If your household has two or more cats, you've probably had to deal with the problem of feeding. Maybe one cat needs to go on a diet. Maybe another cat hoovers up more than his fair share of kibble. Maybe both cats demand to get fed at oh-dark-thirty every morning, when humans would rather be sleeping. Why, cats, why?

Our multi-part solution: set up an automatic feeder to dispense dry cat food on a schedule; rig a webcam to monitor feline activity; create a simple web page to view captured images; download smartphone apps for remote access.

I'll describe our ongoing process of refining hardware and software, and do my best to convince you that we're not crazy cat people. We're just geeks who love our family.