[LINK] More Earth-Shattering IoT Applications

[David]

On Thursday, 26 April 2018 09:42:03 AEST Tom Worthington wrote:

>> Newcastle Council uses sportsground for smart city trial ... 
>> https://www.itnews.com.au/news/newcastle-council-uses-sportsground-for-smart-city-trial-489563
>> 
>> The groundsman and his travel to grounds are a fixed and unavoidable ...
> 
> Not if you contract out the service.  The grounds-person could be dispatched only when needed and not paid when not needed.
> 
> > And can we really expect a standby team of bin-emptiers ...
> 
> The bin-emptying could be contracted out.

Sub-contracting jobs like that has the same problem as "privatisation" of public assets.  Subcontracting doesn't make the costs go away, they're just incurred by the contractor.  The contractor then passes them back, together with their profit margin, risk allowances (since contracts may not be renewed), sales & marketing costs, and shareholder return if relevant.

>> Maybe tenable, but what benefits does a network bring ...
> 
> It is a way to disguise that you want to casualize the workforce into a for of uber-slavery. I for one welcome our new IoT masters. ;-)

Networking certainly won't stop jobs from being casualised.  The fundamental problem here is that businesses have no need to offer job security because labor supply is greater than demand, especially for relatively low-skilled jobs.

I think the best solution going at the moment is some form of basic national wage, which would also help address growing inequality.  At some point we have to get away from the neo-conservative winner-takes-all mentality and start thinking of society as an integrated community.

>>> ...  and parking sensors.
> 
> A cheaper option would be to use the surveillance cameras and some software which can recognize empty parking spaces.

You'd need lots of cameras to reliably detect empty spaces, and then *where & what* is the driver interface?  Places like the Broadway Centre in Sydney have small ultrasonic (?) sensors installed at every parking space.  A driver can look down the aisle and head for any one showing green or, for a senior's space, blue; the rest are red.

> But perhaps with smart networked cars parking sensors will be obsolete.  The car would simply tell the car park where it has parked. If that car park fills up, the car could drive itself elsewhere and come back when you are leaving. Self driving cars could make soccer moms (unpaid uber-drivers) obsolete. ;-)

Maybe!!!!

DavidL.