[ExI] household organizer, was :RE: Serious topic

[Adrian Tymes]

On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 10:50 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes
> ...
>>> >> [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38
>
>>...That video seems to be much more about the interoperability of devices
> made by, presumably, companies who had little to do with one another, and on
> the possibilities of touch interface... Adrian
>
> Ja.  I am waiting for something analogous to Java for various household
> appliances.  It needs to be some freeware open source universal language
> that devices can transmit via Bluetooth that will allow it to tell the other
> appliances what it is doing, how it is feeling, and to issue or take orders
> from other appliances.  I don't even yet know what that can be used for, and
> I recognize it carries its own risks.  I still want that capability in every
> home appliance that has any processors.

That exists today - in appliances that have implemented it.  Almost none do.
The problem is, having a refrigerator that can display images on its touch
screen front, can receive image files from other devices (say, via Bluetooth or
USB), and support a standard Web browsing experience is of practically no
extra value beyond just having a refrigerator.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/47184/what_happened_to_internet_appliances.html
has more info on that.  Granted, the article is about 10 years old - it's still
relevant, though http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20009592-56.html
details progress since then (but note that, even then, the gadgets still have
a solid value add for having the interactivity; it's still not general purpose
"computing just because we can").

It's kind of like how, even today, a $100 laptop is just barely possible - and
that's a dedicated computing object.  A lot of these future additions fall into
the gap between "Would you use it even once if it was already there",
"Would you use it regularly if it was already there", and "Would you pay to
have it added".  People think they want stuff when the first one is a yes, but
then there's the second (which lots of fitness equipment infamously falls prey
to) - and if the third isn't a yes, it's too expensive for anyone to make.