Smart Home Hacks

Gordon Meyer is a writer, ethnographer, and software engineer who specializes in tools for creating and displaying onscreen documentation. His house in Silicon Valley is fully automated and controlled by a talking computer that wakes his family in the morning, keeps an eye on the dog during the day, and alerts him to missed phone calls and package deliveries. Gordon's past includes seminal work in the sociology of computer hackers, several years of performing magic onstage and behind the counter of a magic shop, and helping to manage and nurture communities on the GEnie and eWorld online services.

Credits; Preface; Chapter 1. A Foot in the Front Door; 1. Know the X10 Address; 2. Turn On a Light; 3. Master Your Appliances 4. Send X10 Commands; 5. Send X10 Commands Wirelessly; 6. Keep Watch with Motion Detectors; 7. Turn On the Lights When You Enter a Room; 8. Turn On the Lights When They're Needed; 9. Ring a Bell to Alert the House; 10. Sense What's Happening; 11. Control the Uncontrollable; 12. Groom Your Home for X10; 13. Set Addresses for Modules Without Dials; 14. Increase the Spousal Approval Factor; ; 15. Unplug Your Computer; 16. Add a Brain to Your Smart Home; 17. Get to Know XTension; 18. Get to Know Indigo 19. Get to Know HomeSeer; 20. Sync with the Sun; 21. Choose the Right Controller; 22. Maintain an X10 Library; 23. Shop for Secret X10 Devices; 24. Welcome to the State Machine; Chapter 2. Office; 25. Remember Important Events; 26. Keep the Lights On While You Work; 27. Know Who's Calling; 28. Broadcast Announcements to the Whole House; 29. Announce Events with Recorded Announcements; 30. Send Pager Messages; 31. Broadcast Messages on Your Home Network; 32. Control Your Printer from Afar; 33. Phone Your Home; 34. Control Your Home with Phlink 35. Forward Phone Calls; 36. Silence the House when You're on the Phone; Chapter 3. Kitchen and Bath; 37. Brew Your Morning Coffee; 38. Detect the Beer Thief; 39. Install a Kitchen Terminal; 40. Install a Home TV Server; 41. Control Your Heating Remotely; 42. Monitor the Refrigerator Door; 43. Heat the Toilet Seat; 44. Detect Flooding; 45. Monitor the Litter Box; 46. Avoid Battery Memory Problems; Chapter 4. Bedroom 47. Educate Your Alarm Clock; 48. Put the House to Sleep for the Night; 49. Lighting for Insomniacs; 50. Adjust Lights as the Sun Rises; 51. Simulate a Sunrise; 52. Motorize Your Window Blinds; 53. Outdo Big Ben; Chapter 5. Garage and Yard 54. Monitor Your Driveway; 55. Know If the Garage Door Is Open 56. Control Your Garage Door; 57. Control Your Home from Your Car; 58. See Through Walls; 59. Use Indoor Modules in the Great Outdoors; 60. Control Outdoor Lighting; 61. Track Fuel Consumption; 62. Know When the Mail Arrives; 63. Mow the Lawn 64. Get the Weather; 65. Safely Water the Garden; 66. Foster Green Pastures with a Smart Sprinkler System; 67. Stop Watering During Rainstorms; 68. Adapt Sprinkler Schedules and Solar Water Heating to Available Sunlight; Chapter 6. Security; 69. Check for an Empty Home; 70. Know Who's Home; 71. Avoid False Intrusion Alarms; 72. Nobody Here but Us Ghosts; 73. Send Notifications of Home Events; 74. Who's There?; 75. Secure Your Construction Site; 76. Monitor Your Summer Home; 77. Protect Outdoor Cameras; 78. Know When Windows and Doors Are Open; 79. Bark like a Dog; 80. Unite Your Alarm and Home Automation Systems; 81. Instill Peace of Mind for the Elderly; 82. Monitor Your Home with a Network Camera; Chapter 7. Advanced Techniques; 83. Improve the Response Time of Motion Detectors; 84. Check for Dead Motion Detector Batteries; 85. Outsmart Motion Detectors; 86. Improve X10 Reliability; 87. Avoid Common X10 Problems; 88. Streamline Your AppleScripts; 89. Harness Your Hamster to Power a Night Light; 90. Get More Out of Your Motion Detectors; 91. Track Home Events with iCal; 92. Chart Home Automation Data 93. Share Your Home Automation Mac with Other Users; 94. Remap X10 Addresses; 95. Control Lights in a Group; 96. Block Units for Easier Scripting; 97. Calculate Elapsed Time; 98. Identify Trouble Spots; 99. Control Your Home from a Web Browser; 100. Which Way Did She Go?; Index