SparkFun Electronics Commentsurn:uuid:214d0e4e-f1b1-d287-ce26-ac5b4c9f82492024-03-29T00:27:19-06:00SparkFun Electronicstrevor on You're shopping with us, you're already a step ahead; IoT and You.trevorurn:uuid:00375c80-d608-825f-4cdd-e2019ad5faf62015-04-06T15:08:31-06:00<p>Warmer? Let's see, what is the temperature in Boulder right now? Clear Skies, 67 degrees F, wind 2 mph
Temperature in San Francisco right now? Mostly Cloudy, 58 degrees F, wind 9 mph</p>
Customer #394180 on You're shopping with us, you're already a step ahead; IoT and You.Customer #394180urn:uuid:53a322b4-6e57-0853-2a9f-d087f475fff72015-04-04T04:48:36-06:00<p>Yeah, Boulder's great. If it was warmer and closer to the ocean it'd be perfect. :-)</p>
Calif on You're shopping with us, you're already a step ahead; IoT and You.Califurn:uuid:0cc98d70-5c66-cdce-c422-2415fa487c2d2015-04-03T21:35:15-06:00<p>There are quality assurance, web design & back office services in Boulder. In exchange for mountains, most of us would have very boring jobs in Boulder, compared to what we can do in Calif* with a lot less qualifications. The Bluetooth IOT spec is a complex beast. With every new standard exponentially more complex than the last one, it's amazing new standards can succeed at all, but they do.</p>
jma89 on You're shopping with us, you're already a step ahead; IoT and You.jma89urn:uuid:222f2547-51fc-6b96-5eba-815fadb1d16c2015-04-03T12:02:18-06:00<p>I think a big part of security with these types of devices will be setting things up so they are only available through VPNs or other traffic encapsulating techniques. Once IoT devices move to IoT (Intranet of Things) where there is a single, highly-secured point of access with the outside world then security will become a lot easier to maintain. Both because it's far easier to secure a single point of entry, and because the burden is (largely) removed from the 'Things' and instead rests on what can be a much more powerful piece of equipment.<p>Trouble is most solutions still involve fairly weak wireless communications inside the home. It seems that we'll need a good solution that handles pairing, key generation, and traffic encryption before wireless 'Things' can ever really be considered secure. Personally: I'm a fan of hard-wiring everything when possible. Security concerns aside, it's nice to have no concerns about battery life or reliability in communications. Plus it's a lot cheaper to prototype. :-)</p></p>
wpmcnamara on You're shopping with us, you're already a step ahead; IoT and You.wpmcnamaraurn:uuid:604ac36d-bfb6-9d76-b1bc-a30d1dc780832015-04-02T11:10:09-06:00<p>I see great utility is some of the things that can be done with networked devices. I can monitor power usage in my house. I can control individual vents in my HVAC system, not only to make sure I'm not heating and cooling rooms needlessly, but that I am also getting enough volume through the system for it to be working efficiently. All that kind of stuff is great. What is not great is that I have to open the whole thing up to the outside world to use the products. Somewhere along the way, products stopped being an end unto themselves and started being a vehicle for mining data about users that could be further monetized. Having to sign up with some random company storing data in "the cloud" just so I can set my thermostat is a non starter.<p>The, we get to the command and control part. If you put something on the internet, it will be hacked. Just a matter of time. Someone will break in and make it do something unintended, just because they can. I'm not talking about malicious actors. There are over 7 billion people in the world. The combination of brilliant, bored, internet connected, and curious factors out a lot of folks, but even one hundredth of 1% is still a lot of people poking around just to see what they can do. Unfortunately, the side effect is not to make products more secure and tamper proof, or only connected to the outside world if absolutely necessary. The side effect is knee jerk laws and regulations that make doing the same things on stuff you own illegal.</p><p>In short, I see a number of positives from connected devices and a tsunami of negatives. Now, get off my lawn!</p></p>
Customer #394180 on You're shopping with us, you're already a step ahead; IoT and You.Customer #394180urn:uuid:5a05c669-5557-aac8-1e91-94fbb65b68022015-04-02T10:38:48-06:00<p>While the IoT privacy concerns are bad enough, they're not what's keeping me awake at night. After all, we are almost fully transitioned into a post-privacy society. A few more years of being trained to overshare on facebook and it won't make any difference. My fears are for when IoT is used to control things instead of just monitoring them. The possibilities for disaster go up exponentially.<p>We don't even have to invoke terrorists. Buggy code and poor hardware design will do it for us, especially when ComCast is the main data and control channel. And when the system is working, that just means that anyone who can connect to our hardware can run our lives.</p><p>Then, in addition to that, hobbyists are great folks and have some really neat ideas, but they are not necessarily good control engineers, systems designers, testers, documenters, etc. and most have no notion of information assurance and anti-tamper. At least not without some kind of professional training.</p><p>So that's my reaction to an IoT put together by hobbyists. Sorry Pearce.</p></p>
sgrace on You're shopping with us, you're already a step ahead; IoT and You.sgraceurn:uuid:ba514db8-4aab-4c5d-a8bf-c3ff2373b83e2015-04-02T09:36:31-06:00<p>I do want to make a point that IoT is not just limited to a Fitbit type device, or a smart watch. It's really anything that will utilize the Internet. It encompasses ALL semiconductors that can be used for communication (GPU, CPU, MCU, FPGA, SoCs, etc).<p>When you think of IoT, don't just think of Arduino, but think of anything that can be tied to the Internet for a purpose.</p></p>