OT: alarm monitoring (physical, not system) Mister House?

[water]

Hi PerlMonks --

The answer to this may involve perl, or maybe not. Apologies if off-topic.

Does anyone have any suggestions or links on using open source tools to hack up a simple home-brew alarm system?

Would Mister House make sense?

Looking for something like, 'If someone comes into the house when nobody should be there, call the neighbors and play a recording.' Don't know much about motion dectectors (X10?) or films for windows that can detect broken glass.

This is an idea, and a hobbyist hack, and might not be a wise idea.

I wouldn't trust something homebrew to call 911, but maybe would trust it to call a neighbor.

Any ideas, links, or cautions appreciated...

Thanks

water

[gaal]

Perl sounds like a reasonable tool for the software part of the job.

Just design it so it never floods the person treating the alarm; and make sure you tell them where the "off" switch is.