We recently purchased a new house and with a new house comes new challenges.  One of my goals was to centralize all our video/audio sources in the basement and use an HDMI Matrix to allow any tv in the house to view any of the available video sources.  I'll discuss the challenges and setup of this in another article, but wanted to touch upon a recent success with locating the Xbox 360 in the basement first. By locating the Xbox in the basement the controller response was flaky on the main floor of our house and completely unresponsive on the second floor.  Some research pointed to others extending the wireless range of the controllers through modifications to the controller itself, but with children around I didn't want to tamper with the controllers...

Cat Genie	Littermaid
Rating: 5 out of 5	Rating: 2 out of 5

Stupid cat. That's what I used to think when cleaning the litterbox and grumbling to myself about him prancing around like royalty while I clean up after his majesty. Of course, the simple solution of getting rid of the little fluffball isn't really an option due to the wife's emotional attachment. So what's a guy to do?

Note: For an at-a-glance view of Litter Robot vs Cat Genie 120 vs Littermaid vs Scoop Free click here.

My first attempt at solving the problem was to search for some sort of automatic litter box, insisting that someone has to have this figured out by now – I was right, but there are several options and you can only do so much reading about a cat litter box before you feel awkward and bored. I settled on the Littermaid box which essentially uses a rake to run across the litter, scooping up any cat droppings into a container which becomes air-tight after the rake goes back to its resting place.

There is a sensor to stop the rake in case the cat does something silly like jump in, and I figured that emptying the container once a week would surely be easier than each and every day as I did currently (ok, once every couple days, but it begins to stink after that.) After some mild threats about giving the cat away, I received wife approval for the expenditure and ordered it immediately...

Updated 2012: Having used the iPad for home automation for well over a year now, the pros and cons have become more clear.  The increased real estate can be put to very effective use over other controllers, and having an integrated dynamic display is useful for webcams or context sensitive information where the function of the button may change.  A negative aspect I've experienced is the additional time of unlocking the iPad and waiting for a network connection (just a few seconds but still can cause you to pause).  I've considered putting the iPad into 'never sleep' mode and leaving the device in a permanent state of readiness, as would be the case with a wall-controller, however or a home theater, bedroom or other location where light sensitivity would be an issue this wouldn't be an ideal solution - there may also be the issue of screen longevity, however my preliminary searches indicate it should hold up for 10 years without issue.  Still, for these situations a hard-buttoned approach may seem to be a better fit.  With prices coming down for used iPads, the opportunity to place dynamic whole home controllers is increasingly achievable by the day.