i remember the home automation stuff, X10 controllers and software, being available for popular computers back in the 8-bit days. It never really caught on in a mainstream way but until the Internet really started taking off, most people didn't own computers. These days, home automation is mostly done via things like Google Home and Alexa. i still prefer the idea of a closed system vs. having everything on the Internet though.
I hadn't seen that zoomable archive before. That's pretty neat.
I've played with Home Assistant and may use it again as it lets you use different systems with overall control. The big companies can let us down as Google did to me by removing support for my heating system.