There’s a great quote in another article by the same guy, The Internet of Incompatible Things:
The dystopian future we’re heading towards isn’t Gibsonian giant megacorporations engaging in physical warfare, it’s one where buying a new toaster means replacing all your lightbulbs or discovering that the code making your home alarm system work is now considered a copyright infringement. Is there a market where I can invest in IP lawyers? (source)
I recently bought some light bulbs, and they don’t even have a WiFi router to mess with my home network.
What is this thing about light bulbs with WiFi? They don’t emit any more light with it, right?
Adult toys, of a particular genre, do get safety tested, and any niche product that uses electricity must get tested and underwritten too.
I know the law lags behind the real world in hilarious and depressing ways, but these bulbs are beyond the pale. They’re putting people at risk of real financial loss, information theft, and privacy abuse.
Do a significant number of people actually use those? I’ve never seen one in real life and I’m right at the friends and acquaintances-having-kids age.
They are not men?
I’m sure it’s coming
I agree; seem to last and are reasonably priced for LED bulbs (~$10 each). I also get them from Amazon. They come in 2700° – warm white – perfect for when it’s dark out and you don’t want your brain thinking it’s noon.
I wouldn’t hold your breath. Look at the trouble we’ve had getting a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And even if we got one, it would probably be hamstrung with restrictions. Look at the FDA, which can’t even tell a manufacturer to recall a shitty product. They have to politely ask and hope for the best.
They’re about $6 at my local Home Depot but I think they’re subsidized by the state. I forgot to mention, avoid the “cool white” or “daylight” bulbs they sell; the color is a creepy blue-white that looks like an operating room.
They’d make ideal presents for your local MP/Congresscritter/Sheriff/Mayor though.
Imagine that. Light bulbs on the internet. Insecure light bulbs you can hack into and crash over the internet!
And the bulbs are shitty anyway.
And here’s an Amazon affiliate link for those shitty insecure light bulbs!
Oh, BoingBoing. In a way, you’re actually more fun in this Web 2.0 synergistic edu-commerce mode than you ever were back in your bloggy days.
Didn’t you listen to NPR this morning?
Oh, don’t get me wrong. It’s a sound business decision! As we are frequently reminded here (about other websites), if you’re not the paying customer, you’re the product.
It’s also a sound business decision to simultaneously sell $60 $45 versions of the same product, except with special oxygen-free, extra-danceable copper in the LEDs that makes the colors less shitty. Admittedly, that’s still an extra twenty bucks per bulb over these ones, but they have to recoup the cost of not soldering in an insecure WiFi board.
If they made them secure, the FBI would find a reason to need to turn off your lights.
WiFiber is good for you. Eat more.
In addition to colour temperature, look for high CRI (colour rendering index) lamps. The CRI is a measure of how good a lamp is at rendering colour compared with a reference incandescent lamp. You can get LED lamps with a CRI of 95 and they look amazing - basically indistinguishable from incandescents.
Source please?
(Really, I want to know where to get them!)
ETA: given a minute, now that I have the right search terms, they’re apparently all over. Thanks for that!
Well when I saw the initial HUE stuff a few years ago now it looked cool. You can change the bulb colors automagically. So you can have light from the same fixtures that changes for the time of day, or on a whim. Things like add in blue early in the morning to help wake up, more red in the evening so the light does not keep you up. (if there is any good science to that stuff anyway)
Not sure if you posted the right link there mate. Though related to your link, i did actually see that original comment, it’s from a facebook post. When i saw that comment i just shook my head
