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Water Heaters and Home Servers

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There is a little debate about the water heater ...

In the 1870s, Englishmen, Maughan invented the first instant water heater. Little is known about Maughan's invention, however, his invention influenced the designs of Edwin Ruud. Edwin Ruud, a Norwegian mechanical engineer was the inventor of the automatic storage water heater in 1889. Ruud emigrated to Pittsburgh where he pioneered the early development of both residential and commercial water heaters. (source)

A lot of us now take this great invention for granted every time we take a shower or soak in a warm bath. We don't think about draining the rust out, changing the anode rod. We are happy being 'served' every day with hot water.

I have met a lot of people that are 'fascinated' with the idea of a home server. A smart always available device in their homes, a household nerve center, a digital hub, a family assistant, an automatic automator .... I have also met people that can't understand the benefits or look into the future.

My hat is off to Maughan and Ruud for inventing something so great over 100 years ago that we often take it for granted. It has become part of the fabric of our daily lives. 

Where will home servers be 3 years from now? 10 years from now? 100 years from now? Will every house have one? Will homebuilders install them next to the water heater and the furnace?

t.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I can't speak for everyone but a WHS will be in my home for the next 50+ years ;0)

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    To the question will home servers be as ubiquitous as water heaters in x years... ah, maybe? I love WHS and the possibilities it promises. And... a computer is not a water heater. I replaced my water heater last year because I don't drain it. I got 10 years out of it, never had to lift a finger to service it. Computers aren't in the same league. Twice since I've installed WHS, backups have failed resulting in the WHS backup service stopping. The fix, right now, is to restart WHS and the offending client. If WHS can restart the server and the client automatically after a failed backup (if that remains the fix), so I don't have to do it, then we're approaching water heater SLA's. If I have to intervene to address the problem... well, then I think we're a long way off from having the water heater/home server analogy mean anything. Regards, Lang

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I think comparing the current level of interaction WHS required to the water heater we currently use is not a fair comparison. WHS has to be given time to develop and grow to the point where it is a zero-interaction device. I remember reading about a prototype server being developed for enterprise server farms. They were basically big Lego blocks and you just attached them together, like Lego, to expand the capacity, upgrade the processor, install a new OS, etc. I think in 5-10 years time I think this will be the model WHS type products are using. Need more storage add a green block. Need the new OS? Add a new red block. Faster processor? Add a blue block.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    After using the RC for less than a week, I'll be recommending this product to all my extended family and friends.  Since I end up troubleshooting their networks & computers anyways, a handy route into their computers is always nice, and the security of backups is added bonus.   My grandfather was a plumber by trade, and was always the first call for free plumbing tech support.  So I guess that runs in the family.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    like the other commenters, it isn't at appliance level yet - though I don't know whether computer gear will reach the level of ubiquity that water heaters (necessity) or microwaves (non-essential, but who would want to go without?) are at. Home airconditioning draws better parallels - where people go for ducted, in-wall boxes, split-systems, fans, etc. Different solutions for different budgets and goals. I like the "add a block" idea of enhancing the server, if the addition of storage to a storage pool was done better it'd be there. How about automatically including the added USB storage into the pool, but without destroying the existing data on the drive? Ditto if you add a network drive, if there was a UPnP Storage Profile it could easily and automagically find and aggregate these into the pool.