I really need to not pull titles from the music I’m listening to it rarely works out well for the entry.
Anyway it’s been a minute or two since the last entry, and well I’ve moved (again) and this time I write the check to a bank and not some faceless person that I only email with. So with the move comes the new shiny, or more like a refitting of the exiting shiny and figuring out where to put those maintenance dollars.
Well the good news is outside of some very minor things there is nothing that needs dealt with right away, there are a few things I will have to deal with in the not distant future. So until I have to deal with those things, let’s talk about the other plan. I’m on the record as being a smart home person… while I should be in the realm of “no internet connected things that run the home” I’m not and I’m ok with this. I did make a couple of decision changes on smart home re-fit 2.0
- I’m going with a platform that supports multiple device vendors (i.e. not Nest)
- I’m not going to be be-holden to the one platform rule, if something works outside of that platform and works well for me I’m going to use it (i.e. Sonos)
- Everything. Must. Have. Manual. Controls.
- If I’m home and the internet goes out, shit still works (the internet going down is a bigger issue then it should be… THANKS XFINITY/COMCAST!)
So with those in mind I’ve already got a foundation in place in the form of an IoT vlan via my Ubiquiti Dream Machine. On the human interface layer I’ve moved to mostly HomeKit, I know shocker. It makes sense though, I need automation based on location (phones), I want flexibility if I decide to leave the Apple eco system (if it works with HomeKit it works with Google or Alexa typically). And HomeKit has a hub centric architecture vs a cloud centric architecture. Which takes care of point 4 very nicely. Point 3 seems to be the sticky wicket right now, but I’ll get there.
Oh also the only exception to all of this is appliances, don’t get an internet connection… there is no earthly reason why my toaster needs to be on the internet… there isn’t a better way to make toast…. toast the bread and go away.
Oh also there is a whole new workspace for the offices, but that will be another day. Maybe….