Re: XTB - the Future of X10 has arrived!

[Marc F Hult <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 07 Jun 2006 19:52:57 GMT, "BruceR" <br@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message  <t8Ghg.147$MF6.64@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

>I would liken the XTB as to what the military used to (and may still)
>call a SLEP, or "Service Life Enhancement Program."

Excellent characterization.

>I view the the XTB as a SLEP that may enable one to squeeze a few more
>years out of their existing X10 installations.  It is particularly
>timely in that we are in the midst of a shakeout period of competing
>technologies where delaying commitment to one or another may be
>beneficial to those who have a working X10 system and can wait a bit
>longer.

Yes, but it is also useful IMO to consider the relationship of existing
technologies/oncepts/strategies with emerging ones as complementary rather
than primarily competitive. It is also helpful to the all technologies to
candidly assess SWOT's (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).
IMO, this is one of the recurring issues with some conversations in c.h.a .
-- namely the need for partisan  identification and endorsement  'winners'
at the expense of accuracy and completeness and refraining from hyperbole.


>As I've said in earlier posts, the $1000+ I've spent converting to
>Insteon has yet to yield any real benefit over X10,

What did you convert from? Folks migrating from a couple of dozen x10 WS467
wall switches to a like number of $19.99 INSTEON wall switches will both
find it hard to spend anything like $2000 and will enjoy immediate payback
in terms of tactile response, visual aesthetics, possibly better hash
filtering ( still working to quantify this), probably longevity of the
hardware (my WS 467's fail with appalling regularity) freedom from
interdevice interference, lack of start -up flash when dimming, more
accurate dim levels, ability to logically gang switches and so on. I have at
least of each of the available INSTEON switches and dimmers  and am
hard-pressed to find a reason to buy the $40 switches and dimmers instead of
the $20 ones.

<various snips>

>"Marc F Hult" <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> Thanks for your (many, many! ;-) words and bon mots in this newsgroup.

My turn to fix a finger-fault before the dreaded ruler comes down on said
fingers: Should be "bons mots".

... Marc
Marc_F_Hult
www.ECOntrol.ora