Technology Solutions for Everyday Folks

Welcome to Matt Zaske Online

Behind the scenes of Matt Zaske Online is Matt Zaske: automation evangelist, technology grief counselor, developer, systems admin, freelancer, father, moustache aficionado, and jack of all trades.

I provide practical advice, extraordinary ideas, and no-nonsense technology solutions for everyday folks. Let's work together to do something amazing!

Recent Tech-related Blog Posts:

March 27, 2023 10 minutes

It's been a while since I wrote about any Home Assistant stuff so I figured this was as a good time to write about something I'm super happy with: custom/reference sensor templates!

March 13, 2023 6 minutes

Almost as soon as I started using OctoPrint, I also set up an old webcam to let me remotely "see" things since I keep the printer in the basement. That whole process was an adventure, because I don't use a Raspberry Pi for OctoPrint like most folks; I have an old Intel NUC (also used as a local dev server) running Ubuntu on which I installed OctoPrint.

February 27, 2023 8 minutes

If you had disk/storage failure (on any of your important devices/things/places), would you be "up the creek?"

For many folks, the answer to that question is "absolutely."

February 13, 2023 5 minutes

One of my "winter break" projects this year was to get all of my disparate Ubuntu server instances upgraded and into parity.

January 30, 2023 8 minutes

I got hooked into 3D printing late last summer. A problem that cropped up after the first couple months of tinkering and relatively error-less printing was an issue with thermal runaway. Something I could correct for short periods of time, but never make totally go away...

January 16, 2023 4 minutes

See also: asking a friend for help can save oodles of time and effort.

Around Thanksgiving 2022, an friend of mine asked to talk through a problem he thought might be solvable with Powershell, but he'd been stuck on the design. Naturally, I agreed to help out if/where I could and it provided an opportunity to chat via Zoom which I am not one to turn down.

September 26, 2022 8 minutes

Once I settled on jumping into home automation and Home Assistant (HA), the first "practical" thing I wanted to address was the issue of lights being left on at random throughout the house.

September 12, 2022 6 minutes

About a month ago, I took the plunge.

After considering it for a long time and hearing about some cool stuff folks were doing with home automation, I decided it was time to start my own dabbling adventure. A warning to folks: home automation is a little bit like owning horses. There can be a bunch of expense in the process for little obvious reward.