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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 20, 1986)
Page \2/The Battalion/Monday, January 20, 1986 Dallas woman's computer dream ‘Smdrt house’ makes the livin’ easy Associated Press DALLAS — When Portia Isaac son wants a glass of water in the hud dle of the night, instead of groping for a light switch; the lights look fhr her. If the temperature control system for her swimming pool is out of whack, her pool calls for its own ser vicing. A computer tells her video tape recorder to tape her favorite television programs. Isaacson’s white stucco home is a $2 million “smart house” that sees, talks, feels and listens via a computer software brain that she and co-work ers designed. The house, she says, is an ambi tious experiment in technology that goes beyond the standard household appliances and conveniences now available for most homes. “I became impatient for this type of home, so when I came into a bit of money, I just built it,” said Isaacson, 43, a computer scientist and co founder of Future Computing Inc. “What we’ve really built here is a- kind of laboratory to expefimeht' with what is the best way to do cer tain things,” she said. Through the sale of her personal computer marketing research firm, •' Future Computing, to McGraw-Hill publishifig Company, Isaacson was able to assemble her super high-tech home. Inside are at least 11 computers, 22 television screens and eight miles of snaking hidden wire that links them all together. The lighting system automatically senses a person’s movements throughout the home and illumi nates his or her path. The lights also are a security system, surprising in truders with their automatic bright ening, she said. If; the computer can’t correct a failed automatic temperature con trol system for the pool, it calls a swimming pool firm and uses its syn thesized voice to ask for servicing, said Don Bynum, president of Isaac son’s new firm, Intellysis Corp. 'Eventually the computer also will be able to issue a security code for 'iC the serviceman that will be working ' bn the system, eliminating the need .. for someone to be at the home to re- \ ceive him, Bynum said. “I thought by now you could go out and buy what I have built here. But you can’t,” Isaacson said. The individual components all exist, she said, but there’s nothing to make them work together. At least until now. Isaacson has launched her pri vately held company to market the software and interfacing — hard ware that connects computer com ponents — she designed. The company will sell its products to home builders and other busi nesses already putting intelligent systems in the home, instead of sell ing directly to the consumer, she said. Currently, the firm is participat ing in a project sponsored by the Na tional Association of Home Builders to streamline the technology of the “smart house” system. In the meantime, Isaacson is liv ing in what one electronics magazine calls an electronic engineer’s dream house. The phones are custom-built with six lines — three normal phone lines and two that literally put at her fin gertips a variety of functions, includ ing opening doors, changing tele vision channels or switching on one of a multitude of entertainment components in the house. The sixth line currently is not in use. An entry way wall that had been earmarked for a large painting now is filled with enough high-tech equipment to stock a few houses — 19 electronic components, including four speakers, three televisions, a compact disk player, stereo equip ment and other components. The equipment is set in a custom- designed frame of anodized metal ringed by recessed lights, blending with the home’s decor of granite countertops and sleek furniture. “I’ve been real irritated at the way technology looks in the home,” Isaacson said. “The state of the art normally is to have a TV and a VCR and wires hanging out. “You can have lots of technology and have it look like approaching art or sculpture in the home,” she said. “Not only is it hot offensive, it’s a de sign centerpiece.” 20% OFF 1 STERLING SILVER | COLLECTION ONE) WEEK /A oney: <3 «XS§B Hfc ^ Culpepper Plaza Douglas Jewelry 693-0677 Fire didn’t finish rare book dealer’s business Associated Press AUSTIN —John Jenkins’ hands trembled as he looked at the con tents of. an envelope handed to him as he stood among hundreds of thousands of blackened books at his rare book and publishing business. A moment later his wife, Mau reen, wearing a face mask for pro tection against smoke, walked into a charred storage area and Jenkins asked, “Did you see this?” “What is this?” she asked. <■ “It’s a sales commission,” he said. In the envelope was a check to Jenkins for $100,000. “Are you serious?” Mrs. Jenkins asked. “That’s going to clean our books,” Jenkins said. “God, I can’t believe it,” his wife said. “Is there someone up there looking over us?” Jenkins asked. : y- “I don’t know,” Mrs. Jenkins an swered, “but let me go See if I cah put it in the bank.” Jenkins and his wife were “walk-: ing out the door” to eat Christmas Eve dinner with some friends., when he got a call that fire was shbdtihg out of his Quonset hut-type building off Interstate 35 South. ’ “ “Six o’clock is when all the clocks went out. The fire department was here before 6:15, and I was here about 6:30,” Jenkins said in an inter view in his smoke-damaged office.. According to fire officials, the blaze started when an extension cord to a space heater overheated. “The fire department, to whom I Owe an undying debt of gratitude. “No matter how much money I am willing to spend. I’d never be able to get more than 3,000 or 4,000 of them (the books) back. ....” - John Jenkins, book dealer. agreed when I got out here not to soak the building, which is a normal process,” Jenkins said. “That would nave ruined beyond salvage all of the. books. Instead they agreed, at «bhie extra risk to them, to just put the water on the flames.” • Nevertheless, plastic telephones and light covers — “even the (smoke) alarms were plastic-coated” burned and mixed with other chemicals to create what Jenkins called a “grimy soot.” He said the oily grime was unlike anything he had seen in buying books at hun dreds of fire sales throughout the country. “The smoke permeated every thing,” he said. “It got inside the drawers in our filing cabinets, in be tween the sheets of paper in the ma- nila folders in the filing cabinets.” Smoke even seeped into two walk- in vaults through electrical ducts. Jenkins estimates he had 1.5 mil lion items — volumes, manuscripts, pamphlets — and that 500,000 were destroyed. Another 500,000 were ruined “beyond the feasibility of re storation” and about 500,000 were salvageable, he said. The building and about 20 per cent of the book loss were covered by insurance, and the damage was in “the millions of dollars,” he said. What he had, Jenkins claims, was a book stock on every state and “maybe 500 other fields” that were “I’m going to go from be ing a big shot to a little shot. ” —John Jenkins. larger than all other dealers’ stocks combined. He said one newspaper headline called the fire a “global disaster,” and he added, “In a minor sense, that’s true, because every book here, all 1.5 million of these items, even tually would have wound up in a re search library somewhere, where they would be available for use for the next 2,000 years.” Jenkins’ 15,000-volume Texana collection “is gone in terms of the general stock.” “No matter how much money I am willing to spend, I’d never be able to get more than 3,000 or 4,000 of them back, because they will never be on the market again,” he said. But all the rare Texana was either in the vault or at Jenkins’ home, where he is working on a special Texas Sesquicentennial catalog. Items worth $200 were placed in the vaults, he said. “I’m going to go from being a big shot to a little shot,” Jenkins said. “But I don’t want to poor-mouth myself completely, because all of the unique and extremely rare things were saved, so I still have the largest stock of rare Texana (in the vaults).” Jenkins plans to move 200 tons of books to a rented warehouse, and es timated that he will spend “in excess of $1 million” over perhaps 20 years cleaning soot-covered books. “There’s still several millions of dollars worth of books in the vault,” he said. “It’s the cream from every thing else. It’s the part that I would have wanted to save, so I was very lucky.” Inter-V arsity Christian Fellowship When: Tuesday, Jan. 21 Where: MSC Ballroom Jesus said, “1 have come that you might have life—abundant.” If'fER VARSITY CHRISTIAN FF.LLOWSHIP Sheela Electrolysis Clinic (Permanenet Hair Removal) Most body areas, eyebrows, face, thighs, abdomen, breasts, and legs are treated. Free Consultation Call 693-0389 Sheela Satya Electrologist Member ATE, IGPE Rm. 201 Games, Music Fun Come get together with us!!! Texas A&M University Faculty, Students, Staff Computer Discount Plan from ComputerLand 26% to 48% Discount On IBM, AT&T, Compaq, Apple, complete systems Also printers, modems, and software Pick up a price list and order form at our store. Ask for Desmond Mj'T ATT TTnVlnT? j I jiliiSI IxtLi Meet with Northrop Aircraft Division Monday, February 17, 1986. At Northrop Aircraft Divi sion, our challenge involves examining the fundamental characteristics of future military requirements and then exploring potential applications of new and existing technologies to meet those requirements. Meeting this challenge has resulted in designing, developing and producing some of the world’s most reliable aircraft and airborne systems. Pro ducts which include the F-20 Tigershark, the F/A-18, the F-5 series, and the 747 fuselage. If you’re thinking about your career after college, consider making our challengesyouis. Northrop Aircraft Division will be on your campus, Monday, February 17,1986. Check with your Placement Office for more details. PROOF OF U.S. CITIZEN SHIP REQUIRED. Northrop is an Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/H/V. Post Oak Villge Hwy 30, College Station 409/693-2020 There's only one number One; NORTHROP Aircraft Division Aircraft Group