I’ve been reading more about software for X10 and Macs, and I ran across more information on the xTension software. I’d initially passed on their software after a brief test, when I saw it start up the Mac Classic environment – that seemed like such a step backwards with the beauty of the Mac OS X built on Unix. But yesterday I got a copy of the beta they are calling X4X (xtension for OS X), and I installed it on my Mac, and – its very fine!

I created the master list for the 9 X10 controls that are running in the house, then I created some events for sunset and sunrise (Wakeup Coffeemaker, etc), and after some more reading, I’ve started creating Applescripts for some of the events that I want to happen. Very nice stuff – amazing that its considered beta!

There is a support list and quite a bit of resources for the xtension users – unless something unexpected and crazy happens, I think this is what I’ll be running the house on.

I’ll write more when I have it more experience with it!

While making the rounds of tech new sites, I ran across
Home Automation with Mac OS X, Part 1 by Alan Graham on the O’Reilly site.

About 7 years ago I got a Firecracker kit from X10. I played with it a bit, loaded software on my PC, quickly added $120 of expansion parts, and had the house lighting and coffeemaker on schedules in short order.

Continue reading →

Last time I wrote about computers here, I mentioned that I was planning to get a Mac. Well, I found a good price for a dual processor 1.25gHz G4 with 512Meg of ram and a Superdrive (DVD recorder), so I pulled out my VISA card and bought it. I was even able to get Applecare (3 year extended warrantee) on it (for the usual fee).

It was running an older version of OS X, 10.2 Jaguar, so within a week I went to the local Applestore in Tyson’s Corner (partly to check the store out), and I left with a new copy of OS X 10.3 (Jaguar). A week later I got a copy of iLife 04, to get the improved iPhoto, and to have a copy of Garage Band to play with.

My initial impression is that its a very cool computer. When I install software, it
requires that I “authorize it” by entering my UserID and system password. I bet Microsoft systems would be a lot more secure if they used such a feature.

So far the only time it has restarted (booted) is when I turn it off, or when it has installed a major change in software (security updates, etc).

Most of the setup was painless – I took an ethernet cable and tied it to our router (does NAT and Firewall duties for our network from the cable modem)
and a few moments later I was on the internet. It seems Emma’s Win98 machine and can read the Shares there just fine, but it can’t get into my old Win2k machine. Of course, I’ve had that problem before – trying to share files from the Win2k system to Emma’s PC – so thats not new., just annoying.
All my old emails are in Outlook 2000, in a 210 Meg .pst file – I haven’t found a way to move them to the Mac yet, but I did get the Mac Mail program working with my ISPs and aliases.

I bought a copy of Photoshop 7 for Mac on eBay, I have no desire to pay $600+ for Photoshop CS, and I use version 7 at work, and had it on my PC as well, so the learning curve should be small. I got a copy of PageSpinner, a basic HTML editor for the Mac, based on comments in Jeffrey Zeldman’s blog
$30 seemed reasonable for a web editor – $180 for BBedit doesn’t. And I’ve heard bad stories about DreamWeaver on OS X

I’m still sorting out FTP on the Mac – I’ve tried Fetch and Transmit and neither seems at all intuitive – guess I was spoiled by WS-FTP …

Continue reading →