Fun_People Archive
19 Nov
The Internet at house level

Date: Fri, 19 Nov 93 16:37:32 PST
To: Fun_People
Subject: The Internet at house level

 From: "Tansin A. Darcos & Company" <0005066432@mcimail.com>

[This refers to the idea of "ToasterNet", where all the household
appliances may one day be networked together.  -spaf]

> Since the IETF I've been mulling over the idea of multi-stage access
> for things like thermostats and cat food dispensers.  ...

Telephone:  Ring!  Ring!
Clerk:      Hello, networks are us.
Man:        Help, I need the SNMP management code for an American
            Standard!
Clerk:      American Standard what?  Router, bridge, brouter, lan?
Man:        Look, I need to shut down my toilet!  It's leaking all
            over the place and I need the computer code to tell my
            house to stop it!
Clerk:      Why don't you just turn the water off?
Man:        I'm in Los Angeles, my house is in Phoenix!  My house
            sent me a page telling me to read my E-Mail.  The
            E-Mail message said there's water on the bathroom floor.
            I pinged the sink and the tub, and both of them say
            they are off, but when I tried to telnet to the toilet,
            it said all connections were in use!

This brings new meaning to the term, "Dropping packets all over the floor."

© 1993 Peter Langston