I am a big fan of technology and making it work for me–to make my life more efficient and enriched. Here you will find information about how I have designed and implemented various technologies in my life, why I chose certain things or moved from one technology to another, and general technology-related thoughts.
There have been a few small modifications to the “home server” since Home Server – 2023 Edition was published. However, 2025 was a year for a big change which prompted this update. In the end, the core hardware for the main home server was migrated from almost 15-year-old technology to things that were more modern […]
Home Server – 2025 Edition Read More »
My home network was originally built to target speeds of up to 1G. When the house was constructed, cat 5e cable was the standard for residential use. And while I installed more network ports after the house was built, I stuck with cat 5e as it was much less expensive than the (faster, but much
Home Network – 2025 Edition Read More »
One cold winter, my gas furnace stopped working and the part that broke was destroyed beyond any temporary repair. Of course this happened on a Friday evening and I had to wait until the following Monday to make a service appointment. Luckily, someone was able to be dispatched that day to get things working again.
Automating Switching Between a Heat Pump and a Gas Furnace Read More »
In early 2017, I started playing with home automation. At the time, (and still to this day), a major goal has been to create an automation environment that did not need any sort of Internet connectivity to work, and was based on something that appeared to have a decent-sized community behind it hopefully leading to
Moving From OpenHAB to Home Assistant Read More »
Quick Stats Time Played: 53 hours, 47 minutes (two playthroughs)Difficulty Played: NormalAmount Completed: Finished the main game, but did not get all achievementsPlatform: Windows PC with an XBOX controllerPlan to 100%: Probably not Citizen Sleeper 2 is not an easy game for me to describe. It is heavily story-driven and in one sense is akin
Finished: Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector Read More »
In 2022, I decided to build a “gaming PC”. While I had a Super Nintendo and later an original PlayStation one, I grew up playing video games at home using a keyboard and mouse on a PC, (or a joystick on the Commodore 64). However, ever since my kids and their friends got into video
Gaming PC – 2024 Edition Read More »
A “Now Playing” article is a quick snapshot and thoughts on a game that I am currently playing. In this case, I am looking at The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. This is an action-adventure game with strong puzzle elements. It is mostly a top-down, 2.5D environment, but also seamlessly switches to some 2D
Now Playing: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Read More »
A “Now Playing” article is a quick snapshot and thoughts on a game that I am currently playing. In this case, I am looking at LEGO Horizon Adventures. This is a 3rd person action-adventure game. The characters, environments, and other things are depicted as being made of LEGOs. Some things around you can be destroyed,
Now Playing: LEGO Horizon Adventures Read More »
Dungeons of Hinterberg is a 3D third-person action / adventure role playing game (RPG). The art style is what I would call “Sunday Comics” in a newspaper. It plays like a Japanese RPG (JRPG) in that a single day in-game consists of three sections: morning, noon, and evening. The morning is usually dialog followed by
Finished: Dungeons of Hinterberg Read More »
My home entertainment center consists of several devices that work in concert to provide an audio and visual experience. Just watching a YouTube video on the “big screen” requires that multiple things have to happen. First, the TV (display) has to be turned on and set to receive video from a certain input. Next, the
Controlling the Entertainment Center – 2024 Edition Read More »
