And you wonder why people call you out?  Can you not have a conversation and act civil just once?

That's taking it a bit too far. There are LOTs of things you aren't going to be able do with a Harmony Pro and Alexa. And of course, even if you could, the majority of people who wanted all those other things aren't remotely going to take the time to learn how to do it and then actually do it. So they will either do something extremely simple, do without, or pay someone to do it.

The problem, as with any system, is that it's not just the Harmony Pro and Alexa, it's getting those integrated with all the bits you want to control and to do so in a reliable way over time, which were never designed to work together.

The problem is always too many moving parts from too many players. Or, you reduce the number of players and the price goes way up. There's no open, high quality, ubiquitous backbone to build these systems on, so it's either low reliability or really high cost.

If we had that high quality, open backbone, then all these companies who are incapable of building systems, but quite capable of building components, could target that backbone and we'd begin to move towards a more building block approach to all of this stuff (though compliance would have to be tested, which is another huge complication.) And that would bring costs down all around, while still leaving plenty of room for added value by integrators who put various pieces together for various needs. You could go into an installation with various controller products all of whom could understand the installed gear perfectly.

But no one wants to build the system unless they also get to sell the expensive bits and pieces that fit into it. And I think there's zero chance of anyone herding all of those large cats into creating such a thing for common usage. And of course it would just end up being something created by committee, so full of compromises and whatnot that it wouldn't have been worth doing to begin with (e.g. UPnP.) It couldn't be a scenario where it's about how can we make something that would support a lot of existing gear in a compromised way. It would have to be here is a strictly but openly defined system that you have to completely comply with or not play. And that's just a huge chicken and egg problem that almost nothing can get past.

This is just one of those scenarios where an open market doesn't quite work, despite how well it does in the general sense. There's a big potential market, but we can never really serve it well because that would require a level of cooperation (within a continuing competitive environment) that just doesn't exist.

To be fair, I'm not sure any industry has managed such a thing really. There are obviously lots of standards but probably not at the level required for this. This is way beyond HDMI or having common connection standards and such. Plenty of people could spec out the general requirements competently. I could do it, having lived on the painful end of the interoperability equation for a couple decades. But it'll never actually happen, even if it was someone far more weighty than moi.

[Link: remotecentral.com]

You wonder why david? Really you can't see it?

You're looking for logic from someone who votes for people who think it is a good idea to bring people into this country that believe throwing people like david off the roof of a tall building is a good thing.

You can't fix stupid.

Please look up "per capita" you stupid fool

Okay - this is beyond the pale. First of all, there is no one running for office that thinks such unseemly things. Do you think that referring to the murder of my Gay brothers and sisters is clever? You are a piece of vile trash and I don't care if saying this gets the thread locked down or me banished from these forums for all eternity (or for approximately 13.4 years based upon the U.S. actuarial tables). Furthermore, your vice-president and Handmaid's-Tale-as-religious-porn viewer Mike Pence, belongs to a Fascist, homophobic and misogynistic faith that throws its support behind christian ministries going to Uganda and other African countries supporting and pushing for laws which have the death penalty for members of the LGBT community in those countries. I've had it with you sick bastards.

More depressing then anything, not for the sake of control4 but more so on the data and factors plaguing our industry. The writing has been on the wall for a while, but, now is the time to start making a strategic change to how we operate!

[Link: strata-gee.com]

Tonight I sat on the tailgate of my truck and ate a tomato that just ripen from the garden. As I sat and listen to Coeur De Pirate (a Canadian-French singer), I thought about how well the French are doing and the type of government they have. How they have been a country for a hell of a lot longer than the US.
Then I thought about all the other old world countries and their forms of government and how they have all been around so much longer than we.

Thinking about things here, it occurred to me how things have been going down hill every generation since the 1950's-70's. My family linage dates back to the Mayflower, long before there was even a country here. They have always been poor and mostly farmers, with the generations just before me in the southern Indiana area.
I found myself wondering if the old saying "This is why we can't have nice things" to be more true than we care to. If all the idiots, zealots, and other slim of society (rich or poor) have now brought it all to an end. That I might actually witness the end of this once great nation in my lifetime (I'm only in my mid 40's now - although I feel so much older these days). And how it will affect what little freedoms I have left.

The moon is full tonight, looks beautiful. And this is a great tasting tomato!

I've had it with you sick bastards.

The sad thing is that the people who seem to be most extreme about these political concerns are the ones who are most easily are distracted from the real, underlying, and persistent issues via one of the simplest and oldest tricks of all. Keep their attention focused outwards against the infidel, so that they don't turn around and realize that, despite both parties having had many, many at bats, we still have the same issues.