(via CE Pro.com)

If you’re looking for high-performance, low-cost itty bitty speakers that you won’t find at the big-box stores, Paradigm has just the ticket.

The new Millennia One takes the best of Paradigm’s popular Studio series, including the drivers, and packs them into a compact cabinet that’s smaller than a football. In fact, the Millennia One speakers are about half the size of Paradigm’s budget Cinema HTIB speakers.

“We’ve done some work, especially in the cabinet to play around with port and driver coupling,” says marketing manager Mark Aling. “There’s greater frequency response and you can play them louder.”

Aling says Paradigm has done “really well” with the existing Cinema HTIB products, but “dealers have always wanted something that separates them from the big-box HTIB products. They wanted something a little more affluent, a little higher priced, and way higher performance.”

Follow for the complete story: http://www.cepro.com/article/paradigms_new_htib_line_low_priced_highly_protected/.

Control4, a leader in affordable IP-based home control systems, is pleased to be a participating company in Southern California Edison’s Smart Energy Experience, one of the first exhibits in the country to provide a live demonstration of how smart appliances and devices work with a smart meter. The home area network at the Smart Energy Experience is based on the Control4^® platform, the Control4^® Energy Management System 100 (EMS 100).

The Smart Energy Experience is designed as a home exhibit to help customers learn about and experience smart grid technologies being researched at Southern California Edison. Displays in the exhibit provide a glimpse into the future of energy distribution and consumption. Demonstrations include the future of power delivery via smart grid technologies, including home area networking of smart meters, smart appliances and devices, solar installations, plug-in electric vehicles and other future green technologies.

Southern California Edison (SCE) highlights the Control4^® EMS 100 at the exhibit, including the ability to monitor real-time fluctuations in electricity usage using the Control4^® Energy Controller 100 (EC-100) and leveraging the Control4 platform to present that information on flat panels throughout the house. The Control4^® system is also used to adjust the lighting and thermostat in response to electricity usage and costs, based on customer preference.

A compelling feature of the smart grid for both utilities and homeowners is the triggering of demand response or pricing events to help utilities and consumers work together to manage energy load, particularly during peak times. The demand response event demonstrated at the Smart Energy Experience involves communication to a programmable communicating thermostat, smart lighting, televisions and household appliances. As this communication takes place the devices respond by reducing their power consumption to pre-set levels selected and programmed by the customer. Within seconds, the Control4^® EC-100 displays the resulting load reduction, reinforcing the value of the action to the homeowner. Through the Control4 platform, all of the information is also displayed on flat panels throughout the exhibit, demonstrating how SCE envisions effectively integrating energy management in people’s everyday lives.

“The Southern California Edison Smart Energy Experience is a showcase in Control4 interoperability,” stated Richard Walker, President, Control4 Energy Systems, “We are pleased to partner with a forward-thinking utility like Southern California Edison. The Smart Energy Experience is a powerful demonstration of SCE’s interest in delivering a compelling consumer experience to help customers embrace the benefits of the smart grid.”

The Smart Energy Experience is located at SCE’s Customer Technology Application Center (CTAC) at 6090 North Irwindale Ave., Irwindale CA. More information can be found at www.sce.com.

For more information on Control4, visit www.control4.com.

I have anywhere between 5-8 “to (fill in the blank)” lists going at any one time. To sell on etsy. To sell on ebay. To buy at the grocery store. To print off for photo album. To donate. To pay off. To do list items I can pawn off on Bryan (boyfriend). You get the drift, right? These lists are written at my office job, at my bartending job and even at stop lights…all on whatever pieces of scrap paper are handy. So needless to say, half of my super important “to (fill in the blank)” lists get lost in my oversized, disorganized purse and work bag. To make matters worse, on top of all those lists, I also have notes for my etsy store. New ideas for cards. New categories I would like to add to my shop. Pricing of different items. Dimensions of favorite card designs. These notes are scattered around my craft desk and in various notebooks.  If either of these scenarios (or both) sound at all familiar, and you too suffer from being a hot mess at times, my featured etsy seller could really help you out. REDSTAR ink is a shop that sells “simple, bold and modern” handmade paper goods specifically focused on personal organization.

Marcie Hicks, the owner of REDSTAR ink, is a one woman show – designing, printing and assembling all of the products herself in her San Diego studio. Her store is stocked with calendars, notebooks, journals, photo albums and other paper goods. She is an eco-conscious creator, using recycled materials whenever possible.  She says, “My goal is to create simple and useful items that are readily available.” All of her products are ready to ship, so there is no waiting for your item while it is being created.  If you want to get organized, it shouldn’t take more than the normal delivery time for the post office to get it to your home.

left brain / right brain notebook

My favorite item in her shop is her left brain / right brain notebook. “This notebook has two sides, just like our minds. The pages for the left side are lined for lists and notes to appease the analytical left side of the brain. The pages for the right side are blank and ready to be filled with sketches and doodles for the creative right side of the brain.”  This notebook measures 5 ½ x 8 ½ and has 30 pages per “side” of the notebook.  The cover is made from 100% recycled chipboard and the inside pages are 50% recycled 28lb paper. It also has a chipboard divider between the blank and lined pages with envelopes on either side just in case you have one or two lists floating around from before. This pad is exactly what I need to get organized. It is as if she had me in mind when she created it. I can easily write ALL my lists on the lined paper in the left brain side and have all my etsy notes on the blank paper on the right side.  Phew…deep sigh of relief knowing that organization is almost right at my fingertips.  Now I just have to get around to ordering it.  I’ll go add that to this weekend’s to-do list now.

You can find out more about REDSTAR ink at her website/blog: www.redstarink.com

Posted by: Becca | Twitter | Etsy