your computer. Worse, it’s buggier than the 20 year old one we have for the TV in the kitchen.
    Back in 1980, it was worth it to spend $160 (4 hrs @ $40/hr) to repair a 20″ color TV that was worth $8-900. Nowadays, when a 40″ TV only sets you back $499.00, a couple of hours labor eats up the cost of a new TV. This is common for a large number of modern goods. The labor cost of repair is greater than the value of the device. This leads to another economic reality that governments DO NOT grasp. Inflation only really exists in the public sector.
    Take any broad cross-section of consumer goods, from cars down to food, and you’ll find that the real cost is actually less. I’ve seen it in ads for groceries from the 1960’s, and it’s an eye opener in the automotive world. When I first started going to the race track, the tow unit of choice among the bucks-up crowd was a GMC Crew Cab dually. In 1977, you could buy one for about $13K, or $53,000 in today’s dollars. A few weeks ago, in a similar conversation, I on-line priced a new Dodge 3500 crew cab. I went with a 6.4 Hemi- the smallest engine available in that truck in 2017 but more powerful than a 1977 454- and cloth seats in a 2wd dually.
    Going as apples-apples as one can, that’s a truck that gets better fuel economy, has a larger tow capacity, has more features, and is over-all far better built than the 1977 model, for $53,000.
    Regulatory excess, and the higher overall cost of government has mostly destroyed the productivity gains made in the last 40 years. The only inflationary forces are taxes and regulations.

  11. Scotty (the engineer): “Aye, sir. The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.”

  12. Was the generator hooked up to the house ground properly using a separate wire? If you don’t do that, it will likely mess up your furnace/water heater.

  15. i am reading a book by Jeffery Deaver. some of the plot revolves around smart appliances that can be manipulated by outside interference. the opportunities seem endless for mischief.

  16. I have been a serious computer hobbyist since 1981, and while I see technology as a good thing I believe
    too many people are overly optimistic. I think the whole idea of “smart everything” and self-driving
    cars is a pipe dream right up there with the Skynet scenario.
    People used to be able to do repairs to their cars but computers, sensors and the like have only added
    cost and complexity. I can program microcontrollers and interface just about any kind of pressure,
    level, temperature sensor and the like. On the small scale, these things work fine. On the other
    end, a totally smart self-driving car will never work. Computers cannot (and will not) be programmed
    to think. All you can do is start building up a table of scenarios which the program will reference
    and grab the closest solution to the problem at hand.
    Since the causes of accidents number into the millions, the table will just continue to grow as well
    as the time it takes to make a “decision.” The human brain does not work this way. We do not have to
    think, we react. While driving an old Triumph Spitfire Mk III, a large box spring mattress flew off
    a truck and landed a car length in front of me. A quick evasive move and I avoided hitting it. No
    computer could ever react that quickly.
    Apart from safety issues, there is a real danger involved in interfacing everything from your toaster
    to your crapper. I am not even going into security issues, but the more complex any system is, the
    more likely it is to fail. If everything you have is connected to a network, one solar flare can
    disable the whole lot. If the tech in your car fails, you need a tow truck. Back in the old days
    I kept a screwdriver and an emery board in the glovebox. You could clean the points and set the
    gap with your driver’s license. You were back on your way in 5 minutes.
    Simplicity = reliability.

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