I had similar thoughts last night. As a person who's spent almost 25 years in IT, I don't see any compelling reason to make things which "just work" into a pers

I had similar thoughts last night. As a person who's spent almost 25 years in IT, I don't see any compelling reason to make things which "just work" into a personal project. Assuming a person were able to get everything tied together and working perfectly, you've still built a contraption at the mercy of capricious third-parties. You've committed to an unknown amount of future effort into replicating existing services or adding gee-wiz features which look futuristic but don't add value. There is still much to go wrong in an ordinary light switch, but I have plenty in my home over 50 years old which work perfectly. Where I live, I can flip the switch and the light comes on and I don't even have to think about it, often forgetting I had done so. It is this mindlessness and lack of attention which defines convenience, which purports to be what home automation is about. I can't imagine what kind of revolution must take place in the computer industry to create smart home automation products with equivalent cost, longevity, convenience, and which instill equivalent confidence in their operation.