Tech Stuff

From Quicken Desktop to Simplifi: My Migration Experience

I recently made the leap from Quicken Desktop to Quicken’s Simplifi app. Transitioning from a traditional desktop-based tool to a sleek, web-based app has been a BIG change. While both products are under the Quicken brand, there isn’t a built-in migration path between them. This means starting fresh, which can be daunting for longtime Quicken Desktop users. Why I Switched …

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Homebridge install

After moving to our new house recently, I decided to go all Apple Homekit for my smart devices. Our previous homes were all Z-wave and Zigbee. In the first house we turned into a smart home, it was Wink, then came SmartThings. There was a bit of Google Nest. In our next house, we used SmartThings, and later Home Assistant, …

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Data Recovery (macOS)

This is a quick reference of different data recovery software (macOS). I had to use these after I accidentally deleted quite a lot of photos on my external drive. Many of the photos were from our recent India trip incl. birthday celebration for Oliver, and site-seeing (Jaipur, Delhi). Needless to say it was quite a debacle to have lost those …

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Create user, group and edit group membership in macOS

Quick commands to create user and group in macOS with specific uid and gid, and to add a specific user to newly created group. Add group sudo dscl . -create /Groups/<name> gid <gid> Add user sudo dscl . -create /Users/<name> sudo dscl . -create /Users/<name> UniqueID “<uid>” sudo dscl . -create /Users/<name> PrimaryGroupID <gid> Add existing user to new group …

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Restarting HDHomeRun Quattro

If you have an immediate need to reboot your TV Tuner but are feeling lazy to not go down to basement to your server room, then fear not, there’s a CLI called hdhomerun_config Download the binary from HDHR site: https://info.hdhomerun.com/info/hdhomerun_config Run the command hdhomerun_config 1076C29C set /sys/restart self

My Homelab

Current Modem Xfinity xb7 Firewall / Router / DHCP eero 2nd gen mesh wifi (6x units throughout the house) Local DNS & Ad Blocker (pi-hole) Dell 9020 SFF Intel i5-4570 8GB RAM 120GB SSD Network distribution HPE V1910-48G JE009A Switch (48-ports Gigabit) for wired ethernet eero 2nd gen mesh wifi (6x units throughout the house) Cat5e Ethernet wiring to home …

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