[LINK] Is it smarter to have a dumb home? ‘We’ve seen clients unable to flush toilets’

[Roger Clarke]

> On 2/19/26 15:13, Kim Holburn wrote:
>> Australia experienced a boom in smart-home technology at the start of 
>> the 2020s ...

On 20/2/2026 08:51, Tom Worthington wrote:
> I got in early with buyer’s remorse:
> 
>      "The house of the future still has keys and light switches. It's 
> not that this apartment's owner couldn't afford computer controlled 
> lights and biometric door locks, its just that they are not worth the 
> trouble." The Smart Apartment, The Digital Home of Today, 6 May 2003: 
> https://www.tomw.net.au/2001/sa/rt.html
> 
> More recently I have been coming to terms with my new smart car. This 
> was one of the cheapest available, but even so it came with adaptive 
> cruse control, lane centering, auto braking, and engine start/stop. I 
> avoided the next model up, as that had even more things which beep. At 
> present I am trying to make the start/stop less enthusiastic, as it 
> turns off the air-conditioner at traffic lights, making the car hot.

I upgraded a couple of years back from a 1994 model (an excellent M3) to 
a 2008 (Subaru Legacy 402 - an excellent upgraded import 2.5 Turbo STI). 
  Fortunately (barring an accident bad enough to write off the car but 
not me), I won't be in need of any further vehicles.

The thing that drives me mad with hire-cars (apart from the 
disappearance of manuals and the declining availability of sedans) is 
the seriously dangerous lane-hugging diktat.

They've tried to drive me into other vehicles, especially trucks that 
have drifted 3 feet into my lane.

They add to the inherent excitement of narrow mountain roads (which we 
often drive), especially roads that have side-lines but no centre-line.

They can't be turned off universally and even have to be turned back on 
again when the engine cuts out at traffic-lights.

They typically (esp. Peugeot) require 13 pokes at a dysfunctional 
'touch'-screen to resume the desired off-setting.


Did I ever mention that I perceive a lot of 'progress' not to be so?


___________________

Roger Clarke                           mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
T: +61 2 6288 6916  http://www.xamax.com.au  http://www.rogerclarke.com

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd     78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Visiting Professorial Fellow                         UNSW Law & Justice
Visiting Professor in Computer Science   Australian National University