The IoT in a Boiler Room

I found this post by Emily Newton at The Moderate Voice on the applicability of the Internet of Things (IoT), Internet-connected devices, surprisingly interesting:

An IoT boiler system lets people get real-time information that helps them better manage their time while keeping the machine running smoothly. Data also becomes a time-saver in such cases by minimizing instances where people arrive at work to find boiler-related surprises that disrupt their schedules for the rest of the day.

Who knew?

I look upon such interconnectedness with suspicion, mostly for security reasons. I’m reminded of an old wisecrack: with the aid of a computer you can make a mistake in moments it would have taken you years to do by hand. At least on this version of the Internet I believe that it will always be cheaper and easier to break into such systems than it will be to secure them. Furthermore my experience has been that those who develop such systems don’t have either the attitude or knowledge necessary to secure them. What irks me about it is that it would be so easy to fix.

However, when it’s time to railroad everybody railroads so going ahead I guess we’d best be prepared for that level of interconnectedness.

5 comments… add one
  • PD Shaw Link

    The hope ten years ago of an interconnected household making everything easier clashed with the 2021 reality that the coffee maker won’t work because amazon servers are down. I’ve stolen this joke from someone, but I question the real value of a lot of helping the people manage their time and suspect its really to enable someone else to receive more of that time. No more being late to work!!!

  • PD Shaw Link

    Also, I understand that a lot of state workers showed up this morning to find their computers not working. Perhaps a high tech boiler could have fixed it.

  • I can’t speak definitively to that but my experience has been that the State of Illinois’s network infrastructure is absurdly centralized, mired in the 80s. When every large company is putting its computer and network infrastructure in the cloud as fast as it can, Illinois is reluctant.

    Maybe its changed over the last five years but five years ago I had daily contact with it and Illinois computer and network infrastructure was entirely on-prem.

  • Andy Link

    I’m familiar with a lot of this from my current work in the cellular/wireless industry and also my previous work in intelligence.

    Let’s just say that I would never allow most of this in my house with a few narrow exceptions.

  • walt moffett Link

    Who needs a telescreen where your car, refrigerator, washer, etc will do it much better. Will be interesting to see what happens to used non-IOT appliance prices.

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