X10 Zone

Mt. Rainier Summit Climb

2006-08-05T00:37:53Z

Last month I posted a story about my "practice climb" to Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier. I promised an update after my Summit Climb. I've been pretty busy since the climb and so this is the first chance I've had to write this up. The climb was July 15, 16, and 17, with the first day being for the "climbing School." July 16 was the climb to Camp Muir, and the evening of the 16th thru the following day was the climb from Camp Muir to the Summit and back down, all the way to Camp Muir and back to Paradise.

Climbing School:

]]> This was the most difficult thing I've ever done, and the most exhilarating! It was also quite dangerous. If I had known what I was getting myself into I might not have done it. And my Wife certainly wouldn't have let me do it if she'd known what it was going to be like. The climb from Paradise (5400 ft.) to the half way point, Camp Muir (10,080 ft.) that I had done a couple of weeks earlier with a guy from work was again pretty hard work, but not very dangerous. But the second half was pretty scary in parts. For the climb to Camp Muir the conditions were pretty much the same as before, great weather, and phenomenal views. But I was glad that I took lots of photos the previous time because on an organized climb, they don't let you stop and take photos any time you like. We pretty much could only take photos when we stopped for a breaks, (about once an hour).

We started out at about 8:30 AM, took the bus up to Paradise to start the climb and got going by about 10 AM.

Off we Go:

Taking a break:

We got up to Camp Muir at about 3:30 PM. The guides gave us a talk about the rest of the climb, we had something to eat. Then we were supposed to get some sleep. That was impossible. There were about 25 people in the "bunkhouse." It was really just a big box with "shelves" for us to sleep on. Between the adrenaline rush, the noise in the bunkhouse, the daylight coming in the windows, people crinkling bags of food, getting up to fill water bottles, and then of course getting up to relieve themselves, it was impossible to sleep. Then they "woke us up" at about 11:30 PM. We had something to eat, and got kitted up. We were all issued an Avalanche Beacon so they could "find us" if we got buried, but the lead guide told us that if we actually got buried in an avalanche there was pretty much no chance of digging us out, and the only reason we had to wear these was for insurance purposes.

We put on our harnesses (to rope up with) and headed outside at about 1 AM. It was pitch black, freezing cold, and there was a 20-30 mile an hour wind blowing. We roped up and set out into the darkness. You could only just see the person in front of you, about 20 ft of rope away, and it was hard to keep your footing in the wind. It was like that for the next few hours.

Pretty cold up there:

At the first break, 2 people gave up and were left there in a small tent until the next morning, when we picked them up on the way back. One of these was a 52 year old guy. Another (53 year old guy) gave up half way up to Camp Muir. The rest of the 27 people in our expedition were all relatively young people (20 something's). The exception being two Women (47 and 48 years old) who made it to the top. So I was quite pleased with myself for being the oldest (55) to make it to the top.

Up to Camp Muir we were split into three groups of 9, with three guides to a group (not roped). Then for the summit climb the three groups of 9 were further split into three groups of 3 with a guide for each group, 4 to a rope. The first 3-4 hours were in the dark (lamps on our helmet), and so it wasn't too apparent how scary some parts were. But just as dawn was approaching there was a particular part that was quite scary as we negotiated our way over a pretty narrow ledge around a really big crevasse (more on that later). Some of the more scary moments were due to the high winds, which I thought at times were going to blow me right off the mountain (and remember this is in the dark).

Then there was a tricky part when we were on a rocky ledge, no snow, and it was difficult to walk with crampons on. I must have caught one of my crampons on a rock and it came off! I yelled ahead to the guide to stop but he yelled back that it was too dangerous to stop and I should just ignore it! I had to walk several hundred feet along a narrow rocky ledge with my crampon tied around my ankle and dragging behind me. With each step I had to be careful not to step on it with the trailing foot. We eventually reached a wider part of the ledge where I was able to reattach the crampon.

We reached the summit at about 7 AM. A bit of an anticlimax given that it's the inside of a volcano rim, and so the only view you get is the inside of the rim.

The summit:

I was totally spent! I didn't know how I'd find the energy to climb down again. But after about an hour's rest we set off on the decent.

In many ways this was scarier because now it was daylight and you could see what you just climbed up! The views were beyond description. Some of the best views were while we were climbing, and unfortunately you can't stop and take photos while you're climbing, the guides won't let you, and for good reason, when you're all roped together and you're on the edge of a precipice you can't exactly stop and fumble for your camera. So the only time we could take photos was during the rest stops, but even these were some pretty spectacular views.

Above the clouds:

Now to the bit where I could have been killed!

The part on the way up were we had to climb past the "big Crevasse," on the way down was even more scary. This thing was the most spectacular sight I have ever seen in my life, and I likely will never see anything like it again. National Geographic, or the Discovery Channel doesn't come close! This was a Gigantic Crevasse, with nooks and crannies, hundreds of feet deep! Like some enormous ice sculpture from another world! We had to walk on a narrow ledge, cut out of the snow, maybe 12 inches wide, above and around this ravine that dropped hundreds of feet below us. We were roped 4 to a rope (including one guide). The guide hammered a steak into the upper part of the ice face at intervals and when each of us reached the steak we had to unclip our caribiner in front of us and clip it back on to the rope behind us, for the next climber to do the same when he reached the driven-in steak. I unclipped mine (at which point you are totally vulnerable to falling) and, wait for it.....

I successfully clipped it in behind me - phew!

Then I took a step and my crampon on my rear boot snagged the crampon on the my front boot and I tripped!!!! Right above this drop of hundreds of feet into the most spectacular looking ice ravine I've ever seen. I don't know if it was the training they gave us, or just gut instinct, but I rammed my ice axe into the upper side of the ice face and arrested my fall. We were roped together, so in theory if I'd fallen the rest of them would have saved me - ya think? More likely, I think I would have take them all in with me!

One of the "smaller" Crevasses:

Compared to that, the rest of the decent was "easy." When we got back to camp Muir at about noon the following day I thought wow I'm glad that's over. But we still had the decent from Camp Muir to Paradise to do. After about an hour we set out on that. I was pretty exhausted by then, and I found it a lot tougher than the previous time, 2 weeks earlier. I found it really hard to keep my footing and many times I slipped and fell, and ended up "glissading" hundreds of feet at a time. For the uninitiated in climbing terms, that means sliding down the glacier on my ass because I couldn't stop myself. :-)

Surprisingly, I wasn't as tired as I thought I'd be when I got down (adrenaline rush?). I drove and hour and half home and stayed awake until 5 minutes from home when I nodded off and crossed the lanes on the highway. Imagine that, surviving what I'd been through and then nearly killing myself on the road. :-)

The next day I woke up at 6 AM and caught a flight to New York for a scheduled business trip, followed by a week's vacation. It's been pretty much business as usual since then, although I've been popping Advil like it's going out of style because my knees are killing me. I expect they'll be like that for a while.

Let's get physical

2006-07-04T00:36:24Z

Some of you who have known me throughout my 32 year history with X10 will know that I like a physical challenge as well as the mental challenge that I get from my work.

When I was 39 I earned a Black Belt in Karate. When I was 45 I completed the New York City Marathon. I'm now 55 (and living in WA State) so I thought what better challenge than to climb Mt. Rainier.

]]> I decided to do this last year and have been running 5 miles most days since then. This April I hiked up Mt. Si. The following week I hiked Tiger Mountain. I have pretty much done one or the other every weekend since then. This past weekend I climbed to Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier to get a feel for what the "real climb" will be like.

I went with a friend from work, Kevin, and his girlfriend Patty. They are avid hikers and Kevin has already climbed Mt. Rainier, and has been to Camp Muir many times. We started from a place aptly called Paradise (photo below).

We started from an elevation of 5,400 ft. and climbed to 10,060 ft., over about 4 miles. That's about the same as Mt. Si in terms of distance, but much steeper and in snow the whole way. Whereas Mt. Si takes about 2 hours to climb, this took us 5 hours and 18 minutes.

Kevin has a portable GPS unit that tells you just about everything except what you had for breakfast that morning. After we'd been out for 4½ hours he looked at it and told me our elevation, how many miles we'd walked, our average speed, average elevation gain, etc., etc. It also told us how long we'd been moving and how long we'd been stopped. Much to my surprise, for the first 4½ hours we'd been climbing for 3 hours and stopped for 1½ hours. Must have been all those photos we took. :-)

But actually you tend to stop for a rest quite often and all those minutes add up. For the first 4 hours it seemed "relatively" easy. Then it got to the point where I was "rest stepping" every 3 steps. Then as we were nearing Camp Muir, for about the last half an hour I was taking one step then resting, one step then resting. Every time I tried to take several steps I ended up resting for a longer period of time, so it was better to just settle into a very slow steady plod.

On the way down we "Glissaded" i.e., slid down some of the steep parts on our butts. Cheating a bit, but great fun! I doubt that the Mountaineering outfit I'll climb with in 2 weeks time will let us do that.

Much to my surprise the next morning I wasn't very sore. I must be getting used to this. I was however extremely tired. I didn't get up until noon. When I do the "big climb" I have to leave for New York on business the next day, and so I will have to get up early to catch a flight. That will be "interesting."

This was one of the hardest things I've ever done, but I had the most fun doing it! And the views were breathtaking!

Reaching the summit (14,410 ft.) requires a vertical elevation gain of more than 9,000 ft. over a distance of eight or more miles. So the second half is about the same distance as the first half, (that I did this weekend), and about the same elevation gain. But it's harder because you just did it, and have to do it again, with little sleep, and suffering from the affects of altitude.

Although climbing to Camp Muir was tough, I think it will seem easy after I climb the whole thing on July 16, and 17.

ActiveHome Pro – the Next Generation in Home Automation

2006-07-03T20:04:29Z

The ActiveHome Pro package of software and hardware is the next great step in automating your entire home. Now with a USB interface and new, easy-to-use software, ActiveHome Pro takes all the best features of X10’s best-selling ActiveHome, and makes them even better. ActiveHome Pro is easier to install and easier to use, making it simple to control lights and appliances right from a PC, by remote control, or by schedules that you create. Simply put, ActiveHome Pro is a polished program designed for everyone, not just the home automation enthusiast.

]]> X10 took years of feedback from original ActiveHome users and created a program that puts all the control at your fingertips. On-screen controls are as simple as clicking a button to turn modules on and off, and set brightness level of lamps.

You can customize every module, arrange them in different “rooms”, assign colors and even name them. Different views make it easier than ever to find, change, and control modules.

You can create macros just by dragging and dropping. Run them right from your PC, by remote control, or on schedules that you choose. Set them to turn all your lights off at once, light up your house in the morning, set the perfect mood for “movie night” and more.

You can schedule modules and macros to operate at specific times of day, days of the week, and dates. The powerful Timer Designer has other options, including brightness level, Dusk & Dawn, security setting, and holiday timers.

ActiveHome Pro has an internal memory, allowing it to run without being connected to a computer. Simply program it once, disconnect it, and leave it to run as long as you like. You can still activate macros by remote, and have automatically adjusted dusk/dawn timers run throughout the year.

Top 3 features:

Easy-to-use software: ActiveHome Pro has updated, easy-to-use software and a USB interface. X10 took years of feedback from original ActiveHome users and created a program that places all the control at your fingertips – and it can easily be customized exactly the way you like. The design follows Microsoft’s familiar standards for Windows XP programs, making it easy to jump right in and get started.

Timers: Each module and macro can be scheduled to operate at specific times of day, days of the week, and dates. Schedule lights to turn on to a specific brightness level. Schedule events that automatically adjust to daily changes in sunrise and sunset. Automatically adjust scheduled timers by a random number of minutes to make your home look lived-in while you’re away, and even set timers to operate or pause during specific holidays.

Macros: Macros make it easy to group commands that are commonly used together. Macros can be activated from your PC, by remote control, or by timers you create. Turn off all the lights in the house at once, light up the house in the morning, set the scene for watching a movie, and more. 2-way communication means you can set up macros and activate them from any X10 plug-in controller, wireless remote control, or motion sensor.

Why you’ll love it:

ActiveHome Pro makes it easy for anyone to take control of their home. Designed with powerful, time-saving features, ActiveHome Pro puts you in charge, allowing you to control lights and appliances from your computer, by remote control, or through schedules that you create.

Now Home Automation is easy and fun. Protect your home while on vacation by scheduling lights to turn on and off. Have lights come on when the sun sets. Wake up by having lamps slowly brighten before your alarm goes off. Set the perfect lighting for “movie night” with just the push of a button. It’s all up to you with ActiveHome Pro!

A USB interface, ease-of-use, and simple customization puts ActiveHome Pro in a league of its own. Even better, ActiveHome Pro is affordable – putting Home Automation where it belongs: with everyday users that want time for more important things in their lives.

WinHEC Day 3 (the last day)

2006-05-26T02:21:16Z

Talked to a Microsoft guy who said he'd "X10'd" his whole house. Had lots of modules.

Talked to a guy who uses XCams in remote controlled cars. Also put together a system with XCams to catch pumpkin thieves!

Talked to a guy who used to talk to one of our sales guys re: a Residential Gateway. They were going to put X10 in it but the company went belly up when their financing fell through. They were set to fly in to see a VC and pick up a check - on 911. Suffice it to say that the deal fell through.

]]> Introduction to Media Center Extender (MCX) Functionality for Consumer Electronics Devices:

PlaysForSure (PFS) devices work with Media Center Extender (MCX), and Xbox360.
DLNA - Digital Living Network Alliance.
Demo'd Xbox360 acting as a Media Center Extender, pretty cool.

PlaysForSure enables content flow from Windows to CE devices.
Said there are 100 applications available for MCE. Will X10 do an MCE version of ActiveHome Pro, you might ask?
MCE selling 1 million per month. Huge growth projected with Vista.
MCX is platform agnostic.
MCX only supports a remote control (no keyboard support) - good opportunity for X10 since we make MCE remotes.

Building Remote and Integrated Auxiliary Display Devices with Windows SideShow:

Lets you view Windows "Gadgets" on external devices. Gadgets run on the PC not on the device. Content is pushed to the device. Small backchannel for control. Content is cashed in the device and can be accessed when the PC is off. Displays application specific data such as meeting time, IM sign in, photos on remote picture frame, etc.
Enhanced version of display has Vista look and feel (Glassy).
Everything needed to implement Gadgets and SideShow is in Vista beta 2.
A Gadget for RSS feeds is built into Vista.

They demo'd various Gadgets (Mail, photos, Windows Media Player) running on a QVGA display on the closed lid of a laptop - cool. Showed a detachable version of Gadget display that can become your MP3 player. Showed a Logitech keyboard with integral display. Showed a PowerPoint presentation running on an iPAQ, being displayed on a laptop (via Bluetooth). Showed a universal remote by Portaplayer with an LCD, running SideShow (wasn't real though, "slideware"). Demo'd a remote photo frame with SideShow overlaying weather updates on top of photos.

Touch Interface for Tablet PC:

Touch is fully supported in Vista. Touch pointer for small items - really cool (when it worked). It was the first demo I saw that had problems - it hung the PC. But when it worked it put a small picture of a mouse on the screen when you touched the screen, and the mouse had a traditional arrow pointer at the top left, you move the mouse with your finger via touch control and position the arrow pointer over small objects, like close and minimize boxes, that would be difficult to "touch" with your finger - pretty neat.

Hardware Implementation of Media Center Upgrade Scenarios:

Microsoft claim you can upgrade to Vista even from Windows 2000 - not sure I'd like to try it. They say this link should tell you if your system is upgradeable:

www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeadvisor/

A Case Study on Designing and Implementing IR and Remote Solutions for Windows Vista Media Center Systems:

Talk given by Standard Microsystems Corp (SMSC). They make keyboard I/O. Talked for 15 minutes on their IR chip.

WinHEC Day 2

2006-05-25T06:21:39Z

Windows Vista Consumer Scenarios and Opportunity:

Said that Windows Vista will be the largest technology launch in a decade. Talked about:
ReadyDrive - makes PC faster.
ReadyBoost - can use a USB drive for more RAM.
Rally - makes networking easy.
SideShow - for auxiliary displays for displaying Widgets (Small applets).
I'll talk more about these in a later blog.

Microsoft people seem to have their own language. They used the word Echosystem all the time, and they're not talking about the Planet. They use the term drill into, or drill down to mean go into detail. I heard "Foil" instead of slide in a PowerPoint presentation. And what used to be called Vaporware is now called Slideware. :-)

]]> Innovations in wired and wireless USB:

Microsoft wants to achieve the same association for security that you get when you plug your cordless phone into its base to charge it.

Said USB is the most popular peripheral interface. Installed base of over 2 billion units, and growing, wow!
Simpler APIs in kernel and now even in user mode. Claim that you can write a driver in hours, not days or weeks. They seem to think that writing a driver is difficult. They said even they can't do it very well. :-)
They said Wireless USB is NOT in Windows Vista. Surprising! But said it's ready to support it.
WinUSB driver exposes user mode APIs.

Said USB 2 added 100ms to resume time. Said you might not think that's a lot but it adds several hundred thousand man-hours downtime worldwide - what a stupid analogy.

Group Policy for removable storage used to protect against unauthorized copying of data to USB drives. They said some companies put hot melt glue in the USB slots to prevent employees from copying data from their PCs :-)
Camcorders, storage devices, digital cameras, have 96, 95, 94% penetration, respectively - all will move to wireless - 2 billion units to date. A HUGE opportunity. Wireless USB matches data rate of USB 2.0 (480 mbps). Protocol designed from the ground up, not just USB 2.0 made wireless. Can use the same API to write wired or wireless USB drivers. That's good. Test specs released on http://www.usb.org.
First certified wireless USB products shipping in second half of this year. I can't wait.

How to use Windows Connect Now Configuration to enable simple setup for Consumer WiFi Networks:

Called WiFi SimpleConnect. Said 76% of wireless networks are insecure. There's a 30% return rate. Need to make it easier to consumers to set up a SECURE network.
Visit http://www.wi-fi.org/ for simple config spec.
Transport Independent Registration - Discovery is the same (to the consumer) for wired or wireless. Has support for legacy Access Points. Fortuitous since there's 2 billion of them. :-)

Plug and Play for Network Connected Devices:

Talked about Function Discovery (FD) an API that doesn't care what protocol is used.
Unification of IP and directly connected devices.

Microsoft BitLocker Drive Encryption, Hardware Enhanced Data Protection:

Encrypts the entire volume. Doesn't rely on the OS. Protects drive even if removed from PC. Hardware based. Uses a USB key (or password) along with a chip on the motherboard. Mostly for enterprise solutions, big companies with thousands of PCs. I get the impression that in some cases this could cause more trouble than it's worth. Something goes wrong and you can't access anything on your PC?

Creating Devices with Windows Live Hardware Platform:

http://www.live.com/. Evolved from msn.com.
"My relationships" - for sharing info with your contact list. You could sell an item only to a circle of friends, for example, (going after eBay?). You could advertise to a specific group. Anywhere access.
Check out http://www.ldeas.live.com/
MNS spaces - said it's the largest blogging site in the world. Really?
Looking to unify voice over IM with your land line #. Philips introduced a new messenger phone http://www.messenger.philips.com/. Motorola Messenger phone also just announced.
Said there's 230 million MSN Messenger users, 20 million of them using video over IM. More people make video over IM calls than voice over IM. X10 should market webcams to this audience!

Stay tuned for the wrap-up tomorrow.

WinHEC Day 1

2006-05-25T06:15:25Z

Bill Gates Keynote:

He certainly likes to promote the idea that he's a Nerd (rather than the brilliant businessman that he in fact is). He showed up wearing a shirt that looked like he'd slept in it, and with his hair looking like he'd been dragged through a hedge backwards. :-)

He's a pretty good speaker but I didn't really hear anything about Vista (from him) that I didn't hear at last year's WinHEC. Although last year there seemed to be more "Wiz-bang." More emphasis on what Vista "looked like." This year there seemed to be more emphasis on "what's under the hood." E.G., Rally, ReadyDrive, ReadyBoost, SideShow, etc.

]]> Beta 2 for Longhorn Server, Vista, and Office upgrade all announced today.
Windows Live launched. (The evolution of MSN).
Talked about FlexGo. For developing countries. There are 1 billion prepaid phones in emerging markets. Only 6% PCs, yet 27% phones. Microsoft is combining the business models for PCs. In beta in Brazil, lets you rent PCs as you use. Uses a card, like pay-as-you-use phones. It'll be interesting to see how well it works for PCs.
Motorola Q just announced. I'll check it out and report later.

Windows Vista Presentation:

Demo'd XPD Document workflow. Kinda like PDFs. Going after Adobe?
Said that 35% of PC users are still Deskbound. But 65% are Mobile users.
Samsung just introduced an Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC). Was code named Origami at last year's WinHEC.
Showed a WiFi Remote, by Exceptional Innovation.
Discussed Windows Ready Drive.
Discussed Windows Rally.
ATI has hi def premium channel recording.
There will be 200 million upgradeable PCs when Vista ships, 500 million new PCs in the following 2 years. That's BIG!

I spoke to Julie Jacobson, Editor of CE Pro. She asked what's new at X10. I told her X10 makes RF MCE remotes. She was very interested and I found out why when she gave me copy of her new mag, Media Center Pro. :-)

Device Connectivity: Vision and Evolution

Said there is a 30% return rate on wireless network products. 76% are insecure. Said Vista will fix that. Their demo certainly was pretty impressive. Just about one click configuration.
Should visit www.microsoft.com/rally
Vista supports UWB, wireless USB, IP over UWB (WiNET), Bluetooth, USB, 1394b.

Preparing for TV beyond Windows Vista:

Working on a Worldwide DRM solution. Protected Broadcast Driver Architecture - PBDA.
Focus on Japan. In Japan 95% of PCs ship with a TV tuner.
New version of MCE was shipped every year but now tied to Vista, so upgrades less often, but MCE goes from being in 30 countries to 192 countries with Vista. Big opportunity for X10 since we make RF MCE remotes.

Web Services on Devices in Windows Vista (WSD):

Demo'd initiating a scan from a remote scanner, not from the PC. So no need to walk back and forth between your desk and the remote scanner. That'll save a lot of time in big companies. Likewise, true end-of-job notification from printer, so you don't need to walk to the remote printer only to find that your print job is number 20 in the queue!

Windows Logo Program For Hardware:

Two types of logo approval:
Basic: Works with Windows Vista logo. (Baseline compatibility).
Premium: Certified for Windows Vista logo. (Higher standard of performance and compatibility).
Program kicks off this Fall.
logofb@microsoft.com for feedback on the logo.
June 1 of each year Microsoft will refresh the logo requirements. Will give 6 months advance notice of changes.
Go to www.windowsvista.com/partner to review Windows Vista 101.
E-mail: Logopoint@microsoft.com

WinHEC Day 2: Tastes Better When It's Free

2006-05-25T05:43:55Z

First off, I solved the mystery of the nVidia rock star t-shirts. Actually, I didn't solve the mystery, Jenn McCoy of Microsoft did. I was having a nice chat with her about Windows Vista, Tablet PCs, and other stuff while waiting for Intel to announce the winner of a new Toshiba dual-core laptop (neither Dave nor I won) when I pointed out the mystery of the t-shirts. She thought it was weird at first, and then suggested maybe there was a prize that involved having to be wearing one to win. She said that they (Microsoft) had talked about doing that, but didn't. Later in the day I confirmed that was indeed the case with a guy in the nVidia suite. I felt a little silly for not figuring it out on my own, but oh well. The shirts they had today (the guy from nVidia said they were out yesterday, but I didn't see them -- I think I would have noticed) were a little too much for me: "The Perfect Threesome" (reverse: "nVidia nForce nVidia GeForce Windows Vista"). A shot at a free video card isn't enough for me to walk around in that.

My second day at WinHEC started inauspiciously, as Seattle rain caused terrible traffic that in turn caused us to be late. I missed the first half of my first session (Using the Windows Driver Kit for Windows Logo Testing). That was a bit of a bummer, because the first half was where the real meat of the session was. I only got to see a mostly dull walkthrough of part of the WDK user interface, which consisted of lots of little menu trees. Even on a 20 foot square screen those are hard to read. One thing I can say, and this has been true of all the driver sessions, is that Microsoft seems to be making a real effort to use the tools that they are giving to developers and testers. In every case, developing the driver tools seems to have gone hand in hand with developing the hardware drivers and interfaces that will come with Windows Vista.

]]> The tools we will use to test and sign drivers seem to have gotten a bit more complicated, unfortunately. That doesn't mean much for our customers, but will mean some more work on my part in getting the tests and systems we're going to need running. A process that now takes a single, standalone computer is going to take a Windows Server 2003 system running a database plus at least one client, and possibly more. I understand where they're going, but from what I've seen at the conference there's a serious philosophy difference between how Microsoft thinks people are going to use these tools, and what the developers seem to want. Microsoft is promoting a testing approach where their tools are part of the development and test process at every stage of creating a device for Windows. Most developers I talked to or overheard at the conference don't really care about using Microsoft's test tools to extend their test processes -- they just want to know what tests they have to run to get Microsoft signatures or logos, and what the fastest, easiest ways to run those tests are. I think that maybe Microsoft Driver and Logo teams could have used the "scenario" approach that the marketing people are using to come up with some user stories that reflect those attitudes.

I'm not going to say much else about today's sessions. Every one I went to was related to driver development or testing, and they weren't terribly exciting. Important, but not exciting. I will say that I'm glad to work for a small, fast company. I talked to some people from Motorola and HP, and they have a lot more barriers to doing their jobs and getting products released than I have.

I would like to say something about the conference: they keep us well fed. There's coffee, juice, bagels, and pastries before the first session, breakfast bars and fruit (and more juice and coffee) in between the morning sessions, a decent box lunch (yesterday was various "wraps", today several salads), more snacks (chips, popcorn, cookies) between the afternoon sessions, and dessert type things for the evening. That's not mentioning the reception dinner (carved ham and turkey, lots of hors d’oeuvres, free wine and beer), and the snacks available at several sponsor suites. Oh, and the cold cases full of soda and water. I was surprised to see that waters runs out first, every time they re-stock.

Other things spotted at the conference today: A dude wearing leather pants (what? why?); lots of people using session time to catch up on their e-mail (I take notes; does that make me a nerd?); a guy wearing a Members Only jacket, unironically; an Apple Powerbook being used by someone whose badge identified them as being from Microsoft... in a driver development session. Confusing.

Tomorrow? More driver stuff (exciting!) and some more interesting stuff about Windows MCE. I'll keep you posted.

WinHEC Day 1: Ecosystems & Rockstars

2006-05-24T06:01:55Z

I'm home from day one (of three days) at WinHEC in Seattle. Before I dig into the show, I want to explain the title of this post. First off, "ecosystem." I don't know how many times I heard Microsoft people say this word today (way too many) and none of them were referring to plants and animals. It seems to be Microsoft's new way to refer to the entire Windows Vista hardware/software/OS experience. It started in Bill Gates' keynote address, and after that I heard it all over the place. People talked about how drivers affect the ecosystem, how mobile devices interact with the ecosystem, how groupware enhances the system, etc. I get the analogy, but it's a bit much.

Not worse than all the "We're looking for rock stars" t-shirts I saw though. nVidia was giving these out (the back side says "nVidia is hiring") and people were taking them in droves. What I didn't get though was the people wearing them. And not just wearing them, putting them on over the shirts they were already wearing and walking around like that! What the hell? Just because the shirt says "rock star" on it doesn't mean you have to act like you're at a show. Tons of other people were giving out t-shirts, but I didn't see anyone wearing those. I guess programmers just really like nVidia.

]]> Anyway...

Keynotes

Even though WinHEC is a hardware show, the main focus for the last two years has been Windows Vista's new features, and while there were a lot of hardware pieces shown, the three big keynotes were mainly OS/software focused. You can watch them all online. I didn't see much in the keynotes that I hadn't seen or heard of before. BillG spent quite a bit of time on the new FlexGo program, which uses the prepaid cellphone service model to sell Windows PCs (hardware and applications, and I assume Internet service) to people in "emerging markets" (their word for the developing world, the Southern hemisphere, or the third world, depending on your choice of phrases) who wouldn't otherwise be able to buy computers. Sounds like a good plan, and I hope it works.

One of the things that stood out in Will Poole's consumer-oriented Vista address was the Windows Rally concept for easy implementation of wireless devices and other extensions to the PC. They showed a WiFi remote control by Exceptional Innovation, some wireless Messenger phones, various auxiliary displays (using Windows Sideshow), and some other cool stuff. Maybe there will be some opportunities for new ways to use your computer without actually being in front of it. I can see that being really useful with X10 hardware and software. You could have a display just for your home's automation and cameras, sort of a whole-house X10 console, that you could use in your bedroom or something, without having to go to the PC.

Another thing that was interesting (and was something I heard more about in a later session) was using the concept of "scenarios" to market Windows Vista features. I have a feeling if I attend more of the Business Opportunites sessions that I'll hear a lot more about these. They're basically stories about how you might use Vista in a particular way, at home, in a small business, or in the enterprise.

The Windows Server keynote presentation was well done, and while it didn't have much to do with what X10 does, they seemed to have a very well-thought out technical focus, a bit more so than the consumer-oriented Vista address.

Conference Sessions

X10 goes to WinHEC to keep up with developments in Windows that affect our business and our customers. When I planned out my three days at the conference, my primary focus was on the Device Driver track, with some time spent on Core Architecture, and some spent on the business and media sessions. It's not possible to attend all the tracks, but luckily you can get the handouts and PowerPoint presentations for all of them. That's also why I didn't go alone. Dave was able to see more of the business and media sessions than I was.

My main goal here is to learn about what X10 is going to need to do to make our hardware and drivers work under Windows Vista, and what requirements we'll have to meet to sign devices. So, with that in mind I started with the first Device Driver session, Introduction to the Windows Driver Kit. There's not much that's exciting for our customers to hear about in the WDK, but it should make building and testing new devices and drivers easier for us in the future.

After the intro to the WDK I went to the Introduction to the User Mode Driver Framework session. This is another one that wouldn't be too interesting to our customers. It actually wasn't that interesting to me, either, since most of our drivers won't use the UMDF. It was funny to hear a Microsoft Program Manager say that writing drivers is hard, and that almost everyone, including Microsoft themselves, is bad at it. They want people to start using UMDF because it's easier for people who aren't hardware programmers or experienced drivers to work with, and if they use the UMDF they will do less damage to the, um, ecosystem. Funny stuff. Our developement team (OK the one guy who does drivers) is good at writing drivers, and we usually need to work at a lower level anyway, so I didn't find too much directly applicable to us. Strangely, there isn't a single kernel mode driver development session to attend at WinHEC this year. Maybe they figure the people who really need to do kernel mode drivers already know what they're doing.

The best session I saw was one I didn't originally plan to attend. After the intro to the UMDF I didn't really want to sit through the technical details session, so I went next door to the Core Architecture Session on Power Management in Vista. You might think that would be pretty boring, and if it were all details you'd probably be right. The presenter was really good though, the best I saw all day, and the session struck a good balance between technical detail and high level information. The thing I thought was cool was the amount of work that Microsoft put into understanding the problems their users have had with power schemes and power management, and fixing it in Vista. Basically, Power Management is going to be a lot easier. Instead of having pick what the sleep button does and what the power button does and when the fans should turn off, and all that jazz, they're going to offer three schemes that will make sense based on how you use the computer. The other big changes is that Vista is really going to focus on using Sleep in the PC. It's going to be the default function for turning the system off, and they're determined to make it work. The number one thing they heard from users about the Sleep/Standby functions was that it was hard to predict how it would work -- people would try to put their system to Sleep (into S3 in the techy parlance) and it just wouldn't work. In Vista, devices and applications won't be allowed to prevent a system from sleeping, so it should work all the time. Not only that, they're speeding up the wake-up requirements for devices, so that the system wakes up much more quickly. They showed a demo and it was much faster than my Windows XP x64 system here at home. This has some implications for X10 device drivers, but should also be really cool for users.

Tomorrow is going to be a full day for driver development and other sessions. Stay tuned!

WinHEC 2006

2006-05-22T19:31:32Z

Dave and I are going to be at WinHEC 2006 this week. Starting tomorrow we'll report on what we see, what we think is interesting, and what effects we think new technologies in Windows Vista and other places will have on X10 and other products.

Connections 2006 in Santa Clara, CA

2006-05-18T03:15:33Z

My main reason for attending Connections 2006 in Santa Clara, CA, was to show an X10 presence, to show that X10 is alive and growing (it was pretty evident throughout the conference that all the speakers thought X10 was inferior to them). "The Three Musketeers" (Z-Wave, Zigbee, and Insteon) talked like they're the only game in town.

]]> IP TV - The future of television:
Peter Barrett, CTO of Microsoft TV. He said TV will become a 2-way network. He said the public Internet doesn't have the bandwidth. The ISPs do. Said more people watched Live 8 online than on TV. (I did).

Emerging Digital Entertainment Opportunities:
Panelists: Bob Greene, Starz - Bongo (Downloadable movies).
Peter Lee, Walt Disney. They launched abc.com, the same week as Connections. Said it has the same content as iTunes, but it’s FREE (with Ads).
Joe Menard, AMD. They launched AMD Live at the last Consumer Electronics Show (CES). They are working with ST so that downloaded content just shows up on the TV as another channel.
Slingbox, mobile TV. Mentioned several times.

Wireless Home Automation: What are the options?
Parks Associates said penetration is:
Internet 64%
BB Internet 41%
Home Theater 42%
Security 27%
Home Network 22%
MP3 Player 19%
DVR 18%
PDA 13%

Universal Remotes
$245 million sold in 2005, $271 mil in 2006, $383 mil in 2009.

I heard that Zensys got a cash injection from Intel and Cisco.
Z-Wave has 100 SKUs, say they will triple that by year end. Have a 125 member alliance. Costs $4 to add Z-Wave to a product. (X10 makes a whole module for less than that).

Zigbee Alliance, not a company, have no products.
They have 200 members. Members pay money and spend time to develop an open standard. (802.15.4). Has 65K nodes, 27 channels over 2 bands. 256 kbits/sec data rate. Worldwide standard. Focused on cheap sensors. $3-$5 Bill Of Materials (BOM).

SmartLabs - Insteon.
Said all devices simulcast (repeat). Claim that the more products you have installed, the better they all work.
They claim to have more Insteon installed than X10, after 1 year (I think they mean THEY’VE sold more Insteon than they’ve sold X10 products). I don’t know if they meant more in $$$ or more in units, since and Insteon module costs more than twice as much as an X10 module. They said "they all like to bash X10," but said X10 is in 7-10 million homes, so they made it X10 compatible. They have a $99 development kit to join the Insteon Alliance.
They said their IC is $1.60, and it’s a $2 BOM to add Insteon to a product. They will also license the technology.
They all talked about "security" being important in the protocol. (The implication being that X10 isn’t secure).

Wireless Home Automation: Technology Roundtable.
Mark Walters, Director of Business Development at Leviton (and co-chairman of the Z-Wave Alliance), said 40% of the X10 products out there have the Leviton name on them! Yeah, right! He’s either drastically underestimating how many products X10 has sold, or he has an inflated impression of how many X10 products Leviton have sold, if he thinks Leviton’s minor number is 40% of the total. But he said they went with Z-Wave because of interoperability. He also said there’s too much "latency" in X10. (Too many milliseconds to turn on a light). Who cares? Does the average consumer really care if it takes 10 milliseconds or 100 milliseconds to turn on a light? No!

IPTV Growth and services.
Eddie Drake, Siemens
Tony Zona, Motorola
J.D. Means, IBM Global Services

BitTorrent mentioned a lot.

Blogging – said there are 50 million user created channels, one created every 2 seconds.

Wireless sensors and control networks:
Hosted by Bob Heile, Zigbee Alliance
Bob Long, Vantage Controls
Jim Sekinger, Philips Lighting Electronics (Commercial)
Eric Smith, Control4
Zackary Smith, BM Group (Italian company, makes connectors).

All talked about why they chose Zigbee. All pretty much for the same reasons.

Eric Smith, Control4 said that 80% of home automation is installed on the back of an Audio/Visual (A/V) System. A lot of speakers said A/V drives Home Automation. Control4 said they have shipped 10K whole-house systems in just one year.

Linking the emerging platforms in the digital home:
Bill Lazinsky - Intel. He was formerly program manager for V//V. (Pronounced Vive).

Intel is backing 802.11n, Homeplug, Ethernet and UWB.

V//V supports 20 formats.

Bill demo'd a V//V PC playing a high def game, streaming a hi-def movie wirelessly to a remote TV, and streaming and transcoding another hi-def movie to another non-hi-def TV, all at the same time, with the processor usage at less than 70%. Quite impressive.

Focused on HD movies and games,
Anytime-anywhere content, and home health care. (Personal Assistance Systems, PC based systems to remind you to take your pills, etc.)

Motorola-Xanboo:
They call their system X1000. I guess they think they’re a hundred times better than X10! They say they're in Best Buy. Say they're X10 compatible.

Alliances:
Every man and his brother has an "Alliance,"
MoCA - Multimedia over Coax Alliance.
Zigbee Alliance
Z-Wave Alliance
Insteon Alliance
CEPCA - Consumer Electronics Powerline Communication Alliance.
Maybe X10 should jump on the bandwagon and have an X10 Alliance?

Ricki Darbee from Smartlabs (Insteon) said that HP's LifeWare switched from Z-Wave to Insteon, because of "problems." LifeWare had a HUGE booth at EH Expo, in Orlando last March, and Ricki said at that time made the decision to switch to Insteon. (At this Connections LifeWare was featured in the Insteon booth). Paul and Ricki Darbee introduced me to Joe Dada, Smartlab's CEO, and Ken Fairbanks, their VP of Business development. They, along with Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Leviton had just finished their “X10 bashing session” so they were probably a bit embarrassed to find out that I had been in the audience.

I got Tricia Park's (Founder of Parks Associates, and co-sponsor of Connections) attention when she was stepping out for a smoke and so talked with her for a good half hour. I updated her on "The state of X10." I showed her the iParty nano, as an example of areas that we are in that she probably didn't know about. She seemed quite impressed. I told her that X10 sells "products" not protocols (which most of the speakers seem to be selling). Said she will write an "X10 update" and send it to me for review.

Parks Associates announced at the conference that they will be putting on the first European Connections Forum in Berlin, Germany in November 2006.

I spoke to Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and co-sponsor of Connections. As with Tricia, I updated him on the state of X10.

Summary:

I think I’ll give a talk at the next Connections to let everyone know that X10 is alive and growing.

X10’s Wireless NightWatch video camera

2006-05-16T19:50:55Z

X10’s Wireless NightWatch video camera uses a special video chip that captures crystal-clear video in less light than was possible with previous X10 wireless video cameras. This lets you monitor the interior and exterior of your home in low-light situations, increasing the coverage and security offered by X10 home surveillance systems. For instance, you could use the Wireless NightWatch camera to monitor your carport, a child’s crib or an entrance to your home.

In 2002, X10 released the NightWatch2—a hard-wired, low-light surveillance camera—to rave reviews. That item’s inventory quickly sold out, and remained backordered for months. But customers kept asking for a wireless version. So X10 listened and introduced the Wireless NightWatch camera, a wireless low-light surveillance solution. This wireless version gives you even greater flexibility and ease of use to protect and secure your home.

The Wireless NightWatch camera is compatible with X10’s other best-selling wireless surveillance systems, including the XCam2, allowing it to be easily added to existing wireless camera systems with no other upgrades or additional equipment necessary.

Upcoming Additions

2006-05-05T23:20:17Z

We're going to have a few new writers join us here on the X10 Community blog. Starting next week we'll have people from different departments writing regularly for us, about any number of topics. To help you tell us apart, we've added a byline to the top of each article, which will link to a profile of the author. I've got mine up, and will be adding to it. Keep an eye out for more! Our next article will be from Dave Rye, telling us about the conference he was at this week.

Automation: Now, or in the Future?

2006-05-02T00:20:39Z

NPR had an interesting story on home automation and "the Home of the Future" today on Morning Edition. You can listen to it and read a summary on their site.

It's a nice piece, but unfortunately it's the kind of story that misses the reality of home automation. Instead of talking to companies and people using home automation now, they spend their time talking about a Microsoft prototype home and a model-home project at MIT. A whole house control system that talks to you and tells you what you need at the grocery store is cool, but what if you don't have to wait years for people to perfect that technology to automate your lights? They could have mentioned that there are a lot of ways to automate your home even if you don't work at MIT.

That's why X10 automation products are so popular: you can buy them now, and they work.

]]> For $50 plus the cost of some individual modules, you can have ActiveHome automating your lights tomorrow (if you're willing to pay for fast shipping). Sure, it doesn't interface to your networked microwave to tell it how long to cook your popcorn, but when someone actually sells one of those microwaves, we'll have a plug-in to talk to it.

Another thing that stood out for me: in the NPR piece, the guy at MIT says that something always goes wrong when the computer makes decisions about turning lights on and off. I'm sure he's right. Most people don't need or want the computer to make the decisions about turning the lights on, though. You don't need more advanced AI in your house to get the lights on when you want -- you know when you want them on -- and in ActiveHome you can just set things the way you want. That's the sort of thing that would have been good to hear about in the story.

I don't expect every news story about home automation to mention X10, but it would be nice for people to know that it's not all or nothing. Just because you can't have the Jetson's house yet doesn't mean you can't have any automation at all.

Oh. One thing I really liked about the story was the discussion of security (as in computer hacking, not burglary) by the guy from SANS. It's important to think about how the opportunities to have your privacy and personal information compromised increase the more you connect your house to the Internet.

Birdwatching with XCam2

2006-04-26T18:21:57Z

Ever since we introduced the XCam2, our customers have used it for their hobbies -- including birdwatching. Using the XCam2 adds a whole new dimension to keeping an eye on the birds around you, especially since it can be done without leaving the couch.

But with Butch Edwards, it’s more than just watching birds. Butch is a senior equipment engineer for Motorola, and for the past ten years has been on a mission to expose as many students in the Austin area as possible to the exciting world of high-tech gadgetry. "I can throw a show together with only a days notice with X10 devices included," Butch says, and X10 has become an enormous asset to his technological exhibitions.

This particular family of birds moved into Butch’s cul-de-sac a couple of years ago. "Since I have been doing high tech demonstrations I decided to adopt these kids as my test subjects for the presentations I do as a volunteer at the schools." Butch noticed the interest local kids had for the birds darting about the front yard while they were doing some batting practice, and as he watched the young people’s fascination with the birds, he suddenly had a light bulb go off in his head.

]]> "The kids asked their dad if they could take a peek into the bird nest up above the front porch," Butch observed. So their dad went and got a ladder and one by one took they were able to peek at the eggs. Little JJ had a difficult time because by the time they got to him the ladder was a little shaky. "That night I went to the X10 room up stairs and got a Scan Power Addressable Power Supply, Wireless Video Camera Kit, a Two Plus Keychain Remote, and a Transceiver Module. All of which I had many of just for occasions like this one." From there Butch says "I pre programmed the Addressable Power Supply, the Two Plus Keychain Remote, and the Transceiver Module," all of which took him 10 minutes. And that next afternoon "I had the system installed up and running in less than half an hour." Now the neighborhood kids have access to their very own nature show. And when questions come up, they can go online and get answers.

"This is how technology should teach, open young minds," Butch says. Which is why he works so hard to place technology in the hands of every young person he comes in contact with. Thanks to him, these young people "dream of future adventures on mechanical wings of their own design." It’s a very poetic thought, and the work that Butch does is invaluable to future generations. "With the help of affordable technology such as that provided by X10 I will place technology in the hands of as many young people as possible."

And his company, Motorola, is assisting him in developing an elective robotics class at one of the local high schools. "I will be incorporating X10 devices in this class. The students from the class will be involved in the BEST Robotics and FIRST Robotics competitions," Butch says with great certainty.

The neighborhood kids were really excited about having their pictures taken with the X10 setup and being featured up on the XZone with their new adopted family. "Little JJ, the baby boy in the photo is a real big dinosaur fan." Butch says, "When I told him that birds were descendants of dinosaurs I won him over."

X10 is certainly very proud to have a hand in bringing up the future National Geographic photographers, robotics engineers and all the other budding technicians out there. We’re also glad that men like Butch have taken up the cause of creating a better future for our youth, and therefore us as well.

Note: This story is adapted from the original in the XCam Showcase on X10.com.

X10 protocol’s little known gems

2006-04-14T00:50:56Z

by Dave Rye

It is perhaps a little known fact that the X10 protocol has, since day one, included the capability of being expanded. The "basic" protocol includes 256 codes (16 housecodes x 16 units codes) and includes 16 functions (on, off, bright, dim, etc.). However one of these 16 function codes basically means "when you receive this code, there's more code coming." These are X10ded™ codes and are used to provide features such as preset dim in the LM14A.

X10 (the company) is market driven. X10 sells products not protocols, so until recently the company has not really done anything with the inherent capability that its protocol has.

X10 have never really seen much demand for 2-way modules. Sure, engineers ask for them, but in the past consumers have never really seen enough benefit to justify the increase in price. X10 have had 2-way capability built-in to the RR501 module since 1984 but no one ever took advantage of it. This is probably due in part to there not being any controllers available that could easily display the information received back from 2-way modules.

The CM15A two-way computer interface has the capability of initiating macros when an X10 code is received from any controller. X10 feels this is the real benefit of 2-way (rather than just knowing that a light has turned on). However, since the 2-way computer interface is a good way (via the PC display) of displaying information received from the power line, it makes more sense to have 2-way modules.

Therefore X10 introduced two 2-way modules: an appliance module, AM14A and a lamp module, LM14A. These modules report their status back to the CM15A when turned on or off. The lamp module even reports it brightness level. The LM14A also has "soft start" and so ramps up and down slowly when turned on and off. It also has "memory dim" and ramps slowly on to its previous brightness level.

The 2-way modules incorporate the latest in AGC technology (Automatic Gain Control) and therefore operate in harsh noisy environments that was previously not possible.

Although not yet implemented in ActiveHome Pro, the 2-way modules also incorporate auto-discovery to provide plug 'n play. When you plug in a 2-way module for the first time it reports it presence (to anything capable of listening) using X10ded codes. It reports its house code and unit code and could tell a user through the software GUI what code to assign in the GUI (this could also be auto-configured).

The 2-way modules, are capable of being reconfigured to either report their status automatically whenever the state changes, or to only report their status when polled. This re-configuration is done using X10ded codes, although is not yet implemented in ActiveHome Pro).

With plug 'n play, auto-discovery, automatic code assignment, X10ded codes, and AGC they are the first in a new generation of X10 products.