RE: x10, CBUS, and a VIOM - your views?

[Shane Harrison <shane.harrison@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

One other thing to factor into the equation is what happens when a piece of
"embedded hardware" ie. non-PC, actually does go wrong.  While
less likely
than a PC because usually less heat, fewer moving bits etc it does happen.
Lightning is often a culprit.  It is more difficult to fix and if the
company who supplied it is no-longer in business, impossible to replace.

Shane

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx]On Behalf Of
> Gareth Cook
> Sent: Sunday, 9 October 2005 6:28 a.m.
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: Fw: [ukha_d] x10, CBUS, and a VIOM - your views?
>
>
> Yes, I have servers (ie NAS) that stay up 24/7 - but I know it will
fail
> eventually :-) . The PC has a level of complexity that means that
> something WILL go wrong at some point.
>
> I'm happy that I only have Homeseer for logging Comfort and CBUS
events -
> ALL the logic is now done in Comfort for everything. I can happily
switch
> off the power and things just work. Could I say that about a lardy PC
?
> Will it boot ? Will the HD have a hissy fit after being shut off ?
Will
> Windows barf with an auto update of somekind ? Will it get an IP
address
> ok ? Lots of things. Even power consumption.
>
> If I'm away and there's a problem, can I fix it remotely ? Could the
wife
> ? Prob not.
>
> PC's are so much more flexible - but that's at a cost. So for me,
> I prefer
> solid state wherever possible for house automation.
>
> G.
>
>  Gareth Cook
>  Tools and Process Architect
>  IBM SWG Sales - Lotus Park, Staines, TW18 3AG
>  Office: +44 (0)1784 445166 - Mobile: +44 (0)7980 445166
>  AIM Chat : TheBoyG - MSN Chat : chat@xxxxxxx
>  email: g@xxxxxxx
>
>
> ----- Forwarded by Gareth Cook/UK/IBM on 08/10/2005 18:21 -----
>
> Discussion
> Main Topic
>
> ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Today 16:57
>
> .
> Subject:
> .
> Re: Fw: [ukha_d] x10, CBUS, and a VIOM - your views?
> .
> Category:
>
>
>
> On Sat, 2005-10-08 at 16:29 +0100, Gareth Cook wrote:
> > I dont want any PC shinnanigans controlling anything.
>
> Out of interest, why not?
>
> It's interesting getting the sales feedback from the call centre these
> days. About half of our customers don't want to leave a PC running
24/7,
> and the other half have no problem whatsoever, and don't understand
why
> the other half do :-)
>
> I leave the servers running 24/365, and can't remember the last time
any
> of them crashed [1]. The desktop / laptops are a different proposition
> mind - less stable - but I do tend to muck around with the configs on
> those an awful lot, and accept loss of stability as the trade off for
> "testbed."
>
> [1] I run 3 servers -
>
> 1: the "live" server - Windows: music server (Rios),
fileserver (all
> kinds of stuff), HA (Harmony)
>
> 2: the backup / Asterisk server - backs up the data volumes of the
live
> server once an hour over SMB. Also runs the * system (4 extensions, 1
> analogue trunk, 1 external SIP "trunk".)
>
> 3: a client server, that runs their file sharing over OpenVPN. They
have
> 3 field-based staff. In principle this is moving to their MD's house
as
> soon as he gets a round tuit :-) Thanks to Patrick Lidstone of this
> group for introducing me to OpenVPN which works terribly, terribly
well
> in this setup.
>
> Regards,
>
> Mark
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>