Network & Home Automation Apps

January 19, 2025
Network & Home Automation Apps
In all, I have quite a few components keeping my home automation system running. Some are apps I use every day, some are for managing different parts of the infrastructure and a few are for entertainment. Nearly everything here runs in docker on my NAS or one of two dedicated…

Do you need more than a M4 Mac Mini?

January 13, 2025
Do you need more than a M4 Mac Mini?
Anyone who knows me is well aware that I am really particular about my setup and organization in general. I just finished managing cables after switching out my old M1 Mac Mini I use in my office for a new M4. It's the 2nd M4 Mini I've purchased. I've been…

A love letter to Docker Compose

January 5, 2025
A love letter to Docker Compose
Today I moved my Home Assistant setup from the NAS it's been on for 3+ years, to my frigate server. With Frigate processing 15 cameras for objects, both the CPU and GPU rarely rose over 10%. I had noticed some response issues with Home Assistant and had eliminated all of…

NGD – Les Paul Traditional Pro II

January 4, 2025
NGD – Les Paul Traditional Pro II
I am always horse trading. I'd had a Jackson guitar I wanted to move for awhile. What are the odds that I found someone on Craigslist asking to trade for the exact guitar I wanted to trade? I would never have bought a Les Paul with a Floyd Rose bridge,…

Python Nerdery: Natural Language to SQL Bird Call Queries

December 22, 2024
Python Nerdery: Natural Language to SQL Bird Call Queries
Sitting at my desk with a fresh coffee, I had an idea: build a web app that lets you ask questions about the Haikubox bird data in plain English and get plain answers back. Built the whole thing using Ollama to handle the natural language → SQL conversion, then execute…

Shop Server Rack – Tower 2

December 14, 2024
Shop Server Rack – Tower 2
Always trying to improve organization and make things tidy. Moved all of the network and server hardware in my shop to a studio rack I was no longer using. Formally, Tower 2. Top to Bottom AI Docker Server i7-12700KF, 64GB, 5TB SSD, RTX 4070 and RTX 2080TI Ollama - Primarily…

Digging a pointless birthday trench

December 11, 2024
Digging a pointless birthday trench
Today is my birthday and I'm spending it knocking out a task that has been nagging me for months. I had originally tucked an outdoor ethernet cable between the house and shop. I wasn't able to get 10Gbps speeds to link between the two due to what I thought was…

November 2024 – Photo of the Month

November 30, 2024
November 2024 – Photo of the Month
I take a lot of photos of Mount Rainier. I see it all the time and it still blows me away sometimes. This is November's photo of the month. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Hfzg7U5xs

Python Nerdery: Audio RSTP AI Listener

November 29, 2024
Python Nerdery: Audio RSTP AI Listener
Today's python experiment came after hearing an explosion outside. We never identified what it was, but it led me to be curious if I could create an AI listener to the camera. Long story short, python with numpy, pandas and tensorflow are all you need to read the audio from…