Slashdot Mirror

According to http://www.hometoys.com/htinews/apr00/interviews/becomm.htm Edward Balassanian founded BeComm Corporation in 1996. A privately held company, based in Redmond, WA, BeComm designs next-generation communications technology that focuses on delivering a broad range of Media Appliance solutions. The company’s vision is to create an operating environment that seamlessly manages the flow of media across disparate networks, processors, media types, applications and devices. Mr. Balassanian is responsible for the company’s long-term product, technology and marketing strategy as well as day-to-day operations. He also sits on the company’s board of directors. Prior to forming BeComm, Mr. Balassanian held engineering positions within Microsoft Corporation. He has over ten years experience developing networking software. Balassanian has a degree in Computer Science from the University of Washington. He has recently spoken to audiences at Princeton University, and was recently a featured speaker at DEMO 2000.

No, actually, it's not. Pico Electronics Ltd created the protocol at the request of British Sound Reproduction. See here for a history of the X10 protocol (you may have to scroll down a bit).

Some informative links:

HVAC Portal for HVAC Professionals has a lot of good info you DIY'ers might be interested in. HVAC Mall lists a lot of supplies, and HVAC City will help you avoid getting ripped off. And there's always HVAC talk if you like goofy pictures.

And don't miss HVAC Zoning Controls.

Zoning and automatic time-based management are critical if you want to keep your bills down. Running heating and cooling in one region of the house for half the night, or starting up 30 minutes before you get back from work, will save you a lot over a manually controlled system that you have to leave on whenever you're not around and awake.

----------
Now that I've made a sacrifice to the gods of moderation, let's get on with it: (read the parent post if you have a high threshold and I'm not in -1 oblivion yet, it's an interesting discussion on the nature of moderation)

I agree with your idea, but not with the categories you propose. It is true that the negative mods are used simply to smack down posts, and only the "flamebait" category carries any shred of meaning anymore. The positive mods have the same situation-three interchangeable mods starting with I simply cause confusion. Any Informative or Insightful post is also Interesting, so removing Interesting would help clarify the categories.

"Radical" shouldn't be -1 in the first place, I'd rather have +1 Controversial, with no karma bonus (like "Funny"). Your offtopic-I/R fits within Offtopic well enough, since I/R arguments aren't really common enough to warrant a special mod. It only helps if you're a fan of those and you want to find them. Spite is close enough to flamebait-the point of spite would be to piss people off.

In addition to Controversial, I'd add the much needed -1 Crapflood. Most of the -1 Troll/Offtopic stuff would be better classified under here. I'd also put in -1 Inaccurate for well-intentioned posts that are factually untrue. These two categories would deal with the vast majority of garbage that is unfairy lumped into Troll and Offtopic. Also, I'd remove the karma hit from Offtopic, because offtopic discussions can be the most interesting parts of articles sometimes.

Finally, I'd add +1 Sexy just to spice things up.

So we'd have:
+1 Informative, Insightful, Sexy (add karma)
+1 Funny, Controversial (no karma)
-1 Offtopic (no karma)
-1 Incorrect, Crapflood, Troll, Flamebait (lose karma)

There would be fewer problems if the broadband companies would use either this or this., combined with this and a lot of problems will disappear, and control is put were it belongs.

the power consumption and size [of 802.15.3] would be about 50% greater than a Bluetooth solution. However, on the flip-side 802.15.3 would allow for data rates [of 55 Mbps,] considerably in excess of current sub-1 Mbps Bluetooth solutions.

So if it takes 50% more power, but is 5500% faster, isn't it still a cost savings over bluetooth? or does that "50% more power" imply "50% more power per bit of information transfered".

http://www.hometoys.com/htinews/feb02/articles/nav in/navin.htm

- why no links on X10 ?

Because they are misinformed. They are thinking of X10-the-company, which is notorious for pop-under ads. But what they really mean is X10-the-protocol [scroll down a bit for a good introduction], which is used by many companies.

- which maxim is obvious ?

Maxim is a "gentleman's magazine" that has been pushing the limits of how much semi-porn you can include without getting banned from shelves. Recently this and competing magazines went too far for Walmart.

As demonstrated by the presence of
http://www.x10.org
http://www.x10.com/technology1.htm
http://www.hometoys.com/htinews/feb99/articles/kin gery/kingery13.htm#digital%20stuff

According to This article, The most important source of interference in the band is commercial microwave ovens, of which there are over 100 million in use in the US alone.

If the buildings are on the same main power transformer (that big cylindrical thingy on the power poles), it should be possible to use powerline networking. http://www.hometoys.com/mentors/caswell/jun00/powe rline.html

If you still want to use 802.11, it should be no trick at all to tuck the antenna behind some curtains by a window that faces the other building. Also, some stones are transparent to RF, so you might be able to send the signal right through the wall.

If all else fails, get on to an amateur radio newsgroup and ask about sneak antennas. Hams have been dealing with restrictive antenna ordinances for many decades.

I guess X10 does have other products. It's a disturbing site if you're looking for something tame like devices for handicap remote control and automation.

Bluetooth, whenever it appears in volume, would be a good communication tool for this kind of system. No extra wires. It's supposed to be single-chip capable, cheap (after a bit), and later phases have a range of up to 100m.

Home automation/control site:
hometoys



... . . .

• Home Director, by Home Director, Inc. is a nifty set of tools much like X10's.
• HomeToys Home Automation Links many links to various products having to do with home automation -- even has some things on voice recognition.
• Linux Home Automation
• DMOZ's Home Automation Section
• There are many more, so I'll just point you to Google (Home Automation Search)

I've found a number of good X-10 and home automation resources at HomeToys.com. The prices for X-10, video/audio distribution, and DIY security are usually better at SmartHome.com than at X10.com (and they don't tend to send you so much spam!). The best prices I've found for X-10 stuff (they also have security and video surveillance equip) are at Worthington Distribution. I've had good Web and phone interactions with them. They know what they're talking about when you need technical help, both before and after they make a sale (I can't say as much for X10.com or SmartHome.com).

I've found www.hometoys.com to be a great place to check out the latest in all this stuff. It's not just an X10 site. There are a series of articles about home wiring (think wire closet, star-topology, like a corporate network for everything).