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General Tech IoT

Using Nanoleaf Devices with Home Assistant – Including Setting Effects

Here’s some examples of how to use Nanoleaf lights with Home Assistant. Note that when this doc was written I was using Home Assistant v2021.2 with Nanoleaf firmware v5.0.0 Setting Up First, set up the lights using the Nanoleaf app, join them to your WiFi, etc. Then attach them to Home Assistant. The docs on […]

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General Tech Uncategorized

Why You Should Avoid Services Run by Advertising Companies

Inspired by the recent changes to the Facebook WhatsApp’s privacy policy, I decided to go through why I avoid services provided by advertising-based businesses. For more details on the WhatsApp changes, see: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlypage/2021/01/08/whatsapp-tells-users-share-your-data-with-facebook-or-well-deactivate-your-account/ Incentives Businesses are driven by their incentives, which are their business goals. The business goal of every for-profit company is quite simple: […]

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General Tech Linux Systems Administration

New Project – coconut-deadmanswitch – A tool to monitor Cron Jobs and Scheduled Tasks

I’ve started a new project! I recently talked about my experiments with coconut-lang here: https://jaytuckey.name/2020/10/25/thoughts-on-coconut-the-compile-to-python-functional-language-extension/ I’ve now started a project using coconut! It’s what I’m calling a “Dead Man’s Switch” (DMS) monitoring tool. The idea is this: Every cron job / scheduled task sends an update to the DMS monitor The monitor records the updates […]

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General Tech Linux

Jupiter Broadcasting Matrix Quick Start Guide

This is a quick guide on how to get started with Matrix chat for the Jupiter Broadcasting shows. It is also in video form here: Instructions You will need a client, and you can use a web-based one by going here:https://app.element.io If you don’t already have an account: Choose to “Create Account” Choose “Advanced” (Other […]

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General Tech Linux Uncategorized

How to make Zoom (and other QT applications) scale properly on Ubuntu 20.04 with Fractional Scaling

I have a Lenovo X1 Carbon 4th Gen, running Ubuntu 20.04 – it’s a great laptop, with a 14″ display and a 1080p screen. However, if you run it at 1X display scaling, everything is just a bit too small for comfort. I have found the best display scaling factor for it is 125%. Ubuntu […]

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General Tech IoT Linux

Making a phone notification tool using Discord Webhooks

Reading Jlelse’s blog here (https://jlelse.blog/dev/telegram-go/) I realised there is another alternative to using an automation tool like IFTTT or Microsoft Power Automate, is to use a messaging app like Discord or Telegram. Previous post on the same topic:https://jaytuckey.name/2020/04/21/making-a-simple-phone-notification-tool-using-ifttt-available-on-a-free-account/ Creating the Discord Notification Webhook To make a personal notifier using discord you will need to make […]

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General Tech Linux Powershell Systems Administration

Making a simple phone notification tool using IFTTT – Available on a Free Account

I previously made a guide on how to create a notifier using Microsoft Power Automate: https://jaytuckey.name/2020/04/21/making-a-simple-phone-notification-tool-using-microsoft-power-automate-previously-microsoft-flow/ However, the Request trigger used in that flow is only available on a premium account so many people won’t be able to use it without a work account. For those people, here’s how to make the same thing using […]

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General Tech Linux Powershell Systems Administration

Making a simple phone notification tool using Microsoft Power Automate (previously Microsoft Flow)

Note – The “Request” trigger used in this post is only available on a Premium Power Automate account. If you want this for personal use, I suggest you look at using IFTTT instead, see my guide here: https://jaytuckey.name/2020/04/21/making-a-simple-phone-notification-tool-using-ifttt-available-on-a-free-account/ Many of us have access through our work to Microsoft Power Automate, previously called Microsoft Flow. With […]

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General Tech Systems Administration

Using Zoho Email for a Local Football Club

I have recently helped my local football club – https://litchfieldfc.com.au – to move their email over from Office365 to Zoho email services – https://www.zoho.com/mail/. Overall it was a great experience, and I would recommend Zoho to other clubs and similar small organisations looking for email services. Here are a few things that I found nice […]

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General Tech

Quick Review of Samsung Galaxy A70

I recently got myself a Samsung Galaxy A70. This is a quick review of how I’m finding it after 4 days of use […]