IoT (Internet of Things)

[Katy Lied]

This term is being used more frequently around me, to mean (from google):

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

Before I was able to ignore it but now it is showing up at work, and it is sort of related to work, especially with respect to our utility clients who are smart gridding.

Does anyone else use this term a lot? Is it simply a trendy buzzword? Or will it develop into something big?

I take my relationship with my words and phrases seriously, and I don't know if I should commit to "IoT" rashly.

[Joe Public]

It's been around for a while, and it means just what you posted. I think Surfah posted about a connected thermostat a while back.

I'll just add that there is no way I install network-connected/operated door locks, etc. I don't like the hacking potential for most IoT items.

[SCcoug]

It's been a main focus at the past few International Microwave Symposia. That's not to say it isn't also a trendy buzzword.

[TripletDaddy]

That's so wild to imagine a day in the near future when everyday items such as a desktop computer or a phone or a fax machine will be "connected" to other objects, thereby creating an "internet of things."

[Uncle Ted]

The internet of things is something to look forward to...

Hacking the planet


The internet of things is coming. Now is the time to deal with its security flaws
[...]
Computer-security people call it a disaster in the making. They worry that, in their rush to bring cyber-widgets to market, the companies that produce them have not learned the lessons of the early years of the internet. The big computing firms of the 1980s and 1990s treated security as an afterthought. Only once the threats—in the forms of viruses, hacking attacks and so on—became apparent, did Microsoft, Apple and the rest start trying to fix things. But bolting on security after the fact is much harder than building it in from the start.


Pay up, or the fridge gets it
The same mistake is being repeated with the internet of things. Examples are already emerging of the risks posed by turning everyday objects into computers (see article). In one case a hacker found he could remotely control the pump that dispensed his drugs. Others have disabled the brakes and power-steering on new cars. Cyber-criminals are a creative lot. In the future a computerised washing machine or fridge might be subverted to send out spam e-mails, for instance, or to host child pornography; or a computerised front door might refuse to let you in until you hand over a bitcoin ransom.
[...]

http://www.economist.com/news/leader...-flaws-hacking

if you are in the computer security business.

[LSUInstituteGraduate]

I have dabbled in home automation and enjoy it. How nice it is to set the thermostat to 45 defrees F when leaving for a winter vacation, set it to 75 when my flight lands coming home, then to walk into a warm home. Remotely turning lights on when coming home and setting lights to turn on and off at random times within a set window instead of at exact times every day I am gone is reassuring. At work, making sure the vending machine has what I want, at the temperature I want, is great. The only thing worse than finding the machine sold out of my beverage of choice is learning it was just restocked bu getting a room temperature can!

Security is, of course, an issue. I have one home server accessible from outside my firewall, and run home automation on another, so I have to connect to the one then the other to make changes from outside. I have a few other security tricks, but most importantly I keep everything up to date.

[jay santos]

I have dabbled in home automation and enjoy it. How nice it is to set the thermostat to 45 defrees F when leaving for a winter vacation, set it to 75 when my flight lands coming home, then to walk into a warm home. Remotely turning lights on when coming home and setting lights to turn on and off at random times within a set window instead of at exact times every day I am gone is reassuring. At work, making sure the vending machine has what I want, at the temperature I want, is great. The only thing worse than finding the machine sold out of my beverage of choice is learning it was just restocked bu getting a room temperature can!

Security is, of course, an issue. I have one home server accessible from outside my firewall, and run home automation on another, so I have to connect to the one then the other to make changes from outside. I have a few other security tricks, but most importantly I keep everything up to date.

I thought you lived in a tent.

[old_gregg]

I have dabbled in home automation and enjoy it. How nice it is to set the thermostat to 45 defrees F when leaving for a winter vacation, set it to 75 when my flight lands coming home, then to walk into a warm home. Remotely turning lights on when coming home and setting lights to turn on and off at random times within a set window instead of at exact times every day I am gone is reassuring. At work, making sure the vending machine has what I want, at the temperature I want, is great. The only thing worse than finding the machine sold out of my beverage of choice is learning it was just restocked bu getting a room temperature can!

Security is, of course, an issue. I have one home server accessible from outside my firewall, and run home automation on another, so I have to connect to the one then the other to make changes from outside. I have a few other security tricks, but most importantly I keep everything up to date.

but what about teledildonics

[LSUInstituteGraduate]

I thought you lived in a tent.

What would make you think that? Does the fact that I believe much of what Julie Rowe claims, or the fact that I have long believed the only way the faithful Saints will avoid the worst of the tribulations (as prophesied) is to gather, somehow imply that I am unwilling to live in a house with modern conveniences until such time as we are asked to gather?

I live in a house that comfortably sleeps six, drive a car that comfortably seats five, and fly a plane that comfortably seats four.

[creekster]

What would make you think that? Does the fact that I believe much of what Julie Rowe claims, or the fact that I have long believed the only way the faithful Saints will avoid the worst of the tribulations (as prophesied) is to gather, somehow imply that I am unwilling to live in a house with modern conveniences until such time as we are asked to gather?

I live in a house that comfortably sleeps six, drive a car that comfortably seats five, and fly a plane that comfortably seats four.

and have an ego that comfortably seats at least ten.