smarterplanet: Laser System Paints Information on the Road Ahead   | Technology Review Ever wondered if you could control your house’s climate, security, and appliances — along with your PCs and peripherals — using Microsoft software? That day may soon dawn, as its Research arm has started testing its home automation software, called HomeOS, in twelve domiciles over the past few months. The budding system views smartphones, printers and air conditioners as network peripherals, controlled by a dedicated gateway computer. The project even has a handful of apps in play, which perform functions like energy monitoring, remote surveillance and face-recognition. This growing list of applications, available through a portal called “HomeStore”, will allow users to easily expand their system’s capabilities. So how does it all work out in the real world? Head past the break, and let Redmond’s research team give you the skinny. As happy as I would be to leave mopping and dish-washing to robots, I’m not sure that I’d like to lose control over whether or not my blinds are open.   User error maybe but OS is proprietary software;  jail-breaking is frowned upon (with legality a grey area going down a slippery slope at the moment) and it would seem uhm, ridiculous were a person to jailbreak their own home only to wind up in jail for it. Open source would be better.

smarterplanet:

Laser System Paints Information on the Road Ahead   | Technology Review

Ever wondered if you could control your house’s climate, security, and appliances — along with your PCs and peripherals — using Microsoft software? That day may soon dawn, as its Research arm has started testing its home automation software, called HomeOS, in twelve domiciles over the past few months. The budding system views smartphones, printers and air conditioners as network peripherals, controlled by a dedicated gateway computer. The project even has a handful of apps in play, which perform functions like energy monitoring, remote surveillance and face-recognition. This growing list of applications, available through a portal called “HomeStore”, will allow users to easily expand their system’s capabilities. So how does it all work out in the real world? Head past the break, and let Redmond’s research team give you the skinny.

As happy as I would be to leave mopping and dish-washing to robots, I’m not sure that I’d like to lose control over whether or not my blinds are open.   User error maybe but OS is proprietary software;  jail-breaking is frowned upon (with legality a grey area going down a slippery slope at the moment) and it would seem uhm, ridiculous were a person to jailbreak their own home only to wind up in jail for it.

Open source would be better.

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Old Skool Lulz

By  Anonymous

They tell us that Isaac Newton discovered gravity
When an apple fell on his head
But all them Spartans falling off the cliff
Are pretty sure that they’re all dead

Then Einstein figured that time is relative
But the Mayans saw it like a spiral, too
And those Aborigines in the Australian bush
Knew the dreaming is more than me and you

I went down to the shops last week
And I saw more magazines with pretty faces
And I went on the internet last week
And I saw old magazines with pretty faces

Maybe Angelina Jolie will be forgotten
Maybe Isaac Newton will be remembered
Maybe Julius Caesar will be remembered
And maybe George W Bush will be forgotten

And maybe an apple will fall on my head
After I jump off this cultural cliff
And maybe because time is relative
I won’t actually be dead

But it doesn’t matter who I am
No, it doesn’t matter who I am
My /b/rothers all have babies
So it doesn’t matter who I am

I saw an article about food running out last week
Maybe there won’t be any more apples
I saw an article about bees dying last week
Maybe there won’t be any more fruit

But it doesn’t matter who I am
No, it doesn’t matter who I am
I wrote this poem before I contracted rabies
So it doesn’t matter who I am

I saw a bear chasing after me this morning
The gum leaves were contaminated with uranium
I saw the sting ray giving old Steve a big old kiss
The water board was contaminated with uranium

But it doesn’t matter who I am
No, it doesn’t matter who I am
I ran away from the scrub and the bunyip baby
So it doesn’t matter who I am

And now my body is amongst the Spartans
And the last apple is upon my head
And my mouth is drooling, my legs bitten off
And soon I’m sure I will be dead

But it doesn’t matter who I am
No, it doesn’t matter who I am
The archeologist will think I’m a consort
So it doesn’t matter who I am

Next century they dug me up from the ground
And they saw my skull amongst the spears
They figured I was an Amazonian
Give or take a couple of years

There was a book on ebay
It was written by little old me
I called it The Life of an Amazonian
They’ll think it’s pretty neat

The by-line was something I made up
Because I’m a bit of a sick fuck
Walking around and seeing my work
Without ya’ll knowing is such a laugh

The taggers get my game
When they plastered all over their name
The taggers get my fame
They’re living it again and again

Cos it doesn’t matter who I am
No, it doesn’t matter who I am
The historians will think I’m Plato
So it doesn’t matter who I am

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