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Gadget Guru Builds High-Tech Haven
Alexander Burke writes "In the 27,000-square-foot Carmel, Indiana home of Scott Jones, head of Escient Technologies, fireplaces ignite and drapes close on demand, televisions appear as if by magic and the ceilings play music. Touch-screen panels throughout the house run lights, security, heat and cooling systems, and video and audio libraries. Speakers are embedded in the walls and ceilings behind the plaster. The home includes a movie theater that seats 20 and has a wine cellar accessible only by fingerprint scan. Ted's outfit brings us more information."
Black Firs
I wonder about the quality of the sound from the speakrs, given that they're behind plaster and all.
More information? Hardly. That article was 278 words long, including headline and byline. The slashdot synopsis just about covered the entire thing.
No wait, let me quote it here (it won't even overflow a slashdot comment):
By Jeff Flock, CNN:
Yup. That's all folks. : )
Yeah, just wait till he comes home to find his house all burnt to hell because of some 6 year old h4x0r.
"Welcome to the United States of Microsoft"
Speakers are embedded in the walls and ceilings behind the plaster.
Oh, if these walls could talk!
You gotta love this statement at the end:
Why does Jones need a home that includes a movie theater that seats 20 and wine cellar accessible only by fingerprint scan?
According to Jones, "I like to build things and change the world."
Sure, I like to build things and wouldn't mind changing the world, where is my 27,000 sq ft mansion? But really, how does this mansion change the world? I'm sure a lot of progress is being made to help the world out while he lounges around, having shades opened and lights turned on for him automatically, while he listens to some classical music on his hidden speakers as he heads to the wine cellar to get something tasty to drink. Yep, lots of progress going on there, I can see the world's problems just dissolving away.
Can't you find something better to do with your money? People like this make me sick, although if I had the money, I must admit I'd be tempted to do the same. It's easy to be frugal with other people's money.
I can do everything that guy did in his oversized ampatheatre he calls a house for probably 1/10-th the price he did with much more flexibility. www.misterhouse.org is a good start. and Look at the applied digital for some of the best home automation core systems available at really good prices compared to the overpriced DMX/panja stuff. Whole house audio is easy and cheap if you can live without concert quality sound in every room.. www.smarthome.com has tons of that stuff.
.YES I had to wire everything (doesnt take a rocket scientist to do that) and yes I had to design and maintain it.. but hey... I have something that the ultra-rich like to flaunt that they usually only are allowed to have.. and you can too!
a "wired" home as to speak of takes nither genius nor requires buttloads of money. I have pretty much the equilivient for around $1500.00 spent with another $1500.00 to be spent on the whole house audio next month. I have a massive 1285 Sq foot home with a mind boggling 10 rooms (excluding the garage and back yard) so I am way above what most people can even dream of (Ok the sarcasim is a bit thick) Yes, I had to program misterhouse for my needs..
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
What I love about the article the most is the picture of the outside of the house. Too bad there isn't anything of the inside of the house and the streaming video is only for paid subscribers. Otherwise, the article is a total fluff piece. No real substance to it at all. It's like a short "House of the Future" blurb right out of the 1957 issue of Popular Mechanics. Changing the world indeed...
"I like to build things and change my world."
Call him an arrogant rich bastard but he is a geek like the rest of us.
Hey, how many of us bought the friggin X-10 cam bundles for 99.99? So we can see what our servers do while we are at Comdex?
How many of us don't have gigs of mp3's in the car? Even built one before commercial players were for sale?
The guy is just ab ubergeek who made some cash and modded the shit outta his house. More power to him!
I would kill to have my own theater. John Carpenters The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, big screen cheese fests for me and the bodies. And imagine Ron Jeremy on the big screen? Yikes.
We would all do something similar if we had the cash. We all got some weird wants.
What are some of the weird things you would do with bucks? Besides being altruistic?
Puto
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Check out scottajones.com for actual information about the house, not the short CNN blurb.
- Blowing the speaker system about once per month, completely automated.
- Firing DVDs at high speed out of the changer as someone walks by
- Shutting the curtains in front of the screen, usually during highly suspenseful and/or very cool scenes
While the theater setup is cool, Escient's stuff, at least in that theater, always has something a bit off with it even when it's mostly working. I honestly don't know whether anyone except Escient offers that kind of thing (since I live in Indiana, Escient does seem to be the only option here), but if there are multiple options for you, I would at least consider them before going with Escient. I should emphasize that the theater is not mine and I have only had extensive experience with that one, but since there aren't a ton of these lying around, I thought I'd give my two cents anyway.While Jones is traveling, he can check in on his abode via the Internet. As part of the security system, cameras are trained on every room of the house and every entrance. He can go on the Web and with a few clicks, zoom in on parts of the house or unlock doors from half a world away.
Now is it just me, or is this asking for trouble?
well, I would prefer putting a fingerprint scan on my beer fridge instead. When you are rich enough to buy wine you should share your collection. When you can only afford cheap beer you need to protect it ;)
It's called a "generator." Your UPS only needs to run a few critical systems until the generator kicks in. You can get just about any sized UPS or generator limited only by your budget. It's obvious this guy has a few pennies to spend.
William Gibson typed 'Neuromancer' on an old, beat-up typewriter.
'Nuff said.
THIS is a data haven.
Just raise the taxes on crack.
This guy's company Escient turned CDDB into a commercial product and later spun it off as a separate company (Gracenote).
Is this guy an idiot? This sort of thing is like hanging a sign out front and asking the script-kiddies, "Pleaze, dudez, hack my house. Hack my shower."
Why in the world would I want my appliance merged with anything having to do with the internet?
So some pimply faced kid named 'Dakota Flushboy' can come and make my convection oven turn on instead of my toaster?
"Hooo-boy, Dakota, you got me. You really did."
Main Entry: guru
Pronunciation: 'gur-(")ü also g&-'rü
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural gurus
Etymology: Hindi guru, from Sanskrit guru, from guru, adjective, heavy, venerable -- more at GRIEVE
Date: 1613
1 : a personal religious teacher and spiritual guide in Hinduism
2 a : a teacher and especially intellectual guide in matters of fundamental concern b : one who is an acknowledged leader or chief proponent c : a person with knowledge or expertise : EXPERT
Hmm
Yeah but his house has to be rebooted every week and the furniture reinstalled every season and he must keep all the receipts or he will be evicted.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Two chicks at the same time.
Escient uses Lutron stuff. Only problem is that it's a closed architecture / proprietary thing. Why of why these guys refuse to work with open standards is beyond me. It limits you to only technology supported by Lutron.
An alternative is open technology supported by companies like Leviton, Samsung, Siemens, Philips, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Trane, Cisco, and Many others world wide. See Echelon who developed the technology, and the Lonmark site which has info on integrators, manufacturers, etc.
Being a supposed genius maybe he could apply some of that briliance to reducing his impact on the land with a more reasonably sized home. Naaah, easier to just send a check to the Sierra Club and f the world!
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Just wait until he has to install a patch to his house because his air conditioner has a security hole or his theater shows a "blue screen of death" (tm Microsoft).
Now I'm going to hack into his wine cellar and spoil his chablis...
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
What will Martha Stewart do now?
Two to six, out in 18 months with good behavior.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
For a TV fanatic (just about everyone), the large TV coming down from the ceiling is a good idea. However how much of the rest is useful?
The switches in my house work just fine, I walk into the room and turn it on. No looking, because they are all standard I can walk into just about any dark room and turn on the light, and little effort is required. (Note, europe seems to run on a different standard and I can't always find their switches). How is a touch screen different? When a mechanical switch wears out I can fiddle with it a few times until I get the parts to replace it.
The reason the "House of the future" has never caught on is that most of the ideas are not really better. A mechanical light switch is cheap (50 cents), and uses no power. A touch, voice, or motion switch is much more exepnsive, and needs power to operate. In other words, it wastes electrisity without providing functionality we need.
That isn't to say all new technology isn't better. Most houses should be built with sorround sound, because people would use that.
Remember, when building a house, consider what you would really use. It might be interesting to know what the tempature of each room it, but in the end who cares?
... who is the REAL Indiana Jones!!
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Seems like he's making some progress in the field of non-obvious remote residence observation. Just the kind of technology that gives our friends in Justice an Orwellian woody. I don't know about you, but I like to be the only one with keys to my locks and passwords to my hidden cameras. Funny, doors can be unlocked from anywhere but no scr1pt k1ds are getting any of his booze.
Check it out here. Oh well, at least now I have more goals to shoot for. I'll probably have to forgo the movie theatre for now. His house is about 10x larger than mine. :)
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
But.... in the event of a big solar flare or a nuke going off his house becomes just like mine!
Then again, I suppose if either of those events were to happen, maybe audio/video on demand and cool touchscreens wouldn't be your biggest worries.
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
I love gadgets too, but they're a real headache. My house is only 2500 or so square feet. I've only got one car. But it seems like I'm constantly debugging the damn things. My car stereo, for instance, has a fancy automatic security panel to disguise it from thieves. It sounded cool, but now it won't work in the rain. Humidity jams it. My cordless phone battery is starting to suck. The list goes on and on.
Or you could even have it where the lights turned on when you enter the room.
You mean like these? (PDF file)
Oh wait... These only work with OPEN systems. Not that closed architecture lutron stuff.
I would *not* want this guy automating my house. No imagination.