FOSSPicks
Domoticz 3.6
Despite many serious concerns about the wisdom of installing lots of Internet-enabled devices in our homes (proven, somewhat, by the IoT DDoS attacks of October 21, 2016), I'm certain home automation will continue along its path of massive growth. There's good reason for this – home automation is both magically addictive and genuinely useful. From reducing heating costs to creating dynamic entertainment environments, you can now geek out over your home in the same way you used to geek out over a MythTV configuration.
The best way to circumvent security and privacy issues is, of course, to use open source software. You don't always get the convenience of a one-click installation or an accompanying smartphone app, but you get control and configurability. Rather than create lots of different solutions for each of the devices you want to control, it's far better to use a single hub that can either be made to talk to these devices or has support built-in. And that's exactly what Domoticz is. It's a piece of software that's light enough to run on a Raspberry Pi and works with lots of hardware and software you might use when automating various parts of your home.
As you might expect from something that's capable of controlling both your thermostat and your amplifier, Domoticz is relatively complex. You start off by adding your hardware; one of its best features is that it communicates with dozens of devices without requiring any further configuration. Devices include OpenZWave USB, RFXCOM transceivers, Panasonic televisions, plenty of home brew adaptors for the Raspberry Pi, and lots of software like Kodi, Squeezebox, and online weather APIs. You can configure sensors, adding details like temperature or humidity to your system so that you can build events around their values and changes. The project also supports the widely used Philips Hue Bridge, which is great for lighting, but also because the protocol has been reverse engineered and re-implemented by many open source projects, making the Hue Bridge a great gateway through Domoticz to other services like Amazon Echo and IFTT.com.
All of this is great for remote control, where you can build triggers, use your phone to switch things on and off, and link devices together into convenient groups. But the real power comes from creating your own events. You can scrape weather forecasts off the web for forward planning or heating schedules, for example. Set timers and triggers, and like a super-powered IFTT.com (If This Then That), you can build your own event-driven scripts using a brilliant visual editor that works just like Scratch. You can use this to send yourself SMS messages, push messages on iOS and Android when certain things happen, or turn off one set of switches when a door closes or opens or your phone gets 1km from the house. The potential is limitless, and it's from this point you slowly become addicted to the idea of home automation as you purchase more and more automatable products and devices. We also highly recommend looking at the offline PDF manual, which is another great addition to the project and the best way of familiarizing yourself with its capabilities before getting started.
Project Website
Strategy game
Widelands (19-rc1)
Settlers 2 was one of the best games on the Amiga. It was mostly a resource management game. You'd do things like instruct your four-pixel-high populace to do things like gather wood from an environment that resembles the lowland pastures of Germany's Black Forest or build a pig pen. As your group of settlers became more advanced, you'd build more infrastructure and set up trade routes. This inevitably led to conflict with neighboring tribes, but this isn't why most of us enjoyed the game so much. I enjoyed it because the environments were so well (randomly) crafted, with each element of the game masterfully drawn and augmented with sound. As you scrolled godlike across the landscape, it felt like you'd crafted your own Arcadia. No game since has quite captured that same feeling.
Widelands is an open source game that gets very close to those early Settlers titles. It's currently in a rapid state of development, but more playable than the majority of games still in development. There's an excellent tutorial mode, for example, to help get you started, with basic control, the economy, and even seafaring, as well as the inevitable warfare. There's also a campaign mode, where a story guides you through a series of maps and missions. And there are plenty of single maps to try, each with a different set of challenging conditions. The best thing about Widelands is that the pace remains slow, just like those early titles, and the immersion is helped a great deal by the wonderful artwork and sound. When you get good at the game, an editor will let you create your own levels, and you can even challenge players online. The depth and playability of Widelands is brilliant.
Project Website
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