[ Home | Music | Visual Media | Tech | Blog ]
Unusual Technologies I Utilise (05/Apr/2006)
The first few technologies do not need much explaining as there are fairly well known online, so I will just outline them and not go into too much detail.
IPTV (using bittorrent to download the latest TV shows from around the globe and watch them the day after they have been shown in their native country). This allows Carrie and I to stay up to date with our friends and families scattered around the world and means that we always have something to watch on the TV. Around half a million people around the world use this same mode of IPTV, as they, like us, no doubt got very bored waiting for a decent commercial IPTV solution to arrive. Between a PVR and this, there would have to be a stellar alternative for us to want to switch to a commercial service now.
PVR (mythtv on a dedicated Linux box). Although this is a pretty obvious option now, I thought I would include it to highlight the benefits from using free software over commercial offerings. Being able to play emulated games using PS2 DualShock controllers through a PS2 Joypad -> USB adapter is great fun. The web module which allows us to schedule TV program recordings whilst on holiday is very useful and ensures we dont miss anything good. The ability to re-encode our TV on-the-fly and then download it to our laptops in our hotel room when we are abroad is very useful too. Being able to watch our TV on any computer in the house gives a lot of options for watching in any room and means that there is always somewhere to watch TV alone when the front room is in use. Mythtv has good support for DVB-T as well, so we get about 30 channels for free over the air.
VoIP (using Vonage). I get to make cheap calls to anywhere at the cost of a bit of bandwidth and £10 per month, and get a UK phone number and a US phone number which is very useful for calling and being called from around the world. I use a linux firewall, and a traffic shaping script which uses tc and HTB to keep low latency for vonage traffic.
USB Power
Central Server Closet
Motion-detection IP webcams
Technology I am keen to investigate in the near future:
3d printer
Full home automation systems
Full redundant home power supply
Having to carry around lots of wall-warts for charging devices smaller than the size of the chargers has been quite annoying in the past. We have now migrated to USB power. Most consumer electronics can now be charged using a USB adapter (our mp3 players, phones, PSP, nintendo DS/gameboy, etc). USB cables are much easier to manage and require a lot less space and weight. The sooner all portable electronics have USB adapters, the better. It is already a factor in our purchasing choices. Powered USB hubs can be set up and usb cables can be managed fairly easily anywhere in the house (though we tend to stick to the USB ports on our laptops as we generally dont have to charge everything at the same time). I would assume that less power is wasted being transformed to the required voltages as well but have not tested this.
Although this might not have any real application for most people, having a central wiring closet and server cabinet (24U) has made life much easier. The firewall and file server can sit in there safe from dust and with decent, managed airflow. The CAT-5e cables can be managed without going everywhere. All equipment can be reached easily and maintained easily. The power requirements can be isolated from the rest of the house and equipment can be put on backed-up power supplies to ensure clean power and prevent failure during power cuts. The server cabinet can be secured to a greater level than the rest of the house as well, keeping the file server safe.
As we are out of the country for weekends quite often, I was getting nervous about security and so investigated some decent CCTV options. Using IP webcams and zoneminder (a linux-based, command line/webapp motion-detection package), we now monitor the house from anywhere. Any motion is instantly recorded and sent to the file server, which is synchronised to a remote computer every 60 seconds. Holidays have much less distance related stress when you can verify that your goldfish are not dead and the pipes have not burst.
In addition to technologies I use already, there are a number of new technologies I am watching and am keen to start playing with when I get a chance.
I have always had an interest in being able to make things, and 3d printer technology is maturing rapidly. It is within reach (but alas due to lack of space I cannot justify one at the current prices). Z Corp make a pretty good looking printer. There are many uses from custom lego bricks and repairs, to rapid prototyping of any wacky inventions I think up. Hopefully they will be under £1000 in the next 5 years or so (but I am not holding my breath).
I have had a passing interest in full home automation systems which allow you to turn on/off any electrical items in the house. This would be very good for energy efficiency as all of the standby items and things I do not normally turn off at the wall (TV, subwoofer, speakers), could be turned on using a single remote control or automatically at a given time (perhaps linked to turn everything off when all lights in the house are turned off). This would save a lot of electricity and enable me to remotely restart and monitor appliances. Being able to start the kettle using a mobile phone when 5 minutes from home would be quite a cool thing. The obvious option of putting lights on timers to make the house look occupied when we are away on holiday is another reason this would be good. I have not done this yet because I have not been too impressed with the offerings that are currently available. I would need something that is fast, reliable, secure, safe and not too overly expensive. So far there are no products that meet all those criteria to my knowledge (but I have not researched this in detail since about 6 months ago).
The price of fuel (natural gas especially) has become so high that is now economically viable to set up a home power system with solar water heaters, solar and wind power and other such things. Solar tiles are available to blend into standard roofing patterns without being the glaring eyesore that older solar panels were. Being able to have off-grid power would be very useful and prevent power cuts (which although infrequent, happen about once per year which ruins my decent computer uptime rates). I am in rented accommodation so have to wait until I buy my own house to install these, but I am following it fairly closely, at places like homepower.