Category: Full Disclosures
The unfiltered account of one smart home’s journey through every platform, mistake, and hard-won lesson. These are the long-form stories that don’t fit in a how-to guide, including platform migrations, honest assessments, and the real cost of going all-in on home automation.
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I Replaced My Smart Display with a Tablet Running Home Assistant: Here’s What I Built
When my Lenovo Smart Display finally gave up, I didn’t replace it with another smart display. Instead I mounted a Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ running Home Assistant in kiosk mode. What started as a like-for-like replacement turned into something that does more than I ever expected: local voice control, chore tracking, UniFi doorbell alerts,…
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Why I Switched My Entire Digital Life to Proton (And Brought My Whole Family With Me)
Already deep into your Home Assistant setup but still handing your email and passwords to Google? I made that same trade-off — until I didn’t. Here’s the honest story of why I moved my entire family to Proton, what it actually cost, what I gave up, and why the privacy-first mindset that drives a great…
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From a RadioShack Light Switch Motor to 2,600 Devices: My Decade-Plus Smart Home Journey
One IT pro’s honest, funny, and real account of a decade-plus smart home journey — from a teenage RadioShack gadget to 2,600+ devices, four platforms, two kids, a rescued dog, and one very important wife approval rating. Just the unredacted truth about what actually works.
