Ask Leo

By far my most favorite home project. I didn't use a mirror for my Magic Mirror but instead an old monitor and built a wooden frame around it. I did have to remove the plastic shell around the monitor screen and then frame it.

Here is a project that I wanted to do on a Raspberry Pi 5 but ended up setting it up on an old computer with Ubuntu installed. This has by far been a very impressive product and hope that it stays free for a long time. They do have a limit on users on your tailnet and devices but I won't ever exceed the device and user limit.

This wasn't a project but an add-on that Tailscale offered to integrate with my tailnet. For $5 a month, I thought I would try it out and see if it will be useful to have an actual secure VPN connection while using Tailscale.

This little project was a lot of fun and had introduced me to Proxmox. I was really impressed when I was using it and replaced the search engine on some of my browsers. I think the only drawback is that the device has to be on the tailnet to be able to use it so I had to limit which browsers I changed it on. Here some additional links for setting up.

1. Replacing Google with SearXNG as the default in Chrome
2. SearXNG

I came across this while setting up Tailscale and thought it looked interesting. I found some neat things that can be done with it and start learning more about Linux server administration. It's been so beneficial to understand how to maintain servers and get a foundational knowledge of Linux. One of the best things about Proxmox is that you can install it on pretty much any computer regardless of how old the computer is. Here is a link to some home lab projects that can help get you started. Home Assistant was one of the first projects that I started on and has been an excellent way to start integrating smart devices in my home. Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts.

I have been finding some great projects to do now that I've started researching home lab projects. I came across this video from Network Chuck on how to create your own private AI server and thought I would try it out. I didn't have a computer with a GPU so I just did it on my old laptop to play around with it. This was a fun project and now I am hoping that I can use it more and teach my kids on how to use AI and use it responsibliy while keeping eveything private. Here's the video I followed to create my private AI server. Thanks Network Chuck!

This is a must have in the homelab. I was able to set this up on a Raspberry Pi 4 and integrated with Tailscale so that I can block Ads not only at home but when I'm off my home network. Implementing this project has really opened my eyes to see how much ad tracking is done. 10 out of 10 recommend. There are other projects like Pi-Hole that I've heard are a great alternative to Adguard.

If you ever need to re-image a Windows computer and want a fun challenge this is a great tool. Do you have to re-image computers in bulk and don't have the infrastructure? This is the tool to use.

Got an old PC that you don't use anymore and no longer supported for the latest version of Microsoft Windows?? Here are my top three Linux distros to install.

1. Ubuntu Desktop
2. Pop! OS
3. Arch Linux