Entry 65:  "Most impressive, number one..." The setup: 1) Downloaded the FREE (very accurate) speech recognition software from the Microsoft web site. 2) Created a few scripts/macros using the ActiveHome Software 3) Set up a laptop with extended-range mic in my kitchen. 4) Done! --- Coming home from work, my first stop is the kitchen. After taking some groceries out of the fridge, I say "Computer, Lights" My laptop then initiates a macro, and my dining/kitchen lights turn on as well as the ceiling fan! As I began to cook dinner, I notice something is still missing. I then say "Computer, Music, Modern" Voila! My CD player turns on and starts to play my Dave Matthews CD! After dinner is finished, I simply say "Computer, Dim Lights" and my kitchen/dining room lights dim as the living room lights go on. I grab a good book and plop on the couch to relax. "Computer, Tea, Earl Grey" I say, as the replication device activates and tea is served! (Okay, so that one is obviously ! made up) Unbelievably, the en tire setup just took 20 minutes! I`d just like to say thanks for such a powerful and well-documented software interface from X10 that made this possible! Combined with voice recognition software, the possibilities are endless… - Marc Pellegrino

Entry 72:  Its 1:30am you are awaken by your body telling you "hey I have to go" you stumble out of bed, instead of turning on the light at full blast, which usually gives me a headache, the bedroom and most importantly bathroom is dimly lit.....ah thanks X10. No need to make coffee or tea, its already made, thanks to my X10 controlled coffee pot, which was pre-loaded the night before. At 8:30 I am already out the door, the bathroom light turns off. My living room torch lamps come on dims to 50 just enough light for my cornplants, at 2:30pm the light turns off. Summertime, no need to come home to a HOT apartment, thanks to my X10 controlled AC life is COOL!!. Ok I`m in the mood to watch a movie, I reach for my X10 Super Remote and dim the lights, turn on VCR, Cable, Receiver and grab some popcorn, ah life is good. Saturday I have a date, I impress her with my X10 KR10A remote to disarm the Monitored 8700 X10 Security System, with the assistance of my PC and macros, I playback the Romantic Macro, which dims the bathroom lights, dims the living room lights to 35 . After an enjoyable evening I reach for the SH624 and arm the alarm system in "Home Mode" which disables the motion sensor and arms all doors and windows. In the morning I`ll do it all over again. Thanks a million X10  -- Elsworth Pascoe

Entry 30:  Use my X10 active home in conjunction with my PC to run macros (sets of home automation instructions). I've got a home security Macro, a Home Theater Macro, and an "AHHHH-Yeah Baby" macro. I know you are probably wondering about that last macro...well the best way to understand it would be to say "AHHH-Yeah Baby" as if you were Barry White on a Friday Night. Sometimes I even have Marvin Gay's Sexual Healin` turned on through an appliance module hooked up to a boom box. Me and my honey make love like the Gub`ment prints money! But seriously, the X10 products are great. I have automated almost my whole house for less than $300! If you haven't tried this product, you should...you can save on your electric bill and generate some of your own electricity with some of your Sexual Healin` Macros. - Jason Johnson (06081347)

Entry 75:  My neighbor has been an ActiveHome user for several years now. One night we standing in his back yard talking about ActiveHome and how it might be useful in our home when all of a sudden a very vicious sounding dog starting barking. It startled me because I knew he didn`t own a dog. He went on to tell me that he just got the dog from the pound and he felt it would be additional security especially when he wasn't home. He asked me if I wanted to see the dog. Being very hesitant I reluctantly said yes. I didn`t want to hurt his feelings. With that, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small remote. He pushed the button and the "vicious" dog started barking. needless to say we are the pound owners of a our own vicious dog. We also have our lights on the system and we are extremely happy with your product. - Walter Drury

Entry 39:  Put dinner into oven before leaving house in the morning. Set alarm to house and go to work. Once at work I remember I forgot to shut off the coffee maker - call the house x10 transponder and shut the coffee maker off for safety. That afternoon it didn`t rain as forecasted... I call the house x10 transponder to turn the sprinkler system on to water the grass- of course it's set to shut off through Active Home after 2 hours so there's no need to call back to shut it off. Well, it's time to leave work and go home... I call house to signal x10 telephone transponder - activate oven to cook dinner I put in this morning, and turn air conditioner on. Pull into driveway, outside lights, hallway, and living room light come on. Enter cool house, remove dinner from oven and eat. Put dishes in dish washer, enter den triggering motion sensor which starts stereo and turns on jacuzzi. Use jacuzzi while listening to stereo - finish - enter bedroom which triggers motion sensor which activates macro which turns on bedroom lights, shuts off Jacuzzi, starts dish washer, shuts off outside lights, and turns on alarm system. Read... relax... and enjoy the rest of the evening. - David Golden (06091149)

Entry 2:  We have set up ActiveHome to automatically turn on our outside "security" lighting as well as internal hallway and stairway lighting. We have a lamp module in our 10-year-old daughter's room that allows her to fall asleep with her lamp on. It then dims about 11:PM then turns off in the morning. She finds this comforting if she wakes during the night. Our pool is controlled in part with X10. To conserve energy, the pump starts at 10:am and runs until 9:30 PM. I have the pool heater set on a "off" mode {only} as a safety measure to insure it does not run for days by mistake. This way "WE" must manually turn on the heater, but the "system" will make sure it is turned off everyday. In the computer room, an X10 macro set to dim the overhead light fixture, turn on the desk lamp and the picture lighting in the room. This is just the way we like it, one click to set all the lighting needs. We have "saved" a "holiday" version of X10 to run the house for when we are on holidays. This gives the house the lived in look. Different lights go on and off at different times. We have an X10 Module That turn off power to our garage door openers. This ensures that when we leave the house "no one" can open our garage doors. Yes this does require us to press our X10 button then our garage door opener button, but we have never come home to an open garage door. X10 works for us. - Bruce Eburne (06052241)

Entry 12: ActiveHome, X10 motion detector signals computer, Computer system signals x10 Thermostat to turn heat from 60 to 70 degrees. Lights in kitchen turn on as well as small under counter television to CNN. At dusk outside lights turn on. After dinner remote control is used to turn on enable "home theater" mode. Large screen TV & DVD player turn on as lights in Kitchen and living room dim and window curtains close. After movie remote is used to signal "bedtime" mode. House lights turn off, electronic deadbolts on outside doors are activated and alarm system is turned on. Heat is turned down to 62 degrees. At 4:00 am the automatic sprinkler system is engaged to water the lawn, of course if it's  raining out the rain sensor cancels the command. At 5:00 am the coffee is automatically started and the heat is turned up to 70 degrees. After waking remote is used to disengage alarm and unlock outside doors. Ok.. so this is fictional, but if I had the perfect automated house this is how I'd do it. - Edward Taggart (06061849)

Entry 16: I`m on a team developing a Space Operations Center Simulator for training the operators of one of the most powerful deep-space radar facilities in the world. You can read about my unit, and our mission at: http://www.eglin.af.mil/20spss/site_c6.htm The tasks were training include much more than just the spacetrack mission. Our operators also serve as the local command and control function for the unit, and must be trained to respond to a vast range of stimuli including Fire Alarms, weather events, accident/injury reports, and equipment and power failures. We're using X10 technology to provide many of these stimuli.  X10 Technology has been integrated into our facility for everything from simulated fire alarms and duress alarms, to simulated power and equipment failures. We have an X10 controlled emergency light that comes on during power failure simulations, just like it would in the real facility. We even have the capability to simulate a bomb detonation by playing an explosion .WAV file through our PA system, while simultaneously flickering and dimming the lights via X10. It`s one of our best "special effects"! The simulators computer hardware consists of 12 computers on a LAN, and a host of other equipment. Before we got our X10 system, it was a very complicated task to bring it all online in a controlled manner, and in the right order. Thanks to X10, ANYONE can bring it online, as the whole procedure has been built into a single ActiveHome Macro which we activate from a wall switch. The ActiveHome System has allowed us to provide full computer-based control of nearly every electrical device in the simulator. We're still developing the custom software that will drive the simulator, but when complete, X10 "events" will be fully integrated into our simulation scripts, and we'll be able to schedule any event or group of events to occur automatically, in concert with simulated satellite tracking on our computers. In short, the X10 system has put us over the top for realism. It has provided us with a very low-cost means to give our simulator a fully-immersive feel. Instead of telling a trainee "You see the lights go out.", we we actually turn them out (and automatically). Instead of saying "You hear a fire alarm." we sound a horn and flash a strobe via a 24v transformer and two X10 Universal Modules. I know of at least two people who were so impressed with the technology after seeing it in action in our simulator, they installed X10 in their homes! - Jeff Werner (06061114)

Entry 21:   This is no (science) fiction: Our use for ActiveHome is to control a robot explorer inside areas of lava tube caves where the passage is too small for humans. As researchers for NASA and other space development groups, our long-term interest is in using lava tubes on the moon and Mars to shelter bases and colonies (all equipped with ActiveHome, of course...) X10 is helping us to create humanity's future home in space, now!  - Cheryl York (06071548)