RE: The SWMBO is RIGHT! RE: Power triggering

["Mark Harrison" <Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx>]

Ian,

Firstly, let me say that complaining about SWMBO-compliance is a great
group tradition that I wouldn't want to see go ;-)

Seriously, though, I agree with what you say about "delivering obvious
benefit".

Where the Pronto totally comes into its own for us is with the DDARs/Rio
Receivers. For Mary, the "killer app" was giving Mary a remote
that has
a button marked "MP3". When she presses this, it turns on the
amps, and
switches them to the DDAR source. It then changes the Pronto so it
presents a page called "playlists". One of the buttons on this
page is
"G&S" (Gilbert & Sullivan). Pressing the G&S button
takes her to a
Pronto screen that lists all the G&S Operettas, so, say, picking
"Iolanthe" is a three button job she can do from in bed.

On moving the intelligence to the backend, I also seem to be having
similar experiences to you. Increasingly, I'm using the Pronto's "main
macros" to, in fact, only send a single IR code, and then letting
HomeVision sort out all the triggering required.

If I can use a web server metaphor - I started with the Pronto as an
integrated items that did everything. As time's gone by, I've separated
out the web serving (displaying on a Pronto) from the application
serving (running macros) functionality... just like at work ;-)   NOTE:
this is a metaphor - I don't actually display web pages on a Pronto!!!!


Regards,

Mark Harrison
Head of Systems, eKingfisher
-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Lowe [mailto:ian@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 13 February 2002 15:18
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: The SWMBO is RIGHT! RE: [ukha_d] Power triggering



Guys I have had growing un-ease here...

Can I just stress that this is my own personal view.

If you have a SWMBO who doesn't "get it" you have a perfect
opportunity..

It's a simple enough principle. if the SWMBO doesn't see *instantly*
that
the HA setup offers something worthwhile,
then it probably *isn't* worthwhile.

Time and again, occupancy detection seems to be "it" the
insurmountable
problem. I think, though, that control is more of an issue than most
people
realise.

We started out looking for a proto, but I am now thinking much more
seriously about ditching the whole "intelligent remote" idea as
an
incredibly bad idea for most things.

having implemented an IR transceiver, and girder, I am now looking at
using
One for All "zapper-1" single device remotes as the main home
controller,
using smarts at th *other* end to do the business..

I am also thinking of ripping the guts out of an HR10, and fixing it up
behind some nice M-K switches, to make the X-10 control interface as
close
to normal operation as possible..

I think our house is about as "simple" as can be, but visitors
still
have
problems. Tony's joke about handing visitors a leaflet showing how to
work
the doorbell is funny, but just think.. how many pages of instructions
would
you have to give to a housesitter if you went on a long break, of a
month or
so? How many support calls would you get for your house?

I think we need to consider these issues.

Ian.



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