Let the enshittification begin.

Do NOT buy a phone from Verizon or Verizon MVNOs like Spectrum. They can be carrier unlocked but the bootloaders are permanently locked and there is no way to unlock them. Their sales reps will tell you they can be completely unlocked but that’s not the case.

US Mobile’s Pixel prices are good and they can be unlocked (carrier and bootloader) after 60 days. It is one MVNO that doesn’t bootloader lock phones when you choose Verizon service.

Amazon’s Google store (in addition to Google direct) has bootloader unlocked phones but they are pretty expensive most of the time.

What brings the child rapist and the rest of the Grand Old Pedophiles purpose and their greatest joy is causing the misery of others.

That will absolutely decimate Oregon’s job market when companies take all 20 data center jobs to another state.

If it quacks like a duck, swims like a duck, and looks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

The problem is there are plenty of people out there (especially Magats) who are easily convinced the duck isn’t there at all. You know… morons.

An excerpt from the Wireguard Whitepaper:

One design goal of WireGuard is to avoid storing any state prior to authentication and to not send any responses to unauthenticated packets. With no state stored for unauthenticated packets, and with no response generated, WireGuard is invisible to illegitimate peers and network scanners. Several classes of attacks are avoided by not allowing unauthenticated packets to influence any state.

After opening an SSH port and watching the number of attacks I understand the concern about opening any port on a router, but it seems the worry about opening a port for WG is way overblown.

As of now I can find zero reports of a properly configured open WG port ever being successfully used by attackers to access a network.

Anyone have better/more recent info?

A cheap device like an Onn (~$20) would solve that, probably without requiring the device have Internet access once set up.

I’ve had so many instances of free to use, lifetime licenses, and purchased software that have turned into subscription services that I refuse to install anything that requires an account unless it can’t be avoided. The fact that Plex required an account be created to view my own local content years before they started charging for use made it obvious subscription fees were coming.

Jellyfin works great. Combined with Wireguard it works great anywhere.

I’m shocked, shocked I tell you that the preorder page is still up and taking stealing magat’s money.

The only people surprised by this are magats, but they’d still vote for the child rapist again.

That story’s still a bit disturbing after more than a decade.

I’m like you and did not want any kind of corporate entity involved in my network if it could be avoided. I settled on Wireguard and rather than deal with management constantly I set up 3 times as many peer configurations as initially needed. When a new device is added I just copy a spare configuration to the device and change the name of the config on the server. Tasker is used to connect the WG tunnel on our phones whenever home wifi is not connected. The open port on the router looks closed to the outside and only responds when the correct key is received so there’s no known way to breach the network.

Everything from my phone is run through WG and it only uses a tiny amount of additional mobile data. Syncthing adds nothing of consequence except when syncing big files. Battery life is fine even with both WG and Syncthing running.

Once set up it’s required zero attention or maintenance.

For most anything that can be connected to some kind of network (ethernet, wifi, zigbee, IR, z-wave) HA can do just about anything you can imagine. I keep thinking of new stuff that’s not hard to implement, for instance I just set up volume leveling for difference sources on my old IR-only receiver so we don’t get blasted if someone leaves the volume up high.

Since HA can use almost any info from the web you can use it to do things like control a swamp cooler based on outdoor temperature and dew point. Using windows sensors (from an alarm system or zigbee) you can shut off the heat or AC when the windows have been left open for a specific amount of time and turn them back on with the windows are closed. You can send a notification if you leave and forget to set your home alarm.

It looks like your Pi2 might be able to run the software, but that hardware was introduced 11 years ago and it wasn’t a powerful device even then. HA is also depreciating 32bit hardware. If it doesn’t work on that and you don’t want to buy new (or used) hardware, installing a HA VM on another PC might be a good way to start.

I started with things I already had, an old Raspberry Pi, some smart plugs and bulbs, an alarm system, wifi thermostat and OpenWRT router and initially installed the software just to play around. It didn’t take long before I was able to control everything from a single dashboard instead of multiple web pages and apps. I found that since it connects everything it can change the thermostat and turn on lights when alarm system motion detectors or door sensors are triggered or not triggered for a few hours. Our cell phones are used for presence detection and none of that required additional hardware.

The additions beyond that have been done slowly and the costs have been minimal. At this point I’ve probably I’ve probably spent <$450 over 4 years including $180 for an inexpensive laptop. This is for something that’s in use constantly. I enjoy learning and puzzles so I’d spend an hour or two here and there figuring things out. For me it’s been time well spent.

It’s likely going to be struggling with that hardware, but it should give you a look at the UI and some of the features. I’ve spent years running Home Assistant and am still learning new things all the time, which IMO is one of the best things about it.

Not a purchase, but Home Assistant is easily the most enjoyable gadget and piece of tech I’ve had in years. It’s ridiculously flexible and can do just about anything you can imagine.

I’ve been able to automate dumb devices (like an old top-of-the-line receiver) and give them smart features rather than spending thousands to replace them. Occupancy detection saves energy by changing thermostat settings when people aren’t home, and lights come on when we’re 60’ from the front door after a walk. Multiple leak detectors and a temperature sensor in the fridge let us know when something’s wrong before damage occurs. We get notifications when the dryer and washer cycles are complete allowing us to complete the laundry in one day instead of two.

The system is configured to change change interior light brightness and hue based on time of day so at 7PM we have bright room lighting and at 2AM it’s very dim. We get immediate notifications of package deliveries with the integrated Frigate NVR and a $15 camera. Firewall settings are dynamically changed so devices that require Internet access only have it when they are actually in use. Integrations exist for VLC, Spotify, Jellyfin, Paperless, Apple, TVs, alarm systems, solar power systems, routers, automobiles, and hundreds of other brands and devices.

Yes, much of the same can be done with connected appliances, lights, and other smart devices using separate apps and control interfaces for everything, but what’s different about Home Assistant is it’s all integrated and all control and storage can be local. We have no cloud or corporate services involved for any of this. Google, Apple, Amazon and Samsung can’t one day decide to pull the plug on things we’ve already paid for.

The big problem with Home Assistant is there are so many uses you can easily end up spending way too much time tinkering and never get anything else done.

Bought a used Steelcase Leap chair 9 years ago to deal with pain caused by disc problems. It’s built like a tank, amazingly adjustable, and completely alleviated my lower back pain. Still using it.

You think it will help? The first thing that’ll happen when a recession hits is people will be laid off en mass and there will be no jobs available to apply for. It will take months or years for things to get better, and if AI starts replacing people it will take even longer.

I think the “stable genius” has already caused a massive recession. We are just seeing the first signs of it but it’s not something to look forward to. It will cause widespread misery before anything improves.

The canary in the coal mine.

Technology websites should just add a top level menu - “Google Abandoned”