Ask: What API is missing?

3 points·grep··4 comments

We have Stripe, Twilio, FullContact, SendGrid, etc, etc etc...

What's missing?

Basic infrastructure sucks to manage. Dhcp, tftp, pxe, site dns, pki, kerberos, sysctl, disk subsystems, raid cards(!!!), directory services, & host networking. All of those are requisite basic infrastructure for sites. And best case you get a bunch of incompatible clunky 1980s era libraries. Ohad levy has made a start on this, but it's more "I needed a thing to do this thing" stage.

Oh, a real answer may be networking. However I suspect the enterprisey network guys are going to get there before the web 3.0 "devops" kids even realize its a Problem. Bright side is it'll be clunky java ee SDN garbage so there will still be room for late comers.

I want an API for my living space. Temperature, how much power my devices consume, light levels, etc. Correlate this with my utility bills for power, gas, water, and the like.

Everything can have a microprocessor in it now. What's taking so long?

the closest air interface/protocol with a large enough install base is probably Bluetooth Low Energy. unfortunately, a lot of consumer devices don't expose many profiles or other low-level functionality, so if you want to do something off the beaten path (even within the standard), it may not be possible unless you build your own device.

How about a nice http shim over x10?

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