When we left off, we had a working Home Assistant instance running in a container on the home server. It works! Used it primarily for the last few days, and it largely replaces the advertising company’s system, at least functionally. It’s not pretty, and it’s not that complicated or set up completely, but it’s okay for now (the automation I created to test ended up working, if after a little tweaking). So, after all that, I decided to take a little diversion. At the start, I had planned on three basic uses for this little home server:...
Continue reading...Towards a smarter home, part 4: That was easy (kinda)
I finally installed Home Assistant. As you may have noted, I encounter a number of reasonably complicated problems beforehand, but may or may not have solved them. Now, with the help of a helper script, I have installed Home Assistant on my server, and it worked like gangbusters. Using this guide (previously linked for installing Proxmox), and specifically the linked helper scripts, I now have a working instance of Home Assistant operating on my local network. It’s pretty cool! It automatically brought in a couple of my devices (specifically for some reason, my Google Chromecast, my Google...
Continue reading...Texas Republican House Representative Wesley Hunt barely ever goes to work, wants a promotion
Nobody wants to work anymore. Hidden in this funnier story is this little tidbit: Clinging to a razor-thin majority, Johnson needed just one more Republican vote to defeat the measure. He kept the vote open for 22 awkward minutes while Democrats jeered and Capitol Police rushed Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) from the airport to the Capitol to cast the deciding vote. Hunt, who recently launched a primary challenge to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), has missed 95 percent of roll-call votes since mid-December, showing up for just three of 58 votes. Now, I’m sure you’re not going to...
Continue reading...Towards a smarter home, part 3: I will be your server today
I used to be a bit of a techie. In the 80s and 90s, experiencing home computers and game consoles unlock their usefulness and capabilities was a wonder. But in those days, you had to be sort of a techie to use any of those devices. The first computers I learned how to use mostly operated on BASIC: from the Commodore 64 at the church, the Apple IIs at the school, and finally my first computer, the much-maligned TRS-80. The BASIC days were cool in their way. One of the best parts of those days was building...
Continue reading...I had no idea this SNL sketch was a reference to The O.C.
Here’s a wild TIL. Back in April 2007 (god we are old), SNL aired this sketch Digital Short The Shooter (or Dear Sister). It was super weird. It’s got Bill Hader writing a letter to his sister, and then while “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap plays, we go to slow motion while Andy Samberg shoots him, everybody gets shot, there’s some cops (also shot). I remember Jack Burden really liking it, and I remember being mystified. What I didn’t know (and I don’t know if Jack Burden knew) is that it’s a parody of an infamous...
Continue reading...Hump-Day Song of the Week: Soft Touch by screensaver
When I first heard this (very recently) I swore it was a way older song. Nope, came out in the tail end of 2025. I guess 2025 was a long time ago, though.
Continue reading...Towards a smarter home, part 2: The mistake
Well, oops. I was going to spend my second post in this series detailing my experience setting up the server, installing applications, and getting Home Assistant running. Instead, though, a pretty big oversight means I will have to wait a bit. I bought a refurbished Dell machine, which seemed plenty enough for what I wanted to do with it: 8th generation i5 Intel processor, 16GB RAM, and 1T storage. Except, oops, I didn’t notice that it included the stupid Intel Optane chip and the real storage is a spinny rust hard drive. Probably showing how long since...
Continue reading...I can’t really write a good MLK post
I don’t really have the blogger credibility or the correct writing faculty to write a good post about Martin Luther King, Jr. Especially in light of the current climate: a bigoted idiotic wannabe dictator as president, the invasion of American cities by his fascist racist goons, everything that is going on. To be perfectly clear, King is as relevant now as he ever was, maybe even more so given events. But I understand my limits as a writer: that when I broach certain topics I veer wildly towards the way too overwrought. I cover a lack of...
Continue reading...Towards a smarter home, part 1: Intro
Gadgets and tech used to be fun and cool. In the far-too-distant past, products would be released that could do something tech couldn’t do before, or faster, or were just neat. Commodore 64s and Nintendo Entertainment Systems gave way to Sega Genesises, which gave way to PlayStation’s, which gave way to supercomputers in our pockets that could surf the internet and play all our music. But somewhere along the way, tech became a nightmare. To use a product, you had to sell your data to the advertising company. The web, which was fucking awesome in the 1990s,...
Continue reading...Hump-Day Song of the Week: Cursive by Mandy, Indiana
Here’s Cursive, by Mandy, Indiana, from the upcoming album “URGH” coming out on 6 February 2026.
Continue reading...
Recent Comments