Nokia has today announced its intention to increase its control over your life from your pocket and ear through to your home.

The firm is developing a smart home platform, dubbed the Home Control Center. Although this sounds like something out of The Truman Show or some other dystopian nightmare, it is actually the basis for next generation security, smart home solutions and household energy management systems, according to the handset giant.

Nokia will be looking for third parties to develop on the platform. It also mentions the magic word - green - explaining that by using the system, consumers could monitor and control their electricity usage, switch devices on and off, and monitor different objects such as temperature, camera and motion. In the future, "entire systems within the home can be connected to the Nokia platform, including security, heating, and ventilation systems", the firm explains.

Oh no, here we go again. Have they never seen a sci-fi movie? This can only turn out badly with the machines realising that they are better than their lazy, energy wasting users and deciding that the best way to save unnecessary power is to shut us off and leave everything else to hum away merrily.

It's not like the machines need us anyway, something Nokia knows already. "We believe that the mobile device is an ideal interface to control home intelligence, especially when the user is not at home," said Teppo Paavola, vice president and head of Corporate Business Development at Nokia.

Ssssh, Teppo. Can't we pretend that these machines need us more than we need them, in the short term at least?

November 28, 2008 Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a meeting in Holland this week, members from the European Space Agency (ESA) agreed on a new €10bn investment in their space budget. You know, the space budget - you must remember the first European on the moon?

Over the next five years, the ESA will invest the money in building new Earth observation satellites, maintaining its standing in the Guiana space station, and funding new probes out to the planets.

"Today's decisions are a further step towards giving Europe the means to respond to global challenges," wrote the ESA announcing the new budget. "The measures will further strengthen Europe's role in the development and exploitation of space applications serving public policy objectives and the needs of European citizens and enterprises."

The ministers also stressed the continued investment as being of fundamental importance to the security and standing of Europe.

"Through this meeting the ESA ministers have seized the opportunity to capitalise on the recent successes and achievements of Europe in space and to translate the political impetus into new programmes able to deliver knowledge, services and competitiveness and to shape ESA to assert itself as a global space agency, indispensable to the world in contributing to global policies," they said.

Indispensable to the world? Well, that depends on how you rate it against the current financial meltdown, the bankruptcy of several long-established household names and the thousands of jobs under threat on top of those that have already disappeared.

Does anyone else think that there might have been a better way to spend the cash? Answers on a jewel-encrusted postcard to the usual places.

November 28, 2008 Current Affairs, Science | Permalink | Comments (2)