Re: Mini-ITX PC's a the future of HA (was Re: X-10 Mister House Motion sensor problems)

[Marc F Hult <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 9 Jun 2006 23:59:52 -0400, "Robert Green"
<ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
<XPOdnUYmqbRM2RfZnZ2dnUVZ_qadnZ2d@xxxxxxx>:

>"Marc F Hult" <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>
><stuff snipped>
>
>> >However, I do agree with their choice of a Mini-ITX as perhaps the
>perfect
>> >home automation controller, which supports my contention that PC based
>> >HA, specifically in the mini-ITX format, will eventually outperform
>> >hardwired panels.  Even Homeseer agrees.   Get it?  :-)
>>
>> Not in the Either-OR way that you, as "rah rah" advocate fer sumthin or
>> 'nother,  imply.
>
>You didn't get either "it" did you?  :-(
>
>How you read my words "eventually outperform" and interpret them as
>"either/or rah, rah my way only" advocacy is a mystery to me, Marc.

Because I also read your other words.  MS-PC based HA platforms have long
outperformed specialized panels in functions in which the specialized panels
don't specialize.  So "eventually" arrived years ago. Help us find meaning
in your verbiage.

>> HomeSeer (and Charmed Quark, and others) _also_ support Elk M1G (and Omni
>> and others). So no. So Homeseer does not 'agree' with you.
>
>If HomeSeer agreed with the "hardwired panel-centric" view of the universe,
>they would have chosen a proprietary hardwired CPU panel when they recently
>began selling their own HA controller hardware.

Who are you quoting with the "hardwired panel-centric" term. I googled on
"panel-centric" and as far as I can tell, you are the first to use it in
Googleland with this meaning. So you are in your own little semantic
universe as far as I can tell. I have clearly explained that the actual
system that I own has multiple panels, and multiple PC's ,and have used the
term 'federated system' to describe this approach over the years in c.h.a.
Not either/or. Belt and suspenders. Cooperative. Federation. "The computer
is the network". IP-based devices.

HomeSeer is an MS OS HA application. CyberHouse was an MS-OS application and
Savoy sold beginning ca 1999 a dedicated PC-based server with ATX
motherboard at a premium price. Last I knew they still sold a PC-based
server for video surveillance, but certainly not using a mini-ITX (poor
choice for a HA PC that needs multiple cards).  Charmed Quark is an MS OS HA
application. CQ sells a PC-based server with (apparently) a 7-slot
motherboard. If you want all the I/O capabilities of the PC (which you extol
elsewhere)  more slots are better than few slots. Mini-ITX only has one slot
(expandable to two in some cases) and is a *poor* choice of MB if you want
many slots. very useful in many cases, but poor choice in others.

My current HomeSeer and HA controller runs on an all-in-one VIA micro-ATX
(24x24 cm) motherboard. It has three PCI and one ISA slot which is useful to
me. ABIK, no mini-ITX has ever ISA.   I also have three VIA mini-itx PC's
(17x17cm). VIA is shipping a Nano-ITX motherboard (12x12cm). Nano-ITX have
mini-PCI slot but no PCI or ISA.  To claim that one or other of these
particular sizes and slot configurations is the future of HA -- as you do
repeatedly -- is hyperbolic hypothetical (hippopotumus-speak) IMO.

>They know the future of HA does not lie in the Elks, the Omnis and the
>Ocelots of this world.  They recently chose the mini-ITX as the *only*
>hardware platform that they sell.  How you can construe that action by
>HomeSeer as not agreeing with my view of the mini-ITX as the controller of
>the future for HA is a total mystery to me.  Really.
>
>Yes, HomeSeer does support legacy panels but when it came time for them to
>sell their OWN home automation hardware, they chose the mini-ITX.  Yet from
>this action of theirs, you get "So, HomeSeer does not 'agree' with you"?
>???????????

>If they believed proprietary panels were the way to go, they would have
>built their own.  They've supported enough other hardwired panels to know
>all their strengths and weaknesses.  They could have built a bang-up uber
>panel *if* they chose to.  They didn't.  They chose what I chose, the
>mini-TX PC as my basic HA controller.

Do you know of a single security panels or application amongst the dozens
of manufacturers in the US alone that is pc-based?  Wait. Lets
check for hippopotamuses: Do you _have_  a security system?

This is an inane discussion.

... Marc
Marc_F_Hult
www.Econtrol.org