Thanks.

Come to think of it, there used to be lots of big red ant hills when I was a kid too.

Despite our efforts with firecrackers and maggotfrying glasses.

Good evening

evening all, another day at the office, very busy trying to make up for my lst two weeks off, and my future month off. Steve is also working his butt off and is here doing homework, in order to get the next month off. Although I now have to investigate the wifi costs on board the cruise, so that he will be logging in to keep working, sigh

A friend took a cruise and wi-fi was crazy expensive. Cheaper than out of country cell charges but silly expensive.

Sales Director goes to Russia. Gets bored in meeting where no-one is speaking english (He doesn't speak Russian). Exchanges some texts with his wife of unknown content. Gets back to USA and the bill for the texting foray is $3000 USD. Ouch.

Oh, and Good Morning all.

Hola, y'all.

Howdy Jim. Did you manage to stay awake at work the last few days?

It is almost time for my morning nap. ;)

Hi Glen. SmileWavy It's been a real challenge. Must make it to Friday quitting time.

Yoohoooooo

So, thinking of automating the home. Having lights follow a person through the house would be cool.

Also would like to keep track of Mom with some kind of monitoring that would let me know where she is and if she leaves the house. Yesterday she went out to get the mail, and found her sitting on the back porch with the back door locked. She thought she was locked out. Would be great if it would send me a text or something if she leaves the house.

Sounds like a great idea, Richard. It must be hard to keep track of your Mom.

Automated lighting can be cool or a real annoyance if not set up right.

I am thinking about getting a NEST thermostat. I don't care that much for the internet connectivity but they are smart enough to learn your habits. My old thermostat is an old cheapie programmable that I don't think is very good.

She sleeps most of the time now BUT. That also means she gets up and wonders around at all hours. Makes it a little difficult for me to concentrate on work and or sleep.

So far, found MIT just announced a new technology using low power radio transmitter and 3 receivers to track 3D movement through walls accurately enough a person can point at a light and turn it on/off and has a 96% accuracy telling if they fall down. Currently it can only track one person and loses them if they stop moving.

I'm thinking combine this with current IR heat/motion sensors and you got a very viable product for keeping track of anyone in your home, not only for monitoring like mom, but working with home automation.

Yeah, I literally spend minutes going thru the house turning lights off when I go to bed. Would be cool to have a system that detected everyone was in bed and made sure all the lights off and doors were locked, put the cat out, set the alarm, set the thermostat, and ran the dish washer. Maybe even adjusted the temp on the water heater for non-use.

Ideally it would be very convenient to have a system that detected Mom getting up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and woke me up if she started wondering around the house instead of going back to bed.

I would think there are Alzheimer's "programs" for motion detectors like that now. My MIL always kept her doors locked with a deadbolt and no key in the lock on the inside when my FIL was still at home with Alzheimer's. She did not want him going outside on his own.

The only thing I've found so far are hospital systems that use expensive RFID technology.

I am pretty sure your vet will refuse to tag your mom

We have RFID chips in our dogs.

Richard, check out Redwood systems. It is not much more than florescent fixtures but it is all manageable. Daylight harvesting, environmental monitoring, motion sensors.