David J. Atkinson

@irmadlad Yes, and keep a copy offsite! A good friend’s house burned down in the recent Eaton Canyon fire. He and his family lost absolutely everything. Photos, letters, memorabilia — the story of their lives. A devastating loss. He had plenty of backups, but none stored elsewhere and the ones in his house were also thoroughly toasted. Friends are working to find copies of photos, but that is just a fraction of what was lost.

It isn’t hard to do backups, just a chore. I by a thumb drive every few months. A few terabytes is not too expensive and it is small. I backup to it and mail it to a family member. I know it is safe. Daily backups are better but more cumbersome. I back up weekly to hosted disk drives at a small Internet service provider.

@spitfire I said that but the fact is I don’t really know. But I’d like to know. I know #HA #HomeAssistant can launch apps and select channels on #AppleTV so I think it should be possible on iOS. Using webhooks maybe.

@just_another_person Turning on or off nightlights. Changing iOS focus (e.g., sleeping). Activating outside security monitoring… all kinds of interesting use cases.

@bus_factor Some of the #mmWave (Radar) Presence sensors may be able to detect bed presence through the mattress, mounted under frame. I have not tried this yet but I’ve been planning to. The Aqara FP-1 or Aqara FP-2 are candidates, but maybe too pricey for an experiment. The Apollo MTR-1 is far less expensive and excellent for short range. It is also small and with a sturdy enclosure you could easily place it between and mattress. These sensors can pick up very small motions, even the human heartbeat (sometimes through walls). I use both Aqara (easier set up) and Apollo MTR-1 for room and zone presence detection, with #HomeAssistant for integrated automation.