Comment by samspenc | Hacker News Reader

Comment by samspenc | Hacker News Reader

TL;DR: he stayed over at a friend's place in a densely packed condo unit. Condo building has a home automation system with binary codes that has a limit of 16 combinations. With 40 units nearby, each unit controls at least 1 other automation system in a neighbor's apt, so one of his neighbors was accidentally toggling his light.

Even better are the replies from other Twitter users on the same thread on what they experienced with their home automation systems. Here's one that tickled me: "We had an Airbnb guest once who (probably accidentally) connected his Spotify Connect to my living room sound system. Months after he was gone, death metal would start without a warning, volume went up, silence after 5 seconds. It took weeks before I figured it out"

It's crazy how sometimes these automation systems that are supposed to make our lives easier, make it more complicated instead. I wonder when the issues that we see today with smart houses and smart TVs will show up in the upcoming generation of "smart" cars.

I think when things get bad enough we will return to simplicity. (keeping some of the good stuff)

This week I see 2 coffee machines to complicated for me to make coffee. 1 kitchen light I couldn't switch on and a dishwasher I couldn't get to work. Every time a group of people gathered around the automation then gave up.

I just had a message exchange where I explained (to the owner) how to get music out of a laptop, bluetooth dongle, amplifier setup. Windos really wants you to switch on bluetooth from the configuration screen every time. The dongle needs a reset periodically (or just vanishes) and the amplifier likes to change its input channel. Between bluetooth and mp3 the quality is complete shit by 1980 standards.

Some modern coffee machines are so bewildering, it makes me feel like Arthur Dent trying to explain to an alien computer how to make tea. It really makes H2G2 seem remarkably prescient.

"So first you have to turn it on, because it offs itself every chance it gets. Then you have to wait for it to do a cleaning cycle as indicated by this unnoticeable red dot, and god forbid you don't have a cup under there. Once finished, you empty the junk water into this plant..."

Microwave ovens have similarly obtuse interfaces. To the point that I've been known to go out of my way to buy one with an old fashioned mechanical timer to avoid the whole shit show.

I found almost every one of them has "express" buttons, basically just smashing start adds one or half a minute.

I so far found one microwave oven that required the whole ritual each and every time. It was so bad I forgot to set it to max time, so we can just pause it and resume it (like cheap kitchens that abuse consumer-grade microwaves do) - though maybe it was so bad there wasn't resume. So if you opened the door before it thought it was time, you had to set it up again. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The '+30' button is all that I ever use, which makes me think dials are probably better. A dial would be simpler, one quick turn instead of several button presses. I can't say I was previously annoyed with my microwave, but now I don't think I'll look at it the same again.

Oddly, I think that's a regional thing. Here in Belgium, every microwave I ever used had a dial (digital or mechanical) and most models in the stores are dial based

I thought that too. Dials were more irritating because you had to move it juuuuusst right to get the time you wanted. It didn't help that it had acceleration, and that as you got higher it used bigger increments.

The best UX I've ever experienced on microwaves are restaurant microwaves and Danby microwaves.

Restaurant microwaves have programmable buttons and a space beside them to write what time is programmed in (or what recipe it is for). If you want a different time than the preprogrammed ones, then you press a time button and then punch in your time.

Danby's work similarly, you press a digit and you get that many minutes and it starts immediately. You press the +30sec and it adds 30 seconds. Simple, efficient, discoverable. Admittedly anything beyond the basics is a bit of a train wreck, but I'm okay pressing 1 instead of punching in 50 or 55 and then start when I want a bit less than one minute.

My current microwave only starts when you press start. The +30sec button will save you at MOST 1 button press ever, unless you want to add 30s to an already running microwave, which is more than I can say for my last rotary, where +1min would only work if you used it to start the microwave. If you used the dial, it didn't work.

Appliances have TERRIBLE UX, and I could go on about the good and bad things I have seen and been frustrated by.

I had a microwave that upon finishing would show the message "GOOD". I guess it was a bad translation of "done". It also always had to beep three times at ear piercing volume, even if you opened the door after the first beep.

My first and so far only micro went through some post-sales improvements. We ripped out the buzzer.

Best thing ever, because for those years I lived with flatmates and everyone wanted to heat shit when the others were asleep or hungover.

There should be a silent option/switch.

Similar to the related story, in our office the speakers of a meeting room are "smart speakers", so anyone who is on the same LAN can join and play Spotify on these speakers. I have to admit we had done some little pranks with that :)

I do not use home automation, and I do not use smart houses and smart TVs. But if I did want to have an automation system for some things, I would prefer to wire everything (rather than making it wireless) so that it doesn't have the problems you mentioned. Too many thing now they do wireless, even though I want it to be wired instead.

That ups the cost by a LOT though, so people don't. I have no desire for a "smart home", smart tv is about it, I have some external wireless cameras. No camera in my home except on my phone. You can't hack it if its not there.

It’s not a home automation system - those are extremely common wireless fan/light controllers. It’s just an RF remote.

> My inclination is to go Full Lawful Good and turn off everyone’s lights tonight at 10pm to make sure we all get a good night of sleep and wake up rested and ready for a productive Saturday.

I have done that with Spotify. :)

Not sure why this is downvoted. It's an accurate summary.

Maybe they don't know Twitter is to complicated to use.

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