What happens to our XTension set-up if I were to die?

[Jerry — MacSolutions]

Michel / Chuck,

Thank you for your response.  Perhaps my wife has gotten more used to having the computer in control?  She always comments, if things aren’t running, that the "house seems dead.”  And it "makes her sad.”  We read aloud, the time and temperature on the half hour, while we’re awake.  Even when that’s not working for some odd reason, my wife makes her comments.  I met Michael in 1998 and by the time I was married in 2000, the house was already “running.”  It’s all she’s known.

Yes, I do know that things can’t run indefinitely without some help.  That’s why I’ve already purchased flights to our home, at least once a year so that James can fix things while he’s here.  (Yes, a joke.)  

But speaking more seriously, coming home to a dark house can be a bit scary.  All of our animals, even the cats, responding to tones that come  across the speakers.  They’ve learned what certain sounds mean and what window to look from, etc.  Maybe our situation is a bit different?

One of the things that I’ve been lacking is writing comments in my scripts in case someone should come in and modify something without me.  I took a FORTRAN class and a BASIC class in 1984.  There was no mention on the merits of commenting your code during those classes (that I remember.)  It’s only been me and now, I have a lot of work to do.  There’s also a lot of old and test scripts to be cleaned out. 

I can alway bring in a friend… Well... my wife can bring in a friend to fix some things for us, if I wasn’t here.  But it just seems like most of the fixes to keep thing running for years, would be the simple things.  Changing out UPS batteries, replacing POE Switches, and of course, Motion sensor batteries.  Things like security cameras might stop working however, there are professionals that can help with those.

We’re about ten years away form retirement.  My parents are both gone, My wife’s Dad has passed and her mom is aging rapidly.  My daughter will be in college in five years.  And I guess that I’m shooting for at least keeping the XTension machine “alive” for at least a few more years, once I am gone.  I think that this is a reasonable amount of time to expect things to keep running without making changes.  Possibly longer.. since Macs tend to be functional for such a long time.  I would think that with me no longer in the picture, my wife would want to downsize and eventually move.

Chuck - I really like the thought of "hard wiring” motion sensors.  I’ve found the range regarding the X-10 models to be short, depending on which direction that they are facing.    I’ve had to move antennas around quite often, because I want to throw another sensor in a spot for say, our Halloween display.  While Halloween might not be an issue if I’m gone, however.  ;)

I guess that using a more “standard” option for detecting motion, might be more easily repaired by a third party.  One of my major complaints are my outdoor sensors.  While water may get inside the sensor, shorting out the components, the largest issue that *I* have is that the damned birds peck at the sensor window, and put a hole in it!  Sensors have gotten much more expensive since X-10 went belly-up and was resold.  I might look into that a bit more.  Thx!

...Just more thoughts that I’ve had on the subject.

—Jerry
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