Brad Westness
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Better Home/Away Smart Thermostat Detection via Wifi and IFTTT

Personal Software Programming

In 2018 I put in a smart thermostat, a Honeywell T5+, specifically. The thermostat works with an app called Honeywell Home that supports geofencing to detect when one or more users are home or away based on their device’s location services data.

A hallway wall with a UniFi wireless access point, its status ring lit blue, mounted above a Honeywell smart thermostat displaying 66 degrees.
  • 24 Feb 2020

Building a LACK Rack Plex NAS From a Refurbished Rackmount Server, Part 2

Personal Software TV Movies

In part 1 of this blog series, I talked about the reasoning behind my decision to build a Plex server out of a refurbished Dell PowerEdge R710 server. In this second part, I will cover the process of getting the OS and GPU installed.

The same LACK table rack relocated to a basement against an orange-painted concrete wall, with a router and cable modem on top and the Dell server and APC UPS mounted below.
  • 03 Feb 2020

Building a LACK Rack Plex NAS From a Refurbished Rackmount Server, Part 1

Personal Software TV Movies

Last year, I invested in a Plex Premium lifetime subscription, and I really like it. Previously, I had been relying on my Roku player’s built-in Media Player app to play video files stored on a network share on my PC, which it was a pain to navigate.

An IKEA LACK side table in a living room with a rackmount Dell server and an APC UPS bolted into its legs underneath, and wireless routers sitting on top.
  • 01 Feb 2020
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© 2026 Brad Westness

Brad Westness

Wisconsinite, Software architect, Brewers baseball fan, he/him

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