<story><title>The smart home is flailing as a concept</title><url>https://www.fastcompany.com/90660570/the-smart-home-is-flailing-as-a-concept-because-it-sucks</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lqet</author><text>In our apartment, we have the following smart features:&lt;p&gt;* Multiway light switches [0],  which allow switching lights on and off from several different locations.&lt;p&gt;* A boiler, which heats water up automatically should it become too cold.&lt;p&gt;This covers lighting, heating, and supplies water at arbitrary temperatures between around 15 and 60 degrees celsius on demand, at several locations. The features do not require internet connectivity, are vendor-independent and have zero privacy issues. In the last 30 years since their installation, they have &lt;i&gt;not once&lt;/i&gt; failed.&lt;p&gt;I am at a complete loss why this should not be smart enough. The technical overhead some people introduce into their lives just to avoid pressing a button to turn of the light is mindblowing to me.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Multiway_switching&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Multiway_switching&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pcwalton</author><text>&amp;gt; I am at a complete loss why this should not be smart enough. The technical overhead some people introduce into their lives just to avoid pressing a button to turn of the light is mindblowing to me.&lt;p&gt;My leg is currently broken and I&amp;#x27;m on crutches. At this point I&amp;#x27;m really glad that I installed voice-controlled lighting in my house. Good reminder that things that seem trivial are very much not to people with disabilities.</text></comment>
<story><title>The smart home is flailing as a concept</title><url>https://www.fastcompany.com/90660570/the-smart-home-is-flailing-as-a-concept-because-it-sucks</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lqet</author><text>In our apartment, we have the following smart features:&lt;p&gt;* Multiway light switches [0],  which allow switching lights on and off from several different locations.&lt;p&gt;* A boiler, which heats water up automatically should it become too cold.&lt;p&gt;This covers lighting, heating, and supplies water at arbitrary temperatures between around 15 and 60 degrees celsius on demand, at several locations. The features do not require internet connectivity, are vendor-independent and have zero privacy issues. In the last 30 years since their installation, they have &lt;i&gt;not once&lt;/i&gt; failed.&lt;p&gt;I am at a complete loss why this should not be smart enough. The technical overhead some people introduce into their lives just to avoid pressing a button to turn of the light is mindblowing to me.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Multiway_switching&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Multiway_switching&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mumblemumble</author><text>Our new house came with a Nest thermostat. It has some perks. Probably the main one is that we can turn the thermostat down to just warm enough to keep the pipes from freezing when we will be away from the home for a while, and then remotely turn it back up so that the house reaches a comfortable temperature just as we&amp;#x27;re arriving back home.&lt;p&gt;However, I don&amp;#x27;t think that that&amp;#x27;s enough to counteract the many, many UX annoyances we&amp;#x27;ve encountered with it. When it craps out or Google decides to brick it, I intend to replace it with a regular old programmable thermostat.</text></comment>