Alarm home security systems are available in many different forms and levels of protection.  Whether you are hiring a professional security installation company, or you are going to do it yourself, there are critical design elements that should be considered that are covered here.

First you need to decide what level of coverage your budget allows.  If you agree to a longer term monitoring agreement, most alarm companies will offer a free or reduced installation of their basic package which includes 1 control panel, 1 keypad, 3 door contact, 1 motion detector, 1 siren, and 1 yard sign.  For most homeowners, this is an affordable way of getting some form of security for the home.  However, if you are willing to spend a little additional, you can really beef up your security by adding devices and contact points.

The most important areas of the house to cover is the back and the sides.  A burglar will look for an easy point of entry with plenty of cover so they will not get caught breaking in.  Burglars will ring the doorbell to see if anyone answers before they break in the front door.  If they do not hear any activity inside, they will kick in the door and close it behind them.  From the street, it is hard to tell that there is anything going on.  But should they decide to break a window on the front side of the house, then your neighbors could easily determine that there is something going on at your home.

The majority of burglaries occur through doors.  The side and back doors are the most often targeted.  Windows can also be an easy entry point.  If your primary concern is protection for your family while you are at home, then it may be wise to consider contacting all of the accessible windows on the home.  It may, however, be more cost effective to consider using motion detectors and glass break detectors if you are primarily interested in protecting your property while you are away.  This is because on most windows it is possible to simply break the window and climb in.  If the window is never opened, the contact never goes off.

A critical element in the design of a home security system is an interior trap.  The most common interior trap is a motion detector placed in the living area as a way of catching an intruder that got by the perimeter contacts.  Pet motions are available in different sizes that will detect intruders but filter out the animals.  However, these pet motions are absolutely not recommended for homeowners with cats.  By jumping so quick, a cat fools the motion into thinking that it is a person standing up.  A good alternative in this case is to use an interior door contact on a closet or bedroom door that is kept shut.  Should the burglar open the interior contacted door, then the alarm will sound.  But if the system is armed in the stay mode, the interior contact is bypassed so that you may open the door if necessary.

Glass break detectors are often requested by homeowners with animals.  Although glass break detectors are suggested by many alarm salespeople, you need to understand their limitations before spending your hard earned money on them.  A glass break detector is a line of sight product.  It is listening for the sound and vibration of a breaking glass, and it has to occur within milliseconds of each other.  This dual technology is designed to cut down on false alarms.  Faux wood blinds, shutters, and heavy draperies will greatly reduce or render the glass break detector totally ineffective.  In most homes the areas where a glass break can do the most good is around the glass above the master tub and back door glass.

Something else to consider in your security system design is to add a cellular back up to the system.  A cell back-up unit is designed to transmit the alarm signal even if the burglar decides to cut the home phone line.  There is an additional cost involved due to the cost of the unit and the monthly airtime, but it is the ultimate as far as alarm communications are concerned.

Today, one only needs to learn how to manipulate a mouse, punch a few buttons on a keyboard, or really just turn the thing on to use a computer. It’s hard for some folks to believe, but the computers of this generation almost run themselves! For fun, let’s investigate just how little knowledge these thousand-dollar machines actually require.

Can an absolute newbie operate a computer without knowing how to use a mouse or keyboard? Assuming that a computer is set up to operate on voice command – sure! Voice command software allows users to tell a computer what to do and the computer responds by fulfilling the user’s commands. Although it’s pretty new and still under development, voice directed technology has already infiltrated consumer service related systems.

Think back to the last time that you paid a bill over the phone. Instead of speaking to a human being, chances are that you spoke to a computer that not only responded to what you said and followed the commands that you gave it, it also asked you for more information such as your full name or credit card number. In this case, a person (such as yourself) operated a computer without even knowing it!

Can an absolute newbie sit down at a computer without knowing how to use one? Assuming that a computer is set up to operate on touch command – the answer is again, yes! Touch command software allows users to literally touch objects on a monitor and tell the computer what to do with a finger. Known as “kiosks,” these programs are already in use world wide at ATM machines, employment centers, and in health monitoring systems.

Neither a mouse nor a keyboard is required. A computer user only needs to touch various boxes on a screen to control a computer. Sure, the programming behind such technology is extensive and advanced, but to the end user, it makes computer use less intimidating and plain easy.

Of course when we talk about operating a computer, we envision more involvement than speaking on the phone or touching things on a screen. The above illustrations were just a couple of examples of how far computer technology has grown, and how far we’ve pushed “user-friendliness” to its limit. Eventually, the keyboard and mouse will have to play a role when computer newbies have to work with one as a cash register, as a hotel booking program, or as a library’s catalog system.

These requirements don’t make computers any less easier to operate, but they don’t make them that much harder either. So much of today’s software is designed to accommodate the experience of a new user that anyone could get connected to the Internet, send an email message, and download an MP3 file within the first five hours of purchasing a personal PC.