Review of Home Theater Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools (Paperback)

Sometimes the Hacks books go a little too far. The iPod book for example spent eighteen pages on how to mold a new iPod console for your car. It would have been very easy for this book to go over that edge but it keeps it's focus and stays well within the realm of practical advice to enhance your home theater.

The sections on how to enhance your projection TV is excellent and very practical. There is good coverage of speaker calibration, system maintenance, and TiVo. There is also good material on acoustic tremblers which will bring the experience really close to home.

A must buy book for home theater enthusiasts. There is lots of material here that you can find on the web, but it's better organized, illustrated and explained here.

Product Description
It might be the long lines at the theater, the $4.00 for a small bag of popcorn, or the cutting-edge technology that's now so readily available to the home market.Whatever the reason, the home theater market today is booming like the soundtrack to Star Wars!Want proof?A Google search forhome theaterreveals over three million results.Yikes!

It's simply undeniable: More and more people prefer watching their favorite movies, television shows, and videos from the comfort of their own sofas and couches.What's also undeniable is the inexperience of most people who choose to install or upgradetheir home theaters.

Until now, the knowledge, technique, and experiences of those who've encountered similar conditions to yours could only be accessed through laborious web searches, stacks of magazines, and water cooler conversations.Home Theater Hacks from O'Reilly is the perfect remedy for this group.

A smart collection of insider tips and tricks, Home Theater Hacks covers home theater installation from start to finish, purchase to experience.Just imagine: no frustrating trial-and-error process and better yet, no expensive appointments with installation experts.Home Theater Hacks prevents both by imparting down-and-dirty technique not found anywhere else.

The book begins with a quick glossary of terms so you can speak the lingo when you go shopping, and then dives right into hush-hush,insidertricks.It's all covered where to find the right audio and video components, how to deal with speakers and wiring, understanding cable connectivity, mastering remote controls, how to fully grasp TiVo, and so much more.And to top it off, each of these insider tips is presented in a concise yet delightfully entertaining style.Bringing the Jurassic Park dinosaurs into your living room has never been so easy!

A seasoned veteran with numerous O'Reilly titles under his belt, author Brett McLaughlin leaves no stone unturned in helping you customize your home theater experience to your own personal environment.

About the Author
McLaughlin has been working in computers since the Logo days. He currently specializes in building application infrastructure using Java and Java-related technologies.

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Review of Smart Home Hacks: Tips & Tools for Automating Your House (Paperback)

Technical people are always looking for ways that technology can improve and enrich their lives.Smart homes-or home automation-has always seemed like something more from science fiction than science fact.However, after reading this book, the truth is that creating a smart home is easier and far less technical than most people think.This book provides the reader with 100 tips or things that can be done (some quite easy, some might take longer to complete) to automate your home.

Contrary to what you might think, much of what you can do with home automation doesn't require your home to be re-wired.Instead, much of what you might want to accomplish (like having your computer automatically turning on or off lights in the house while you're on vacation) can be done very easily through X10 modules.X10 modules are relatively inexpensive components which can send signals over power lines.Once you understand X10, many of the more straightforward hacks in this book make a lot of sense.

Other projects you'll find in this book include a home monitoring system, a smart sprinkling system, sending messages of what's happening at home to a cell phone or pager, and even controlling your home from a web browser.While some of these projects may sound a bit Orwellian, they are actually very interesting and can make your home a safer place to live.Instead of becoming a victim when a toilet or washing machine overflows, you can put preemptive measures in place to be alerted before a problem occurs.

This is a very interesting book and a must read if you've ever considered home automation.Not only will this book step you through some projects, but it will give you some excellent ideas for the future.I enjoyed reading this book and would highly recommend it.


Product Description
So much of what is commonplace today was once considered impossible, or at least wishful thinking. Laser beams in the operating room, cars with built-in guidance systems, cell phones with email access.There's just no getting around the fact that technology always has, and always will be, very cool.But technology isn't only cool; it's also very smart. That's why one of the hottest technological trends nowadays is the creation ofsmart homes. At an increasing rate, people are turning their homes into state-of-the-art machines, complete with more switches, sensors, and actuators than you can shake a stick at.Whether you want to equip your home with motion detectors for added security, install computer-controlled lights for optimum convenience, or even mount an in-home web cam or two purely for entertainment, the world is now your oyster.Ah, but like anything highly technical, creating a smart home is typically easier said than done.Thankfully, Smart Home Hacks takes the guesswork out of the process.Through a seemingly unending array of valuable tips, tools, and techniques, Smart Home Hacks explains in clear detail how to use Mac, Windows, or Linux to achieve the automated home of your dreams.In no time, you'll learn how to turn a loose collection of sensors and switches into a well-automated and well-functioning home no matter what your technical level may be.Smart Home Hacks covers a litany of stand-alone and integrated smart home solutions designed to enhance safety, comfort, and convenience in new and existing homes.Kitchens, bedrooms, home offices, living rooms, and even bathrooms are all candidates for smart automation and therefore are all addressed in Smart Home Hacks.Intelligently written by engineering guru and George Jetson wannabe, Gordon Meyer, Smart Home Hacks leaves no stone unturned.From what to purchase to how to use your remote control, it's the ultimate guide to understanding and implementing complete or partial home automation.

About the Author
With over 20 years of experience using and programming personal computers, Gordon Meyer is currently an engineering manager for Apple Computer, Inc. He specializes in onscreen help and documentation management tools, and holds three pending patents related to Internet-based help systems.Gordon is a true George Jetson wannabe. His home in Santa Clara, California is Mac OS X-based and equipped with motion detectors, computer-controlled lights, weather monitors, and web cams. Most people find this simultaneously frightening and cool, which pleases him to no end.

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