Comment by dabbledash | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dabbledash | Hacker News Reader

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- You can have a website that takes payments without putting the infrastructure online. Take what you get from the human meter reader, put it in a database.

The real negative impact of meter reading isn’t the lack of the online billing, it’s that the water company might not be able to bill as often and might have to sometimes bill on estimates, so people can get saddled with surprise bills

- I don’t believe the two are actually related but if I believed that setting up a payment website required introducing huge security vulnerabilities, I’d rather mail a check. And I hate mailing checks.

- As for the sellers viewing the water companies as their customers: I agree; that makes sense. But the water companies are public utilities and if they’re putting their own convenience over the safety of residents, it should be addressed with regulation.

> You can have a website that takes payments without putting the infrastructure online. Take what you get from the human meter reader, put it in a database.

This has been done since the dawn of water management. Manual meter reading is the source of most errors in a system. SCADA systems generally don't get directly tied in with meter management and billing, but they are required somewhere in many processes. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

> I don’t believe the two are actually related but if I believed that setting up a payment website required introducing huge security vulnerabilities, I’d rather mail a check. And I hate mailing checks.

It doesn't. What I said is about how these things happen. It doesn't mean the only way to achieve a "smart city" is via TeamViewer. Outfitting your system with devices designed with the SCADA security model in mind has proven to work.

> But the water companies are public utilities and if they’re putting their own convenience over the safety of residents, it should be addressed with regulation.

I'd caution you against routinely arriving at maximalist interpretations. This has very little to do with convenience and more to do with efficiency, safety, and resource management which makes your water cheaper, safer, and less likely to be lost.

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