If you're not an anti-vaxer, and you don't vaccinate your children, then I'm going to have to stick to my original analysis; Intending murderer

Only when you're counting on them, Sonny. Press on a slider pot, and you're going pure analog.

Electricity is analog, so digital electronics are built from analog parts. That the IC reading the pot is CMOS doesn't tell you anything about if it is digital or analog; it tells you that it is voltage controlled instead of current controlled, and will use almost no power for the control circuit overhead. More importantly, it means the pot will last a long time because there will a very very tiny amount of current, especially compared to TTL (transistor) control.

But using a BJ transistors it is current controlled, instead of voltage controlled, so when you turn the pot and increase the voltage, more power is used by the control circuit. And more current is drawn through the pot, reducing its lifespan.

The thing is, using CMOS or TTL control circuitry is exactly the same as regards to analog vs digital; the whole point of either is to dim the light by turning it on and off very rapidly with a PWM circuit. The PWM component is entirely digital; that is the whole point, the light is always at either 100% or 0%, so you have peak efficiency. And the basic purpose of the device is to connect that digital power supply to an analog interface, usually the human fingers. So it will always be a hybrid device, and the individual electronic components will be fully analog. But note that the analog nature of electronic components is not enough alone to call it a hybrid circuit. You could use an expensive digital input like an optical encoder in place of the potentiometer, and now it would be purely digital, even though it is made of analog components and interfaces with an analog finger.

Most modern dimmers are both; an analog potentiometer, but instead of directly controlling the load, it controls a digital CMOS device that translates the voltage level of the pot to the on/off cycles of a PWM circuit. This is a good balance because the pots will last a long time because there is almost no current used by the CMOS input, and digital pot-replacements are usually expensive and have just as many (or more) moving parts. They're starting to use Hall effect sensors in more flashlights now, but is the same as with the pot; an analog sensor controlling a digital power supply.

Now, take that old Nook and duct tape it to the wall inside the bathroom, where the light switch used to be, and you've really got the luxury of convenience.

I can imagine being injured or otherwise differently able and wanting an easy-open refrigerator. But a capacitive button and a powered door might be better for most people than voice control. You can locate the button outside the motion of the door, too.

It solves a real problem that is largely unsolved in current products. The only problem is, there is long-existing technology that already solves those problems, but isn't included in products.

If they'd just give everything a networked embedded processor with a published interface and open source reference implementations it would be a much bigger improvement, a much smarter improvement, than ad-hoc proprietary features that vary per manufacturer. There would be a proliferation of third party interfaces and add-ons. And people who wanted voice control could have it using existing text-to-speech and speech-to-text, or whatever new proprietary remote voice analysis is getting hyped this week.

Voice control for lights reminds me of capacitive lamps; lighting in a metal case that you turn on/off by touching the metal. Really cool the first time you see it, especially for kids. Not actually any different functionally, other than malfunctions in an electrical storm or cycling the light at every brownout/ or power supply flicker.

But I will give voice control some credit; it is at least useful and reliable as Clap-On, Clap-Off.

As an accessibility device for the blind, though, voice control will be a major improvement. Combined with good interface design it would be possible then to have appliances with a voice-discoverable features and menus. For the most part we're not there yet. But I only fault product design for that. The blind don't need the voice control to be really great, only the masses need that. For people just trying to control important devices, they can simply learn to enunciate as the computer requires.

We've known the useful feature for decades already, and in the "home of the future" predictions and droolings from the 90s it was already apparent.

The features people want are:
* Check if the coffee maker/stove/doodad is turned off, from the car/hotel room/airport. Not because people burn down their houses whenever they go on vacation, but because it is natural to worry about if these tasks were completed, and associated anxiety degrades people's quality of life. The prehistoric version is, "I wonder if that bear is trying to nest in my cave? How many days should I hide in this hunting spot before running home to check?"
* Turn on the oven/coffee maker/doodad from the bar/restaurant/airport so it is ready when you get home, without having to know with confidence at the time of departure when you will arrive home.
* Turn off lights/doodads automatically according to movement from room to room, with ability to over-ride.

One funny part about the submission... if you're re-wiring your house to make it the Smarthouse of the Future, don't tape over switches. Rewire them. If you're not replacing the switches with momentary pushbuttons for over-rides, don't expect lighting features to work smoothly. When you're applying the tape, you should be calibrating your expectations to the "duct tape" setting, not the Jetson's setting. (background info for youngsters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... ) Like when computers went from real on/off switches to buttons that look like switches, and now you could power on/off from the keyboard, or remotely. If you don't have the new switch, you can still use the new remote motherboard features... just run two wires outside the case, and touch them together in place of the button. Probably a bad idea unless you've a genuine use for remote on/off, but at least you could use the new MB with the old case.

If your goal is to impress your friends, buy a boat and take them fishing. Build an awesome recreation room/cave and invite them over. "Smart house" features should not be impressive, they should be either be giving you boring information (house not burning down, oven is off, door is locked) or else hiding features that you currently pay attention to, like turning lights on and off. Guests aren't going to be impressed by a lack of turning things on and off, because guests are generally not the ones doing that anyways. Trying to impress them with not having to turn the light on/off for them is going to be you standing there doing nothing, with a smug look, while your friends give you a golf clap and tell you to ask your house if there is beer in the fridge.

How To Implement the Smart House of the Future:
Step 1: Install only features you have a known (to you!) use for.
Step 2: Only brag to friends who have intimated having purchased such devices.
Step 3: If you're cutting corners, it isn't going to be smart. It is going to smaht. Install the whole thing, or expect it to suck. Calibrate expectations accordingly.

Bitch all you want, but don't be surprised when you're treated like a backwoods bigot who worries what other people wear. Not everybody's mom is as great a fashionista as yours.

Tourette's is usually easy to spot, just notice the look of complete horror on the sufferer's face when they hear whatever just came out of their mouth. Assholes never have that look unless they're making fun of somebody else.

I totally agree about the anti-social point. My friend isn't ever intentionally rude, he's a caring person with a normal level of sensitivity to people's emotions. The problem is, he can't effectively gauge people's emotions or responses. So he'll say things that would be totally rude, and are certainly disrespectful, but it is totally innocent. He doesn't have an intuitive understanding, for example, of the difference between rape jokes and general sex jokes. He can remember that there is a difference to others, so he doesn't tell rape jokes; but he might be the only person in the room who laughs when somebody tells one and everybody else is covering their eyes and trying to start new conversations. He doesn't comprehend the difference between rape and shoplifting. To him rape looks less-bad, unless the victim was a virgin. Rape is like cutting in line by force; dishonest, coercive, but without an emotional element other than related to inconvenience. There is a marked lack of empathy, but that doesn't imply mal-intent, or an inability to control behaviors that others have reported as being harmful.

Humorous hyperbole makes poster look silly, news at 11.

You can tell it is humor because you're obviously only an attempted murderer, there is no evidence you've successfully infected anybody yet.

You're an anti-vaxer, what makes you so sure you're the arbiter of what is worth listening to?

Where I'm from we call wearing a rainbow tutu "freedom," and it isn't something anybody needs to stop.

I'm not autistic, but I'm not going to look you in the eye and I couldn't care less what you think about it.

Neckbeards aren't neurotypical, but that is a whole different spectrum.

Great, another Arseburger spectrum. Are you an orange or a goat?

The people I know with Asperger's have low general IQ, but high specific intelligence. For example one person that is "high functioning" but has an IQ in the low 80s and is in the 99th percentile in chess, and can excel in academics other than attendance issues.