I deal with an issue with Firefox where it causes my Home Assistant dashboard become non responsive if the tab is not the primary one always on screen. I think it's something with the forced snoozing of tabs. I've tried other Firefox based browsers and face the same problem. So this leaves me with.... Chromium based browsers. As a Linux user, it's either Firefox or Chromium based. With that said, I have not had the issue with the Chromium base, but because it's mostly consumed by Google, I reject it mostly.

I did find that Zen was very nice to look at, and they do have an opinionated way of setting up the tabs (I don't care about the vertical tabs). They also seem to be wanting to roll out their own extension store? In the form of "Zen Mods" but are also cross compatible with Firefox Extensions so that's good I guess. I use a rolling release (Arch) OS, so I do see a lot of updates to Zen, the devs seem to be really working on it. For now - I'm on Firefox dealing with the unusual Home Assistant thing. I've used Firefox since it was before version 1 so I'm a bit stuck in my ways. :)

I really wish that there was another browser engine there which I could use which supports the Adblocking and Bitwarden (My most important extensions). It's a bit disappointing to see that Edge, and all other browsers have adopted the Chromium base. I am hoping that with the latest judgement and order against Google to sell off the Chrome browser, sticks and if so, that the new owner(s) will strip it of some of the garbage which has been forced on the code base. (Manifest v3 comes to mind). The only Chromium based one I tolerate on my system right now is Ungoogled Chrome and Vivaldi, who has said that they are resisting the Manifest V3 as much as they can and have a somewhat decent adblocking built in using their end. Even though I have DNS level adblocking, Ublock Origin fills the gap with some of the ads which gets past my end.

You just have to turn it off. It's an accessibility feature if you don't want it:

Not a software one, but back when I was a teenager doing hardware modifications (or attempting to at least), I had a very valuable to me Atari 130XE computer (35 or so years ago) I wanted to solder in some extra RAM or some chip (I don't recall now) but I had problems removing the old one so I called up my friend who did electronics repair the Mainboard. It was raining that night I took it to him so I did what I thought was best. Put it in a black garbage bag to protect it. Lets just say the next morning is when I found out that Static + circuit boards is a bad thing. Never more than a valuable less for me than at that time. He was a good friend though and out of the goodness of his heart, he gave me a replacement one so I wouldn't be without. (Mind you, these were out of production and considered obsolete at the time maybe worth $40 at the time) and not yet vintage as they would be seen today where in some markets can fetch upward to a few hundred more as is.

I have an Rpi4 4gb model and run Uptime-Kuma who's sole purpose is to monitor my server and alert me if it should go down. I also have it acting as a Tailscale exit node.

I'm about 99% sure it does, I don't use it that way but It does allow DNS zones. For example:

It's a lot more technical then Adguard Home for sure. Both work just fine though, I came from Adguard Home as I use a PXE server to provision some of my devices and Technitium is super easy to configure that.

I had to create an account as per the usual process for these types of apps, but it was all local. I never had to do one to connect to their servers. I know it generates a unique instance ID which I believe phones home to their servers but I don't mind personally.

As for my experience, a lot of it is locked behind their paid plans, so I just keep it limited to what I use which is fine. I do like it as it does better than NocoDB for my needs (the input forms is what I needed) and it does better there. I don't recall the other reasons for not using NocoDB otherwise, but it's a long while.

Their pricing is here: https://baserow.io/pricing

So, that's mostly what is locked behind. My sleep form I built which feeds the database:

Overall, it does meet my needs so that's all I ask. :)

In no particular order, the most essential ones are those I constantly use throughout my day and also weekly.

Proxmox holds all of these in different LXC's and VM's

• Home Assistant
• Pocket-ID - https://github.com/stonith404/pocket-id (Exclusive Passkey login system as in -no un/pw just your Passkey which - doubles as an OIDC provider)
• Homepage (By Ben Phelps of gethomepage.dev)
• Vaultwarden
• TechnitiumDNS which handles all of my DHCP and Adblocking in a one system, extremely capable software especially useful for SOHO too.
• Baserow - Airtable alternative. It holds certain items of importance like what MAC address each device in my home network holds and what IP It uses in an intelligent view. I also was using it for a while to log issues with my sleep where I deal with insomnia, so I logged how well I slept, how many times I woke up, how long it took me to fall asleep etc. That was a simple form I created using drag/drop in Baserow and called by a URL.
• OpenVSCode server - makes editing my Homepage (above) yaml and my docker-compose files a breeze! It's especially nice when you edit it something and it auto saves almost instantly. Makes some of my services change in real-time!
• UptimeKuma - Simply one of the best out there for me
• Gotify - I get alerted to my Tuya based dehumidifer tank being full via Home Assistant, Downtime alerts from UptimeKuma and a variety of other services which I deem higher priority alerts over "fix when you can" ones.

Aside from that, i do have other services I use every so often like Memos, Joplin Server (holds most of my notes), Pingvin and a few others.

Good to know about the 5Ghz WiFi on the newer devices.

I'm still new to Matter so I appreciate the info you gave for not all devices not using WiFi. :)

Matter runs over your WiFi so as long as your server you run Home Assistant on for example has wired or wireless access you are good to go. My Home Assistant is on LAN and wired so no wireless, but they all communicate through the WiFi network. if you have a Bluetooth dongle or onboard, Home Assistant would also use that to pair and communicate if needed.

2.4Ghz WiFi is only supported and no newer generations yet.

Honestly, if I have the option to keep it toggled on/off I'm fine with it, but I also don't see it in my latest update which came in last night. But not too concerned yet (Pixel 8a) so it's still pretty new I guess. :)

Instability you ask? This is like a slow creep to instability and freeze your system. It's called the Bash Fork Bomb (look it up if you want), but it's a copy/paste you put in and it slows your system down by consuming all the system resources and cause it to lock up HARD. It goes away after a system reboot, though.

I was going to post the code here, but decided to play nice. But if you are curious:

https://itsfoss.com/fork-bomb/

(edit: Made 'slow' 'slows')

I tried it the other night on my Pixel (Android 15) and had no issues. I've been trying out different launchers in an attempt to find one which isn't asking for a monthly or yearly sub and has horizontal app drawer as an option! Both of which are getting to be more rare these days. I couldn't see where to make the drawer scrollable on Lawnchair, so I skipped it for now.

As a Gen X member who is 50 yrs old, a grandparent of two Grand kids, I never touched a computer until I was 12 years old (1986), this, I think gave me a head start into the computer world with an old Radio Shack Color Computer II (hooked up to my TV) with a Tape Drive to load programs with. With some of the older Gen X group starting to reach retirement age, I think we will probably have a larger portion of the population more adapted to computer than the Boomers before us. That's not to say that during the 80's and 90's everyone was into computers though. The important thing was that schools had Timex Sinclair computers and mostly Apple II computers which were the workhorses even into my high school years in the early 90's, so exposure to computer basics such as copy/paste and Word processing were certainly well know then!

I say all of this to mention that while right now, some of the older generation generally knows how to copy/paste, isn't scared of breaking the computer and pretty much get a long fine with them. I'm more skilled than my peers in a lot of areas but that's because I've used them non stop for so long and the others used them only in school but never saw the value until around Windows 98 or Windows 2000.

I believe there will be a shift of more computer literacy as the Millennials and Gen Z's reach my age and older. The writers then may say that compared to the previous generation (ours), that they are miles ahead in their skills and literacy. Even my Grand kids are growing up with exposure to tablets and phones (VERY SPARINGLY), but also live out in the rural country so are getting great life exposure to great outdoors. :) (Ages 2 and 6). One can only dare to imagine what technology we may have 40-50 years from now when they reach my age range.

Hands down, Bitwarden app on phone and in browser. Vaultwarden self hosted. Since I host it at home, I know it's always in my server. The winning thing for me is that Bitwarden Supports Webuathn now, you can use it as it's own webuathn key you authorize to log in with, so basically go the site you want to login with and when it asks for the webuathn, you can either have Bitwarden use the credentials you stored for it or your own biometric or hardware key instead.

With this, I sign into Authentik for my SSO just by clicking one link, and Bitwarden prompts to log in and I click the option. I'm auto logged into my server and no UN/PW passed to it.

I've tested others and nothing quite comes close except for KeepassXC, but for me, it's a matter of personal preference on my side. I've been with Bitwarden since the early days.

Some examples of using Tasker:

• When a specific contact sends a text message, it alerts me using TTS so I can be aware they are trying to reach me. I have an older family member she lives closer to, so having an alert from her is important if anything should happen forbid it does. When I plug my phone in to charge, it auto silences the phone and keeps it silenced until I unplug it, built into the same task, if monitors for phone calls from my contact and a few others and overrides it.

When a specific phone contact or contact calls, it raises the volumes to max. This is useful if you went to an appointment, set your phone on silent or vibrate but forgot to reset it. After the call has been completed, it returns the phone to the original volume you set.

• When I scan a NFC Tag, i have it send a webhook to my August lock to unlock it. As an apartment dweller, if I go down to the car to unload groceries, the door by default auto locks. This means I have to pull the phone out, unlock it, open the August App, and then tell it to unlock the door and sometimes use the biometric to do so. Having the NFC tag do this means I can put it in my wallet and when I put my phone in the same pocket where the wallet it is, it triggers the door.

• When connected to my computer only, it keeps the screen on all the time.

• When I launch certain apps, it keeps the screen on until the app is closed. Very useful when you are at the grocery store working within a strict budget and want to see how much you have put in to the cart!

• I have a widget on my screen which toggles my Private DNS on/off. This allows me to disable the adblock dns I use if I encounter a public wifi which insists I disable it. (I usually stay away from those, and use my mobile data, but sometimes it's unavoidable when there is so much interference your 5G goes to NONE and you have to be there for a while.)

• Likewise, I have a widget which toggles my Tailscale connection on/off which comes in handy as well. Again, if the Wifi spot rejects custom DNS's and I'm in the scenario above.

• If you have a Google Account (Sadly, this is the only way). You can view the list of profiles/tasks which other people have built. It's a growing list. https://taskernet.com/shares/

• Using third party software such as Wake on LAN, when I come home and connect to my WiFi, it wakes my computer. (Or really any condition I set to trigger it).

I will say that the dev is very responsive and active in releasing updates and new features.

With that said, it has a slight learning curve which he(the developer) is working on to help simplify things and modernize it more. Since taking over the project from the previous owner, it's really grown.

I admit though, I used to have a lot more tasks and profiles, but it seems that Android is starting to bake those functions in so it's not as used on my end. But don't let it it sway you. Your imagination is the only limit with what you can do with Tasker.

Generally, for less than a cup of coffee, it's worth the purchase price. :)

I have a TCL ROKU TV which is way too chatty on my network. It sends every single keypress on the remote to their servers (just look into the dev console which is easy enough to see what is logged). I have an adblock dns server on my network

These are just in the last 23 minutes of the hour. As I understand, it's not always doing this if they are not blocked, but when you block them, it starts to panic!

The advantage of doing this is instead of having the ad on the right side of the home menu, I have a nice translucent adbox with nothing in it.. Also, if you look up the secret codes for Roku menus, you can also toggle the ad server they use so sometimes if some slip through, you get some in house tested ones which are sometimes funny. But that's extremely rare for us.

Our next TV will probably be a display or offline only and be a streaming box with custom firmware such as Librelec or something else when the time comes.

Anxiously waiting for ARCH to update their repos, they YANKED it from the unstable repo so I can't cheat and download it early. :)

I test installed it in Proxmox in a Debian 12 LXC for the sever part, it was fairly easy, just run three commands. The client was as well, but failed to do something with the email during registration. It has a while longer to go I think. But I put it in my bookmarks to visit every so often as well. :)

I lost my respect for Asus when I had a Zenwatch 2 (I still have it), and they promised at the time Android Wear 2.0 in front our faces for months promising it would be released, but refused to even give an estimated time of release to OTA. This was well after WearOS 2 was released. Their online forum staff members were rude sometimes about it and other times, never responded to passionate asks about when it would be made available. The fact that they didn't reply and care about giving any updates or indication at the time, was enough to push me far away from them.

I use Technitium DNS as both my DHCP and DNS Server on my network. I then have my ISP Router's DHCP turned off, and point the primary DNS IP To Technitium's on my network. I have roughly 66-67 network devices at a given time on my network, mostly wireless. (Think wiFi locks, Lights, Outlets etc) then I have my phones and gaming systems an any given thing.

To manage my IP's I use an Airtable type of database via BaseRow, also self hosted. Through my router's records, I copied/pasted every single MAC address I found, into a column in my BaseRow table there, and then added the device name or friendly name to another with an assigned IP I want to use. I have a more organized system of ranges 192.168.1.1-10 is mobile devices, 192.168.1.11-30 is IoT etc..

By having my network setup in this fashion, I accomplish a few things, all new devices which power on or connect to the router to get their IP assignment fail to get it since it's turned off there, and they search the network for an available DHCP Server which lands squarely on the TechnitiumDNS server and are assigned it through there. I also have adblocking enabled through the same server so I have a more home wide adblock which works. (You'd be amazed at how much Telemetry a TV Sends out for every single remote keypress!) I have been able to block those with the adblock enabled. With the DNS server, you can also assign DHCP ranges address, it is really an overly complex server and probably overkill for a home network. I've only scratched the surface of what it can do.

If you don't want to fuss with TechnitiumDNS, there's AdguardHome, or even PiHole you can use if you want to block Ads (or you can simply disable that function) and those also act as a DHCP Server.

Or, if you are wanting to spend a few hours configuring it, you could run your own DHCP Server in a VM or dedicated device such as a Raspberry Pi.

With all of these settings, it's important to set your DHCP lease offer long enough that if you have to reboot the DHCP Server for kernel update, or it crashes, you won't have any devices fail as some do regular polling to check for connectivity (My Linux computer does this a lot). I don't remember if it's KDE or Arch. Anyway, running the DNS Server also allows you to custom build your own "domain" system if you will. So could assign maybe your self hosted Calendar for example to http://calendar.local or http://calendar.internal.

By setting up a dedicated DHCP Server, using the manual method or one of the different AdBlock systems, you can also turn off DHCP registration for 'foreign' devices or those which aren't in your DHCP table. This offers a small element of extra security for your WiFi, but it's not 100% secure if someone knows your IP ranges and Subnet Mask. Also, this will make it easier in the future for you if you upgrade your router or replace it as there's just two settings to change. (DCHP Server off and the optional self hosted DNS).