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Today's Topics:
1. Re: Is it smarter to have a dumb home? ?We?ve seen clients
unable to flush toilets? (Roger Clarke)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2026 09:28:22 +1100
From: Roger Clarke <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [LINK] Is it smarter to have a dumb home? ?We?ve seen
clients unable to flush toilets?
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
> On 2/19/26 15:13, Kim Holburn wrote:
>> Australia experienced a boom in smart-home technology at the start of
>> the 2020s ...
On 20/2/2026 08:51, Tom Worthington wrote:
> I got in early with buyer?s remorse:
>
> ????"The house of the future still has keys and light switches. It's
> not that this apartment's owner couldn't afford computer controlled
> lights and biometric door locks, its just that they are not worth the
> trouble." The Smart Apartment, The Digital Home of Today, 6 May 2003:
> https://www.tomw.net.au/2001/sa/rt.html
>
> More recently I have been coming to terms with my new smart car. This
> was one of the cheapest available, but even so it came with adaptive
> cruse control, lane centering, auto braking, and engine start/stop. I
> avoided the next model up, as that had even more things which beep. At
> present I am trying to make the start/stop less enthusiastic, as it
> turns off the air-conditioner at traffic lights, making the car hot.
I upgraded a couple of years back from a 1994 model (an excellent M3) to
a 2008 (Subaru Legacy 402 - an excellent upgraded import 2.5 Turbo STI).
Fortunately (barring an accident bad enough to write off the car but
not me), I won't be in need of any further vehicles.
The thing that drives me mad with hire-cars (apart from the
disappearance of manuals and the declining availability of sedans) is
the seriously dangerous lane-hugging diktat.
They've tried to drive me into other vehicles, especially trucks that
have drifted 3 feet into my lane.
They add to the inherent excitement of narrow mountain roads (which we
often drive), especially roads that have side-lines but no centre-line.
They can't be turned off universally and even have to be turned back on
again when the engine cuts out at traffic-lights.
They typically (esp. Peugeot) require 13 pokes at a dysfunctional
'touch'-screen to resume the desired off-setting.
Did I ever mention that I perceive a lot of 'progress' not to be so?
___________________
Roger Clarke mailto:[email protected]
T: +61 2 6288 6916 http://www.xamax.com.au http://www.rogerclarke.com
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Visiting Professorial Fellow UNSW Law & Justice
Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University
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