I had issues with people not using the alarm system, I just tied my security system into my home automation system (Control4). Anytime the door is opened and the security system not armed the home automation system automatically arms the system and locks the door if not locked, being tied together also lets the systems send me status messages if anything happens that I may need to look into.

With Control4, you could just start with one of their inexpensive small controllers and check with a dealer to see if your security panel is directly supported, most major brands are.

You can start off inexpensively (controller, remote and a couple lights) and build up from there.

I have light, window shade, thermostat, doorbell, A/V equipment control, whole house audio, security system (smoke alarms, door and window sensors), motion, water, temperature sensors and security cameras all integrated and can be used with the radio remotes, from the controller's TV UI, touchscreens or mobile phone or device. You can also have the option to monitor and control the system remotely with a tablet or smart-phone. There's also the consumer version of the dealer's software so you can program different aspects of the system yourself.

c4forums http://www.c4forums.com/ is a good place to ask questions.

That only takes care of the thermostat and smoke alarms, you still need light, window shade, temperature, contact sensors, relay and A/V controls.

Sun's acquisition quickly went down the drain, when Oracle started killing off things, Open Solaris, OpenOffice, MySQL and on and on.

and that's why a Roku box is a not an options for me.

I still waiting on a small player that combines the best of Boxee Box, the DVR functions of BoxeeTV with LOCAL storage, an integrated canistreamit feature, back-lit radio remote like the Boxee Box's and DOESN'T run Windows. All these media players are missing key things between them, just one box guys. The Boxee Box is as close as I've seen.

and a lot of people don't even plug their Smart TV into the internet. I plan for my next TV to just be a big dumb LCD panel and plug one of my Boxee Boxes into that. I'll just give my BoxeeTV, I was just testing with anyways, to someone and they can use it as an enhanced digital TV converter box.

If Boxee would have only had local storage too, cloud storage wouldn't have worked for several people I know because their internet connection is to slow.

I started with Compute! Gazette in the early 80's and then Compute! for my Amiga programs. Spent hours typing in programs for the C64, modifying programs and then adding features and game levels. The C64 machine language listing of pages and pages of numbers were always fun when you FINALLY finished typing them in and it run.

Being almost completely blind in one eye, not seeing all that great in the other one and having a severe astigmatism, the 3D stuff doesn't work for me or at least it didn't work when using red/blue glasses or the polarized ones I TRIED to use at Disney years ago.

I've had to many problems with renters, even with companies or others looking after a place.

I'm currently using Control4 (http://www.control4.com) and X10 devices to control and monitor my place. I use the system to turn on/off water heater, control thermostats (Control4), use (Control4) programmable light switches and have the lights and A/V equipment programmed for that lived in look, if I'm away for awhile.