[Nottingham] Smart meters (rant)

[Martin]

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On 11/09/14 09:06, Jason Irwin wrote:
> On 10/09/14 15:10, Martin wrote:
>> The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said that, on average,
>> consumers will save just £26 a year.
> By simply switching things off-off, that sounds about right. Rant:
> The number of things that don't understand "Off means OFF!" does my
> head in. Our new coffee maker has a clock which glows blue and a
> lit water level indicator, neither of which can be switched off. I
> have a clock on the wall, I don't need the damned coffee machine to
> tell me the time - I need it to make coffee; clue is in the name!
> ...

Sounds just like Eddie on the Heart of Gold[*] ;-)

> Harrumph!


Welcome to Marketing compromised shoddy design...

OFCOURSE you want the blue light there to CONSTANTLY remind you that
it is there and ready to serve, all for your own pleasure and
satisfaction and conned-venience and also especially for your own
safety ofcourse...

LED-blue is bright and sexy after all...


More seriously and nefariously:

A Marketing ploy to remind you to use it more?

Or a design acknowledgement that many people are too dumb to know what
an off-switch is? (And to avoid the 'help and support' calls for those
frustrated that it don't work due to it not being switched on... :-( )

Or... Just cheap design to avoid the initial cost of an on-off switch?

Seriously, *that* could be the real reason.


And then similarly there is the continuing shoddy house building
continuing where the builders are allowed to ignorantly build cheap
and shoddy with decrepit cheap uneducated labour to then sell on at an
inflated price. A yet higher price is paid by the homeowner for
heating (and maintaining) the overly cost-cutting poorly designed poor
build... All for the sake of a cheap lead-in...

What next? Disposable houses "chic" Apple-style?!

Don't get me started on that!!!



Is this where FLOSS[+] can revolutionise building? ;-)

Cheers,
Martin




*: Obligatory Douglas Adams scene for such advanced silliness!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minor_The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_characters#Eddie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo4Wi6-XHL4
(There must be a better clip of that somewhere... But you get the gist.)
((Don't mention the tea machine!! :-) ))


+: Should have more teeth?...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open_source_software#FLOSS


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