Smart Home Hacks

Preface

For generations, scientists and marketers have been promising flying cars, personal robots, and the automated home. Of these, only the automated home is within reach today. Thanks to the combination of inexpensive yet powerful computers, open source and scriptable software, and a 20-year-old method of controlling everyday lights and appliances, you can live in a home that would make any futurist proud.

One of the best things about home automation is that it’s easy to get started and doesn’t require any commitment or major changes to your home or lifestyle. This book shows you how others have applied simple techniques to enhance their families’ enjoyment of their homes. You can adopt just the ideas that match your vision of what a smart home should be, or you can become inspired by what’s possible and undertake great changes to create your very own home of the future.

Why Smart Home Hacks?

The term hacking has a bad reputation in the press. Journalists use it to refer to someone who breaks into systems or wreaks havoc with computers as his weapon. Among people who write code, though, the term hack refers to a “quick and dirty” solution to a problem, or a clever way to get something done. And the term hacker is taken very much as a compliment, referring to someone as being creative and having the technical chops to get things done. O’Reilly’s Hacks series is an attempt to reclaim the word, document the good ways people are hacking, and pass the hacker ethic of creative participation ...