Thanks, this is one of the few truly beginner-friendly blogs I’ve found (not just this post, but the entire blog). It would be great for people to suggest some other more up-to-date resources for someone starting out. Specifically, this blog talks about trying and comparing different setups, factoring in costs, time commitments, dealing with setbacks, preparing for different use cases, etc.
There are lots of resources that share technical details, how-tos, system specs, etc., but not many that I’ve found walking through the decision making process including what worked and what didn’t and why.
What are some important things that have changed in the past five years that would change some if the choices?
Part of the issue with web results is that it would generally update as you type which is just a bad fit for a general menu search. I personally don’t see a place for it. If you are searching the web, you’re going to open the browser anyway. Maybe some users would use it to navigate directly to common websites, sort of like bookmarks? I don’t know.
For about a year or two, windows had an amazing search from the menu that used a blazing fast index search to search files, directories, and file contents locally and almost instantaneously. It was a glorious thing.
I cannot think of a case in which a user would not need to distinguish between web search and file search (other than the convenience of a single click). I do use a unified search on my phone that includes files, apps, and contacts, and if it’s not in any of those, it will launch a web search using the query. That is more than adequate. If it were performing the web search in real time, I wouldn’t be able to easily access apps and contacts, and the results would slow and change while typing.
Wait, this is actually a good tip lol
Is it fine for a billion dollar company to ripoff smaller artists? It’s a form of piracy, so this would be allowed, too.
How do you change that without completely stripping property rights away from artists though? Not just corporate IP, but all artists?
In my case it was a specific use case in that I have a number of outdoor lights that I want to control without needing to go back in the house every time. Folks here have given a few options that would work well for this without relying on the internet, but I already have the setup installed at this point
That’s helpful. It seems like a system an insane person would come up with, but I understand it.
Thanks. That helps.
This is really amazing to me. I had no idea that it was using the internet to send the on/off signal from my phone, up to a server (multiple servers), just to send the command back to my home network, and to the device. That seems like an absolutely bonkers system to turn on a switch. I would be better off to repurpose an old RC toy to control the switch!
I don’t really understand why a computer is necessary at all, is the thing. I know that it’s possible to use wifi network to send a signal between two devices. I have a sound board that works this way, and manages to communicate precise multichannel instructions directly over the network without an internet connection.
If I want to turn on a light switch, it seems like all I should need to send is the location of the light switch on the network and the on/off command. I know that there is not the computing power in the light switch itself to process much more than that.
Do these devices all connect to a remote server to switch on and off??
A: I found what looks like a pretty good guide here https://piped.video/watch?v=xBIowQ0WaR8
It covers setting up a virtual server on AWS, as well as Setting up a Linux server with Docker and FileCloud or Netxcloud. It discusses some of the pros and cons of each. The only coding involved here is some copying and pasting json files, which is pretty beginner friendly if you ask me.
What you you folks here think? Is this a reasonable guide? Do you see any red flags or major oversights that beginner should know?
That’s a recommendation that I’ve seen a couple of times, and it looks promising. However I haven’t found any guide that really explains how to do it step by step, or what factors I should consider, or even really what I need to be able to do it. Do you know if there is such a guide for someone who really isn’t a “computer guy?”
Thanks - I’m also trying to replace google drive and eventually OneDrive so that I can easily access files across multiple devices (Linux, Win, Android) and sync the files. Proton seems like a good alternative until I have a home server set up, which will likely take me a year or two. I’m starting from zero knowledge and have very little free time to do it lol