No, I am not going to get into any presidential political discussions here. But, I mentioned PolitiFact to a few people lately who had never head of it, and so am sharing it here, too. PolitiFact is a project of the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly to help you find the truth in the presidential campaign. Every day, reporters and researchers from the Times and CQ analyze the candidates' speeches, TV ads and interviews, and determine whether the claims are accurate or not using a Truth-O-Meter (which measures True, Mostly True, Half True, Mostly False, False, and Pants On Fire). Results are unbiased, non-partisan, succinct, informative, and fun, too!

I am in Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport, waiting for my connection to Bangalore, India, where I'll be presenting at the Adobe RIA Developer Summit.

In my prior post I introduced the basics of home automation via X10. X10 is not a new standard and specification, it has actually been around since the 1970s. And over that time is has not evolved much, if at all. X10 is incredibly popular, because of its simplicity and extensibility and low cost. But X10 also has some very real problems:

• X10 signals are not 100% reliable and can be affected by other plugged-in devices. Erroneous and seemingly random signals are not uncommon, and are hard to truly eliminate.
• X10 signals lose their strength over distances, so the bigger your house the less reliable the signals. You can buy repeaters and signal boosters, but these are not perfect.
• X10 has a very limited address range, and if your next door neighbor gets into home automation you can end up bumping into each other. And the likelihood of this happening may be higher than you think. As such, you may need to install signal filtering on the AC feed to your house to block signals from passing in and out.
• Getting X10 signals to pass between the two electrical phases in a typical U.S. AC installation can be rather painful. There are bridges that can help with this, but their installation is not for the feint of heart, and they don't seem to work perfectly.
• But the biggest drawback to X10 is the poor error correction. X10 signals are kind of tossed over the wall, a broadcast, perhaps telling device F2 to turn on. But X10 does not provide a failsafe way to check that that the signal actually reached device F2, and that device F2 truly is on. So, while things usually work and work well, when they don't there is little you can do automatically or programatically.

Still, as already said X10 remains very popular because, well, for the most part it does indeed work. And it's cheap (at least to get started). Over the years we've seen a variety of home automation technologies appear on the scene, and I've tinkered with most. But the one I've grown most impressed with, and have started to migrate to, is Insteon (created by SmartLabs). Insteon is relatively new (the first Insteon devices started appearing in mid-2005) and works much like X10 but with some very important differences:

• Insteon never suffers from signal loss because all devices are repeaters, so the more complex and sophisticated your home automation network, the stronger the signal.
• Insteon uses 3 byte device addresses, and devices have manufacturer defined addresses (a bit like NIC MAC addresses). So device addressing conflicts are a thing of the past.
• Insteon is a dual-mesh specification, featuring AC signaling like X10, but also supporting RF.
• Bridging the two AC phases with Insteon is easy, just plug one Access Point (a little white box) into any outlet on one phase and a second on any outlet on the other, and you're done. The Access Points have LEDs that will show you if they are wired correctly (on two different phases as opposed to the same phase), and you can just keep moving the second around until the LED indicates success. And as an added benefit, the Access Points act as signal repeaters and RF receivers. too.
• Most importantly, error detection and correction is built in. Devices can be easily queried, and simply publish their current state, and signals are automatically retransmitted if they were not correctly received.
• And best of all, Insteon is fully backwards compatible with X10. In fact, just about every Insteon device can also have an X10 address allowing them to respond to both signals, and most Insteon controllers can also send X10 commands, too. While not actually required by the Insteon specification, most Insteon device vendors seem to be providing X10 compatibility.
• Insteon is also much faster than X10, and thus the "inst" in Insteon.

Insteon is installed and configured in much the same way as X10 is. To install an Insteon switch you'd simply remove the original switch and replace it with the Insteon equivalent. Same for outlets, and any other devices. Addresses do not need to be defined, as every device has a preconfigured address (that is usually on a label on the device itself). Controllers can query the entire home network and find new devices automatically. And devices also identify themselves so controllers can respond intelligently (so that, for example, a switch used for fluorescent lighting that does not support dimming can identify itself so that controllers know not to try to send it dimming commands). The biggest limitation with Insteon right now is that there are far fewer devices available for it than there are for X10. But, with X10 backward compatibility, that is less of an issue. For new installations you can buy X10 devices (realizing that you'll not get the same level of functionality obviously). And for those of us with significant investments in X10 already, Insteon provides a vastly superior home automation network while not requiring tossing out any existing devices. (Of course, if you are anything like me, you'll find it hard to resist replacing those existing X10 devices once you get used to the richer functionality of their Insteon counterparts). In other words, to me, Insteon feels like what X10 should have been in the first place, and is thus the heir apparent to X10. To learn more, visit the Insteon links above. And for the largest selection of Insteon (and X10) devices, visit Smarthome (use the Insteon and X10 categories on the top left). In future posts I'll highlight some of my favorite devices, including my new all time favorite home automation controller.

As many of you know, I am a bit of a home automation nut, and for close to a decade I've been wiring and rewiring parts of my home, while tinkering with all sorts of gadgets (some very useful, some admittedly less so). Part of the appeal is the fun factor. But there is a very practical aspect to this as well. For example, I have a large saltwater marine reef fish tank in my house (it sits in the wall between my office and the family room). A healthy reef tank needs reliable lighting, with different lights (and different intensities) at different times of the day - brightest simulated sunlight at midday, moonlights at night, and more. Water temperature needs to be monitored carefully, a sudden drastic rise in temperature is a surefire way to kill off soft corals (I know, I've had it happen). And more. And flipping all of those switches manually is a pain (especially with my travel schedule). And so the entire setup is automated. Daytime lights start to turn on at sunrise and are off by sunset, and moonlights are obviously the reverse. Temperature changes outside of a set range are immediately reported to me via SMS, and I can check the temperature from anywhere in the world at any time. Even water leaks or overflows (a real concern when you have close to three hundred gallons of water being pumped around your house) trigger immediate alarms and notification (and will soon automatically activate cutoff valves). You get the idea. So, how does this all work? Over the years I have played with a variety of home automation technologies, but have ended up sticking with X10. If you've not run into X10 before, here's what you need to know. The technology has been around for over three decades, and it is popular because it is easy to use, very flexible, and pretty cheap, too. X10 works by allowing you to send signals over your house electrical wiring. To turn a switch on or an outlet off, you simply send a message over the AC wiring specifying the switch or outlet address, and the instruction. The appeal of X10 is that it needs no special wiring or data lines or anything like that. X10 commands are sent over the same electrical lines that the devices are already connected to. Obviously, to make this work, you need switches and outlets and devices that are X10 compatible, and there are lots of these. Using standard wall light switches as an example, you'd buy an X10 replacement light switch, remove the existing one, and replace it with the X10 equivalent. The light switch would still function locally as it did before, but now it could also accept instructions sent over the same AC wiring that the switch is using to power the lights. Every X10 device on your network must have an address, and X10 addresses are 1 byte long (or technically 2 sets of 4 bits), so a maximum of 255 devices can be connected at any given time. X10 devices do not come with preset addresses, and at setup time you pick the address you want for each device (and multiple devices can actually be given the same address, which can be a blessing and a curse). A command sent over the wire is then sent as address + 4 bit instruction code (3 for on, 11 for off, 15 for dim, and so on). Commands are usually sent by other devices. For example, if you want a light switch in one part of your house to control a light elsewhere, instead of having to run new wiring (and setting up 3-way switching) you could have the new light switch set up to send commands to another light switch, essentially creating a remote control of sorts. Many home automation setups use large collections of switches and outlets and more all connected to each other. But where things become more interesting is when a controller is added to the mix. A controller lets you execute scheduled events, run through scripts in response to an action, activate entire scenes all at once (press a button on the wall marked "movie night" and the curtains close, lights dim, projector drops from ceiling, fireplace turns on, outside lights turn off to dissuade visitors ... you get the idea). Which is exactly how my fish tank setup (among other things) is automated. I have a wall mounted controller that is powered by an AC feed and also sends back signals over that same feed. It allows one touch control, execution of timed events, and more. The key is that home automation technologies like X10 allow you to break out of the simple "click this and that happens" mould. Instead, you get to mix and match triggers and their actions, using an ever growing array of triggers, and actions only limited by your imagination. And the array of X10 devices is truly remarkable. There are the obvious things, like switches and outlets and plug-in pass-through modules and keypads, to less obvious things like thermostats and motion sensors and security system integrators and irrigation system controls, to slightly more obscure devices like gas and water valves and curtain/shade openers/closers, to all sorts of connectivity modules allowing connections to IP networks and RF and phone systems. And there's a whole lot more, too. It's fun, it's easy, it's inexpensive, and it works. Usually.

Wow, this is my 3000th blog post! Many of the early posts were actually "Tip Of The Day" entries which I migrated to the blog when I brought it online. The earliest tip/post is dated September 15th, 2000 was was 2898 days ago, so almost a post a day for close to 8 years! So, to the thousands of you who read and comment, thanks for the support! To HostMySite, thanks for keeping me up and running. And a special thank you to Ray Camden for BlogCFC. Here's to thousands more!

I like Vista. I've said it before, and will say it again, Windows Vista works for me, and works well. But, it's no secret that Microsoft has run into problems convincing the masses to really give Vista a try. And so Microsoft is trying something creative, a fun campaign named the Mojave Experiment. Microsoft assembled a group of users who'd not been exposed to Vista personally, but who seem to have all of those preconceived notions that prevent Vista adoption. Microsoft presented a new version of Windows codenamed "Mojave" to these individuals, and only later revealed that what they were demonstrating was in fact Windows Vista. The videos are fun (well, some of them), as are the participants' reactions. And while I highly doubt that this campaign will change all of those lingering doubts, I really would like Microsoft to succeed at this one. After all, I do like Vista. But here's the interesting thing. Obviously, Microsoft wants the Mojave Experiment to be viewed as much as possible by as many users as possible on as many machines as possible, and it wants a high quality experience and consistency while ensuring that just about anyone connected to the Internet could immediately view the content. And I am guessing that's why the site is powered by Flash, and not by Silverlight.

I've been a fan of AVG Anti-Virus for a long time. I recommend it to friends and family, have installed the free version countless times, and have a paid multiple computer license for my home network. I used to use Norton AntiVirus, but that was a long time ago. I abandoned that product in frustration because the software kept getting bigger and bulkier and more sluggish. Utility software should be invisible, doing its work quietly in the background efficiently and unobtrusively, only alerting you to its existence when absolutely necessary. Norton AV started that way. But eventually fancier UIs, the constant addition of new ways to check and scan, bigger and slower updates, just being far more intrusive and in the way ... well, Norton AntiVirus finally become more of a hindrance than a help. So goodbye NAV, and hello AVG. But this week I updated my wife's machines to AVG 8. And to my dismay, AVG has now fallen into the same trap. The machine instantly became more sluggish, task manager shows the app constantly working harder and chewing up precious resources, web pages started taking longer to load ... you get the picture. But hey, the new version looks so much prettier! Fortunately, AVG allows you to selectively enable and disable features, and I found a combination that works and seems not to impact performance. Still, it's sad to see yet another vendor succumb to the temptation to build bloatware, a path blazed by the likes of Norton AntiVirus, McAfee, Netscape, RealPlayer, and so many others.

Glenda Vigoreaux has been part of the ColdFusion family for many years. She spoke at usergroups, was a highly regarded and requested trainer (and was the highest rated speaker at MAX one year), and was liked by all who knew her. She loved teaching, and considered motivating others her true passion. While I did not know Glenda well, our paths crossed regularly. She assisted in a hands-on session I presented at MAX and then presented that same session a year later, she attended numerous of my presentations, and we once ended up sharing a taxi to Chicago's O'Hare and suffered traffic delays and flight cancellations together, an opportunity she used to share some of her very colorful early life in Puerto Rico. Glenda was a fixture in the community, a face you expected to see and were glad when you did. But alas, no more. Glenda was found dead in her home in Glendale, AZ, last week, apparently the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. She'll be missed. [Via Charlie Arehart, who has posted details on his blog].

Apple's new MobileMe service certainly sounds impressive, it delivers push functionality for the masses - your data is pushed up to your own storage spot in the cloud, and then automagically synced with your iPhone. Pretty cool. And it really works, kind of. It syncs contacts really well, and syncs schedules too (although Apple seems to be having serious issues with the Ajax based online scheduling app). Where MobileMe falls flat on its face is where it would be most useful - email (which generally gets updated more frequently that contacts or schedules!). The problem? The service is really designed for users who want a brand new e-mail address, one on the shiny new me.com domain. Which is great, except for the fact that the vast majority of users who'd want to use this service probably already have e-mail addresses that they like and want to keep using. Sure, there are hacks, forwarding mail back and forth, and the like. But for all of those users with good old POP mail accounts and a local copy of Outlook, MobileMe is pretty much useless. Which is sad really, because Apple could have synced Outlook inboxes to the cloud exactly as it does Outlook contacts and calendars. But nope, be it due to arrogance, shortsightedness, or just dumb oversight, Apple managed mess up the single most compelling use case for MobileMe. What a shame.

Toll free numbers are all about customer convenience, right? Maybe, but maybe not. Too many U.S. based companies neglect the fact that there is civilization outside of the U.S., locations from where U.S. toll free numbers cannot be called. When I was in Europe a few weeks ago I ran into this problem, and ended up having to call a co-worker in the U.S. and having him dial the toll free number and then conferencing me in. And today I ran in to the problem again! I am in London, and need to contact a financial institution but can't because they only provide a toll free number. And when I contacted them via a form on their web site, I received a message asking me to call - can you guess? - yep, their toll free number! And I've only run into this on occasion, and am guessing that those who actually live outside of the U.S. have to deal with this regularly. Toll free numbers are all about customer convenience, but they must be optional, and good old fashioned paid call numbers must always be provided, too! Grrrr!

My On The Road pics page had not been updated since the end of 2007. Honestly, I don't know if anyone even noticed, aside from my daughter who has been bugging me to upload newer pics. And so, finally, pics for the first half of 2008 have been posted.

No, this is not a Firefox attack, really. I love Firefox, and it truly is my preferred browser. But ... I installed Firefox 3 on Download day, and made sure that it was a clean install. The only plugins I have installed are Greasemonkey and YSlow. It's a pretty simple and clean install. And all is good initially. And then gradually my CPU utilization reaches 100% and the system grinds to a halt, and when I look at Windows Vista Task Manager I see that Firefox is using over 60% of my resources! Heck, it's more than Outlook uses! Is anyone else running into this one?

I just arrived in Bucharest for two days of meetings at the Adobe offices here in Romania. No public events or customer visits here, just lots of meetings, and then I head to Brussels on Wednesday night.

Enrique Duvós, who heads up Adobe Platform Evangelism in Europe (and who's been at Allaire/Macromedia/Adobe for about as long as I have), has a new blog at http://www.duvos.com/.

Mike Chambers has posted an entry entitled Update on MXNA (or what the %@#! is going on!) about, well, I think it's pretty self-explanatory.

Ted Patrick turned me on to YSlow, a Yahoo! Firefox add-on that integrates with Firebug to analyze web page loads and make performance recommendations. I've been using it for a few days now, and this one is very cool, check it out!

Mrinal Wadhwa, an Indian Flex enthusiast and a usergroup advocate, is on stage at the Adobe RIA Architect Summit 2008 talking about the importance of communities and staying informed, and just said: "My Morning Newspaper Is MXNA". These guys here are hardcore! ;-)

Fellow evangelist Duane Nickull has posted the slides from his Web 2.0 Design Patterns, Models and Analysis presentation:

Several people have recently asked me about subscribing to this blog. So, I've added support for subscriptions via FeedBurner. In addition, I've changed the feed URL, so you may want to update your readers (although the old feed URL will still work).