This is indeed a very clever idea, and the maker Lee Holmes also has quite impressive hands-on skills.
Of course, on par with the buzzword of "automatic cat feeding" is "Linux control". However, there's actually a topic that some might find even more interesting hidden behind this "Linux-controlled automatic cat feeder" — Lee Holmes is an employee at Microsoft.
In my view, there's really nothing surprising about Microsoft employees using Linux, but some people just love to make a fuss over such things. If you ask me, even if Gates used Debian or a Mac, there's no need to be surprised, after all, he is preparing to retire, isn't he?