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{ Category Archives } House

Preliminary review of HAI Web-Link II Software

The HAI Web Link II software works with both HAI OmniPro and OnQ HMS home automation controllers that are version 1.8 and newer firmware. It might work with AEGIS systems too – but I know of no one with that to test on. I may hack it enough to work on Linux too, given enough […]

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Doh! Wish I’d thought of this sooner…

So the whole time we had no power and were exiled to a place with power and internet access and hot running water, we kept wondering… Is the power back on at our house yet? That question could only be answered this time by a drive out to our house to see in person. So […]

I am massively relieved that power is back on…

This morning I went by the house to check on things and feed the cats and found that the power was back on at the house; and that by some miracle I do not fully understand most of our treasured marine aquarium livestock appears to have survived! We also still have some propane though the […]

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Internet Speeds Like 1989

The last few days my internet speeds for actual usage seem like 1989 with a 2400bps MODEM over noisy dialup lines… I am measuring 2Kbps most of the time using scp and web sites are essentially unusable. The really strange thing is that all the speed test websites, once they’ve loaded the speed test (which […]

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Tiny Home Server

This little home server makes my old nOrhtec MIcroServer GP look huge in comparison… Guru Plug Server Plus, 512MB memory, 512MB flash storage, two Gigabit ethernet ports… I could run caching DNS, MediaWiki, Router/Firewall and openVPN services on this little guy and only burn 5W of power… Amazing. The old MicroServer GP has only 256MB […]

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Apple’s iPod/AppleTV/iTunes announcement

I think that the new iPods look great, but that the best news out of Apple today was the price reduction on the classic AppleTV devices… only $149 while supplies last… Classic AppleTV (160GB) The new AppleTV also looks pretty cool, and at $99 it will likely be a market success, but it does not […]

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Linksys/Amazon/Firefox/DNS bug causes router crash

A lot of us have Linksys home routers. They are cheap, effective, and easy to use. I’ve have a BEFSR81 8 port fast ethernet broadband router/firewall for many years… it recently started locking up when anyone in the house shops Amazon.com using Firefox (started in early May we think). Frequently the router will lock up […]

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HDMI cable price gouging continues

This weekend my partner and I decided to finally execute a many year plan to set up a home theater in our basement. We shopped around a little and scored an LCD television, receiver, disc player, and speakers from a local Best Buy. I was sad to see that the decade old practice of price […]

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Darn, our 16 port switch died…

A few years ago we upgraded our wired network at home to do Gigabit Ethernet throughout the house, an upgrade I have loved since the day we did it. We used a Netgear ProSafe 16 Port Gigabit Switch (GS116 v1) as the main switch in our wiring closet, and D-Link “Green” DGS-2205 and DGS-2208 gigabit […]

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Gardening

We’ve been gardening this Spring, and have potatoes, tomatoes, a variety of basil and lettuce, cilantro, onions, thyme, rosemary, eggplant, squash, corn, fennel, spinach, and oregano put in already. The fig tree appears to be doing well.