DIY voice assistant part 3: Temperature sensors and weather information

May 19, 2020 · 13 min read · raspberry-pi raspbian ·

In the last part of this series we linked Rhasspy and Node-RED to teach the assistant its first function: reading the current date and time. In this part we will focus on measuring temperature via the internet and DIY temperature guards based on ESP32 and MQTT.

DIY temperature guard

Temperature sensors are cheap and …

Short tip: Forgot WSL root password

May 4, 2020 · 1 min read · debian ·

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If you forget the root password (or a user password) of your WSL installation (Windows Subsystem for Linux), using the registry might help you. Because WSL is rather a lightweight kernel expansion than a full-featured VM, the typical live-CD trick (mounting the filesystem and running chroot) won't help.

Below the path …

DIY voice assistant part 2: Linked components and first function

Apr 29, 2020 · 9 min read · node-red raspberry-pi raspbian rhasspy ·

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In the last part of this series we checked-out and installed software for building our own voice assistant without leverage cloud resources. In this article we will focus on linking both Rhasspy and Node-RED. At the end, the assistant will learn it's first function.

Desired state

As we already know from the last …

Short tip: Migrate Git repository with history

Apr 26, 2020 · 1 min read · github gitlab ·

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Recently, I had to migrate a bigger amount of git repositories from one software to another provider. One requirement was to copy the whole project including commit history and tags. Fortunately, it was easy to automate this process.

First of all the former repository needs to be cloned - if not done, yet:

1$ git clone …

DIY voice assistant part 1: Software options and installation

Apr 24, 2020 · 8 min read · node-red raspberry-pi raspbian rhasspy ·

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Voice assistants are omnipresent gadgets loved by technophile geeks. They support ad-hoc tasks (set tee timer, announce outdoor temperature) and integrate flawlessly into home automation and other third-party systems. Unfortunately, data privacy is often subordinated with these kind of gadgetry. Using various …
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Create multi-arch Docker images for Docker

Apr 9, 2020 · 5 min read · docker ·

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Docker has been supporting multiple processor architecture for a long time - including x86_64 and ARMv6/7 being the most well-known ones. In addition to them, aarch64/arm64 (ARMv8+), s390x (IBM z Systems) and ppc64le (IBM POWER) are also possible.

Images can be created for multiple architectures in a parallel manner …

Compile Pico TTS on Raspbian

Mar 31, 2020 · 2 min read · raspberry-pi raspbian ·

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To translate text into voice, a TTS software (Text-to-Speech) is required. Under Linux there are basically two free tools: CMU Flite and eSpeak.

CMU Flite (festival-lite) exists since 2001 and is therefore considered a veteran in speech synthesis under Linux, eSpeak was first released in 2006. From a sound perspective, …

The agony of choice: a new notebook

Nov 18, 2019 · 13 min read · dell hp thinkpad ·

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If you‘re also working in IT, you will know the problem: new software always brings new requirements and at some point even powerful hardware is not adequate anymore. Even for private use-cases it might be a good idea to replace hardware after 5 years - even if you won‘t get any tax benefits. 🙂 Recently, I had to …
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SLE 15 Unified Installer - is less actually more?

Oct 8, 2019 · 5 min read · sles ·

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SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 (SLES) not only introduced new software packages - another big update was making those packages more modular. In comparison to predecessor releases, SLES has a generic installation media for the first time. Earlier versions had dedicated images for products such as SLES for SAP or SUSE …
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Short tip: Clone Git repository via SSH and SOCKS proxy

Aug 13, 2019 · 1 min read · gitlab kurztipp ·

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When using tools such as GitLab can cloned via HTTP and SSH. Especially the second choice can be handy if there is no VPN available - but keep in mind, also sending DNS via the jumphost.

The first step is establishing a SSH connection leveraging port forwarding:

1$ ssh -A -D 1337 USER@IP -i pinkepank.key

Afterwards, …