IoT (Internet of Things)
The Meetup website, Meetup.com, has been under Denial of Service attack lately for some reason or other.
Here's a link that may work or not:
http://www.meetup.com/Internet-of-Things-Denver-Meetup/The Meetup
Last night at the Meetup we listened to Jim (Jingfeng Liu) of LinkSprite Inc., based in Longmont CO.Jim gave us a presentation on their company's powerful & versatile new micro-controller board (more like a PC actually)named pcDuino, seemingly designed to make techno-geeks like me salivate profusely.
I WANT ONE!!! Maybe later after I've pushed my Arduino Mega 2560 to its limits, I'll move up.
IoT deals with the idea of having all your clever personal electronics being able to communicate with each other and perform actions based on some plan. To somehow take care of those endless chores involved in managing our ever-growing list of "time saving/labor saving high-tech devices".
IoT, I surmise, aims to give these devices the tools to manage themselves, to communicate with each other and you, to turn them into your own docile and well-trained electronic servants instead of a cloud of flies buzzing around your head demanding your constant attention.
"Oh, there's an app for that."
All well and good, but soon we have to have some "Uber-App" to rule them all (these one-trick ponies). Oh, and WHAT ELSE do these apps do(that you aren't supposed to know about)?This is strangely similar to those wonderful plastic "discount cards" every retail chain would like you to carry around with you.
I don't want to carry a Rolodex around with me because all those "discount cards" won't fit in my wallet. And know that the card issuers are data-mining my every purchase.
This is another operational model designed to serve not you, but them.
Home Automation seems to be near the bull's eye of this IoT target, with other subjects scattered around it.
These words come to mind when I hear "IoT"
- Communication
- Remote Monitoring & Control
- Networking
Now of course, many businesses and developers want to "cash in" on this new area of interest.
I for one dislike the idea that for anything "new" to survive it must FIRST and FOREMOST be Profitable. How useful or functional it is seems to be a secondary consideration. Sad.
I'll offer the example of Micro$oft, whose "business plan" seems to be based on making constant changes to their proprietary operating system Windows, and their big cash cow Office, and selling it over and over.
They rush it out the door on a schedule that makes their code monkeys work overtime, weeping as they watch their management-imposed "deadline" approach, and forces you the consumer to beta test it for them (for free) while they feverishly work on rolling out an "upgrade" or a "patch" to make it do what they told you it would do.
And of course Microsoft is infamous for its "security through obscurity" philosophy. It's like trying to build a dam out of Swiss cheese if you ask me.
The better developers want to make their gadgets play nice with everyone else's gadgets. Some keywords here are:
- Open Source Software
- Open Source Hardware
- Standardization
- Interconnectivity
- Interoperability.
I could start ranting about the evils of a capitalist economic model but I forgot to bring my soap box.
I am old enough to remember the market share race between VHS and BetaMax video recording and playback devices.
BetaMax was far better but it "finished" in second place behind VHS and slid into disuse.
About Technology In General
The old saying about fire (and and later on, electricity) still holds true:It's a great servant but a terrible master.
Get your hands on it, look "under the hood" -- learn about it, understand it, use it actively.Don't be a passive consumer, trained to throw away "old stuff" and spend your money on the latest shiny new tech gadget.
I've worked for decades in the field of "automated remote control" as an Instrument & Controls Technician (we I&C Techs call it "Industrial Process Control") in large facilities: factories, chemical plants, electric power generation, pipeline.
So this IoT business seems to me like the broader tech-aware public beginning to do many of the same things I've been working with most of my working life, with some new areas of application.
Now that I have more time on my hands, I'm beginning to seriously play with the popular new micro-controller boards such as Arduino, TI LaunchPad, and SOC (System On Chip) boards such as GuruPlug, & Rasperry Pi.
Sustainability
In keeping with my personal values about reducing, reusing, recycling, I connect these shiny new tech toys to salvaged gear normally destined for the landfill, (or lately electronic recycling, which has become The Law not only for businesses but now for consumers as well, here in the Denver area).Joe Public is slow to get the message (and comply). "What? Now you want me to pay for recycling my hazardous waste? NOOOOoooooooo..."
I regularly scan curbs in my neighborhood for "free stuff" that the owners hope they won't have to pay to have hauled off, so I can salvage parts that are useful to me.
There are still TVs, Microwaves, Printers, Computers, Monitors, furniture, etc. being set out on the curb. it's an ecology of junk. I think that's great.
You have to get there fast, to beat the scrap metal salvagers...
I set out the metal I don't use on MY curb...and that disappears!
I disassemble broken or discarded devices and pull out the useful bits to reuse in my projects: LEDs, 7 segment displays, pushbuttons, potentiometers (and rarely, a quadrature encoder), stepper motors, sensors, wiring, discrete electronic components like voltage regulators, logic chips, op amps, LCD displays, etc.
I also dumpster dive for construction waste, scrap lumber/wire/sheet metal too. In lean times I have salvaged aluminum and other metals to sell at the scrap yard for money.
My Space Heater Thermostat project is described elsewhere in this blog.
I have incorporated that project into a little tabletop greenhouse I have put together (almost completely from salvaged/reused materials I might add).
This year for my vegetable garden I want to try germinating my own seedlings instead of buying hothouse plants to transplant to my backyard. That involves controlling lighting and temperature.
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