well, its now been three years since i quit my IT job and became my moms care giver. most of my days are filled with daily routines; helping mom showering in am, making breakfast, cleaning, making lunch and dinner, taking her to appointments, playing cards/doing puzzles, making sure the farm doesnt fall apart. however as a geek at heart i still have been keeping up with tech and trends and working on my own projects. here is what ive been up to lately in tech.
Optimizing and tweaking my Plex server
I have been using Plex for over 8 years for my own personal media server. Last year and this year I finally decided to really tweak and customize my setup. Installed Docker on my NAS and then finaly setup Plex Meta Manager (PMM) to create dynamic collections that are pulled from IMDB, TheTVDB and TMDB. I also have PMM setup so it will add an IMDB or TMDB score to the posters and also add 4K overlays to any of my 4K HDR media.
This year i also setup ErsatzTV and connected it to my Plex. ErsatzTV lets one create a cable tv like EPG of ones media and then can be setup in Plex as a TV Tuner. I created several retro cartoon channels and other ones and love watching it when im at my condo and dont know what i want to watch.
Rethinking of Remote Access / Management of my condo network/nas/computers
Finally decided to setup an OpenVPN server and access to my condo network from the farm. Also have locked down the router firewalls too. Also configured NAS to auto power on everyday in case i have any power outages and the UPS kicks on and NAS shutdown and also configured my remote desktop to autopower on after power loss too.
Messing with Android / Surface Duo
Found a great deal on a new Surface Duo android phone on woot for $300 for the 256GB version. Def like the form factor and ability to use two apps at once on each screen. Sadly microsoft support for said Duo just expired in Sept 2023 so we'll see what i end up doing with it. I may try to put Windows 11 on it once that project gets to a bit more stable point. Def nice to see how android works but doesnt seem like i am missing much being on iOS 17.
Rethinking of Home Automation setup at condo
I have had my condo setup with Hue and Wemo lights for 10 years now and had my first two bulbs finally die. I also have been using Amazon Alexa devices to control said lights. However I am in the process of removing Alexa from my setup since I plan to drop amazon prime soon and really am getting annoyed with all of the ads on my echo devices now.
Whats my plan? I have decided to add a Homepod Mini to run as my Homekit server and then use Apple Home to control lights. I also plan to replace my old Wemo Light Switch (not homekit compatible) with a new Wemo Light Switch with Thread. I prob will keep my Amazon Show devices but plan to only have it show just my photos and weather and calendars. If apple ever releases a smart display i would prob look to replace with one of them. Guess we'll see how Homekit works since its been four years since i last tried. If anything, I will have two ecosystems to choose between to access my home automation devices.
Other geek / gaming things
I have been using my good ole GPD Pocket 3 i7 as my daily driver and love this little device. I almost sold it to get a GPD Win Mini but am glad i didnt. Keyboard on the Pocket 3 is so good for being a 8" device (writing this post on it).
My old 2015 Macbook Air 11" i7 is still going strong! Plan to keep it forever since i have a nice 2TB ssd in it now and its another backup of my photo library and icloud drive data. May get a new battery next spring since i am over 800 charge cycles on this one.
Still am rocking my iPhone 11 Pro which is at 94% battery health. Not bad for a nearly 4 year old phone, may be time to upgrade next year but depends on what the iPhone 16 offers. Will i go back to android? prob not, just am not a fan of google anymore and their data usage practices, etc
Future projects? I will def need to start looking into replacing my NAS drives but that will be an expensive project, currently have 5 x 10TB in my main and 2 x 8TB in my backup. I def will need to start getting back up to speed on enterprise tech and software for when this phase of my life concludes in next few years.
Things im excited for in tech? honestly not much. Messed with ChatGPT and OpenAI and meh. Windows 11 is a mess and so much worse than Windows 10, Foldables are cool but not worth the costs, VR/AR is slowly moving forward but nothing spectacular or ground breaking.
And that is it, this is my Sept 2023 recap. Heres to a decent rest of 2023 and hopefully a good 2024!
