Home Assistant new thermostat card customization

In the 2023.12 release of Home Assistant, a new thermostat card was introduced with a new look and feel. Overall, I really liked the new design. However with the new release, it altered my personal workflow by not including the thermostat mode controls directly on the card. While attempting to change the HVAC mode, I found my fat fingers would accidentally adjust the temperature in an unexpected manner. Prior to upgrading to 2023. Continue reading

Gitlab double upgrade

Due to life circumstances, I had neglected my home Gitlab instance. I logged in the other day to perform some “quick” maintenance. Unfortunately, I found that I was more behind than expected. So much so, that I would need to perform a double upgrade of Gitlab going from 16.1 to 16.3 then ultimately to 16.6. After running a gitlab reconfigure, I found the Let’s Encrypt certs required an update. After making the required DNS and firewall changes, I was able to complete the necessary cert updates. Continue reading

Creating aliases using SimpleLogin.

As a Proton Mail user, I gained access to SimpleLogin as part of my Proton Mail subscription. Prior to using SimpleLogin, I utilized the wildcard functionality to create aliases for different requirements. Most frequently, I utilized a new address for each company that required an email address. This worked great until it was necessary to reply to the alias that was created. If a reply was required, I would need to create an address in proton mail settings. Continue reading

Installing Kumo Cloud integration into Home Assistant

A few years ago, we purchased a Mitsubishi mini-split ductless HVAC solution with multiple head units. During the purchasing process, we added the provided manufacturer remote access solution named Kumo Cloud. The manufacturer described the solution as “Manage Your Systems anytime and from anywhere using the Kumo Cloud App”. To Mitsubishi’s credit, the solution did allow remote system management. Additionally, the Kumo Cloud addon was a single one time purchase rather than a monthly ongoing charge. Continue reading

Using GoAccess to analyze Caddy logs

I was looking for a tool to analyze the Caddy logs for this blog. I ran across a Reddit comment suggesting GoAccess. I have outlined my setup experience using the tool. Overall, I have found the tool to be informative with a well done presentation of data. Setup Logging in Caddy If you haven’t already done so, access login will need to be enabled on the server. I found this article to be helpful. Continue reading

Adding Mastodon Feedback

I have been following the idea of having Mastodon/Activitypub powered blog comments. While the theme I currently utilize doesn’t have this ability, I am going to dip my toes into this concept. For each post, I am going to add a corresponding Mastodon post for further discussion. I am not looking to get into the business of moderating blog post comments on a separate platform. I expect this will provide an easier method for people to supply their “Um, but actually” feedback. Continue reading

Using Home Assistant to troubleshoot ISP issues

For the last 19 years, I would consider our ISP to be reliable. Outside of weather related issues, we have had only two outages which I can recall. That all changed about a month ago. We started to experience small outages which became more of an issue. As I run my own equipment, I started performing diagnostic. I quickly came to the conclusion the issue resided with the ISP. I pulled on my big person pants, took a deep breath, and called the ISP. Continue reading