A TV for the Woman or Man Who Has Everything

Forget 4k!  Ultra HD is so yesterday.  Sure, you may have 8 megapixels, but can you watch Skyfall outside?  On the grounds of your mansion?

While I still half think that this is a big prank, a friend showed me one of their videos yesterday.  They at least have a cool website.  No prices listed.  If you are in need of a 201" outdoor TV, please check out their website.

Finally FiOS

Back a fair while ago, I posted about why I wasn't going to get FiOS.  It was largely a price comparison where the end price would be similar to what I was paying Cox and the internet speeds not "crazy fast".  The FiOS speeds I was looking at were 25 Mbps down / 15 Mbps up.  Last week I signed up for FiOS.

A few things changed:

1. My interest in higher speeds has gone up.  We have two teenage boys that can be bandwidth hogs when playing games.  We have "high speed with Turbo Boost" which is "up to" 20 Mbps down, 2.5 Mbps up.  
2. Our internet service with Cox hasn't been awesome.  We have never achieved the maximum and only rarely are close (around 15).  Usually we are well under 10 Mbps with times where we are seeing 3 Mbps.  With four or five of us trying to doing things on our computers and watch a streaming Netflix movie, that is a problem.
3. Our TV service with Cox hasn't been awesome.  We still have shows that we've DVR not record properly because the digital signal has been insufficient.  We've called Cox (and they've come out to fix it) to no avail.  At some point you just stop trying. 
4. FiOS has made much faster internet available for only modestly more a month.  75 Mbps down / 35 Mbps up can be had for $15 over the basic 25/15.
5. I've decided that we don't really need TV service, except for our main TV and the TV in the master bedroom.  One of the chief downsides of FiOS is that you have to pay per month per box to decode.
6. FiOS is offering a multi-room HD DVR, Cox is not (at least not to me).
7. I've been notified several times that I've gone above my "acceptable" level of network traffic for a Cox user and that the next step would be for them to force me to buy a more expensive level of service.

Since my last post, our service with Cox has gone up to roughly $150/month (from roughly $137).  I spent an hour this past weekend figuring out if I could make it work.  My son (Andrew) was standing over my shoulder cheerleading for the 75 Mbps service, which explains why I went so big.  In the end, I don't think I'm going to save any money (assuming the taxes are in line), but I will get a broader TV lineup and much, much, much faster internet.  Let's hope my ping is as good as Cox's has been.  Otherwise, our gaming experience (no matter the speed) will not be very pleasant.

To point 7 above, I realize that I may have an issue with Verizon in the future.  They do have this gem in their FiOS terms of service:

The following are examples of conduct which may lead to termination of your Service. Without limiting the general policy in Section 1, it is a violation of the Agreement and this AUP to: (a) ... (i) generate excessive amounts of email or other Internet traffic;

Not ideal, but I think that is better than the already explicit "soft cap" that Cox has in place.

I will post about my installation experience, as well.  I'm a bit worried about how smoothly it will (i.e., whether they will do a reasonable install without doing stupid things in my garage or on the outside of my house).

Robots are taking over?

[Under Construction - but I've run out of steam - will get back to it when I get more - steam]

Recently, Wired published a story about robots taking over the workforce. I really don't see that happening quickly, though I would like to capture my thoughts about things that I would like to automate for me.

One thought at the start is that I think these tasks that I'm seeking to be done are all part of normal life.  Everybody (more or less) has to tackle them.  I also consider all of them, "work".  As in, they are things that we have to do, but don't seem particularly enjoyable.

The tasks are also repetitive and thus warrant some amount of specialization and I talk about each of them in that context.  If these specialized 'bots will exist in the next 5 or 10 years, I don't see the generalized 'bots coming for another decade.  But I'm probably optimistic on both fronts by about a decade.  This goes back to the adage about forecasting: we tend to over-forecast short-term change and under-forecast long term change.

Here are my separate categories.  I'm definitely open to additions from anybody out there that stumbles on this post.

1. Driverless Car: Yes, I would like to sit in the backseat.  And have it automatically valet my vehicle (that includes paying the garage fees, if any).  I don't know what I'm going to do that is productive when I'm commuting in the back seat, but it would still be awesome.  Long trips would be even better.  This sure wasn't me when I was younger and saw driving as a path to freedom.  Now, it's just a chore.
2. Home Organization/Cleaning: a broad category, yes.  Here are the subtopics:
1. Pantry: Combination of inventory management and organization.  Ideal situation would be that it would stock, reorganize and order more whenever a stock-out occurs.  For this to happen, the device would have to be able to continuously scan present items (I wouldn't restrict access to the pantry to the robot) and know how to order more.  This wouldn't be literally limited to a pantry, but over-counter cabinets, as well.  Lots of flexibility necessary for this one.  Would need the flexibility to recognize items in the pantry that it didn't put in there (even asking the owner what an item is if it doesn't recognize it).  Should also be able to respond to fetch commands.
2. Refrigerator:  Same as pantry, except with refrigerated items.  Should also clean/disinfect regularly.
3. Closet/Laundry: Collect, load, clean, unload, dry, collect, fold, stack and arrange.  Super complex and varied set of skills.
4. Kitchen: Clean counters, floors, tables.  Load dishwasher.  Dispose of food.
5. Bathroom: Mostly looking for cleaning skills here. Who wants to have to clean their own toilet?  Floor, shower and sink cleaning would be nice additions.
6. Trash/Recycle-ables: Remove trash from all trash receptacles around the house (but primarily the kitchen), put into a larger trash bin outside and replace the bag.  For bonus points, it should take the garbage cans to the street at the right time(s) of the week.  I think that the receptacles would have to be redesigned to make this an easy activity for a machine.
3. Cooking: Not in a huge hurry for this one.  I don't mind cooking (what I do of it, mostly grilling) and my wife likes to cook.  Its the cleaning up, mentioned above, that we really don't get any satisfaction out of.
4. Yard Maintenance:
1. Lawn: Yep - something like this.  There was an article recently (in the Financial Times, I think, but I couldn't find it when I looked) about lawn robots that suggested a couple of interesting things: (a) Europe is in the lead because lawn services are more expensive due to higher labor costs and (b) when people have reliable systems they are often used to cut the lawn daily instead of weekly.  They machines are battery based, and will cut within a defined geography without any human intervention.
2. Pruning/Bush Management: Complex.  Trim my bushes.  But it would be awesome.  Tree pruning is a reasonably infrequent and probably very difficult due to the heights.  
3. Fertilization/Watering: This could be a simple means of depositing some fertilizer on the tail end of the lawn robot's activities.  Simple task.  More interesting would be for the system to know how much water and fertilizer to deposit based on an array of sensors around the yard.  
4. Weed Control: How cool would it be if you were able to plant what you wanted and then not have to worry about weeding through the entire growing season?  If we can mow lawn, presumably we could get a smaller device that would work around delicate flowers or herbs or vegetable garden.  If it could also patrol the garden for deer and rabbits, that would be pretty kick ass.
5. Debris Management:  We get a lot of sticks and branches that fall from mature trees onto our yard.  I'd love our lawn to be thoroughly scoured of this after every big storm or at least every couple of weeks.  Some of this happens now just from a large lawn mower blade chopping up small branches.  Pretty sure that the lawn 'bots aren't  to be quite this big (at present).  When they are, this is probably just an infrequent activity that I still have to do in person.
5. Pool Maintenance: So, we already have some form of "pool robot" that we use to clean the bottom of the pool.  Our Polaris has no intelligence but is still useful.  I'd like something that knows when its done and turns itself off (potentially climbs out of the pool and then turns off the auxiliary pump).  Some better designed pool equipment would be important, too.  Here are a couple of thoughts: (a) Pool filters should automatically back flush when they need to be (I can't believe that this isn't the case already) and (b) skimmer baskets should be designed to automatically empty.  I don't see an easy way for this to work in their current configuration, but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't be changed.

Eat What You Want!

I can't help but pass along a link I saw today about a fantastic idea (not totally serious) to hook up a tube to ones stomach to immediately remove some of that high calorie food that one has ingested.  The article was linked from Marginal Revolution (one of my favorite blogs to follow).  The link is here.  As the brief article describes, there are some complications with its use.  In addition to a massive ick factor.  That said, it seems to be much better than forcing oneself to throw up (my least favorite biological activity of all time).  I guess you get to enjoy all the benefits of the tasty food and indulgence without any of the negative consequences.

It is similar, but perhaps more direct, than an idea that I've been espousing for the last few years: a device that one would hook up at night that would filter or otherwise remove excess fat or sugars in ones blood (similar to a plasma machine, but presumably, much simpler/costly).  If human fat were of any economic value, this idea would be money.

Or as it turns out, there is some value in people not being ridiculously obese.  Maybe some day under our new "affordable care" regime, people above a certain BMI will be forced to wear one of these devices.