wired (really wireless) so that anyone with the passkey may access our photos, music and videos. Above that, I can access our home from anywhere that I have an internet connection.Just before Bryn-Erinn and I were married, I made an $80 purchase of a used Pronto TSU-3000 universal remote on Ebay. I spent many hours programing the menus, and "teaching" the remote the signals for our home entertainment system. The remote had some problems (i.e. we had to change the rechargeable batteries every 36-48 hrs), but overall it worked just as it should. That is, until we moved. It likely was dropped too many times for the old girl to handle. So we pulled out the old remotes (7 in all, featured in the picture along with the broken Pronto remote) to work the VCR/DVD, stereo, internet radio, TV, etc... Overall this wasn't a bad thing, but it did make a mess (as pictured). We have been dealing with this backup until I had a great idea for a solution.
When I started the program at the University of Minnesota, they gave us a Palm TX to use for our daily clinical activities. The down side for me was that I already had a pocket pc which I had a few hundred dollars of reference (non-transferable) materials already installed. Further, I had it all set up to use just as I liked it. I also have a hard time with the palm OS. So the Palm sat on the shelf not being used. I was even going to sell it. Over the break I was reading a book on setting up wireless homes. In it I found mention of a software program for the palm that turns it into a universal remote. I did some research into the different brands of software and decided on NoviiRemote Deluxe version 3.73 for $25.99 (holiday sale). This is a great piece of software that lets you teach your palm to send out IR signals to your equipment. So instead of buying another remote sometime in the future when we had the money (not any time soon) I was able to return us to the bliss of one remote on the ottoman. It took a good part of the day to program, so there is some sweat equity involved as well. The remote has only been in use for one day, but I installed a bunch of free games on the Palm so it could also dub as entertainment by itself. The only downside is that you have to point more directly than the Pronto, but this is only a minor inconvenience.
For all you other tech geeks out there, here is how you can have your own universal remote to control anything that takes an IR signal, for less than $75 bucks: palm tungsten on Ebay $45, software $25.99, time 4-6 hours.
