My old phones replaced three smart devices in my Home Assistant setup
…it can double as a local security camera, too Besides the microphone, it’s possible to reuse an old smartphone’s built-in camera for DIY projects. For example, I use it…
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My local LLM is helping me use Claude more effectively, and it's the perfect one-two punch for my workflow
6d agoI ditched Claude Projects for a self-hosted setup that costs nothing and does more
1w agoI stopped opening Task Scheduler after discovering VS Code's hidden automation layer
1w agoI added this open-source tool to my local AI stack, and my local LLM finally has persistent memory
1w agoI used a LattePanda Sigma with 32GB of RAM as my ‘too much power’ home lab box, and immediately found work for it
…That included monitoring tools, small automation jobs, and lightweight services I wanted to test without disturbing anything important. It’s easy to underestimate how valuable that middle ground is. A box that…
I stopped using Obsidian like a notes app, and started using it like a database
…What I really wanted was a system that would let my notes work together, surface useful context automatically, and support how I actually write, research, and manage projects every day. My original…
The Claude feature everyone ignores is the one I use every single day to boost my productivity
…03 / 8 Context What is a 'Project instruction' in Claude Projects? A A prompt Claude automatically generates at the start of each session B A custom system-level prompt set by the…
Bambu Lab wants to lock you into their ecosystem, but here's how I took back control
…For simple jobs, test pieces, and personal projects, keeping the workflow local feels cleaner and less fragile. It also means that an outage, an account issue, or an app change doesn’t…
My media server started as a convenience project, but it has become one of my favorite things I’ve ever built
…contextual automations that rely on Jellyfin playback actions as triggers for the rest of my IoT gadgets. Unlike Plex, Jellyfin doesn’t natively support remote streams for devices outside my local network…
Most NotebookLM users miss its best feature, and it's not the audio overviews
…architecture diagram for 'ProductivityStack,' a local-first productivity web app. Organize it into clear horizontal layers showing how the parts connect." NotebookLM broke the entire project down into five clearly labeled layers…
Your smart home needs both an ESP32 and Raspberry Pi 5, not one or the other
…Their small profile made it easy to hide behind furniture and on shelves to handle singular local tasks. Bluetooth proxies and Infrared proxies are integrated directly into Home Assistant to run automations…
I turned my phone into a local LLM server, and it handles vision, voice, and tool calls
…automation or two and see it for yourself. I can't wait to see what more will be possible in another couple of years. Qwen3 Coder Next is still my favorite local…
I manage my ESP32 boards with this free self-hosted tool
…and minimal OS overhead, microcontrollers are a rock-solid choice for automation, circuitry, robotics, and other budget-friendly DIY projects where you might need real-time control over all the peripherals. While…