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I wanted to monitor the traffic of my home network directly inside my Grafana dashboards, but there was one annoying limitation: the standard OpenWrt Prometheus exporter can expose interfaces, NAT traffic and system metrics, but they don’t give me a simple per-device view, with the actual DHCP names of my devices. In practice, I could see traffic on interfaces such as pppoe-wan, br-lan, bond0,…
Questo post è l’evoluzione del precedente post Feed RSS dei podcast Rai con la modifica che gli URLs vengono risolti fino alla CDN Rai, evitando il problema di alcuni client podcast (come Pocket Casts ) che non facevano partire automaticamente l’episodio, ed era necessario scaricarlo prima di riprodurlo. E in aggiunta c’è anche la possibilità di creare feeds per gli audiolibri e…
Just a quick tip. In OpenWrt 25.12, the package manager switched from opkg to apk (Alpine Package Manager), that I love as it’s present on all my servers with Alpine Linux. However it introduced an unpleasant “banner” upon device login. To restore the old clean banner, modify these files. First, disable the loaded “apk-cheatsheet.sh” file: mv…
This post explains how I operate my homelab with no public WAN exposure, using WireGuard to stay permanently connected to my home network from all my devices, while only routing selected subnets instead of all traffic. Why this matters Simply because any publicly exposed service increases the attack surface, even when protected by TLS, authentication layers or access control lists. By avoiding WAN…
Here’s another of my n8n useful workflows. I built it to receive a daily email with the top 20 Hacker News posts, each accompanied by a short summary generated by ChatGPT. You can choose how many posts include and how long and detailed the summary should be. Yes, I know there are many online services that do the same thing and send daily newsletters, but this workflow allows me to decide exactly…
I built this simply n8n workflow mainly for myself, it lets me automatically cross-post my (or any other user) new posts from Hacker News to my (or any other) Mastodon instance (using the title from Hacker News + the URL). Every 10 minutes the workflow checks a Hacker News user feed and, when it finds a new post, it publishes the latest one on Mastodon, making sure it is published only once.
This isn’t a significant update, but given its technical aspects, I’ve created a post that might be useful to someone. TOC What’s a LAG? The nanoPi R5S SFP+ to RJ45 Reinstalling OpenWrt LAG on the nanoPi R5S from microSD to eMMC and LEDs LAG on the Access Point LAG on the servers Testing Heat issue on the switch From two RPi to a single nanoPi R4S Archive server updates Update…
This was a tough decision, having used Gmail since 2007/2008. However, I had to draw the line and stop giving Google my data for free. The problem with email is that everything is transmitted in plain text. Technically, Google can store every message you receive and know everything, and U.S. agencies can request access to that data (this include also EU citizens under the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S.…
In this post I won’t go into extensive technical steps, it would become too long and complex. Instead, I’ll focus on describing the current state of my setup, including hardware and software updates. For those interested in the more in-depth technical details I’ve included links throughout the post to previously published articles related to a specific detail/hardware. The updates in this post…
tl;dr I migrated from a Raspberry Pi 5 to a mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 6600H with PCIe 4.0 x4 — running my full monitoring stack: Grafana, Prometheus, Mimir, Promtail, and Loki. After BIOS-level optimizations, the system now consumes just 10–12W at idle. The entire stack runs on Alpine Linux directly on bare metal — no Docker, no virtual machines. The configuration remained unchanged: no data…
I decided to write this post because something that seemed simple and easy, turned into a deep rabbit hole of UPS units, USB updates, serial cables, network cards, and other mess… Introduction It all starts when I decided to change the UPS that keeps the server/cabinet running. I had found an offer on Amazon for the same UPS as my actual one but the new model, which has the option to be monitored…
ChatGPT lied on purpose for its own convenience. Curious. I was using a temporary chat with my Plus account asking ChatGPT about how to install a new lock for my door: After suggesting me a few options, it suddenly said: “Do you want me to find an installer near Monfalcone?” If you need assistance in choosing the most suitable kit or information about installers in your area (Monfalcone, Friuli…
I got a new little toy: a miniPC for €189 that serves as a kiosk, instead of the Raspberry PI 4B, which had become a bit too slow for large Grafana dashboards (especially for scrolling on the touch display). At first, I thought about getting a Raspberry Pi 5, but after doing some quick math, I realized I would have spent about the same for a less powerful device: Raspberry PI 5 8GB: ~95€ Heat sink…
Over the past few days, especially after the macOS 15.4 update, I encountered a frustrating power management issue with the Mac mini and Apple Studio Display. When the Mac mini entered sleep mode, after a while (1–2 hours), it would wake up to check for updates (legitimately), but then, rather than returning to the usual 1–2W while asleep, it continued to consume 14–15W. I couldn’t understand why,…
Finally, after many months of wanting to do it, I made it: I moved my Umami instance from a VPS with Docker on DigitalOcean to a pod on PikaPods. Introducing Umami is a great privacy-respecting analytics service that can be self-hosted, lightweight, and detailed enough for me. PikaPods , on the other hand, is a great service that allows you to create pods (like Docker containers) with many…
⚠️ questo post è vecchio, ho creato la nuova versione 2.0 con diversi miglioramenti: Feed RSS dei podcast Rai v2 | etcetera Questo post lo scrivo in italiano poiché riguarda specificamente la lingua italiana, in quanto parla di podcast in italiano.
Problem to solve: Turn on and off remotely a Raspberry Pi 4B with an external HDMI display that acts as a kiosk to show Grafana dashboards in full screen using Firefox. And clear the RAM every 3/4 hours to avoid the Firefox crash. More details: The major problem is due to the fact that, after 5/6 hours of Firefox being open and continuously updating Grafana statistics, Firefox crashes because it…
After receiving multiple notification emails from Google about my Google Photos storage running out—and getting tired of paying while handing over all my data—I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and manage my photos locally, right on my home server. Since I’ve been familiar with Immich for a while, and it has now reached an impressive level of maturity, I figured it was the perfect…
The Pi-Hole team has released a major update: Pi-hole v6 . Since this version features a completely new “engine,” the original PADD has also been updated. As a result, I’ve also updated my “Hyper” version, designed for larger displays (800x480px), tested on the Pimoroni HyperPixel 4.0 . I’ve created a GitHub repository, you can download the new padd.sh file here: giuliomagnifico/PADD-Hyper .
The other day, I found the credentials for an old Bitcoin wallet on blockchain.com , so I installed their app and tried to log in. Everything was fine, and the passwords were correct until I saw a warning that said: Second Password Detected We’re moving away from 2nd passwords. To use the mobile app, login on web to disable 2nd password. After logging on Web, tap on the User icon > Security…
Intro Here’s a quick update on the PiArtFrame. I already posted an update in the old post, so to keep things organized, I decided to write a new one. As reference you can read the old post Basically, GitHub user kevlol has ported the Python code by runezor (the original PiArtFrame ) to C++. This is awesome because: The system is more stable. You can choose the exact refresh time. You can…
I have to admit, it hasn’t been long since my last post about my “home setup,” but during the summer I have more free time and I took the opportunity to make a few small improvements. In this post I’ll explain two simple modifications I made (so not a “major release”) Shelly EM + 50 amp clamp : monitor home energy consumption with the Shelly EM, jump to chapter keep a widget on the Home Screen of…
I can’t deny that I love Reddit and that it has now become the only social media I’m using. That’s why I’ve optimized my experience to save as much time as possible, using shortcuts and bookmarklets. Especially after Reddit closed the API and forced us to use its app, which isn’t as good or powerful as the legendary Apollo. Obviously, I mostly use Reddit on my iPhone…
Maybe you haven’t noticed it, but this blog is a bit different now, this because the ‘engine’ behind it, now it’s Hugo instead of Jekyll . But before getting into the details, an important disclaimer: I absolutely don’t have in-depth knowledge of the web development. Surely some expert will notice that what I wrote could have been done better and/or in some other way, but now I have already…
I’m encountering a somewhat controversial dilemma…in a few words: I can either write about what I’ve done, or I can do something. Let me put it this way: I’m often caught between doing (new) things and writing about them. Honestly, I’d rather dive into solving problems and making improvements than document what I’ve done, due to this, as soon as I solve one problem, my mind jumps to a next…
A few days ago, I watched the latest WWDC event from Apple, and I was overall positively impressed, especially with the “ Apple Intelligence ” segment. The integration of ChatGPT in iOS 18 seems to be very well done! …but it isn’t available for all devices and at the moment I’m writing is not yet available in the beta. Intro With this post, I want to share how I integrated ChatGPT into…
Introduction Icons/UI Scripts Tips Introduction I absolutely love Raycast because, with it, I’m able to use a single software that can handle a wide range of tasks and significantly improving my productivity. Raycast serves as a replacement for Spotlight (or can be used alongside it) to enhance your macOS experience. Essentially, it has replaced several tools in my workflow, examples: a…
Hardware building it Update Software installation Conclusions Gallery I’ve update the frame with a Raspberry PI Zero 2 W, and with a better “managment” of the Raspberry PI behind the frame. Jump to the Update to read it. I’ve always been a fan of e-inkink displays, but honestly, I never figured out a cool or useful way to make the most of them. For my Grafana stats I need a…
I’m back with another update to my home network setup, but this time it’s a smaller change that’s more focused on the overall tech aspect and daily usage, rather than just the network. As usual, I’ll begin with a brief summary of the content to help you decide if it’s worth your time. And I’ll also try to add a curious and useful tip in every paragraph. As usual,…
Problem Every time I perform a search in Duck Duck Go I get tons of spamming results from the terrible, I would say bloatware, website www.msn.com , that for some reasons has a better ranking in Duck Duck Go than the original news sources. And this thing was driving me crazy, also because on the terrible msn.com there isn’t a quick link to jump to the original website. It’s a total…
tl;dr The full story What I’m doing my monitoring system screenshots Conclusion This maybe seems to be a weird post, especially for those who don’t live in Italy, because here in Italy there’s the common belief that the abilites of a worker, usually are less considered than the qualifies that it has. Or simply the employers don’t ask “what you are able to do?”, instead of “what are…
This is a new update of the PADD script by yubiuser. But in this mod I changed how PADD is displaying the percentage of RAM used by Pi-Hole system. Why? Because the original script is display the percentage of all the overall RAM used by Pi-Hole: cached, buffered, etc… and I didn’t like it, indeed I’m interested in the real/physical RAM usage by the Pi-Hole, so I tweaked the…
A new update of my network home setup, to both hardware and software. Introduction Hardware Breeze for the hardware Netgear AX/6 AP Netgear GS308T switch Wiring Software VLANs and HomeKit Access Point Router Switch Grafana Conclusion Introduction In this new “update/release” I have added two 120mm fans inside the server cabinet, I switched to Wi-Fi AX/6, I configured my network with…
Edit: I updated the widget with other (more useful to me) informations, jump at the bottom: Updated v2 If there’s one thing that I don’t like to use, are the stats apps in the menubar. Apps like iStat Menus , eul , MenuBar Stats , Usage Monitor , etc… to me all looks like a waste of system resources to monitor the system resource. Because they can monitor too much stuff that I don’t…
As you may know, this blog is running on my VPS on DigitalOcean using Jekyll to generate the site, and in order to make a new post, it’s not that easy because I have to write a Markdown file, upload to the posts folder via FTP and update Jekyll via SSH. Well, this is not complicated but do the limitations from iOS is a bit tricky. But I absolutely love to write when I’m making a walk in the…
yubiuser has released a new updated for PADD, to 3.10.0, and this update I think is quite important because it fixes the “flickering refresh” that was introduced with the v3.9.0. So I updated also my modified version with more info that fits 800x480px screens. You can download it the file from GitHub: padd.sh v3.10.0 for 800x480px display Be careful because now PADD auto-center itself in bigger…
Requirements Installation Grafana image render Automating the report Tips Bonus: build PDF reports Conclusion This project consists in a way to receive the stats of my Grafana dashboards (home network, Netatmo Weather Station/Thermostat, home consumption/Homebridge, Pi-Hole, servers, etc…) from my Grafana server delivered automatically to my inbox every time I want (usually daily and weekly). I’ve…
yubiuser has released a new updated for PADD, to 3.9.0, so I updated also my modified version with more info that fits 800x480px display. You can download it here: padd.sh v3.9.0 for 800x480px display . Be careful because this release has lots of modifications, because now PADD auto-center itself in bigger screen/terminal, so you need to change the launch command in your .bashrc file to disable…
Introduction The final results Building the notification system Pushover with HomeKit Conclusion My dashboards In this post I want to describe how Pushover and Grafana are helping me to get some important push notifications of my life, health, home and nerdy stuff. Disclaimer : I hate to be full of useless push notifications! For that I have really few push notifications active on my phone, as…
The nanoPi R4S is a great router with a very efficient metal enclosure to keep it cooled, but it has one defect: it’s flat on the base. I mean that it doesn’t have anything that can rise it few centimeters from the table, in order to allow a small flow of air under it, and also to avoid scratching or damage (with the heat) your table/forniture. To solve this, in the beginning I was using…
Introduction In the last days I listened an interesting podcast episode of Click Here , the episode was about the Iran protests, and one of the first phrases was Almost everyone (in Iran) learn how to use a VPN or Proxy […] even my grandmother (78) asked how to setup VPNs on her phone and lear how to use them. You can listen it here on Stitcher: The hijab will never be the same
After I bought and reviewed the beautiful Grid iPhone 3G , the founder of Grid (with my surprise) contacted me to thank me for the honest review, and he also said that he wanted to gift me another product from Grid: the Grid A7 (APL5698) . And it has arrived! The Grid A7 is essentially the Apple A7 SoC of the iPhone 5S and iPad Mini 2, encapsulated in a very cool “frame”. Since the A7 was the SoC…
yubiuser has released a new updated for PADD, to 3.8.1, so I updated also my modified version with more info that fits 800x480px display. PSA: remember that from 3.8.0 it requires FTL version (>= v5.16). You can download it here: padd.sh v3.8.1 for 800x480px display . I think it needs to have some slight layout change, like the RX and TX section and the “SYSTEM” info. I’ll look…
One thing that Steve Jobs used to say was: “ Write web apps ”, but unfortunately things went a bit so far and big companies are building a web apps view with lots of pointeless (or even dangerous) features that are a waste of space, privacy, battery and integration. I’m saying this because until some time I’ve always used the official app, like Amazon app, Facebook app,…
Since I’m a very “optimizer and minimalist user” I check for the waste of space in my tiny SSD. For three reasons: Apple’s storage prices are terribly high, the fuller a SSD is, the less it will last, why keep useless files? It’s a waste. Indeed my main storage drive is a 256GB drive, and all my system takes about 60-80GB (depending on the cache and apps)
This is a bit different post, but it’s always focused on tech, that is equal to “living” nowadays. In this post I want to describe, in order to give some suggestions or inspiration, the stuff and tips I use when I’m traveling abroad and I need all my tech and connected stuff to make a photographic reportage and remaining safe/private also outside my “everyday environment”. Background: as maybe you…
The previous releases/posts to read, are: My hardware and software setup for a new house My network home setup - v2.0 Changelog for this v3.0 from: Internet -> modem -> wireless router -> home clients to: Internet -> modem -> router -> access point - managed switch -> home clients Improving some features and keeping almost the same settings. Here are some final photos: Introduction All is started…
As usual, PADD as been update to the release v3.8.0 , and I also updated my custom mod of it for the Pimoroni HyperPixel 4" display and other display with more pixel (800x480) than the original PADD script with the latest updated: Remember that this version is tested on DietPI and with Unbound as DNS. You can grab it from Gist: padd.sh v3.8.0
Some months ago I wrote about how this blog is “Google free” since I’m using the open source umami analytics service instead of Google Analytics. And I wrote also that I was using it on a free instance of Heroku, but, after 6/7 months the things on Heroku became worse and worse, there were lots of issues. One is that umami is using a new release of Next.js and Heroku hasn’t upgraded since months,…
In this hot summer I can’t survive without “doing nothing”, so since my parents are on vacation for one month, I started a new easy project to give my parents a better home network without spending nothing. Since I have already at home all the hardware: a Netgear R7000 router and a RPi Zero W. Goal The goal is to achieve a stable network, with some basic privacy features, and blocking the…
