For the first 3 years of my marriage, my wife tolerated my obsession with X10. As an idea, it seems so - so - elegant. 256 addresses, dimmable modules, home automation at its easiest.

However, there are times where X10 simply fails to work. I don't mean the lights don't turn off, I mean they turn on by themselves. Or they don't dim. Or something else happens. Worse is when a module that worked on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday fails to work on Saturday and Sunday, but works again on Monday. No matter where you put it in the house.

Then there's the hours I spent trying to figure out WHY we could no longer turn on the lights in any room other than the bedroom (turned out to be a surge suppressor in an outlet strip was blocking the signals).

But I tried. I programmed macros, I uploaded routines, I had scores of the modules all over the house.

It was one evening when my wife and I were sitting in the living room doing the taxes - a stressful period for anyone - and the lights gradually began to dim. My "evening" program had kicked in at 9:30, and that's when I was told that the "damn X10 stuff is leaving this house RIGHT NOW!" I spent quite a few hours removing and replacing X-10 outlets and switches, pulling specialty modules and the like. I sold it all as a lot on eBay to some guy in France. I tried to explain they would not work in France, but he was insistent, and I took his money and never heard from him again.

That was over 9 years ago, X10 stuff has been banned from the house ever since.