We're likely going to replace our washer and dryer soon -- the washer's started making a horrible banging sound with no obvious reason, and the dryer occasionally doesn't get things dry enough. We've had the pair for about 20 years, so I don't think we need to complain about life expectancy, even though you do hear of people who've had units for much longer than that. We're not sure what we will replace them with, though we're thinking of something that's taller, with front loading for both the washer and the dryer. Personally, I'd like one with the sort/fold options, as well, though those do seem to be scarce on the ground.
I stopped by the libe this morning and picked up two of their DVDs -- one of the West Wing series, and one of the House show. House is from the first season, before they started spending so much time being cute. I'm not sure that I'll be able to watch all of them by the time that the videos are due. What I'd like to do is copy them to the PC and simply watch when I can, but I know that the lords of DVD land regard that as unfair use. Then again, they seem to regard lots of things as unfair.
Both of those streams make me wonder, just a bit, what it takes to set up communications inside a house so that components can talk to each other. How could the washer or dryer be set up to gently alert us that they're done doing their thing? How could the television show me videos that are stored on the PC? The latter, at least, I know is technically feasible, though I tend to assume 'feasible assuming you have time to set it up, and plenty of spare storage, cpu cycles, and communications bandwidth'. I am guessing that this kind of thing can be done - but how?
3 comments:
I can just see my luck with that sort of technology.
1. The bed would shake me awake at 2:00 AM to tell me that the towels were still not dry.
2. The TV would only show me the old Pee Wee's Playhouse reruns from my 5 yr old's computer
Not that I don't love innovation, I just know that if it can go wrong, it will with me!
Like the brand new Dell that that the IT department installed yesterday that lasted less than 12 hours under my desk.
Something that would be helpful, is if the dishwasher could sense that it was full, and would not let my 15 yr old on the computer until the dishes were put away!
Julie
I'm a great believer in technology. I am sure that the bed/washing machine interface would wait until 3:30 before engaging the Vibrate mode. However, you should be aware that making the biannual transition to/from daylight savings time does occasionally cause a minor problem; specifically, none of the toilets flushing unless the television is unplugged, plugged in, rebooted, and cycled through all channels. This minor problem doesn't affect functionality, and should be addressed in the next release (assuming you bought the Premium subscription).
As for the dishwasher, if you meant 'sense that the dishes are now clean', I can see how that could be done. It'd be a simple matter, really, involving an interface between the 'cycle complete' indicator of the dishwasher and the power supply for the PC. Trivial. (Insert patented IT Department handwave here.) Now, making it do that if the dishwasher is merely FULL, but not necessarily washed ... that might take a little more effort. But as Kissinger once said, the illegal we do right away; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.
I did suggest a simpler system -- big flat rock, running water from the hose -- but that didn't go over too well, for some reason....
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