I did not get you any wearables or "internet of things" at CES.

Wearables - flat out, I think is a fad. I've been going to conferences for at least a year now and  I can't find a reason to write about them. I wore a pedometer to CES once. I clocked eight and a half miles. The next year I thought about taking it, but didn't. Now it doesn't even cross my mind.

Still, CES was packed to death with them, and I've gone for enough years now to know that they will be a product. Silicon Valley is putting an awful lot of effort into them. I still think they are a fad.

Internet of Things is another area Silicon Valley is putting a ton of energy into. I've gone to a bunch of those conference too and I mostly roll my eyes. You see - when you've been around the valley long enough you take a more wait and see attitude. I love factory air as much as the next guy, but still. This is going to be more annoying than you think.

I've already had my first real life experience with "the internet of things". Well, the internet of "thing".  I have two of those Nest smoke alarms, and over the holiday Chez Snarkolepsy upgraded it's Wifi network.

One of the features I really liked about the Nest - they took out.  The wave off. Because I'm short. I still like that it tells you which room "it" thinks the fire is in. My family has been in a fire. And one morning the NEST pulled a false alarm on Mr S. and I.

It must have been about 6 in the morning when we heard "there is smoke in the upstairs". We were upstairs and didn't smell any smoke. Finally we started checking downstairs and there was none. But - it was a good drill. I'm not happy it went off when there was no fire. However a fire can take your house down in minutes. I'm not going to sweat the drill. I am a little freaked it might do that when no one is home, because it woke up the other Nest device and I'm thinking of putting in a third. I don't want the fire department breaking down my door when my house is not on fire. Still - knowing which room fires are in I think can really save lives. My cousin didn't make it out.

Anyway... I'm getting off track.

The Nest also gets used as a night light pretty often. It is the perfect amount of light for us insomniacs who try to avoid light at night, and it stays on for the perfect amount of time. After we upgraded the network I noticed the Nest ring would turn yellow instead of green and I thought the battery was just low from me using it as a nightlight all the time.

Turns out it had to be put back on the new network. But you couldn't just give it the new address - you had to factory reset it. I'd forgotten about that part. Which Nest should have texted me to let me know I wasn't connected to the net for two days but didn't.

It was like when the credit card company sends you a new card because some network has been compromised and all of a sudden you are like Oooohh, right I have to change all these automatic payments. It's not ~that~ big of a deal, but you tend to forget which devices are connected over time. And when you get enough of these things... oh the joy you will have if you change any networking stuff. Just say'in.