I don't know enough to weigh in on either side, but one thing I will throw out there is that alot of people have gone out of business betting against Microsoft. About 13 years ago I when I was first starting out in the computer networking field I was fortunate enough to see the writing on the wall and became a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer even though I was already certified for Novell Netware which was a much superior network operating system that had the majority of the market share. I haven't had a chance to work on a Novell server since Y2K compliance checks.
Microsoft has proven over and over that you don't have to have the best product, or the first product to market or ..., they can bully thier way in to a market they want to own.

Alot of people scoffed when they said they were entering the game console market too.

You're not addressing the issue here. The piece I sell, and Kaleidescape as well, simply operate better. Place a disc in and add it to your collection. I can't say anything about Kaleidescape as I am not a dealer but it takes only two selections to load a DVD or CD. That's it. Two whole button presses. Done. Not only did my client not have to screw around with 2 or 3 decryption programs to rip and discover but, it's also immediately available on every client piece. Even better, the quality of playback far outstrips any PC I am aware of but for, possibly, the Niveus box. How would I know? I own both an MCE hot rod and an Xperinet MIRV. Client can easily sleep at night knowing that the content is secure and won't be compromised by a hard drive failure or malicious, pimply faced a$$hole writing viruses. Worth paying for? You freakin' bet.

What "enterprise based Microsoft software products" are you referring to? Please be SPECIFIC.

After you answer that question Steve I have a few more for you.

1. Let's suppose a new product comes out for which Lifeware has not written any RS-232 code. What Lifeware software tools would I use to write that code so I could add the component to my Clients system?

2. What Lifeware software I would use if I wanted to create a custom GUI for my Client (NOT a new "skin" a customized GUI)? Prior to uploading it to their system in Florida.

3. If a Client wanted to use another media center with Lifeware such as Kaleidescape, how would I do that and integrate it into the Lifeware GUI?

Since you're such a huge proponent of open standards, and not being proprietary, just an FYI, it would be nice if Firefox users could actually watch the demo video on your website. Instead you require the use of Internet Explorer with a Microsoft Active X plugin. Shame shame!

And one final question since I am on a roll. What piece of Microsoft or Lifeware software would I use to burn DVD's to your Lifeware/MS media center?

qqq, why are you posting at 2 am?

ed

Any PC based system will allow for remote access (assuming of course that things are working well enough to do that.) Our users/installers do the same thing with CQC, and it's easily done. It does allow for a lot of flexibility to do things remotely.

Of course it's going to be a lot easier if the machine you are RDP'ing into isn't a media center machine that the customer has been surfing porn sites on since you installed it, and is loaded with viruses, but a machine locked away in the closet and never used directly, i.e. replacing the dedicated controller with a dedicated controller that can just do more things in one box.

That, to me, is where the benefits lie in PC based automation systems, and why we created a highly networked system, so that the back end can be kept away from the naughty bits.

For example look at Citrix, GoToMY PC or GoToAssist, for support or remote diagnostic and setup

We have what we call UDI, universal device interface, drop in the theRS-232 codes or IR and we can use those to integrate CE devices and such.


This is where our philosophy is pretty different, you would have to actually demo an EI system to a sophisticated homeowner to beleive. Currently we don't want the GUI to be different from house to house, this allows easier use factor, just like we all drop an email from Outlook the same way, we want the user experience to be streamlined. THere is menu and function flexibility, but not GUI changes. I actually did a demo to a very wealthy individual in NY a few weeks ago, he has over a dozen homes, all have the "C" system in them, he has never used the same integrator as he has always been unhappy with the final "product" he has used some great dealers, at the end of the lifeware demo he asked "how much more than my crestron system is this going to be?" A lucky dealer in florida now has a 40K sq ft job and 12 houses to retrofit. The power of this philosophy lies in the hands of the end user, this is just one of many similar stories. Especially if people have multiple properties, they really like a standard based use model. We will continue to see if this is a majority rule for homeowners, but at this point we are close to 100%, they really don't care how it looks as long as it easy to use and reliable. Often times we as dealers look at what we want, versus what are homeowners need.

UDI, but the model is MCE can do what you need done. as far as software, we stay out of the DVD business, but go look at thegreenbutton.com or mymovies.name

Please clarify, is this something I can do as a dealer or do I provide you with the RS-232 protocol and you take it from there?

UDI or Universal Device Interface is a dealer tool, once you have put a code in you can store your own library, remote central is a great resource for dealers and we built UDI so that you could use the code libraries here and elsewhere to have a broad scope of product to integrate into lifeware. It works similar to the software with a pronto for IR, but for both IR and RS-232. We are also constantly adding devices, had an email from another lighting company and thermostat company yesterday who is building WSD/IP into their devices so they self discover and you don't have to mess with anything other than how those devices will be applied in the system you are designing. We are trying to take the best of the current world of products and even legacy and spin them up into a software application. May not do everything that you can do today with amx or crestron, but our goal is to get you 95+% of the way there and do it a lot quicker, also add a peice of scalability and being able to replicate systems.

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Isn't this making a 'feature' out of a lack of something that every other serious product offers? How does an installer provide any sort of real look and feel for their systems if they cannot customize the GUI any way they want, i.e. provide differentiation to their delivered solutions? Given that we are constantly being beaten on from all sides to increase the customization capabilities of our touch screen design system, and that every other product seems to have the same pressures, I'm just having trouble seeing as how this a good thing.

And I don't really think that the Outlook analogy applies. I may go from one computer to another at work and home and such, and the availabilty of a standardized (read: Non-Optimized for any Given Purpose) interface makes sense for what general use computers are for, where you have many applications all at use on the same screen and you want to have some commonality. But it doesn't apply to custom automation system touch screen interfaces, which in many cases exist specifically to create highly targeted interfaces for specific applications. I'm not going to be going to your house and messing with your automation system.

Isn't this is more of an issue that, being MCE based, you don't have the ability to do a lot of customiziation of the user interface to begin with?

I find this mentality perplexing. I find that my clients demand more personalization than conformity. When I hear this argument, I think back to the imortal words of Joe Dirt:

Joe Dirt: So your gonna' tell me that you don't have no black cats, no roman candles, or screaming mimis?

EI: No

Joe Dirt:
Oh come on man. You got no lady fingers, fuzz buttles, snicker bombs, church burners, finger blasters, gut busters, zippity do das, or crap flappers?

EI: No, I don't

Joe Dirt: Your gonna stand there, owning a fireworks stand, and tell me you don't have no whistling bungholes, no spleen splitters, whisker biscuits, honkey lighters, hooskers doos, hoosker donts, cherry bombs, nipsy daisers, with or without the scooter stick, or one single whistling kitty chaser?

EI: No, because snakes and sparklers are the only ones I like.

Joe Dirt: Well that might be your problem, it's not what you like, it's the consumer.



Time will tell if snakes and sparklers are all the consumer wants. Best of luck to you.

Has anyone else noticed that the software guys the only ones who cannot figure out how to effectively use quotes here??


Read on Dean, read on...



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