Čollective №thing

Like some I have a specific need to pet-proof my couch.  I am a foster parent for cats in need of adoption.  These cats tend to get conflicted on where they should do their business. Sometimes they are trying to send a message like all cats, and sometimes they just aren't getting it.  It's also well known that sick cats tend to go in abnormal places, pretty much anywhere but the litter box. Going in abnormal places is not too much of a big deal, but it really depends on where that place is.  Certain places like the bed and couch can be devastating when you later realize how difficult it will be to clean this mess. For beds, most people know you can get the plastic sheets at wal-mart or target.  But for couches, its a little different.  You can enclose them in the plastic couch "protectors", but most people (like me) think those are overkill, ugly, and uncomfortable. so after my last "incident" with my latest foster cat, i realized this is just going...

(fyi this post looks funky in Chrome, but it's fine using Firefox) I built this system so I could have a fairly reliable temperature monitoring system at home so I would know if my a/c went out in the summer.  Being in Phoenix where it can get to 120F and I have cats at home, I felt it was important to develop a reliable monitoring and alerting system. This tutorial will guide you thru the setup and configuration of a home temperature monitoring system using a Raspberry Pi microcontroller.  You can also do this with Arduino, but without an operating system like linux, it's far more difficult to accomplish everything we will cover here.  If you've never used a microcontroller like a Pi or Arduino, it's recommended you get a breadboard and learn how they work before attempting to construct this project.  You will need a small familiarity with linux, or at least the open mind to learn a few new things. This is a fairly long tutorial so I will skip some minor items...