Subject: From: Date:

Re: [ECS] "DOS based " Dan Carrington Mon, 25 Jan 1999 12:31:37 -0800

---

I would have to say, the spousal resistance factor would vary with the
person and the automation.  My wife loves our automated house.  She
likes the announcing of me coming home before someone is messing with
the lock on the door.  She likes the button that has ECS tell her if any
doors are left open.  She loves the same feature when we shut down the
house at night.  She loves the multi-person and weekday/weekend
automatic wakeup alarms with lights and radio.  She likes the radios
around the house that all switch to the same source when you play a CD. 
She likes the radios that automatically switch to the best radio
programs by day and time, avoiding the stupid talk shows.  She love the
alarm system that she doesn't have to ever punch in a key code.  She
loves the driveway light that turns on when she comes home so she can
see anybody lurking around and she can see when she gets out of the
car.  She loves only hitting one button to turn on and off my
complicated theater system.  But most of all, she loves the automatic
lights.  She and I always make funny comments to each other when
visiting our families out of town when we have to remember to turn a
light when we walk into a room.  
Now, she doesn't know the interface on the computer, but she could
easily learn it if she cared to.  I also run any programing I am
planning by her for her feedback on the changes in the house and to see
if she has any better ideas on how to easily program the new feature. 
(I do have to admit that she is computer and Audio/Video savvy.  She
also has had more programing classes than I have had.)  But in the
overall sense, she has no spousal resistance to automation.  We must
remember in our hobbies, to ask what they want out of it and put some of
those things into our programing.  

Dan Carrington




"Bass, Bill" wrote:
> 
> The "spousal resistance factor" to home automation is pretty
> high in my home, and I suspect this is true for many others
> as well (I am slowly making progress by adding capabilities
> to the home one piece at a time.  The greatest impression I
> have made on her so far, is getting the light over the stove
> to come on automatically when someone walks into the kitchen).
> Unfortunately, ECS is not something I can show off to my
> wife to impress her that it is worth the purchase price.  A
> slick looking GUI would certainly increase the "Gee Whiz"
> factor and make it easier for us "converts" to sell it to the
> "heathens".  Meanwhile, I am anxiously "champing at the bit"
> to purchase the full version of ECS as soon as she will let
> me.  I have been able to get her attention with promises of
> computer screening and TTS announcements of incoming telephone
> calls.
>

---