Re: Insteon open source WAS: Something else

[Neil Cherry <njc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:24:37 GMT, Dave Houston wrote:
> Neil Cherry <njc@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>>I think the code will be OK, I had spoken with them about that very
>>subject. I made it very clear that my comments would contain various
>>information that is contained in the docs. The Insteon rep had no
>>problem with that. I'm still puzzled by their lack of Open Source.
>>They seem to think that they have and open product. The one thing I
>>don't want to see right now is their SDK document posted to the
>>internet, at least not until I can get them to OK it first (that
>>wasn't aimed at you Dave).

> It certainly seems to violate the letter of the license. But, I
> think the license is deliberately ambiguous so they can say (as they
> have) things like, "It really doesn't mean THAT." and "You cannot do
> THAT."

I agree whole heartedly, very ambiguous! I'd like to see a clear
license that allows the Open Source community access to the
documentation.

> As we discussed before, I think publishing the documentation and
> then charging a one-time fee for support (with various tiers) would
> work much better for most developers without increasing Smarthome's
> support burden. Of course, their corporate developers might object.

My opinion; the Open Source (OS) folks would get no BBS support
because they didn't pay for any. I wouldn't mind hosting a support
forum on my bbs for such a thing. The OS folks also wouldn't get the
software that comes with the dev kit (I haven't been able to get any
of it to work when my controllers go AWOL). We would need to find some
channel to share bugs in the documentation but not the same support as
the paying customers.

> For all its defects, X10 did a good job in this area with details of the
> protocol published early on in Circuit Cellar (with Dave Rye's help). Of
> course, they've now gone the other way with the CM15A.

This is a shame, it is my opinion that the first challenger to have a
stable product may very well beat X10 in the HA market. X10 seems to
be putting no extra effort to challenge the competitors.

>>This may be the first useful thing to come out of the book. :-) I'm
>>still not used to that title. But since I've got I'd better flaunt it
>>while it's worth something.
>
> So, what have you published lately? ;)

Well not published but I'll be on The Linux ink Tech Show on Oct
11th. ( http://www.tllts.org/ :-) I'm also getting back to work on the
Insteon stuff. Bruce Perens posted some code that should make it
easier to use USB devices with Linux (no more driver and kernel
compiles). I'm also making a Linux based HCS II (see
http://linuxha.sf.net/ ). Plus a few other things (I always have too
many projects). I may take my extra chapters and convert them into
articles for one of the online magazines. There were 2 partial
chapters that took too long to write and added another 60-70 pages to
the book.

> Of course, you'll be remembered longer if you made some serious
> errors. ;)

Oh I think I have that covered, in many ways! ;-) Right now I have to
spend the next few days creating a few web pages for the book's
support. What I currently have is not enough.

I must say I am pleased at the response so far, most has been positive
and the complaints have been mistakes such as a corrupted file or
missing files.

I'm a little surprised that my coworkers have let one mistake slide. I
posted a diagram with ~6 network devices with the same IP address. If
I did that in my professional work I'd never hear the end of it.

> On the one hand they do have an excellent policy of replacing
> defective units or upgrading units for free. On the other hand, they
> seem to have more need for such a policy than do most manufacturers.

I've got to send a bunch of stuff back (recall items & hosed up serial
controllers). I also need to purchase more stuff to solve a
complicated '3-way' problem in my home. The CFO won't be happy if this
stuff doesn't last as it's wall switches (one is an actual 2 way
setup).

--
Linux Home Automation         Neil Cherry       ncherry@xxxxxxxxxxx
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