Home Automation

Today's Hardware Friday project by a friend of the blog, Marco Minerva, shows how he, and with his help, us, can build a cool home automation system with some of our favorite tools. Gadgeteer Home Automation SystemIn this post I want to describe how to create a Home Automation System that puts…

This article walks through how to get that real movie theater feeling at home using the Intermatic HomeSettings Kit. Chris Walker ControlThink LC Difficulty: Easy Time Required: Less than 1 hour Cost: $100-$200 Software: None Hardware: Intermatic Home Settings Kit Video: Watch the…

Superna Systems is a company that is making use of Vista's SideShow technology in their home automation systems. With their ControlWare software for Vista, you can control your home's security system, lights, climate, music, and televsions. All of these can be controlled through your computer…

Life|ware is a home automation system whose goal is to merge control of your home with access to all of your digital entertainment. You can integrate Life|ware into Windows Media Center and, from there, you can manage your music, your photos, your videos, watch DVDs, and you can even schedule and…

For home automation enthusiasts, comes a plugin for Windows Home Server called "Embedded Automation's mControl for Windows Home Server." With this WHS plugin, you can configure and control everything in your home from lighting to AC to thermostats to security cameras from directly within…

At this year's CEDIA EXPO, the show put on by the trade association of home theater companies, Lifeware launched a brand-new, all-in-one, Lifemedia Server (LMS). This new server combines Windows Media Center with a 5.1 surround-sound amplifier and ZigBee control technology all within a single box.…

One of the most impressive displays at CES 2008 wasn't on the show floor. Instead of a traditional plasma-screens-and-pamphlets CES booth life|ware chose to build three fully functional homes out front of the Las Vegas Convention Center to show off the various home…

Bill Gates was kind enough to spend a few minutes with me talking about the future of the digital home, Tablet PCs, and technology. This was held in the Microsoft Partners Pavilion which was full of some of the coolest gadgets and gizmos that consumers will be drooling over this year.Update: All the…

Recently, the noise from the multiple servers running in the garage, the enormous energy bills, and my general sense of “I should do more to save the planet” outweighed my procrastination and led me to take action and reduce my energy consumption. My first step was buying an Energy Monitor. After…

In this article I will show you how you can use Twitter API to Shutdown/Restart/Logoff your PC remotely using VB.net. Introduction I have a very slow internet connection at home and most of the time Downloads takes hours to complete. I decided to write an application which will help me Shutdown my…