Long Strange Trip

  • Project thermostat: got some time to work on it this afternoon, and its starting to come alive

    Project thermostat: got some time to work on it this afternoon, and its starting to come alive

    OK, early I wrote about my gas fireplace and its sad lack of automation/IP. The fireplace should be simple, you just have to short-circuit the connection across the thermopile. Well, it sat on the pile of “that would be easy and fun” for quite a while. But today I managed to scrape together 3 hours,…

  • Update on the Outdoor Kitty (aka the mooch): contact!

    OK, earlier I wrote about this mooch of a feral cat that we’ve been feeding. Yes, he’s a feral cat, not just some neighbourhood stray. Well, after years, well, I’ll let the video below speak. I guess he’s getting tired of the cold.

  • Epic rock

    Epic rock

    Last night I got to do what high-school me would never have dreamed of: host a party w/ a ton of grade-a classic rockers and an open bar for all my friends. If you were there, I’m collecting some of the photos, please feel free to drop yours here.  The lineup we had as headliners…

  • The mystery of the home DNS blackhole

    So for a while i’ve been experiencing a mysterious issue with the DNS that runs casa del don. Specifically, android devices with 7.1 or later would work, and then not work, for resolving e.g. the homeassistant, plex, etc. They could ping the  IP, but got not DNS resolution. If i ran dig or ‘host’ on…

  • Stinky Cat Syndrome: Why no robot for this?

    Stinky Cat Syndrome: Why no robot for this?

    So my cat (TC, short for ‘The Cat’) is normally a very clean creature (like most cats). He goes out, snoops around for a bit, and comes back in smelling like leaves and campfires etc. No problem. Not last night. Last night the cat waltzed back in smelling of dead skunk and septic tanks. Now,…