The Claude skill I built for myself is the only productivity hack that stuck
…What ended up working was a skill I built for Claude one Sunday night, and it ended up being just the productivity hack I needed. Want to stay in the loop with…
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My old phones replaced three smart devices in my Home Assistant setup
…Heck, you can put your dinosaur phone’s accelerometer to good use as a presence detection module for Home Assistant automations. Related 6 of the coolest HACS integrations for Home Assistant users…
The ESP32 quietly became the most important chip in my smart home
…Better presence detection improved the automations Fine-tuning the triggers In the first months of using Home Assistant , nearly all my automations were time-based. Several times they confused and embarrassed me…
I tried Python in Excel with no coding experience and here's what I learned
…Which is the best tool for Excel automation Understanding the future of Excel automation You're still going to need to learn the syntax for libraries This syntax differs from Excel formulas…
For under $100, an Xbox 360 with homebrew beats almost every modern console I own
…Related How a drill defeated the Xbox 360’s console security Console hackers will truly stop at nothing to accomplish their goals. Homebrew brings it to another level Softmods are keeping the…
Smart home guides keep pushing the wrong starter setup – here are some tips that actually work
…Related I fine-tuned a 7B model to write my Home Assistant automations, and it actually works It'll even run on a GPU with 8GB of VRAM! In fact, you’d…
I turned my old phone into a Bluetooth proxy for Home Assistant with this free app
…The Bluetooth devices I added to the Ava app automatically appeared in ESPHome’s integration as sensors. After that, I set up the automations to run whenever Ava detects and reports my…
Home Assistant's intimidating reputation is completely undeserved once you survive the first week
…Related HACS is an underrated tool for Home Assistant lovers The Home Assistant Community Store is a treasure trove of useful integrations and dashboards Even automations, which may seem overwhelming at first…
I built a $15 ESP32 display that lets me monitor my Bambu Lab printer from my desk
…Using an ESP32 Cheap Yellow Display , ESPHome, and the Bambu Lab HACS integration for Home Assistant, I put together a dedicated printer monitor that sits right on my desk. It costs between…
Home Assistant finally replaced Google Home when I stopped trusting the cloud with my smart home
…Not because Google Home was bad, but every device needed Google’s servers to work, including the automations. I didn’t have numerous devices, thankfully, to push me into the sunk cost…