Sometimes, in my career as an ardent Technophile, I wonder ‘Why?’… why do I continue? My daily frustration at all the genuinely crap tech I have to use… crap development tools, crap web-sites, crap operating systems… they all have their faults and foibles.
Any one on it’s own is manageable… even a few in a row… but all of them all the time is just becoming too, too, much.
Software standards are rock bottom IMHO. Every other engineering discipline has ‘culpability’ of service. In that, if I design a bridge to take a certain amount of traffic, it has to take a certain amount of traffic plus a tolerance. It’s required as part of the job. It will be checked. Regulations ensure it has to be. Culpability means you’ll be in damned hot water if you don’t.
Software, no one cares. Does it pass QA? Ship it. Did it fail QA? Meh, probably ship it. It’s unregulated, unchecked, and (generally) not culpable. In the UK at the moment, Smart Motorways are a hotly contentious topic. I’m against them, because I know the kind of developers who would be writing the software that detects cars in the managed lane and puts up the red ‘X’… no way am I trusting them and their software with my life.
The primary consumer/customer of all Software, is the end user. But, ‘development’ doesn’t care that they have to suffer using their crap software.
There, I said it.
Of course, it’s not all true of all development. But of all the software I use day-to-day, it’s becoming truer every day.
Budgets, delivery pressure, over-taxed resources, insufficient resources, bad planning, lack of QA, lack of customer focus or design vision, they all take their toll.
But, I’m not here to complain about that! Aha! Oh no. I actually want to highlight something that worked when I was expecting it to fail!
I have finally decide to dip my metaphorical toe into the metaphorical waters of the ‘Smart Home’… I have been avoiding this for some time. I have absolutely every desire to make tech a driving force in my home, but absolutely no desire to increase the amount of things I have to continuously go around turning off/on again, or updating firmware on, or otherwise troubleshooting due to the above rantings. Trying to get FreeSat HD on the TV is taxing enough.
Amazon (yes, them) did a promo on a Tapo Smart plug, for a mere £5. I couldn’t resist. “What the heck,” I thought, “if it’s useless, it’s the price of two coffee’s… go for it.”
I bought it, I got it, I set it up, I linked it to Google Home, it works. Every day on test for weeks. Slightly impressed. But not the reason for writing yet…
I have already wired up some outside lights on the house, and ideally, I want to leave them on with a dusk sensor to turn them on when it gets dark. But, that won’t turn them off at nighty-night time… light sensitive sensors would only turn off at dawn, or a preset (but too short) time delay. Bad for my electricity bill, and bad for the environment overall.
Amazon (yes, them again) search turned up a Smart life Wifi relay switch for lighting circuits. Encouraged by my Tapo success (which will shortly be controlling my outside Christmas lights!) I shelled out for a pair of relays.
I wire one up. I set it up, I link it to Google Home. It works! And lo! I am now impressed.
As this will live in the loft, I don’t want to ever have to reset this, or turn it off/on, or whatever. So as a test, I cut power for it for over 12 hours. The next day, I re-power it and lo! it works as it did before the power cut. No having to repair it, and reset everything. More impressed! It now resides in the loft, where it controls the outside lights on a Dusk to Bed-time routine. (However, I can turn it off entirely from the original light switch still.)
So this is all great… Smart Home is Reality… and now here’s the but….
Technogeddon is nigh!
Oh yes.
The Tapo, and the Smart life relays are (I hope) very simple, and should not require updating firmware and all that jazz. The Tapo plug will remain accessible, so even if the odd reset is needed, so be it. I’m hopeful the relays won’t ever be an issue. We’ll see after the next power cut and my Router goes down.
The issue (and source of this post, thanks for waiting) is more fundamental, and more infrastructure in nature…
You see, somewhat annoyingly, each ‘smart device’ requires an account setting up with the device provider… ok… frustrating, but I can understand why… however, 20 different devices later and 20 different accounts, and you’ll be a bit sick of ‘Yet Another Smart Home Device Account To Create And Remember’. Then of course each one requires an app to set it up, and control it, rapidly filling up your phone and sorely testing your patience with a variety of poor/barely adequate/poorly translated app’s with frustrating UI’s as you try to remember which app controls what and why isn’t that light turning on oh its the app for the outside light device and I want the one for the plug in the bedroom aaaarargh….
But rejoice! For Amazon/Google (and Apple I believe, but don’t care) solve that problem with Alexa/Home linking… so after ‘Linking Yet Another Smart Home Device Account To Google Home’ everything is well, and controllable from one app – with voice – hurrah!
So now stop, pause, and think… 20 smart home device manufacturers now have access to your Amazon/Google (ok, and yes Apple) account information…
You still need 20 app’s on your phone to maintain the devices should anything go wrong.
You still need 20 accounts for Smart Home Devices.
If any one of them gets hacked, can they get anything useful about you from Amazon/Google/(and yes yes Apple)?
But, further… what happens when one of those (or more) Smart Home Device Companies changes brand, or disappears entirely? That device eventually becomes defunct through lack of software support, because no one is updating the app, or the link to Amazon/Google/etc.(ok, or Apple).
Further still, Android, or iOS gets updated, and the Smart Home Device app no longer works with the new release, or your phone changes and the apps are no longer compatible… or even more harmful (unlikely but possible still) Alexa gets canned or changes and is no longer compatible, or Google Home (or yes, whatever it is Apple do).
Or you update your Router for the New & Shiny WiFi gen X which is 10GBps! but doesn’t support 2.4Ghz any more cos it’s old and naff… and all those devices now fail to connect…
And realise that every WiFi connecting device is an open doorway into your Router as WiFi just ain’t as secure as they’d like you to think it is… and that ‘Smart Device’ you just plugged in definitely doesn’t use the security options it should (even if they are largely useless)…
Suddenly, your lovely Smart Home ain’t so smart any more… littered with a load of expensive, but defunct ‘smart’ hardware.
Of course, the companies involved can help avoid this by ensuring backwards compatibility in all that they do, or maintaining older systems and services to ensure older products can tick along. But, they won’t do this.
Why?
Because it will cost them money. And while they are spending their money to ensure your old kit keeps ticking… you aren’t spending your money buying the new shiny kit they want you to buy so they can stop spending money keeping the old kit running, and spend it on keeping the new kit running until they decide it’s old kit, and they really want you to spend your money.
Even if they were super-benevolent, eventually they would be faced with running ancient tech-stacks of servers and software no one wants to work on and costing a fortune to run/maintain. At some point, tech has to move on, and a cut-off point emerges, and your smart home dies a sad, timely death.
So, when you do go for your Smart Home, what are your options?
- All your eggs in one basket, all the tech is from the same provider. Pro: one account. Con: They go down, so does your Smart Home. Buy everything again.
- Everything is different. Pro: One of them goes down, just replace that one thing. Con: Loads of accounts and updates and god knows what else.
- Regardless, commit to an ongoing spending budget of replacing kit every now and then as the soulless advance of progress marches on.
Also, rejoice in finally becoming that IT Support Engineer you’ve always wanted to be!
“Hubby? The light in the garage isn’t working again…”
“Hubby? Why has Nest stopped turning the heating on?”
“Hubby? Alexa isn’t working… there’s no Wifi, or internet and the TV is on the blink…”
This is the price of progress, the cost of change, and it’s coming to a home near you… more likely, it’s already there and lurking in the background waiting for the next power outage…
Technogeddon!