██████ ██████ █████ █████ █████ ████ ███████ █████ █████████ ███████████ ██████████ ██████████ █████ █████ ▒▒██████ ██████ ▒▒███ ▒▒███ ▒▒███ ███▒ ███▒▒▒▒▒███ ▒▒███ ███▒▒▒▒▒███ ▒▒███▒▒▒▒▒▒█ ▒▒███▒▒▒▒███ ▒▒███▒▒▒▒▒█▒▒███ ▒▒███ ▒███▒█████▒███ ▒▒███ ███ ▒███ ███ ███ ▒▒███ ▒███ ▒███ ▒███ ▒███ █ ▒ ▒███ ▒▒███ ▒███ █ ▒ ▒███ ▒███ ▒███▒▒███ ▒███ ▒▒█████ ▒███████ ▒███ ▒███ ▒███ ▒███████████ ▒███████ ▒███ ▒███ ▒██████ ▒███ ▒███ ▒███ ▒▒▒ ▒███ ▒▒███ ▒███▒▒███ ▒███ ▒███ ▒███ ▒███▒▒▒▒▒███ ▒███▒▒▒█ ▒███ ▒███ ▒███▒▒█ ▒▒███ ███ ▒███ ▒███ ▒███ ▒███ ▒▒███ ▒▒███ ███ ▒███ █ ▒███ ▒███ ▒███ ▒ ▒███ ███ ▒███ ▒ █ ▒▒▒█████▒ █████ █████ █████ █████ ▒▒████ ▒▒▒███████▒ ███████████ █████ █████ █████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ▒▒███ ▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒

▗▖ ▗▖▗▖ ▗▖▗▖ ▗▖ ▗▄▖ ▗▖ ▗▄▖ ▗▄▄▄▖ ▐▛▚▞▜▌ ▝▚▞▘ ▐▌▗▞▘▐▌ ▐▌▐▌ ▐▌ ▐▌▐▌ ▐▌ ▐▌ ▐▌ ▐▛▚▖ ▐▌ ▐▌▐▌ ▐▛▀▜▌▐▛▀▀▘ ▐▌ ▐▌ ▐▌ ▐▌ ▐▌▝▚▄▞▘▐▙▄▄▖▐▌ ▐▌▐▌

My motivation for starting a homelab:

Take advantage of technology, not let technology take advantage of me:

Control the network (block ads using pihole)
Avoid subscriptions (self host media services w/ JellyFin)
Build simple things for myself only

There will be many more ideas as I implement the basics. Surely, there are challenges related to growing hardware prices, but it’s still worth it.

The current setup consists of an old laptop with Ubuntu, running Pi-hole and Home Assistant in docker-compose. Pi-hole is the first step and is here to stay. I’m still figuring out whether HA has the degree of customization I want. But there is a long list of to-dos and ideas before I really start with the smart home part.

P.S. This post is sponsored by procrastination. I really need to study for the computer vision exam!