Can my old Mac run my weekend house?

Andreas wrote:
> I remember having read something about Macs turning on the heat etc.
> in your weekend house years ago.
>
> Is there anybody who has used some software/hardware for this?
>
> How does it work - activation by phone, via Internet?
>
This area is covered a lot by the magazines devoted to embedded systems and amateur electronics. Circuit Cellar is one. There are others. Plus there are likely a lot of products at sites like the "Smart Home" folks. Most of these things now are selling or telling you how to build the interface. The computer part of it is mostly software controlling USB or ethernet devices and there's a lot of open source / free things floating around. Plus vendor specific things for the higher end market.

David Ross

At 6:34 AM -0700 7/6/07, Andreas Steinmann wrote:
>I remember having read something about Macs turning on the heat etc.
>in your weekend house years ago.
>
>Is there anybody who has used some software/hardware for this?
>
>How does it work - activation by phone, via Internet?

Have a look at <http://www.shed.com/> -- espeically the Tutorials and Articles section. XTension is quite powerful and flexible. There is also a mailing list that is quite ready to offer suggestions...even if they are somewhat tongue-in-cheek, sometimes.

Craig