Home automation units based on X10/Insteon or proprietary systems like Control4 or Savant start at $100-200. At a time when you can buy a fully functional WiFi router with a 200+MHz processor, a minimum 8M of RAM, 16MB of flash for under $50, why is there not a home automation system that costs $50 and uses standard TCP/IP and WiFi for connectivity?
Noteworthy on the Web- The Register: Raspberry PiBare bones computing Review No review is ever written in isolation, absent from context. Usually, you can guess the reviewer's bias within a few paragraphs, and compensate accordingly. He hates LCD display quality, she dislikes proprietary software, they yearn for the days of full bandwidth vinyl. You get the idea.… […]The Register
- Living with IPv6: New Nmap w/ much improved IPv6Nmap has had rudimentary IPv6 support for a while, but, frankly, it's been pretty limited. A new version was just released today with much improved support.Some highlights:Raw packet supportOS detectionNeighbor Discovery pingNew IPv6 detection techniques (including some neat tricks with MLD and SLAAC).This... […]Living with IPv6
- bert hubert finally blogs: Random points of contentionI'm working on some high performance code which needs to scale to many, many CPUs. Against better judgement, I decided to use threads again, but to steer clear from anything that needs locking. I've previously found this to be very hard, and this time round proved to be no exception.... […]bert hubert (noreply@blogger.com)
- Ars Technica: Smartphone hijacking vulnerability affects AT&T, 47 other carriesCisco Systems' ASA 5500 series is one of many firewalls that drops data packets that contains invalid TCP sequence numbers. The feature leaks data that can be used to hijack connections. Cisco Systems Computer scientists have identified a vulnerability in the network of AT&T and at least 47 other cellular... […]Dan Goodin
- The Tao of Mac: Leap MotionApple, buy these guys NOW. Here’s a bit more. Looks amazing, and the price is certainly a matter of production volume.☯ […]Rui Carmo
- AnandTech: HP Z420 Workstation Review: Competition Heats UpRecently we had a chance to review Dell's Precision T3600, and we found it impressive. A company that seemed content to be an also-ran in the enterprise desktop space reinvigorated itself with smart new chassis designs to go along with the refreshed hardware from Intel and NVIDIA, and the... […]Dustin Sklavos
- Ars Technica: The future is forever: the state of IPv6 in the Apple worldPhoto illustration by Aurich Lawson With the demise of Apple's own networking protocol AppleTalk, Apple's products are suffering from the same issue as anyone else's: the Internet is running out of addresses. Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Netflix, and others will permanently turn on IPv6 in less than a month... […]Iljitsch van Beijnum
- David Lebovitz: Aux Tonneaux des HallesEveryone once in a while, it hits me: I need steak-frites. It’s an infrequent indulgence, but when I do have it, I like my steak with a crisp exterior, pan-seared until saignant (medium-rare), with a large pile of real frites. Most my French friends like their beef bleu,... […]David
- Econbrowser: Fiscal stimulusMy colleague UCSD Professor Valerie Ramey has an interesting new paper looking at the effects of higher government spending on GDP. Ramey (2012)approaches the question from a forecasting perspective. Suppose a certain event (examples of which are detailed below) causes you to revise your forecast of how high government... […]James Hamilton (jhamilton@ucsd.edu)
- The Trouble with Tribbles...: Vendor Stack vs build your ownOperating System distributions are getting ever more bloated, including more and more packages. While this reduces the need for the end user to build their own software, does it actually eliminate the need for systems administrators to manage the software on their systems?I would argue that in many cases... […]Peter Tribble (noreply@blogger.com)
- LensRentals Blog: Testing for a Decentered Lens: an Old Technique Gets a MakeoverWhat is Decentering and What Does it Do? Strictly speaking, decentering would involve one or more of the lens elements being off of the central axis of the lens. This would prevent the curved surfaces of the lens from bending the light properly. In severe cases it could result in... […]Roger Cicala
- I, Cringely: Why Facebook isn’t embarrassed by its IPOSo Facebook is now a public company but with the shares only one day old the news is already bad: Facebook shares didn’t pull a Google or a Yahoo or a Microsoft or even a TheGlobe.com and soar out of sight on IPO day. They ended right where they started... […]Robert X. Cringely
- Gizmodo: Minimalist Desktop Water Dispenser Is a Lovely Way To Stay Hydrated [Water Cooler]It's not always easy remembering to down the recommended eight glasses of water per day. But Qualy's Thirsy Bird portable water dispenser should make it a bit easier as it provides a stylish reminder to drink-up throughout your work day. More » […]Andrew Liszewski
- Bruce Momjian: Postgres Blog: Report from PGConPGCon 2012 is now over. Surprisingly, all the talks that excited me were from the second/last day. My morning started with WAL Internals Of PostgreSQL (slides) by Amit Kapila. I rarely see this topic covered, and his comparisons to Oracle's transaction logging were fresh. Also in the... […]bruce@momjian.us (Bruce Momjian)
- louisgray.com: Web Data Caps Not Prepared for Pervasive ConnectednessComcast (Xfinity) made headlines yesterday with its discontinuation of a standard 250 gigabytes a month cap for its residential users, in favor of a new format, which starts at 300 gigabytes a month, with the option to buy more. As a residential customer, I had noticed they stopped tracking... […]Louis Gray (noreply@blogger.com)
- The Imaging Resource: The Camera Bag: A Brand New LED Ring Light for Just $30Who says photography gear has to be expensive? Photographer Derrick Story found this NEEWER 48 LED Ring Light on Amazon for around $30 and he loves the results he's getting with it for macro photography. Story had this to say about the inexpensive ring light on his blog The Digital... […]havlik@gmail.com
- Jignesh Shah's Blog: PgCon 2012: OLTP Performance Benchmarks OverviewThe slides from my presentation today. […]Jignesh Shah (noreply@blogger.com)
- Marco.org: → Macworld’s review of the Accelsior PCIe SSDTheir findings support Bare Feats’: this looks like a great option for Mac Pro owners. ∞ Permalink […]Marco.org
- The Online Photographer: A Specific, Detailed Program for Absolutely, Positively Getting Better as a Digital PrintmakerWho this is for: Novice or occasional printmakers (of any skill level as photographers) who currently don't print a lot and feel insecure about their abilities or dissatisfied with their results. What it's for: Improving your skills, your prints, and your comfort level, familiarity, and sense of fluency with digital... […]Michael Johnston
- The Brooks Review: Twitter Is Tracking You on the WebDustin Curtis:Basically, every time you visit a site that has a follow button, a “tweet this” button, or a hovercard, Twitter is recording your behavior. It is transparently watching your movements and storing them somewhere for later use. Right now, that data will make better suggestions for accounts you... […]BenBrooks
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