A few days ago, I wrote about being annoyed with the new \u201chigh-tech\u201d gas cans. The old ones did the job they were designed to do, and did it well. I suppose it\u2019s just the curmudgeon me, but I think it\u2019d be nice for everything to do a particular job and be good at it. We recently installed a new hot water heater \u2014 it\u2019s tankless and uses gas to heat the water, but it doesn\u2019t have a pilot light. It uses some kind of an electrical gadget to light the burner that heats the water. It also comes with an app \u2014 so I can keep an eye on what my hot water heater is doing anywhere I might be. I suppose that\u2019s useful \u2014 you never know when someone might break into our house and take a shower or wash a load of clothes and use a lot of our gas and water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not exactly sure when it became necessary to make everything in your house \u201csmart.\u201d Maybe it all kind of got started with the smart thermostats to control the heating and air conditioning. On the surface, that seems like not such a bad idea, but we have smart thermostats and we rarely use them in the \u201csmart\u201d mode. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As time goes on, I\u2019m thinking that we\u2019d be better off if our homes didn\u2019t need to become so \u201csmart.\u201d After all, most of us know how to turn on and off lights, are able to get food into and out of our refrigerators and ovens without an LED display giving us instructions\u2026. most of us can even operate a microwave oven without much training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With all this stuff in our house connected to the Internet, I\u2019m beginning to worry less about hackers stealing data generated by all the smart devices and more about how smart devices might share their home-related information with who knows who.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just give me appliances and household stuff that works \u2014 I\u2019ll figure out how to operate them.
There\u2019s just something creepy about my house knowing things about me. I\u2019m thinking there may not be much difference between a smart home and a stalking home.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A few days ago, I wrote about being annoyed with the new \u201chigh-tech\u201d gas cans. The old ones did the job they were designed to do, and did it well. I suppose it\u2019s just the curmudgeon me, but I think … Continue reading