Legacy projects often support legacy methods of alerting users that their home labs are in jeopardy — in email. Only that this method no longer flies. Not only do the notifications often get stopped by the automated spam filter, but these emails are also sent out by an anonymous SMTP server, not a certified known server. If you want an instant push-based notification, there is a tool for that.
By Rian
Gray, a writer.
App to Prune Time Machine Backup
Time Machine is the reason I recommend macOS for regular users. It’s quick. It’s simple. It’s set and forget. But there also comes a point where your Time Machine destination, be it remote or local, needs pruning. The cleanest solution without additional tools is to create another destination on a regular basis, perhaps with every new machine. However, keeping two independent destinations comes at the cost of double the initial commit.
How to Remedy “Go to Line” on Nano Editor
There are a few annotations that only Unix-likes are fixated on, one of which is ^. It means the Control key on the keyboard. Official Mac keyboards often include the annotation right on the keycaps, so it is never difficult to find. However, there are shortcuts that just won’t work even after the deciphering. For example, “Go to Line” on GNU nano. The Homebrew version of nano editor says the shortcut is ^/, yet it fails to register.
How to Take Microwave-Keypad Time Input on Shortcuts
When I am setting a reminder for an odd time (e.g. Claude usage reset), I must admit, the part that is frustrating is not repeatedly making an entry. Making an entry can be automated with Shortcuts. But marking time in every entry, scrolling through default time selector UI, makes the experience too tedious. So I opted for a known method that works: the microwave-keypad, left-align time input.
Fable 5 Is Back, Also Sonnet 5 Is Out
Anthropic announced Sonnet 5 this week, described to be as capable as Opus 4.8 but cheaper. Rough timing — Fable 5’s return ate all the attention. I haven’t had the chance to do any coding with it in-depth yet. But from the limited exchange I had over chat, Sonnet 5 still struggled with technical specs. For any technical discussion, I had better luck with Gemini Flash 3.5. In terms of output, Sonnet became incredibly verbose. There is no trace of the laconicism I had noticed in Sonnet 4.
The Murky Rabbit Hole of DIY NAS
My NAS is reaching the end of its design. Twenty terabytes usable across five bays, a few hundred gigabytes left, and it’s warned me twice now that I’m nearly out. I’ve bought time where I could, moving what I can to the pool meant for cold archive. But the design is aging out on more than one front. Swapping the drives to bigger ones won’t fix the root of the problem. With the new home lab feeding the queue, the need only grows until the backlog clears. The clock is ticking.
How to Get Start of Any Minute on Shortcuts
Continuing on from last week’s attempt to make “Get Start of X-Minute” on Shortcuts, instead of making multiple shortcuts, I thought it would be best to make one that can be reused: start of 5-min, 10, 15, 20, 30, just about anything.
What Remains of Fable 5 Ban
Apple said Apple Intelligence would bring AI to its brand. It was a broken promise, unless Genmoji is to be considered a success. Apple is now saying the new Siri AI will deliver the promises they made back in 2024. Neither iOS 27 nor macOS Golden Gate has been officially released (available only in beta), but this definitely marks the beginning of the full transition toward AI-centrism in consumer OS. The dependency is real now — local or cloud, there’s no opting out.
How to Get Start of 10-Minute on Shortcuts
Shortcuts on iOS and macOS are not the most documented tool to navigate, and one particular thing that catches me off-guard every time is the lack of integration for date and time. For example, when I hit session limits on Claude, I usually set a reminder for when it resets. And it resets usually at 10-minute intervals, 10:10, 10:20, and so on. Oddly enough, Shortcuts don’t have an action for this.
App to Notify the Return of Fable 5
I thought I’d share some light-hearted news before I can drop the pessimistic read on the tech sector as a whole. Anthropic hasn’t yet shared any update on when the US government’s suspension of Fable 5 will be lifted, but there are communities voicing support for the repeal of the ban, while sharing memes around its status.
Steam Machine Out to Have Pie and Eat It Too
Valve announced yesterday the specs and price point of the new Steam Machine. It has been speculated Valve is coming after the console market, specifically, the “couch” market. The first Steam Machine from 2015 was a commercial failure, in large part because the pricing wasn’t agreeable to either console or PC gamers. After the successful run with Steam Deck, Valve is giving Steam Machine yet another go, seemingly for the same reason.
How to Secure Erase Synology DSM FVE Drives
My old post on wiping retired Synology drives covered most use cases with two big caveats: one, Synology has since introduced full volume encryption on DSM, and two, the FVE implementation on DSM does not guarantee clean disposal. I will get into details in the tangent, but the short version is — DSM does not encrypt the whole drive; it still leaves a small area in plaintext. Paired with the unit itself, that area is a significant risk vector.
App to Restart Unhealthy Docker Container
One of the odd features left out of the Docker ecosystem is restart on unhealthy. Docker knows the status of individual containers, but it somehow does not natively support the feature. There are yaml tricks to have a container kill itself if unhealthy, so the Docker engine restarts it based on the policy. The tool I am recommending is a more comprehensive, if not more commonly recommended, method.
App to Span Filesystem Across Storage Pools
The home lab community has long assessed the pros and cons of NAS ecosystems and respective accessories for future expansions. Notably, Synology has been offering expansion units as a companion to their DiskStation lineup. For example, if the main unit only has 5 bays but the spec sheet says it supports up to 15 drives, the implication is that the user may expand the configuration with the compatible expansion unit they offer. That being said, an expansion over a single line of cable also presents a single point of failure — a risk most find outweighs the benefit of additional…
How to Remedy Apple Music Library Issue after Region Change
It has been about two weeks since I migrated my primary Apple account over to South Korea. The migration itself was near instantaneous. What caught me completely off guard was Apple Music’s behavior across the different Music apps. On iOS, the app displayed my library (with albums available in the region). On tvOS, I did need to reboot, but after some time, it was able to rebuild the library for me. It was the macOS Music app that gave trouble. First with “the Cloud Music Library can’t be loaded”, and when I tried to log in again, it simply refused.