Author: Johannes Ernst

  • Desirable qualities for home IoT systems

    My post on Lowe’s killing off their home IoT product, Iris, kicked off an expert-level social media discussion on how IoT systems “ought” to be. Here’s a summary of what people said, grouped by subject, plus some implications. I figure it might be useful to keep this around for myself, and others, so I am […]

  • What could local network services for the Indie IoT look like?

    Peter Hoddie calls for (local area) networking services to enable the Indie IoT — an excellent direction of inquiry. Let’s explore what implications this has. [As for context, I have been using the term “Indie IoT” to describe a so-far aspirational Internet of Things that is controlled by the owners of IoT devices, not by […]

  • Notes on Postgresql authentication

    My notes on what I learned, so I can re-read them when I need to. And because they might be useful for somebody else, too, I post them here. Architecture: Completely unlike MySQL, Postgresql authentication is (can be) related to the Linux user accounts on the system. By default, after a fresh installation, at least […]

  • Paradux: a scheme to recover from maximum personal data disaster

    The recent California wildfires got me thinking: if my house and my town burned down so quickly that I did not have time to grab even my laptop or document binder, how would I recover my data, my accounts and my passwords? I’m not sure I could. I wrote about that earlier. Other calamities not […]

  • Doing some things a bit differently in 2019

    Not a New Year’s resolution, but I’ve decided to do a few things differently in 2019: 1. Opposing people spouting B—S—. I’m looking around, and there are entire swathes of population who cannot distinguish any more what is true and what is not. Or how to find out what is true and what is not. […]