Custom ZDDX device description files and flowchart for Philio 4-in-1 PST02-A and Qubino DIN dimmer ZWave devices

If you’re like me experimenting with home automation you’ll certainly have come across Philio’s 4-in-1 Multisensor PST02-A/B/C devices. They unite multiple functions:

Flashing a Huawei E3372h 4G LTE stick from Hilink to Stick mode

The Huawei E3372 is quite a popular LTE stick: it’s widely available (in retail stores, on eBay and also in branded variations, eg. “Telekom Speedstick V”, “Megafon M150-2”) and rather affordable (currently starting at €60 in Germany). It features a LTE Cat 4 modem supporting up to 150 MBit/s download and up to 50 MBit/s… Continue reading Flashing a Huawei E3372h 4G LTE stick from Hilink to Stick mode

Maintaining home network access from the outside with a network-controllable power plug, OpenWrt/LEDE and a 4G LTE stick

Internet routers are supposed to operate in a stable fashion. Except they don’t (FritzBox *cough*) – especially when you’re away from home and need access to your home resources. Having to call someone related to go and reset the thing tends to get awkward. If you encounter this often enough, you begin looking for a… Continue reading Maintaining home network access from the outside with a network-controllable power plug, OpenWrt/LEDE and a 4G LTE stick

Whoever designed Docker and containers clearly wasn’t responsible for InfoSec – a rant

Not just recently I’ve been trying to get a grasp of all the containerization hype and try to identify possible effects on the ways I see to do certain things. I’m reluctant to use the word “operations” here because I’m not really much of an “operations guy” in the sense of actually having ongoing responsibility… Continue reading Whoever designed Docker and containers clearly wasn’t responsible for InfoSec – a rant

Using your Raspberry Pi Zero’s USB wifi adapter as both Wifi client and access point

The Raspberry Pi Zero captivates with its small dimensions. This comes at a cost, however, with only one micro USB port available for peripherals of any kind. In this scenario you’ll probably think twice about what you connect to that port. “A USB hub” may sound like a natural choice but if you’re like me,… Continue reading Using your Raspberry Pi Zero’s USB wifi adapter as both Wifi client and access point

Market overview of USB Wifi adapters based on Atheros chipsets

When looking for Wifi adapters, there are reasons why you would not just go ahead and buy whatever your favorite $DEALER has in stock. If you have some experience with Wifi adapters and drivers, especially under Linux, you’ll know that in general Atheros chips are what you want. They have a long tradition of both… Continue reading Market overview of USB Wifi adapters based on Atheros chipsets

Let systemd automount NTFS partitions to ensure successful booting

On my laptop I use a dual-boot setup with a NTFS partition shared between Windows and Linux, containing eg. music. Because the Windows version installed is Windows 10, it could sometimes happen that, in spite of having turned off hybrid shutdown, ntfs-3g would refuse to mount the shared data partition because it was in an… Continue reading Let systemd automount NTFS partitions to ensure successful booting