Home Hacking Projects for Geeks

viii

Preface

ments—each project presents a workable, practical way to improve your

home. When you finish a project, you will have built something unique that

you can customize to your family’s individual needs.

No matter what your current skill level is, you can learn from the projects

in this book. Neither of the authors is a Linux guru by any means, and you

don’t need to be one either. Working through the Linux-oriented projects is

an excellent introduction to the Linux operating system and to both well-

known and underutilized Linux tools. There are Windows-based projects

as well, and wherever practical, solutions are presented for both platforms.

Above all, this is a practical book. If you’re reading it, you’re probably a

geek, but chances are not everyone you live with would wear that moniker

with pride. The end product of these projects should not intimidate even

the most technophobic person—your family will never have to touch a

command line, or even a keyboard. The whole point of these projects is not

just to enhance your home life but to make things

easier. We’ve relied on the

user interfaces everyone is already comfortable with: wall switches, remote

controls, and occasionally a web browser. In fact, many of the projects are

designed to not require

any interaction from your family—for example,

you’ll learn to completely automate yo