I like containers. But they do have a habit of nurturing cludgy temporary hacks into permanent infrastructure, by sweeping all the ugly bits under the big whale-shaped rug.

I’d say it’s more that parents (companies) should be more responsible about what they tell their kids (customers).

Because right now the companies have a new toy (AI) that they keep telling their customers can make thunder from clapping. But in reality the claps sometimes make thunder but are also likely to make farts. Occasionally some incredibly noxious ones too.

The toy might one day make earth-rumbling thunder reliably, but right now it can’t get close and saying otherwise is what’s irresponsible.

Seems a hard sell to go subscription on such a niche platform. I wish anyone luck that could challenge the Apple/Android duopoly though.

As an aside, can we get back into desktop cubes again? With all the upheaval in Windows land it’s the sort of eye candy that can win over new Linux users.

Any distro should be fairly stable and supported on an older Thinkpad.

I’m currently using Debian stable on my X220 and it’s rock solid.

Might be worth looking into LoRa for longer range, it’s got quite cheap to play with now.

Using nano as a vim user is a lot less clunky than trying to use vim as a vim non-user though.

Or so I would imagine, all of the vim novices are still too busy trying to exit vim to share their experiences.

What is with Linux projects and confusingly pronounceable names? Even the name “Linux” itself has a fair bit of spoken variation.

Then there’s Ubuntu, and GNOME with the hard G to name a few.

It’s a real step up for managing Home Assistant. I was using it earlier to find some devices to reconfigure and it’s a lot faster. The xtra panels in the UI feel a little cramped on smaller screens though.

I wish they would implement a proper permissions system next, the lack of control is the other admin bugbear of mine with Home Assistant.

I always keep Home Assistant as up to date as possible. Home Assistant keeps improving a lot. Month to month each update goes fairly seamlessly if HA is kept up to date, but the further it falls behind the harder it is to catch back up. Recent optimisation improvements have also made the update process faster.

If you can make the time it’s worth the effort. Even if you have to “start over” somewhat there is probably a lot you have learned since that you can use to improve your setup.

You will struggle to find anything decent at that price new.

Plenty of good used options though, a used ThinkPad will have great Linux compatibility and be serviceable. They can be very cheap depending on how older hardware you can tolerate. There are other business grade laptops from Dell, HP etc that have good refurb deals too.

If you familiar with Ubuntu and its derivatives, just use Ubuntu.

Ubuntu provides a server version called Ubuntu Server alongside the desktop versions if needed, and Ubuntu provides easy access to things like ZFS.

You can always switch in the future if you find you have server needs or preferences the Ubuntu doesn’t suit.

Yes, the change of focus is good news overall but there’s still reasons to be concerned about Mozilla. It’s good that they are moving focus back to Firefox from struggling ancillary projects.

But what they want to do with that additional focus could be a problem. Another round of gimmicks with some newer buzzwords isn’t likely to help Firefox.

The AS/400 platform is still alive and actively maintained by IBM so I’m told, although I think it goes under the Power Systems and IBM i brands now. I know several business still using them, with development teams still coding with RPG etc. Apparently there is also reasonable ecosystem of middleware to interface with more modern systems, and some sort of *nix compatibility layer to run more modern software on the platform.

I’ve never touched one myself, but they are keeping a few greybeards I know in steady work.

It wouldn’t surprise me if there were still a few production Itanium systems in server rooms somewhere, running some obscure or bespoke proprietary software that can’t be migrated to anything else. There are other more arcane systems still being limped along in businesses around the world, for some frighteningly critical applications in some case.

Itanium support being dropped probably has a handful of admins panicking, but in the eyes of the kernel developers it’s a case of “put up or shut up”.

I started with HA, I haven’t had much experience with Homebridge.

From what I have heard migrating paired Zigbee devices between platforms can be unreliable. If you have a limited number of devices it might be worth repairing them manually.

I have a setup like this, and it has worked great so far. I have a home VPN but wanted to have Apple Home access as well for a simpler remote option, and some of my family prefer the Apple Home app. I use the HomeKit Bridge integration to expose various Home Assistant connected devices to Apple Home running on an Apple TV 4K. It has worked well with nearly every device I’ve set up, including lights and light switches, environmental sensors, SwitchBot bots and more. The syncing/updating is near instant for me.

The only trouble I’ve had so far have been with my thermostat, which initially always appeared as “on” in Apple Home, and a couple of breakages with updates. However the thermostat recently started to behave properly, and any update incompatibilities have always been quickly resolved.

Using the HomeKit Bridge also allows you to use Siri to interact with Home Assistant devices which can be useful, especially if you gave any HomePods etc.

It seems that hotels somehow always install the most obscure and convoluted shower designs. I’ve never had too much trouble with showers in people’s homes, but every time I shower in a hotel room I feel like I’m trying to operate an oddly temperamental steam engine.

No, it’s Ultra-Wide Butthole. It’s part of a new set of standards, Global Open Access Technology, Second Edition.

Usb-c port placement is awkwardly on bottom of phone while must headphone jacks are on top of the phone. Plugging in your headphones on the bottom of the phone with a dongle is awkward.

Isn’t it more awkward to have the headphone jack on the top? If the jack is on the bottom it faces up when the phone is in a pocket.