News 1/3/2000 - 1/19/2000

 

Update

January 19, 2000

X10 has yet another XCam coming out, the GigaCam (what a name!) It's the same camera with the transmitter and camera in one box, and just a power cord running to it. It sounds much like the original cam only weatherproofed (I assume!) Here is the press release.

Scotty, we need more power! Trick of the day, contributor James Fillmore has his kids running around trying to save electricity! How? Read in the projects section how he knows how much power his household consumes. I really appreciate this kind of information myself, it's very well done!

We've got a HomeSeer script from Steve C. that reads news from a variety of sources, I thought I had mentioned that but see that I forgot! And just in is another script from Glenn Reimche that toggles a given device between on/off states. They're in the downloads section.

Talk to X10.com

January 13, 2000

If you've wanted to let X10 know what you're thinking, here comes a chance. We'll have X10.com here as a discussion guest from January 24-28, details here. If you like the idea of guests and have any ideas for a guest, just let it be known! X10 was an easy one to come up with, I'm sure there are more than a few comments out there.

Update

January 10, 2000

A quick note about the "newsletter." That's a separate list for e-mail about the site and other news that merits it. If you register for the Discussions area, that's a separate list. I set it up that way to avoid emailing message posters not interested in the news e-mail.

I still haven't any luck with the XRay software. If anyone has got it to run, let me know. X10 hasn't contacted me with anything to try lately, but their tech support has been exceptional so far.

Update

January 7, 2000

The replacement XCam XRay unit came in, and I finally got the thing reviewed. Well almost, the software won't run, but I reviewed everything else, find it in the Reviews area. If I've overlooked something or you have a critique, let me know!

Boy doing those reviews can take time... but you too can be a reviewer! I'm sure you have something you use that just blows you away, or just blows. Let everyone know! Reviews can come in any form, just text, I'll help edit if you need that, and pretty it up for the site. No money just glory and the adoration of all your automation cohorts.

Y2k Patch Advice

January 5, 2000

I've gotten and read some feedback on the patch. Using the method of replacing the two DLL's sometimes doesn't work. This is usually tricky in general because DLL's won't get replaced if in use, and exiting the program doesn't always free them. My advice is to use the full newest version (1.32) from X10's site, you can just install it on top of what you have, not necessary to uninstall first. This seems to work all the time (although you may have to clear and reload the cm11a once you do it.)

Y2k ActiveHome Bug Resolved

January 3, 2000

A visitor using ActiveHome let me know about the Y2k problem, which is being talked about on usenet. I contacted X10, and the news is good.

From X10: "We have found (thanks to our loyal users) a problem with ActiveHome working in 2000 and have fixed the problem. Basically, timers stored in the CM11A interface were only ActiveHome on January 1 2000, not for the rest of the year, which is why users didn't get the problem on New Year's Day. The problem can be fixed by a download on our web site. Users can update the 2 files affected, or simply install the newest version we have."

I haven't had time to try the patch, get it here. Hats off to X10 for a very fast fix!

Past news 12/15/1999 - 1/2/2000 >>