Yearly Archives: 2017


ecobee4 with Amazon Alexa Voice Service 4
Today is the official launch of the ecobee4 smart thermostat: the latest in what’s now a long(ish) line of WiFi thermostats from the eponymous Toronto-based ecobee Inc. Whenever ecobee releases an even “smarter” version of their smart thermostat, you can pretty much guarantee I’m gonna be all over that product […]

ecobee4 Smart Thermostat Review


Google Fiber speed test of EdgeRouter Lite 7
Many moons ago, I replaced my Google Fiber Network Box with a UBNT EdgeRouter Lite router at our house in Provo, Utah… and never looked back! With a street price of under $90, the ER-Lite was a tough act to beat for the money. But later, when Ubiquiti Networks released the newer EdgeRouter […]

EdgeRouter X vs. EdgeRouter Lite Google Fiber Speed Tests


APC UPS Diagnostic Events interface
By default, if you configure a notification email address on an APC Smart-UPS, it will send you an email every time your UPS passes a self test. Depending on how often you have your UPS’s self tests scheduled, this can fill up your inbox or SMS alert system with messages you […]

How to Turn Off “UPS: Passed a Self-Test” Emails on ...



ecobee3 Lite calibration mode 1
Are you wanting to get on the smart thermostat bandwagon, but aren’t sure if it’s worth the $249 price tag of the full-featured models like the ecobee3 and Nest? Then has ecobee got a deal for you. They recently added the ecobee3 Lite to their line-up with a very tempting MSRP of […]

Review: ecobee3 Lite


Kernel Version vs Firmware Version 6
In March of last year, I published this article claiming that the latest (at the time) DD-WRT builds based on the Linux 2.6 kernel (K2.6) ran faster on a Linksys/Cisco E4200 router than their K3.x counterparts. Since then, I’ve heard apocryphal stories from some in the DD-WRT forums that the […]

DD-WRT K2.6 vs K3.x vs Tomato Router Firmware Head to ...