Projects for when I get home

• Link caller ID into computer. Generate log of calls with reports on area codes. Generate tailored ring tones or use computer-generated speech to announce caller's identity.
• Create an executive briefing program that trolls the web for interesting events and announces them via computer-generated speech. Events like: concerts, movies, meteor showers, severe weather, top news stories on Google, bills being voted on by Congress and Oregon government, birthdays, holidays, flight schedules, bus schedules, train schedules, traffic congestion, internet congestion, stock market indexes,
  
• Analyze and understand at least 20 protocols to the point where I can craft packets by hand.
• Develop a powered wireless antenna that can extend the range of my home network to Dairy Queen or the Keefes, or Stump Town.
• Put a flatscreen monitor on the wall of the living room. Put a TV receiver card in the computer. Wire the computer to the house speakers. Play screensavers during the day, watch TV at night.
• Design an appropriate layout for speakers in the house using small, discrete units. Maybe put them in the ceiling facing down.
• Build an authenticating mail server that I can use as an outgoing mail server from anywhere.
• Buy a saxophone and start playing.
• Build or acquire a voice training program that will transcribe music in realtime and indicate what pitch is being sung.
• Learn to type in Dvorak.
• Build a registration web form to capture registration info on people using the wireless network.
• Create a database of all train and ferry traffic in Europe. Write a trip planner.
• Build a sound analyzer that can acquire sounds from the front porch. Identify the pattern of cars and trucks passing. Identify the sound of me whistling at the front door to unlock the door. Count cars going by. Count cars that violate the noise ordinance.
• Lobby the city council to get a noise ordinance passed.
• Collect instant message info on people in my buddy list and report on their behavior over the last week. Make a voice interface for this so I can ask, "computer, is Bill online?" "is Bill usually on at this time?"
  
• Do a semantic index of a newspaper story to determine what it is about. Summarize it and give it a dewey decimal number. In the case of the lesson, create a topical outline and most-used-words list.
• Over time analyze what stories appear in the local newspaper.
• Install Peep, the network auralizer, so I can play birdsong noises to represent network events on the local network.
• Install MisterHouse software and hardware at home.