I still don&#x27;t get the Internet of Things.<p>The mental calculation just doesn&#x27;t work out for most things. My personal rule of thumb is:<p><pre><code>  benefitofmeaccessingXremotely(X) - costofotherpeopleaccesingXremotely(X)*riskofthathappening
</code></pre>
Benefits being low for most things, costs high, and risks...uhmm...nah. Only exception I can think of is very limited amounts of sensors (eg. is X on?).<p>What&#x27;s the benefit of me turning on a gas stove remotely? Almost none. What&#x27;s the cost of someone else turning on my gas stove? Really high. How much is the risk? Way too high.<p>Then there&#x27;s smart devices, another component of IoT. But how much smarts do we actually want? Screens are nice. Making my shower multi touch isn&#x27;t (capacitive touch + water = no bueno. Imagine water from hell scenario and no way of turning it off with your wet hands). Fridge compiling shopping lists automatically? Neat. Cheap android tablet that comes with a fridge glued to it? Nah.<p>The only utility I see is locally connected devices. Using your phone as a remote. That seems handy. To a certain degree, we have that. Extra points if I don&#x27;t need to download an app for everything, because don&#x27;t you dare tell me that your blue-tooth on&#x2F;off switch needs a 15mb .apk. If I gave one about the 14.9mb of branding you&#x27;re including, I&#x27;d download your press kit.<p>There&#x27;s some utility in home IoT wudget-thingimabobs, but I&#x27;m almost certain we&#x27;ll mess it up to no end in our excitement. There&#x27;ll be some legitimately useful products coming from it, but most of it will be utterly cringe worthy in retrospect.<p>&#x2F;rant(&#x27;IoT&#x27;)