Bringing my dead NAS back to life.

I’ve been playing with ansible off and on for several years now, usually in fits and starts. Ansible is a tool for managing computers. It lets you do things like setup a new web server in exactly the same way you setup your old web server, or make sure that your new laptop has all the software you routinely use installed, or configure a cluster of computers identically regardless of their underlying operating system, package manager, or authentication system.

I’ve been wanting to grab a PINEBOOK Pro since I first heard about it a few years ago. The PINEBOOK Pro checks all the boxes I care about when considering hardware: Prioritizes open source Runs Linux/BSD/etc Small Solid build quality Replaceable parts It’s a solid little laptop and is perfect for my use cases: Programming Writing blog posts SSH’ing to servers to do stuff Playing Minetest with my kids Playing around with open source software First impressions The PINEBOOK Pro comes in a non descript cardboard box.

I’m an open source developer. What does that mean to me? Prefer open source software I always prefer open source software. If no open source software exists to do what I’m trying to do, see the next point. If the software doesn’t exist, create it If there’s no software available to do what I’m trying to do, it’s my job to create it. Contribute to open source software If I use open source software and find a way to improve that software, or fix a bug, it’s my job to improve it.

I’ve been playing with home automation for a few years now and wanted to stop relying on 3rd party cloud software for the devices I run at home. I also wanted to stop connecting my IoT devices to my wifi in order to control them. In order to do this, I needed a zigbee or z-wave hub. One of my friends has a hubitat elevation and recommended it it to me so I ordered one to try it out.