Posts

SwiftShelf: A tvOS Client for Audiobookshelf

SwiftShelf is a tvOS client designed for Audiobookshelf, leveraging SwiftUI to provide a seamless and engaging interface for audiobook management. The emphasis on authenticated playback ensures a secure and user-friendly experience, allowing users to navigate their libraries efficiently. The architecture is built around a clean API interaction model using Bearer authentication, focusing on performance and responsiveness in a tvOS environment. Architecture/Technical Overview At its core, SwiftShelf employs a client-server model where it communicates with the Audiobookshelf API to fetch audiobooks and user data. The app is designed for concurrent operations, allowing multiple API requests to be processed simultaneously while maintaining a responsive UI. The in-memory caching for cover images enhances performance by reducing load times during browsing.

Sunday, October 19, 2025 | 3 minutes Read

Syllabus: Series Release Tracker

If you’re a reading enthusiast like me, you know the pain: finding out your favorite series dropped a new book three months ago because you forgot to check Audible. Never again. Syllabus is my solution—a self-hosted Go web app that scrapes Audible and Amazon to track series release dates. Multi-threaded scraping, SQLite persistence, real-time updates via SSE, and iCal exports. Architecture The core is a multi-threaded web scraper with 4 concurrent workers that pull series metadata from Audible and Amazon. I’m using SQLite for persistence (stored at ./data/syllabus.db) with automatic schema migrations, so upgrading is painless.

Sunday, October 19, 2025 | 2 minutes Read

Ulanzi TC001 + Awtrix2 + Home Assistant

When I first stumbled across the Ulanzi TC001 on Mastodon, I knew I had to have one. A sleek pixel display that costs a quarter of what you’d pay for a LaMetric Time? Sold. Building the Perfect Notification Display Getting this thing integrated into my smart home setup was a blast. I spun up an Awtrix2 server in Docker, wired it into my Node-Red flows via MQTT, and suddenly had the power to push custom notifications with pixel-perfect icons to my desk. Weather updates, build statuses, package deliveries—all at a glance.

Tuesday, February 14, 2023 | 1 minute Read

ES15 + Home Assistant

So here’s the thing about the Echo Show 15: Amazon really doesn’t want you messing with it. But where’s the fun in that? Update: Amazon locked this down in February 2023, so if you picked up a newer device, you’re probably out of luck. But for those who got in early—this one’s for you. The Vision I had a simple goal: turn this 15-inch wall-mounted display into the ultimate media dashboard. Imagine walking by and seeing what’s playing across all your services—Paramount+, Disney+, Kodi, whatever—with gorgeous artwork that updates in real-time. No Echo, no Alexa skills, just pure Home Assistant goodness piped through Fully Kiosk Browser.

Saturday, February 4, 2023 | 2 minutes Read

OMV - Dell OptiPlex 7040 Micro SFF Homelab

When people think “homelab,” they picture rack-mounted servers humming away in a closet. Me? I went the opposite direction with a tiny Dell OptiPlex 7040 Micro running Open Media Vault. Why This Machine? The OptiPlex 7040 Micro is one of those perfect homelab finds—enterprise surplus hardware that’s powerful enough to handle real workloads but small enough to disappear on a shelf. It’s whisper-quiet, sips power, and has enough horsepower to run everything I need.

Saturday, February 4, 2023 | 2 minutes Read