jack@jackwent:~$ cd ~/it-industry-insights
Blog
This is where I write about the day job and everything I tinker with at home. After 20+ years in IT I’ve picked up plenty of lessons about infrastructure, security and keeping systems running, and I’ve got a house full of smart home and homelab kit to try things out on.
Expect honest write-ups from real environments, the wins and a few mistakes too. Some posts start life on LinkedIn, where I go into more depth here. Thanks for stopping by.
What you’ll find here
Home Assistant and the smart home. How I run Home Assistant and keep it reliable, the devices worth buying, and the fun builds along the way. Start with how I run Home Assistant, then try the sarcastic AI doorbell or RFID cards that play films.
Homelab and Linux servers. Keeping servers patched, monitored and cool without babysitting them. See the Ubuntu autopatch script, server monitoring alerts in Home Assistant and my list of admin commands for Windows and Linux.
Building things. Software and physical builds, from building a SaaS product to the log cabin home office I built in the garden.
Working with dyslexia. How I get the best out of AI as a dyslexic engineer, and why this site has an OpenDyslexic switch.
How often I post
A new post goes up every Saturday morning. If you’d rather not check back, follow along with the RSS feed or on LinkedIn.
jack@jackwent:~$ ls -lht ~/blog
Latest posts
total 17
-rwxr-xr-x17 Oct 265.1Kjarvis-session.shHow I use an AI agent on a small VM to patch servers, check the fleet, ship code through GitLab and report back, and the rules that keep it safe.-rw-r--r--14 Oct 262.4Kopendyslexic.mdI'm dyslexic and use OpenDyslexic myself, so this site now has a switch to turn it on. What the font is, why it's optional, and where to support it.-rw-r--r--10 Oct 268.9Kcabin-build.logHow I replaced a falling down asbestos garage with an insulated log cabin home office and shed, built on my own: the base, walls, roof, kit niggles and tips.-rw-r--r--10 Oct 268.4Kcabin-zigbee2mqtt.yamlHow I made my garden cabin office smart with Zigbee2MQTT and a network coordinator: presence, temperature, blinds, heating, smoke alarm and lights.-rw-r--r--09 Oct 264.8Kbuilding-skillvortex.mdWhy I built SkillVortex, a skills matrix and certification tracker for Microsoft 365 companies, what was hardest to get right, and how AI helped me build it.-rw-r--r--09 Oct 266.9Kxmr-dashboard.jsHow I built a self hosted Monero mining dashboard: live pool stats, worker status, XMR/USD history in PostgreSQL, offline alerts and a daily email report.-rw-r--r--07 Oct 267.5Khouse-rules.mdThe rules behind my Home Assistant setup: local first, the right protocol for each job, notifications that clear themselves, and running it like production.-rw-r--r--07 Oct 264.5Kesphome-updates.yamlTwo Home Assistant automations that update ESPHome and every ESP device overnight, one at a time, so I never have to click update again.-rw-r--r--07 Oct 267.6Kserver-alerts.yamlOne Home Assistant notification listing every offline server and pending update, which clears itself when everything is healthy. Full YAML included.-rw-r--r--07 Oct 266.3Kllm-doorbell.yamlTurn a doorbell camera into a cheeky British commentator with LLM Vision and Home Assistant. The full prompt, settings and real examples.-rw-r--r--24 Sept 2613Krfid-films.yamlTap a card, the film plays: an ESP32 RFID reader, ESPHome and a Home Assistant automation that starts Plex films on the living room TV.-rw-r--r--12 Sept 266.9Krack-cooling.yamlHow Home Assistant runs my rack fans, cools the UPS battery, watches NAS drive temperatures and warns me about leaks, with the automations to copy.-rwxr-xr-x16 Oct 258.5Kha-mqtt-agent.shMonitor Ubuntu and Debian servers in Home Assistant with a light MQTT agent: CPU, RAM, disk, IPs, pending updates, remote reboot and self updates.-rw-r--r--02 Oct 254.1Kai-and-dyslexia.mdLiving with dyslexia means I approach work differently. Here's how AI acts as my digital co-pilot, turning rough drafts and long documents into clear work.-rwxr-xr-x24 Aug 246.7Kubuntu-autopatch.shA script that keeps Ubuntu 24.04 servers patched automatically: updates, kept back packages and reboots, picking up where it left off after a restart.-rw-r--r--26 Mar 247.8Kgarden-irrigation.mdBuild an automated garden irrigation system with a Raspberry Pi: soil moisture sensors, a pump, valve relays, a tank sensor and the Python script.-rw-r--r--17 Mar 246.5Kesp8266-fish-feeder.yamlTurn a cheap Ilonda WiFi fish feeder into a Home Assistant device by swapping its chip for an ESP8266 running ESPHome. Kit list, YAML and step by step guide.