twitter, gps and wlan

[deereman64]

When I was first introduced to Twitter my reaction was " these people need to get a life", but as the WWW is the visible sum of human ingenuity I being proven wrong. An IBM scientist has wired up his home so that if something goes wrong with say the heating he gets a tweet. The logical extension of this will be that gadgets, cars, boats and tractors will have a built in IP address, gps and connection to the internet. We will be able to monitor nearly everything we own via the web and twitter. Exciting eh????

[cowboy357]

I must be Way behind the times because I dont know any of the terms You just mentioned other then gadgets, cars boats and tractors . Sounds interesting though. . Bob

[Wayne County Hose]

Why do all that through twitter when you can do it through a cellular connection? If you don't get a cell signal, then an email. I had a gf that is on twitter and she had me go on and check it out. My reaction? That was time in my life that I will never get back.

You can already monitor virtually everything you own via cellular connections and the web. In the house I built which the ex now has, I wanted to install a video security system that was internet based and would send me an email whenever motion or infrared temp changes were detected when nobody was home. Cost was under $1500 for everything. She didn't want to spend the money. Now that she is a single mom she wishes I installed it.

[jdbower]

Twitter is like an Internet-based text message - the Twitter API has been optimized to allow for short messages to be sent rapidly. Email programs are better designed for long messages sent a bit more slowly. Since there are a slew of programs out there for pretty much any platform that are designed to categorize and priorities Twitter "Tweets" I'd imagine this is a much easier way of implementing things than setting up email accounts and pinging back and forth between them. Twitter vs. email vs. cell is like asking why you'd get a 72" RFM instead of using a 48" riding mower - both do the same job but one gets it done a bit faster assuming you've got the tractor to handle the RFM (or the programming skills to tap into the Twitter API efficiently as the case may be). Twitter is especially useful if his monitoring is actually two-way, if he gets a message that the temperature in his house is too high and he can respond by turning on the AC Twitter is a lot more streamlined than an email parser.

Personally I like Twitter as a read-only application better than for what it's designed for. I've never been able to find a decent RSS reader, but most RSS feeds are also now mapped into Twitter feeds. My Twitter account is mostly there to aggregate newsfeeds that interest me - but every online service is only useful if you can see the value in it for yourself.

[RavensRoost]

jdb, excellent description ot Twitter. I was not really sure what it was until now.

RavensRoost

[deereman64]

Agreed.it explains why, apart from the cost, its an advance over the cell connection.

[Bird]

I probably understand even less about whatever it is you fellers are talking about than cowboy357. The first time I received a text message on my cell phone, it was someone I never heard of trying to sell me something and I stopped by the AT&T office and had them block all texting from my phone number.

[MossRoad]

Originally Posted by Bird

I probably understand even less about whatever it is you fellers are talking about than cowboy357. The first time I received a text message on my cell phone, it was someone I never heard of trying to sell me something and I stopped by the AT&T office and had them block all texting from my phone number.

Ya! We bought our daughter a cell phone for her Birthday. 6 hours after it was activated and she had never made or received a call, she got a spam text message.

[Bird]

David, I think that text message I got only cost me a dime, but my grandson and his girlfriend liked that texting business until he got a cell phone bill for $400 for one month. I know he changed "plans" right after he paid that bill, but I don't know how much he cut back on the texting.

[MossRoad]

Originally Posted by Bird

David, I think that text message I got only cost me a dime, but my grandson and his girlfriend liked that texting business until he got a cell phone bill for $400 for one month. I know he changed "plans" right after he paid that bill, but I don't know how much he cut back on the texting.

My daughter's plan is pretty simple. She gets $30.00 every two months. That's ten cents per minute or five cents per text message. If she uses it up before the 60 days, she doesn't get a cell phone any longer. Pretty simple!

We liked it so much, we got the same plan for my wife.