From Issue #3 , Page #82 | By Mindy Kauppinen

When he’s not chasing the weather, Kevin Haney chases his dream of the ultimate smart home.

What you see is what you get. In this case, what you see is a 1993 Buick outfitted with large antennae and all sorts of high-tech gadgetry including wireless Internet access (via a Sierra Wireless Aircard 555), real-time radar, an Earthmate GPS tracking device, a NOAA Weather Alert radio, a hands-free cellular phone and a laptop. What you get is Kevin Haney, adrenaline-charged high-tech tornado- seeker extraordinaire.

Kevin is a member of the National Weather Service's Skywarn program, a collaborative effort between the National Weather Service and various residents of tornado-prone communities. The National Weather Service has trained Kevin as a spotter, which means he's able to identify and report on the severe weather elements, such as wind gusts, hail size and cloud formations that may lead to a tornado. "It's an adrenaline rush when you actually spot a tornado, but that's when you have to remember your Skywarn training and not get caught up in the storm," explains Kevin. "You're there to report what you see back to the National Weather Service—that's the important part. It helps everybody when you can get accurate timely information to the right people so if any warnings need to be issued they can."

It all started for Kevin six years ago, when the Minneapolis-St. Paul area was caught off-guard by 100-mile-per-hour straight-line winds that damaged much of the Twin Cities. Kevin decided then and there it was time to become more proactive with regard to monitoring the weather. He turned to technology to see what was available to the average Joe, which is when he stumbled onto the Skywarn program a couple years later. He didn't stop there. He combined his two passions—weather and technology—to become a high-tech storm spotter. "I took it a couple of steps further and added technology because it allows me to know more information about the storm," says Kevin. "Technology enables me to predict the storm—not just that it's happening, but where it might be going."

Behind the wheel of what he describes as his "old-beater-car-turned-chase-vehicle," Kevin is able to send digital images from his Canon digital camcorder and Sony Cybershot digital camera of storms to the National Weather Service in real-time via wireless Internet access and his Compaq EVO laptop. He's also able to pinpoint his exact location in relationship to the storm with the help of SWIFT WX Professional weather tracking software, which gathers radar and storm attributes and ties them together with the GPS signal of his location.

The Big Dig

Five years ago, Kevin and his wife Wendy, a computer consultant and software developer, purchased land on Lake Shetek, in Tracy, Minnesota, a rural farm town 140 miles southwest of Minneapolis. When it came time to build their custom lake home, Kevin and Wendy surfed the Internet looking at pictures to generate ideas and come up with a plan. Kevin knew he wanted a "smart" home, so he attended local home and garden shows as well as CES (the International Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas every January), where he says he was like "a kid in a candy store."

After educating himself on the various technologies in the market, Kevin decided he was most interested in high-tech home theater and lighting, but really wanted a whole-home system that would link these two components with other various home control technologies. What he settled on was HAI's OmniPro II, which would allow him to control the security system, lighting, heating and air conditioning, home theater and pretty much everything else via the Internet or telephone.

Kevin created an action plan, and then installed the LAN (local access network) and all the necessary wiring. He hired Stardot, Inc. out of Lakeville, Minnesota to handle the home control components as well as the home theater, which included whole-house audio/video distribution via the Russound PR-4ZI, a four-zone, six-source audio/video preamplifier and amplifier. Kevin's favorite piece of A/V equipment, the Russound preamplifier, allows the family to enjoy unique media in each room of the house simultaneously without the need for multiple components. They simply choose a radio station, CD or DVD by using the keypads located in each room. Kevin also favors the CorAccess Companion 6 LCD touchscreen in the kitchen, as it bridges the A/V and home control components, allowing him to control everything by his computer network, including viewing the network IP cameras (Panasonic KX-HCM230s) around the house.

According to Kevin, this type of home has enhanced his life by bringing simplicity to it. "The ability to know the house can run itself if I'm gone has made me feel more comfortable," says Kevin. "The lights turning on at sunset is kind of nice too."

Server Down

While technology has brought simplicity to Kevin's life, he does recall a time when that wasn't the case. "One day my Web server crashed with three e-commerce Web sites running on it," he recalls. "This was a money-making Web server for my customers. Even with fault tolerant and redundant systems on the server, it still crashed." It took several hours of downtime and lots of hard work to rebuild the server and bring it back online for Kevin's customers.

In order to prevent this from happening again in the future, Kevin has installed What's Up for Small Business, a network and server monitoring software from Ipswitch. "I now have the ability to know before the server crashes, with system and network management tools in place to email my cell phone of any errors before they happen," Kevin says.

Advice from a Pro

A computer consultant who started his own company two years ago, Kevin has more than one piece of advice to offer. "I believe in technology but do not want to get into a technology trap as to rely 100 percent on it," explains Kevin.

He recommends making sure you have the necessary tools to get the job done, should the technology route become unavailable. For example, if you make travel reservations or handle your banking via the Internet, make sure you have access to your itineraries and account numbers in case the internet goes down. "Technology is a good tool, but it can't replace us," Kevin adds.

When he's not consulting with international companies, tinkering with his home, or out chasing tornadoes in his super Buick, Kevin can be found in front of his computer. Why? Because he's also a writer, as he pens the local weather column, "Weather Watch," for the Tracy Headlight Herald. He's just a guy who loves technology for all the convenience and knowledge it brings to life, yet knows better than to throw caution to the wind and rely entirely upon it.

Our Reader

Name: Kevin Haney
Age: 42
City/State: Tracy, Minn.
Occupation: Computer consultant, Northern Lakes Consulting, Inc.
The one product I couldn’t live without: Compaq EVO n600c laptop computer
One product I really, really want: CorAccess Companion Amego

By Mindy Kauppinen