Re: Newbie

[Dan <haguru@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tom wrote:
> Hi all, I am new to HA and would like some help. 1st...I would like to
> automate as much of the house as possible but it appears that will not be in
> the immediate budget. So I am thinking of starting off small...I have a
> computer that I can dedicate to the HA, so I think I am going to be starting
> off on the right foot. I think at first I would like to get Voice
> activation...I have been reading about HAL 2000..and it really got my juices
> flowing for experimenting. Is HAL 2000 the definitive Voice program there is
> or are there others that work as well and may be more affordable? Let's
> start with this and see where it leads.
>
> Thanks
>
> Tom
>
> Oh, there was one other thing...is there a way, through just the computer,
> and no additional software, to schedule the system to go on the net,
> retrieve the newspaper of my choice, and have it print out, with out me
> manually doing that. I would love to have that waiting in my printer 1st
> thing in the AM.
>
>
Hi Tom,

I would also recommend Homeseer, which supports Voice Recognition as
well (eventho it has been argued before that the HAL VR is better, but
if I am not mistaken, both use the MS SAPI interface).

As for the printing, I am not sure if this can be done without using any
3rd party tools.  There are plenty of free tools which can help you with
this (such as Auto-It v3, http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/index.php
, which can also compile the scripts into a single exe, so all you would
have to do is execute the exe once every day using the MS scheduler
service).

dan