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== '''[[Spanish missions in California]]''' ==
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The '''Spanish missions in California''' comprise a series of twenty-one religious outposts and associated support facilities established by [[Spain|Spaniards]] of the Franciscan Order between 1769 and 1823, in order to spread the [[Catholic]] faith among the local Native American populations. The missions represented the first major effort by [[Europe]]ans to colonize the Pacific Coast region, and gave Spain a valuable toehold in the frontier land. The settlers introduced European livestock, fruits, vegetables, and industry into the region. European contact was a momentous event, which profoundly affected California's native peoples.<ref>Paddison, p. xiv: "''These missionaries, along with the soldiers, merchants, and settlers who emigrated to California before 1848, brought terrible changes to its Indian population''."</ref> In the end, the mission system failed in its objective to convert, educate, and "civilize" the indigenous population in order to transform the California natives into Spanish colonial citizens. <!-- need to better develop this thought train; architecture, literature, other -->Today, the missions are among the state's oldest structures and the most-visited historic monuments.<ref>California Missions Foundation</ref>
==Footnotes==
 
===Precontact===
The current prevailing theory postulates that Paleo-Indians entered the Americas in successive waves from [[Asia]] via a land bridge called "Beringia" that connected eastern [[Siberia]] with present-day [[Alaska]] (when sea levels were significantly lower, due to widespread glaciation) between about 15,000 to 35,000 years ago.<ref>Leffingwell, p. 9</ref> The remains of Arlington Springs Man on Santa Rosa Island are among the traces of a very early habitation in California, dated to the last ice age (Wisconsin glaciation) about 13,000 years ago.<ref>Jones and Klar 2007, p. 53: "''Understanding how and when humans first settled California is intimately linked to the initial colonization of the Americas''."</ref><ref>Oakley, p. 1172</ref> The first humans are therefore thought to have made their homes among the southern valleys of California's coastal mountain ranges some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago; the earliest of these people are known only from archaeological evidence.<ref>Paddison, p. 333: The first undisputable archaeological evidence of human presence in California dates back to ''circa'' 8,000 BCE.</ref><ref>Jones and Klar 2005, pp. 369-400: Recent research suggests that the Chumash may have been visited by Polynesians between 400 and 800 CE, nearly 1,000 years before Columbus reached [[North America]]. Although the concept was generally rejected for decades and remains controversial, studies published in peer-reviewed journals have given the idea greater plausibility.</ref> Over the course of thousands of years, California's diverse group of first settlers (later known as "Indians") evolved into hundreds of separate tribal groups, with an equally diverse range of languages, religions, dress, and other customs.<ref>Margolin, pp. 2-6</ref>
 
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Latest revision as of 10:19, 11 September 2020

Categories of smart home devices shown on Amazon's website in April 2023.

The phrase smart home refers to home automation devices that have internet access. Home automation, a broader category, includes any device that can be monitored or controlled via wireless radio signals, not just those having internet access. Whether the device is powered by the electrical grid or by battery, if it uses the home Wi-Fi network and if an internet logon needs to be created to use it, then it is smart home technology.

Collectively, all the smart home devices on every home's Wi-Fi network helps to make up what is called the Internet of Things (IoT), a huge sea of sensors and control devices across the world that are capable of being accessed from afar via the internet. One of the key reasons such devices need internet access is so that the manufacturer can periodically download updated firmware to the device to keep it up-to-date. However, being available via the internet also means that such devices are, potentially, available for spying or hacking. Today, homes may contain dozens or even hundreds of such devices, and consumers may enjoy their benefits while knowing little about how they work, or even realizing that they are present.

Not all home automation is "smart"

Many remotely controllable devices do not require internet access. They may instead have physical control devices that use either RF (“Radio Frequency”) or IR (“Infrared”) beams, two different kinds of energy used in remote controls to communicate commands. Non-"smart" home automation may also present security risks, because the control signals can be hijacked by bad actors with the right signaling equipment. Garage door openers are of particular note in this regard. Modern automobiles, in fact, are full of automation similar to home automation, and cars are hackable by bad actors in a number of ways. See Wikipedia's Automotive hacking article for more information.

Incompatibility hassles

At present, consumers must make sure that the smart device they wish to use is specified to be compatible whichever phone/tablet operating system they use (Apple vs. Android). Since smart home products emerged in the absence of any standard, a morass of competing methods for networking, control and monitoring now exist. For some products, consumers may need to buy an expensive hub, or bridge, a device that is specific to one vendor. Products made by different manufacturers but performing the same function are typically not interoperable. Consumers often need to open a different app on their smartphone or tablet in order to control devices by each manufacturer. This may make it too expensive and awkward to try out competing devices, leaving consumers stuck with the product they bought originally or else having to add yet more apps to their phones.

Security concerns

Security for smart home products has been uneven and sometimes seriously inadequate. Smart thermostats which can monitor whether a home's occupants are present or not, entry-way locks, robotic vacuums that work with a map of the house, and other smart home devices can present very real dangers if hackers can access their data.

Matter, an emerging standard

Matter is emerging standard in 2023 intended to increase security, reliability and inter-operability of smart-home devices. About ten years ago, industry consortiums formed to work on standards for smart home device communications, and their underlying wireless communications, which would make it possible for products from all vendors to work together seamlessly and provide fast performance, privacy, and security and would work even if there is not connection to the outside internet (i.e., no connection to "the cloud" or to servers).

Footnotes

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