Sounds exciting, doesn't it? It certainly does to me, but-alas!- I haven't been able to do any of them, yet. Simply too busy with the holidays, and I'm getting my credit cards to stop squealing long enough to go for it. The Good Thing is that, this way, I can carefully plan what I'll do. What's marvellous is that I'll probably only need this book and a couple of Homeowner's manuals to get it started. Meantime, I'll be setting up my workshop in the garage.

Of the 100 projects in Smart Home Hacks, there were only a few I didn't find all that hot, maybe as curiousities, but not as permanent additions. Among them were the hamster-driven night light [I own no hamsters] and the self-propelled lawn mower [which seemed much too dangerous for my child-heavy 'hood]. Of the rest, many struck me as rather clever.

Gordon Meyer seems to be a quite decent writer, capable of holding your attention while writing about technological projects- no mean feat- and explaining them in plain language. If O'Reilly could get him to write some programming manuals, I'd be right there, snapping them up. He maintains a website [noted above] and submits weblog entries and articles to O'Reilly as well.

OK, enough about the book, you say. I like the concept, but it'll cost me, right? That's probably the best news this book gives: It isn't all that expensive to do. If you just want to experiment, its quite low. If you want a whole house solution, starting out from nothing to a really solid beginning will only set you back about the cost of a laptop, give or take. The way the projects are outlined, you can add to it as you go; it isn't all or nothing.

No sonic showers, though. Bummer.