12 Apr
2007
12 Apr
'07
4:38 p.m.
[top-posting damage repaired manually -dM]
You (and your
family) would be in trouble (if not in danger) every
time it froze or crashed.
The same could be said of the computer in a modern car, controlling
such things as timing, fuel injection, and dashboard. Or the
fly-by-wire computers on airliners.
This actually is a reason to make sure everything fails in the correct
direction, and there are "too dumb to fail" overrides in some cases
(eg, non-computer-controlled parallel thermostats to keep the heating
and cooling clipped to, say, 5? and 35?, with never both of them on at
once). It's also a reason to add hardware watchdogs and suchlike, and
to make sure that everything can be overridden manually in non-computer
ways at need.
Nothing is perfect, of course. But for a lot of people, the additional
comfort and convenience are worth the risk. (I'm one of them, or would
be if I had the round tuits to rewire my place suitably.)
but what do you need a home computer for?
To
assist you in managing your household, or Course! A home
computer would be, I imagine, a computer installed somewhere in a
closet or the basement, and it'd have connections for thin clients
all through the house. It'd control your furnace, communications
systems, lighting, heating, water supply, you name it. [...] What about in a power cut - batteries dont last
forever?
If everything controlled by it is electrically powered, there's no
point trying to keep the computer up during a power-out.
Would most retro computers be able to do such a job?
If it were *my* house, I'd sure rather trust the job to a Z80 than the
latest Wintel trash!
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