[From the last episode: The Hands-Free Hectare has completely automated the entire lifecycle of a hectare of barley.]
This week we have one more random story before we return to our narrative. In this case, it’s about a rant from one of my colleagues. I also write for EE Journal, which is intended for engineers. But Jim Turley recently did an article that anyone can relate to – not just engineers.
It has to do with the cloud. And it deals with a question that we’ve talked about: why does my piece of equipment have to be connected to the cloud? For something like the SoilCares scanner, the need is obvious: the main calculations are done up there.
But in other cases (not all of them IoTThe Internet of Things. A broad term covering many different applications where "things" are interconnected through the internet.), it’s not clear at all why you need a connectionThis refers to some kind of electrical connection. It might be through a network cable, a cable connection, a wireless connection, or a phone - just to name some options. The connection might be to the internet or to some other local device.. In fact, one of the questions on the IoT device purchase checklist has to do with whether the connection is required. If it is, and if you get no value from it, and if you would rather not have your data collected (a rather more sensitive topic these days thanks to the Facebook fiasco), then it seems reasonable to be able to break the connection on a device that you own. (Although “ownership” is becoming a more nuanced concept with some devices…)
And, as you’ll see, this isn’t just about some purist notion of privacyRefers to whether or not information gathered about your usage of IoT devices by authorized people can be made public, or shared with others, without your consent. Different from (although related to) security, which protects such data and devices from access by unauthorized people. Different from privacy, which is more concerned about use of data by authorized people.. In many of the cases he describes, he can’t use his own systemThis is a very generic term for any collection of components that, all together, can do something. Systems can be built from subsystems. Examples are your cell phone; your computer; the radio in your car; anything that seems like a "whole." because some serverA computer with a dedicated purpose. Older familiar examples are print servers (a computer that controls local printing) and file servers (a computer used for storing files centrally). More modern examples are web servers (the computers that handle your web requests when you use your browser) or application servers (computers dedicated to handling the computing needs of a specific application). Servers are often powerful, expensive machines since they have to handle a heavy load. in some other part of the world that he doesn’t really need is down. As he suggests, if that happens, that shouldn’t be his (or your) problem.
The question of updating is relevant here. You need a connection to receive an update, and, often, the updates are important. So, for example, having a button that says, “Check for updates” might make a connection, check to see if an update is pending, and then shut the connection down. Seems like a reasonable option – although many people won’t do that. So perhaps having the device automatically check for updates once a day is fine – as long as it shuts down the connection after.
It’s food for thought as you contemplate what you want to do with the IoT. Here’s a link to the piece.
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