My Christmas
Plans
Well the snow is
falling, theres a nip in the air, colorful lights are everywhere, and all over town people
are smiling and whishing each other a merry Christmas. I love Christmas. Its my favorite
time of the year. And its not just because I get presents (although that certainly does
enhance the experience), but theres a certain... I dont know, a certain feeling of
"everythings going to be okay" in the air. Theres color everywhere, in the
lights and pictures and decorations. And its the one time of the year that nobody cares if
you act like a child (its the one time of year I never hear the phrase "will you please
grow up?").
So this year, Im going to do something I would have never dared to do when I
was young. Im going to finally get a picture of that Jolly Old Saint, the Ho ho ho guy in
red who could definitely use some advice on his diet. The guy with the loot... I mean presents...
Im going to get pictures of Santa Clause. "How?" You might ask. Well, Ive
been giving it a lot of thought, and I think Ive come up with a plan that will work.
Now that Ive been working here at X10 with all this wireless technology, I
think that I may have finally come up with the perfect preparation. Let me run it by you. Here
goes.
My ActiveHome/XCam Recipe To Catch Santa Clause on tape:
- Place one Hawkeye Motion Sensor at the top of the chimney
to chime the minute Santa passes it.
- Place one Hawkeye Motion Sensor at the bottom of the chimney, along with WideEye camera.
Note to self: Camouflage the camera by putting it on the tree to look like an ornament, that way
he wont get suspicious.
- Place one Hawkeye Motion Sensor and another WideEye camera in the house where I set out the milk
and cookies.
Note to self: Buy the cookies this time dont try to make them. Last year was a
disaster. I dont want to have to buy a new oven again.
- Place all of my living room and kitchen lamps at full brightness, and then plug them into the
ActiveHome Lamp Module and set up another Hawkeye motion
detector, and set up a macro that will turn the lights on as soon as it senses motion.
Note to self: Keep the dog out of the living room. I dont want any false alarms.
- Set up VCR Commander so that I dont run out of
tape (its a long way from the North Pole, and I dont know if he starts at the South
Pole and works his way up, or if he starts at the North Pole and works his way down).
I am now ready for the momentous occasion. I will have Santa Clause on tape at
last. And then Ill show my parents and all my co-workers and friends that I am not living
in a fantasy world. That Im not a few bits shy of a byte; that Im not an 8080 in a
Pentium environment; that Im not working with an unformatted disk; that Im not all
booster, no payload; that there are not bugs in my software.
Ill let you know next week how it goes.
Send comments or feedback on this article to xzone@x10.com
Featured Articles - Listing of Recent Postings
August 30 - Cameras Catch the Car Vandals
July 23 - Remote-control Units Help Country's Biggest Student Film Festival
July 2 - The X10 Mechanic
April 19 - FloodCams Catch the Vandals
Customer Stories -
Index
|