For the last couple of years I've done a yearly My Dream Desk Setup post, where I go into great detail about my home office setup. One way that I've kept the desktop so clean is by mounting key peripherals under my desk using custom offset mounting brackets. This post...
Sometimes when running Ubuntu you need to use a different kernel than comes with the default installation. Only upgrade the kernel if you have a specific reason, such as needing a new driver or CPU support. But if you are an advanced user and know exactly what kernel you need,...
A couple of years ago I got the Elgato Stream Deck XL. For those of you not familiar with the Stream Deck XL, it is a "macro" controller of sorts where each button is a LCD screen that you can fully customize in terms of both image and functionality. It...
Introduction I've been working at home for over 8 years, so the pandemic didn't really change a lot for me in terms of where I work. In late 2021 and early 2022 I did a major redecoration of my home office and shared a blog post about that experience. Now...
Action needed: If you are a RSS subscriber to this blog, the URL is changing. For a long time I've used Feedblitz as a feed manager, but their utility has passed. I've started an immediate transition back to the standard Wordpress RSS URL of:https://www.derekseaman.com/feedPlease update your favorite RSS reader with...
Introduction I've been a remote worker for the last 7 years, and during that time my office setup has evolved. So when COVID hit, nothing changed for me in terms of my work environment. However, what has changed for me is my at-home desk setup. Over the past few months...
For a couple of years now I've been using the Hubitat Elevation C7 home automation hub. I was doing some tweaking this weekend, and I wanted to setup SMTP and SMS notification channels. I had been using Twilio for SMS, but it wasn't a free service. And I also wanted...
Recently I've been re-doing my home network, and I'm now using the OPNsense firewall, replacing my Ubiquiti EdgeRouter 12 with a more robust solution. For OPNsense I selected the PROTECTLI FW6D platform, which has 6 ports and an Intel i5-8250U CPU. I've also been running Pi-Hole on my network for...
Want to know the top audio plugins to optimize your desktop headphone experience? Check out this post, along with hardware recommendations.
Do you want a wicked fast VPN back to to your home network that seamlessly roams between cellular/LTE and Wifi? Look no further than Wireguard. This blog post will show you how to install and configure Wireguard on a Raspberry Pi 4 and an endpoint such as your phone. I...
About 18 months ago I requested a MacBook Pro at work, instead of refreshing my Windows Lenovo laptop. I've always been a Windows user, so I was a bit unsure about the switch at first. However, already being in the Apple ecosystem with an iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and Apple...
This post about Solar energy systems is going a little outside of my normal "IT" theme of this site, but it's very technical so I thought I would share. I've been doing a ton of research about going solar found all of the technical details fascinating, as well as confusing...