Subject: From: Date:

Re: [ECS] "DOS based " Dan Carrington Tue, 26 Jan 1999 18:12:21 -0800

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I suppose I had one great benefit in that I had the automation for 4
years before I had anyone else living with me.  I just had to modify a
few routines for my wife and duplicate things that I did for me for
her.  Probably much easier that way than full from scratch automation
with other people in the house having to live with my bugs.  I also had
a fairly full arsenal of automation hardware by that time, so the
automation could do many things beyond just ECS and an X-10 interface. 
Keep your chin up, and carefully persuade her away from the "dark" side.

Dan Carrington




Kevin Keast wrote:
> 
> Dan,
> 
> I must hand it to your wife.  Sounds like a definate pro-ha person.  That is
> great.  It is the misfortunes that hurt me.  I am learning to beta test
> EVERYTHING while my spouse is away so the impact is minimal when I get the
> system online.
> 
> Kevin :()
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Dan Carrington [mailto:dc_grafx@microworks.net]
> > Sent: Monday, January 25, 1999 3:32 PM
> > To: ecs-list@netbloc.com
> > Subject: Re: [ECS] "DOS based "
> >
> >
> > 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.
> > >
> >

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