First, I found this story at MacDevCenter rather interesting:
Home Automation with Mac OS X, Part 1 by Alan Graham — Having more control over how your home operates isn’t just a geek fantasy. You can lower energy costs, improve security, and enhance the overall ambiance of your humble abode. Alan Graham shows you how to leverage your Mac OS X computer and get started.
Home automation is, of course, something I’ve wanted to play with ever since I heard about it. Sure, iTunes visuals are great, but what about programming all the lights in your house to work like a huge color organ to pulse with the music?
But I was also amused by the O’Reilly/MacDevCenter website. Along with the usual print and [email][6] buttons they had a [blog this][7] button. While they clearly wanted visitors to see the website as something more substantial than a weblog, they also wanted to cash in on the blogging public’s ability to create buzz and swing Google rankings.
Also, slightly related to home automation is OVOlab’s Phlink. It’s a telephone interface for answering and recording phone calls. It’s pretty cool, but how does it integrate with VoIP and fax machines?
The home automation story links to Perceptive Automation’s Indigo. I’m putting the link here just to keep track of it myself.
[6]: mailto:?subject=Home Automation with Mac OS X, Part 1&body=http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/02/13/home_automation.html?page=2 “email” [7]: http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/user/print/a/4620?x-t=blog_this.view “blog this”