A few months ago our cars got broken into. Stole my stereo and EQ and a book of my wife's CDs. The dude goes to court this week and my wife got a subpoena for it so she will see the show. Yesterday a neighbor "thought" she saw somebody in another neighbor's gated back yard...which incidently had a dog in it at the time...and it was at 0600 in the morning. So, as unlikely as an 'intruder' would be at 0600 when everybody is expected to be getting up for work and the fact that they have a dog that barks, they went ape crazy and bought a popular security system.
Now, we have never felt the need for security but all the neighbors are freaking out which leaves us as one of the few that don't have one now which makes us target number 1 if anybody does decide to visit the street. They may have something on it though since we are a single dead-end road with no real neighborhoods near us so perhaps we are a little secluded.
Either way, the wife wanted to at least get those outside motion detector floodlights. So I took the opportunity to go the technological step further that only us nerds tend to do. You want security? I'll give you security. Those schmucks next door probably dropped $900+ on their system and all it will do is call the police and make noise. I can give you a system that does all that AND MORE for 1/10th of the price and no monthly payments!!! <cue maniacal laugh>
http://www.x10.com/So, not only will the system work like your typical boring alarm systems, it will have key fobs, controls, and sensors that can:
-Turn on any light(s) I choose including the flood lights if a motion sensor is tripped or with the press of a button.
-Call the police and/or 4 other phone numbers of my choosing with an automated message. When it calls me I can leave the line open and listen to anything going on in the house and decide if I want to call the cops on my own.
-Set timing for lights to turn on and off automatically or at randomized times.
-Make the lights in our living room automatically dim to the perfect brightness when we watch a movie.
-At night when wife has to get up to feed the baby, have a motion sensor get tripped and gently turn on the perfect lights she needs to do her thing. Finally can sleep in darkness again without the bathroom light on so she can see what she is doing with he baby.
-Preset lighting preferences that can turn off the living room and turn on the bedroom lights with one press or whatever useless variations I want.
Will get them next week so will let you know how it all works out. Maybe I bought into the hype too quicly.
Last thing I want is the motorized curtains so I can automatically open and close the curtains in my living room and dim the lights for movie time.

muaaahahahahahahaha