dbrand666

u/dbrand666@lemmy.world
6 posts · 36 comments

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I have a couple of Pi Zeros around the house I use as media players. They were running piCorePlayer. I replaced just the software with a vanilla Pi OS and installed Squeezelite and then Wyoming Satellite. I added a microphone and an automation to silence the media player as soon as a wake word is detected.

Voice recognition is adequate but I wish it was smarter.

(I should finish that blog post...)

I used to have a Ring and became concerned about privacy once Amazon took over. Worse, all it used to capture was delivery people's backs - by the time it would see motion the action was almost over. That's when it captured anything at all - it used to miss a lot.

Reolink doesn't require any Internet access - even for initial setup. People detection works great with Frigate and you can tell it to start recording before motion is detected so you don't miss anything.

Full disclosure, it does take some fiddling to get it working reliably. I still don't have 2 way audio working.

The Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3a both support eSIM.

(The Pixel 2 sort of did but only for Google Fi.)

The Pixel 3 briefly supported DSDS (pSIM+ eSIM) in a beta but it was removed before general release.

Pixel 3a was the first Pixel to officially support DSDS.

Since you're already running Hass why not set up Media Assistant. Connect your speakers to a Raspberry Pi running piCorePlayer.

I have a few around the house and they work great.

Media Assistant is still a work in progress. If that's a problem for you you can use Logitech Media Server instead, which is what I was using until recently.

Yup. Me too. They say it's coming soon but I wouldn't hold my breath.

One feature they did add that gives me hope. Top up data now rolls into the next month. I discovered this by accident after this script bought data the day before my plan renewed.

Edit: Which reminds me. I should check that this script still works on the new shared plan.

Major update to the lifeguard today. Authentication is by username/password now. Setup is easier, no more foraging around for tokens. No more worry about tokens expiring - it knows how to log back in when required.

When I was still playing with it and it was sitting on my desk I did notice that it ran a bit warm. Not hot enough to be a concern but now you have me thinking it might be an advantage in cooler climates. The lack of a battery makes me less concerned about cold as well. I've only had it a few months but it seems far more reliable than the Ring doorbell I'd been using previously. I do have it rebooting nightly but I haven't had to touch it in months. Winters here don't often go below 0F anymore. I guess I'll see how it goes.

USMobile recently added a way to add additional users with limited privileges. Turns out that even "Viewers" can top up a pool (they don't even have to have a line of their own!).

I'd recommend adding a user with view-only privileges and using that limited user to get tokens for scripting. Should be somewhat safer than using a token for the account admin.

on Better Keyboard? · c/android · 4 pts · 3y

Go into settings and enable "Long press for symbols".

While you're in there, look around. There are lots of fun options.

We're talking about Verizon. The company that still refuses to unlock the bootloaders of the phones they sell.

My guess:

Band selection - 5g uses bandwidth more efficiently. They don't want us using 4g anymore.

Backup calling - they want to sell you expensive roaming packages or hit you with insane roaming fees.