Jimmie Lightner

Technology, Truth, and Common Sense

Category: Technology

  • Hi-Res Audio Surprise

    Just discovered my 2021 Audi SQ8 can play Hi-Res lossless audio! 24bit 192khz FLAC is apparently no big deal. WHO KNEW! I’ve got one of those 2TB SanDisk USB SSDs from Costco… yeah, that one. I don’t trust it for REAL work, but holding 600 gigs of FLAC and serving as my mobile jukebox? Yeahhhhh…

  • Petlibro Granary Smart Feeder Review

    Wow. I’m not typically moved to write a product review. You’d think it would be for something special, right? Like it was because something was mind blowingly awesome, riiiiight? NOPE! This review is for a thing that is a total piece of shit. Well, hang on, let me back up. The physical pet feeder itself…

  • My Problem with OpenClaw

    Honestly at this point I’m about done with OpenClaw and their misguided Doctor nonsense. Doctor warnings are probably great for the beginner who doesn’t understand the ramifications of the runtime choices being made. I’ve investigated nearly every setting, read the docs front to back, and explicitly hand-chosen and curated the configuration of the setup I’m…

  • No AI Slop

    I’m really starting to get tired of the AI written garbage all over the internet. Where’s the original content gone? Why’s every thought have to be augmented by an agent that makes it all bland and sound the same. I used to love being able to tell the difference between writers – now they’re starting…

  • Come say hi

    I spent some time this weekend playing around with Matrix federation. It’s… fascinating. I’ll leave it at that. Come say hi 🙂 https://matrix.to/#/@jimmie:matrix.homeroot.net

  • Breezeline tried to bill me for internet service that never worked

    Breezeline installed their “best” internet service at my house on March 28, 2026. Gigabit. Very impressive on paper. In real life, I couldn’t even use it. It did not work. That should have settled the question of whether I owed them a full month of service charges. Instead, it turned into one of those stupidly…

  • New Year, New Project

    For years, I’ve been… well, tinkering. And learning. And occasionally, saving myself a lot of frustration (and money!) by figuring things out for myself. I work in technology – specifically, at Microsoft – and that environment constantly fuels a desire to understand *how* things work, not just *that* they work. Over the years, friends and…

  • Home lab Network Upgrade Time

    I’ve had a Dell EMC S5148F-ON running in the core of my Home lab since September of 2020. That switch has been an absolute beast and a great learning tool for things like DCB and RDMA. My original justification for buying such a monstrosity was linking my Proxmox servers together with some dual port 25gbE…

  • Cloud Screening

    It’s that time again! I got the dreaded email on the Sunday before a holiday (gee, thanks guys) that my biannual background check is coming due in the next 90 days. Do you think they’ll see my website when they go looking for my boogyman? Sometimes being openly opinionated has downsides… I’m hoping the investigator…

  • Repairing Azure Local Connected Machine Extensions

    I’ve been futzing around with a Dell AX-4510c for a hot minute, trying to get Azure Local working in Azure Government. It’s not an easy task – things don’t “just work” and you’re going to spend a lot of time redoing things trying to get it right. One of the blunders I made while dorking…