Setting up Liquidsoap for AAC+ streaming
A quick howto for setting up liquidsoap to create your own online radio station and transmit using the efficient and awesome AAC+ audio codec. I’ve made it super simple to create an encoder that can take program audio and create an AAC+ encoded stream that you can send to one or more icecast distribution servers […]
Read MoreRecycling Swap
Now and then, heavily used systems may need to have their swap usage cycled (reset) to increase performance. There are many occasions where even though a system has enough RAM, there may still be a growing swap usage. The steps I outline here are safe to run on a production host to reduce swap usage […]
Read MoreDIY High Power Smart Switch
Those plug-in smart switches that are uniquitous in the market are only good to 10 amps. (most of them) I had one on my dehumidifier project to control when the dehumidifier would turn on and off (by turning it completely off, we save energy and money on the electric bill). After a couple years of […]
Read MoreDDNS script using Cloudflare
ABSTRACT A neighbor (looking at you Chad) recommended cloudflare for my website and I figured I’d try it out. Doing so entailed changing my NS records on my domain at the registrar. This effectively moved all my DNS zone for the domain over to cloudflare. Awesome! Getting the benefits of cloudflare, only thing is, I […]
Read MoreCreate your own WiFi QR Code
There are many websites out there that will gladly take the details of your wifi network and in exchange for receiving those details, will generate an QR code that you can use to allow others easy access to your guest network, or business wifi. I strongly recommend against use of such sites as you can’t […]
Read MoreGarage Door IoT Interface
ABSTRACT In our home, we have 2 garage doors with RF remotes in our cars. For most people, this is generally considered “good enough”. I wanted to come up with a way to connect our garage door openers to our home automation system. Doing so would have the added benefit of remote control from anywhere, […]
Read MoreFM / Raspberry Pi Translator
ABSTRACT I moved to an area where my AM news station (WBZ) comes in rather scratchy. Sure I could stream them over the internet on a mobile device, but what about the radios I currently have? Have they now become paperweights? Fortunately, WBZ streams online and I found a cool FM transmitter module that I […]
Read MoreSmart Solar Powered Landscape Lighting
Background My neighbor recently did a landscape lighting project of his own. It looked great and was a simple grid-tied system. I wanted to kill 2 birds with one stone and do a landscape lighting system of my own, but I wanted ours to be connected (wirelessly) to our Domoticz home automation system and I […]
Read MoreStreaming Municipal Services
ABSTRACT We moved into town in July 2020 and as new residents always looking for ways to get a pulse on happenings in the town. One great way to do that is to monitor the radio systems of the municipal services that operate within the town. To monitor, one can either go out and purchase […]
Read MoreMoving away from ESXi to QEMU (KVM)
Rebuilding My Home Network ABSTRACT I have had my ESXi box for YEARS and recently decided to take a dive into the world of KVM (QEMU) on Ubuntu Linux. It’s a popular and completely open hypervisor that has become a staple in many datacenter environments. I had been loathing the change because it meant I […]
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