If you're old enough, you'll recognize that header as a ripoff of the lyrics to 'Shrimp Boats Are A-comin' ... difference is, THIS stuff ain't fun in the least li'l bit ... this is a clear invasion of PRIVACY ... I know, there are always those who think 'privacy' is an outdated notion. Okay. Fair enough. I'll just wait until the friendly Government Electrician comes around to install the Volt wall outlet that will let the friendly folks at the power company turn your appliances OFF when THEY want 'em off ... remember then that you said 'invasion of privacy' wasn't a 'big deal'. okay ... ?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.tendrilinc.com/products/volt/

Volt

Energy conservation at the outlet level.

The Tendril Volt is a three-prong, ZigBee® Smart Energy certified electrical outlet that can be plugged into a standard wall outlet to turn off or on any connected electrical appliance or device. When used in conjunction with the Tendril Insight or Tendril Vantage, multiple outlets in the same home can be managed individually or as a group over the Internet, giving consumers unprecedented insight into and control over wasted energy and their household energy footprint.

The operative words in the article "giving CONSUMERS insight and control" didn't give you any insights did it?

Misleading language is never included for the purpose of providing 'insight'- it's included to delude the sheeple with 'warm fuzzies' ...

And if you want 'operative words', THESE are them:

" ... multiple outlets in the same home can be managed individually or as a group over the Internet ... "

I'm just sayin' ...

It's like presidential promises. The wording will fool ya'.

You use their system, you have to register and do any managing through their website.

Not many people really can understand, much less read the terms of service on any web site.

They, the website owner has access to all your info and can do as they wish, including interrupting your service.

Check out their terms of service.

Glad I didn't throw away my tin foil hat.

Think about it.
Any website you have to log into to do business with them has all your info. SSN, some get your Drivers License numbers, banking info. A lot of room for abuse.

Some, in their terms of service, Dish network for example. If you cancel the service before the end of the contract terms, can remove all the money you owe from your bank account.

That'll come in handy when this comes to play in your wall outlets ... "Just words ... just words ... "

This is an awesome product category, I'm so happy its on the market. I hope many people purchase similar products....

...but not this one. Everytime we give a corporation access to and control over our personal data we should take a moment or two and think of the potential long range implications.

Plus, there is no need for them to have this information. If they opened their source code, you could run your own server for your own house...and the homes of those who trust you personally, and lock other entities out of your personal data.

If you are sooo worried about your privacy, what the heck are you doing posting all your inner most, anti-government thoughts out here on the forums?

Education and awareness is a wonderful thing.Obviously something the liberals in here lack with out a doubt.You have to be a brain dead idiot to let someone have total control of your elctrical devices in your house and to ask for your elctrical rates to increase three fold.

Knights story is nothing new.They have been installing "Smart meters" on peoples houses for several years now.Smart meters allow the power company to turn off any device in your house remotely any time they want for any reason they want.Smart meters also double and triple your electricity rates after a certain level.Of course the power companies and the Government says they are doing this to conserve electricity.The truth is that it is nothing but a huge form of price gouging and corruption.Power companies are doubling and tripling thier profits FOR NOTHING!They are providing the same service but legally getting three fold more than what they deserve.This is with out a doubt one of the biggest scams in history and wrong on so many levels.

Smart meters since they go through the internet are also subject to hacking and virus attacks.There has been many hacking incidents where hackers are turning peoples power off,changing bill amounts(sometimes to staggering amounts),and of course stealing data.

Like most liberal ideas this one is a absolute waste of time and money.

http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=38999


Leticia Ochoa has lived in her 1,600-square-foot Killeen home for almost 10 years.

While she said her electric bills have always run her a monthly average of $200, she opened her mailbox this month to find one charging her $865 – more than three times the amount she'd spent each month to heat her home.

Experiences like Ochoa's have every party in the electric bill equation – retail electric providers, the city, the consumer and electric deliverer Oncor – looking for an explanation.

"It's a new meter," said Cheryl White of Copperas Cove. White said her bill jumped from $346 to $733 this month. "There is no way we're using that much electricity. It's no different than how we've lived in this house. Our usage is the same."

The new meter – Oncor's Smart Meter – has taken much of the blame from upset consumers.....


http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-03-27/business/19914351_1_smart-meters-meter-reader-new-meters

Smart meter flaws give hackers power

March 27, 2010|By Jordan Robertson, Associated Press
Computer-security researchers say new smart meters that are designed to help deliver electricity more efficiently also have flaws that could let hackers tamper with the power grid in previously impossible ways.

At the very least, the vulnerabilities open the door for attackers to jack up strangers' power bills. These flaws also could get hackers a step closer to exploiting one of the most dangerous capabilities of the new technology - the ability to remotely turn someone else's power on and off....

I think that little green men from Alpha Centaury are messing with my electric meter. Either that or it's the "Men in Black".

Its the Draconians that are messing with mine...I saw the meter person shift back to reptile form for a second, I was so scared.

Seriously, though, it seems that today we are surround by corporations that are gathering/concentrating obscene amounts of personal info (facebook, google, apple)...I think we all should take a step back and question this more.

When I buy electric monitoring equipment, I want to be in control of the information.

Exactly!

Considering I've seen the advertisements for similar stuff that people can have as an app on their iPhones, I have no idea why this is such a big deal.

Today's conservatives remind me of the mother in Detroit Rock City. This is typical right wing fear tactics. Funny that not even the notion of Obama being the anti christ and 2012 being the year he makes his transformation into the five headed hydra has driven the rational thinkers to church.