[soco]

Not every toothbrush user has a server at home and the skills to attach to it. I would even say that most of those users had no idea what they enabled when they activated their toothbrushes. And let's not forget about vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, washing machines, coffee makers and the other zillions of "smart" personal data channeling smart appliances. I'd dare a survey, how many HN people actually work on exactly these technologies, how many read these words, and how many actually care?

[samatman]

I have several gizmos which use Bluetooth. They're a little bit slower to connect to than the WiFi ones, but they work fine, and "a bit slower to connect" seems fine for a toothbrush.

I also have several gizmos, including lightbulbs, which use WiFi. To my chagrin, I've had internet outages which meant that I can't turn on a given light until the Internet comes back. I put up with it, because telling my computer to change the lights is too much fun, but when the internet goes out, I'm embarrassed both personally and professionally.

Somehow we've failed as a profession to provide people with a home network which continues to function as long as the router has power, and that sucks.

[dunham]

> Somehow we've failed as a profession to provide people with a home network which continues to function as long as the router has power, and that sucks.

This already existed for lightbulbs in the 70's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X10_(industry_standard)

Wikipedia says the computer interface was 80's, but if you managed to have a computer in the seventies, you probably knew enough electronics to homebrew something.

[samatman]

Yeah, we've invented it several times over, and yet, what people buy and use is IoS crapware which craps out when the network does.

That's worse. You see how that's worse, right?

[dunham]

yeah, everything keeps getting reinvented worse or made worse by adding unwanted, poorly implemented features. My unstated point was that a version existed decades ago which was more robust than the new, reinvented version.

I'm not sure that people (in general) want these things. It seems like product managers adding stuff to justify their existence and people buying what they find on the shelf. You get an internet connected oven because you have no choice anymore. (Hyperbole, but the non-internet choices are narrowing.)

Maybe people want to change the color of their lightbulb (I'm guessing it gets old quick), but I suspect they're not asking for it to be on the internet.

[samatman]

I find it a genuine quality-of-life improvement to adjust the color of light. The temperature matters more, but being able to do strong hues is really nice. Not everyone is into mood lighting, but I like it.

And I don't care as much about whether or not the bulb uses IP to reach my phone, but why should my outside connection going down ever matter? As long as the router has power, the internal network should continue to function. It's a shame is what it is. I figure I could put in the sweat to make it "work on my machine" but that doesn't solve Joe Normal's problem, and it doesn't sound like a fun hobby to me either.

[vel0city]

Separate access points from the router are a thing, and if the command and control for the lights are local they'd continue to work. People just mostly choose to go with a single integrated unit instead of a router, a switch, and one or more access points.

[kwhitefoot]

Just have the toothbrush run a web server and then the user can point a web browser at it. It can also come with a mobile app that would scan the local network looking for the device in order to discover the IP.

[nonrandomstring]

> I'd dare a survey, how many HN people actually work on exactly these technologies, how many read these words, and how many actually care?

This is an excellent question. We'd likely find that there is an enormous disconnect between high IQ, well educated engineers and high emotional and social intelligence.

The perennial excuses; "it's just a job" , "everybody's doing it", "if I didn't build <monstrosity x> then someone else would" ... these have grown tiresome and weak. Everybody now knows these are stupid and dangerous things we are doing.

Is there a kind of fatalistic malice at work? How do people who work on this kind of thing manage the dissonance?