Well I'm not certain in what context they are using it. But I've worked in technology for over 30 years. The only place that acronym is used is for harddrive health monitoring.
S.M.A.R.T which stands for (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology). Its been around since the late 90s. Its very mundane but extremely usefull.
Basically all it does it monitor metrics of a harddrive. For instance most harddrive (pre solid state) spin at 7,200 RPM.. High Performance enterprise harddrives could spin at 10,000 or 15,000 RPM. When you first power on your computer, the drive has to get up to speed. SMART will monitor how long it takes to get the disk up to the proper speed and compare it against a known good quantity. For instance, a healthy drive might take 3 to 5 seconds to reach full speed. But lets say one day it takes 10s to reach full speed. SMART will log the error and then an Operating system that is aware of SMART will see the error and alert you to the fact that something might be wrong with the drive and to backup your data as soon as possible.
Completely mundane, no super secret surveillance. Its quite useful actually. In the erra of solid state drives. It checks other performance metrics like temperature, voltage and how many bytes written over the life time. Some people may not know, but solid state drives when written to, burn off a little bit of material. So if a consumer level drive is written to constantly, like by a database. Its expected lifetime is much lower and can eventually burn itself out. (Hence be careful buying used SSDs).
Smart in the context of watch, phone etc was more marketing to imply that the device is more general purpose computing with software that does more than say just tell time. It also tends to imply WIFI or network connectivity. SMART fridge.. SMART Appliances etc.. Are again just marketing buzzwords for overpriced appliances that they threw electronics on and connected up to WIFI.. Basically (Internet of Things IoT). And yes, a lot may actually collect data and send it to the manufacturer for marketing and research purposes. Which is why as an IT person.. I stick with non-electronic appliances, locks etc.. There are places where things like that are simply not needed and more of a hassle.
Yes data collection etc is a massive problem with devices these days. But I would be cautious of the 5G FUD out there. I've seen some truly cringe inducing theories posted out there and on these boards.
The real question is, who controls this device you own that's in your home? If you can control it, well and good. If it comes equipped with spyware, or compromised camera/microphone like in some game consoles and 'smart' tvs, or inbuilt trackers and you cant switch any of that stuff off, you should consider how much your safety is worth to you, and if the device is sufficiently valuable to compromise it.
The day will come when you are having a conversation in your own home and express a theory or use words that some megacorp doesnt like you expressing, and then you will find that mysteriously all your online purchasing accounts have been terminated, and banks are closing your savings and credit card accounts and telling you to go elsewhere. And prospective employers are hanging up on you and tossing out your job application because their background checking systems have you red-flagged as a bad person.
Why persist travelling down a road when that dystopian hell is at the end?
I have always avoided things with smart in the name. The smart car is underpowered and spys on the driver sending info to 3rd parties.
The smart watch likewise spys and sends info to 3rd parties. The smart water is made by a global corporation wanting total control with unknown ingredients that may or may not be safe or legal. I agree, whether or not the first acronym is secret millitary anti revolutionary tech, it seems accurate.
Well I'm not certain in what context they are using it. But I've worked in technology for over 30 years. The only place that acronym is used is for harddrive health monitoring.
S.M.A.R.T which stands for (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology). Its been around since the late 90s. Its very mundane but extremely usefull.
Basically all it does it monitor metrics of a harddrive. For instance most harddrive (pre solid state) spin at 7,200 RPM.. High Performance enterprise harddrives could spin at 10,000 or 15,000 RPM. When you first power on your computer, the drive has to get up to speed. SMART will monitor how long it takes to get the disk up to the proper speed and compare it against a known good quantity. For instance, a healthy drive might take 3 to 5 seconds to reach full speed. But lets say one day it takes 10s to reach full speed. SMART will log the error and then an Operating system that is aware of SMART will see the error and alert you to the fact that something might be wrong with the drive and to backup your data as soon as possible.
Completely mundane, no super secret surveillance. Its quite useful actually. In the erra of solid state drives. It checks other performance metrics like temperature, voltage and how many bytes written over the life time. Some people may not know, but solid state drives when written to, burn off a little bit of material. So if a consumer level drive is written to constantly, like by a database. Its expected lifetime is much lower and can eventually burn itself out. (Hence be careful buying used SSDs).
Smart in the context of watch, phone etc was more marketing to imply that the device is more general purpose computing with software that does more than say just tell time. It also tends to imply WIFI or network connectivity. SMART fridge.. SMART Appliances etc.. Are again just marketing buzzwords for overpriced appliances that they threw electronics on and connected up to WIFI.. Basically (Internet of Things IoT). And yes, a lot may actually collect data and send it to the manufacturer for marketing and research purposes. Which is why as an IT person.. I stick with non-electronic appliances, locks etc.. There are places where things like that are simply not needed and more of a hassle.
Yes data collection etc is a massive problem with devices these days. But I would be cautious of the 5G FUD out there. I've seen some truly cringe inducing theories posted out there and on these boards.
Marketing gimmick is all it is really.
The real question is, who controls this device you own that's in your home? If you can control it, well and good. If it comes equipped with spyware, or compromised camera/microphone like in some game consoles and 'smart' tvs, or inbuilt trackers and you cant switch any of that stuff off, you should consider how much your safety is worth to you, and if the device is sufficiently valuable to compromise it.
The day will come when you are having a conversation in your own home and express a theory or use words that some megacorp doesnt like you expressing, and then you will find that mysteriously all your online purchasing accounts have been terminated, and banks are closing your savings and credit card accounts and telling you to go elsewhere. And prospective employers are hanging up on you and tossing out your job application because their background checking systems have you red-flagged as a bad person.
Why persist travelling down a road when that dystopian hell is at the end?
I have always avoided things with smart in the name. The smart car is underpowered and spys on the driver sending info to 3rd parties. The smart watch likewise spys and sends info to 3rd parties. The smart water is made by a global corporation wanting total control with unknown ingredients that may or may not be safe or legal. I agree, whether or not the first acronym is secret millitary anti revolutionary tech, it seems accurate.