Today, the “Plugwise” system was delivered to me. It’s a system with plugs (they call ‘em “circles”) which you place between an appliance and the power socket in the wall. Plug the included USB stick into a (Windows) PC and you end up with a system which can track power usage of each plug and even remotely switch each one on or off, manually or automatically based on some rules. So when you switch off the PC, you could switch off the monitor, or a printer in some other room perhaps. Sounds good.

But they managed to mess up in awful ways:

• plugs don’t have a pushbutton, so turning a plug back on requires going to the controlling PC
• the system comes with a CD, which then insists on an internet connection and installs over the net
• you have to register with a code printed on that same CD (not the box, the actual disk)
• you must enter personal info, at least an email address anyway
• by default, a checkbox is set which grants permission to PW to obtain your power usage data
• and then... you’re told that you’ll get an email unlocking the “source” application
• (calling an application “source”, when it is anything but, is somewhat confusing for IT people)
• without that activation, the software barfs and exits

To add insult to injury, I have yet to receive that confirmation email. Leaving me with nothing operational.

I’m not amused. This is hardware after all, so software protection all the way to obtaining my email address and insisting on internet connectivity and over-the-net activation is totally over the top, if you ask me. I’m happy to have these plugs now to monitor exact power consumption around the house and I sure intend to use them fully - but this approach is stupid.

These plugs made me wiser indeed, but probably not quite in the way the manufacturer intended...

Update: just got the confirmation email. Ok, so it took 15 minutes... my point is that this shouldn’t have been required in the first place.