THE INTERNET OF THINGS: WHAT COULD GO WRONG? “Just imagine what could go wrong with connected devices that turn on your oven before you arrive home, start your car by itself, automatically fill your pool, or remotely unlock your door. When you buy a product so vital, like the Nest, you need to understand whether the product has a safe mode that maintains its functionality in the event the software crashes or the battery runs out.”

In the late 1990s and early ‘00s, prior to the launch of PJM, I wrote dozens of product reviews and how-to articles for home automation magazines, including articles on X10-related products, in retrospect, likely at the end of that home automation communication standard’s operational lifetime, now that technologies such as Nest exist. Given the funky nature of the X10 protocol, and the bad stories such as the above article on Nest, other than installing a hardwired LAN for our PCs, and basic motion detection lights and a burglar alarm system, all of which have worked fairly well over the last 15 years, I’m not sure how smart I really want my home to be, despite the Star Trek/2001/UFO high-tech “geek” attraction.