1. Chapter 1 A Foot in the Front Door

   1. Hacks 1–24

   2. Know the X10 Address

   3. Turn On a Light

   4. Master Your Appliances

   5. Send X10 Commands

   6. Send X10 Commands Wirelessly

   7. Keep Watch with Motion Detectors

   8. Turn On the Lights When You Enter a Room

   9. Turn On the Lights When They're Needed

   10. Ring a Bell to Alert the House

   11. Sense What's Happening

   12. Control the Uncontrollable

   13. Groom Your Home for X10

   14. Set Addresses for Modules Without Dials

   15. Increase the Spousal Approval Factor

   16. Unplug Your Computer

   17. Add a Brain to Your Smart Home

   18. Get to Know XTension

   19. Get to Know Indigo

   20. Get to Know HomeSeer

   21. Sync with the Sun

   22. Choose the Right Controller

   23. Maintain an X10 Library

   24. Shop for Secret X10 Devices

   25. Welcome to the State Machine

2. Chapter 2 Office

   1. Hacks 25–36

   2. Remember Important Events

   3. Keep the Lights On While You Work

   4. Know Who's Calling

   5. Broadcast Announcements to the Whole House

   6. Announce Events with Recorded Announcements

   7. Send Pager Messages

   8. Broadcast Messages on Your Home Network

   9. Control Your Printer from Afar

   10. Phone Your Home

   11. Control Your Home with Phlink

   12. Forward Phone Calls

   13. Silence the House when You're on the Phone

3. Chapter 3 Kitchen and Bath

   1. Hacks 37–46

   2. Brew Your Morning Coffee

   3. Detect the Beer Thief

   4. Install a Kitchen Terminal

   5. Install a Home TV Server

   6. Control Your Heating Remotely

   7. Monitor the Refrigerator Door

   8. Heat the Toilet Seat

   9. Detect Flooding

   10. Monitor the Litter Box

   11. Avoid Battery Memory Problems

4. Chapter 4 Bedroom

   1. Hacks 47–53

   2. Educate Your Alarm Clock

   3. Put the House to Sleep for the Night

   4. Lighting for Insomniacs

   5. Adjust Lights as the Sun Rises

   6. Simulate a Sunrise

   7. Motorize Your Window Blinds

   8. Outdo Big Ben

5. Chapter 5 Garage and Yard

   1. Hacks 54–68

   2. Monitor Your Driveway

   3. Know If the Garage Door Is Open

   4. Control Your Garage Door

   5. Control Your Home from Your Car

   6. See Through Walls

   7. Use Indoor Modules in the Great Outdoors

   8. Control Outdoor Lighting

   9. Track Fuel Consumption

   10. Know When the Mail Arrives

   11. Mow the Lawn

   12. Get the Weather

   13. Safely Water the Garden

   14. Foster Green Pastures with a Smart Sprinkler System

   15. Stop Watering During Rainstorms

   16. Adapt Sprinkler Schedules and Solar Water Heating to Available Sunlight

6. Chapter 6 Security

   1. Hacks 69–82

   2. Check for an Empty Home

   3. Know Who's Home

   4. Avoid False Intrusion Alarms

   5. Nobody Here but Us Ghosts

   6. Send Notifications of Home Events

   7. Who's There?

   8. Secure Your Construction Site

   9. Monitor Your Summer Home

   10. Protect Outdoor Cameras

   11. Know When Windows and Doors Are Open

   12. Bark like a Dog

   13. Unite Your Alarm and Home Automation Systems

   14. Instill Peace of Mind for the Elderly

   15. Monitor Your Home with a Network Camera

7. Chapter 7 Advanced Techniques

   1. Hacks 83–100

   2. Improve the Response Time of Motion Detectors

   3. Check for Dead Motion Detector Batteries

   4. Outsmart Motion Detectors

   5. Improve X10 Reliability

   6. Avoid Common X10 Problems

   7. Streamline Your AppleScripts

   8. Harness Your Hamster to Power a Night Light

   9. Get More Out of Your Motion Detectors

   10. Track Home Events with iCal

   11. Chart Home Automation Data

   12. Share Your Home Automation Mac with Other Users

   13. Remap X10 Addresses

   14. Control Lights in a Group

   15. Block Units for Easier Scripting

   16. Calculate Elapsed Time

   17. Identify Trouble Spots

   18. Control Your Home from a Web Browser

   19. Which Way Did She Go?

1. Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The tool on the cover of Smart Home Hacks is a key ring of skeleton keys. A skeleton key is an old-fashioned key used in warded locks. Warded locks, first developed by the ancient Romans, consisted of concentric plates protruding outwards to block the rotation of the inner mechanism. When the correct skeleton key was inserted into the maze of wards, with slots to correspond to the protrusion in the locks, the key rotated freely in the lock, causing it to press against the latch or bolt and open what was locked. When warded locks and skeleton keys were in vogue, a well-designed skeleton key opened a wide variety of locks. Based on that fact, many believed a specially cut skeleton key existed that could open any lock, but it proved to be a myth.

Today, skeleton keys are a popular collectable, and when worn around the neck or carried as an amulet, skeleton keys are believed to open the doors of opportunity and success. Marlowe Shaeffer was the production editor and proofreader for Smart Home Hacks, and Audrey Doyle was the copyeditor. Matt Hutchinson and Mary Anne Weeks Mayo provided quality control. Johnna Dinse wrote the index.

Hanna Dyer designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a photograph from photos.com. Clay Fernald produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's Helvetica Neue and ITC Garamond fonts.

Melanie Wang designed the interior layout, based on a series design by David Futato. This book was converted by Julie Hawks to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Helvetica Neue Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. This colophon was written by Reg Aubry.