Another great episode, thanks!
Iâve been wondering about pi-hole. Anyone here using pi-hole seamlessly with Eero? They offer their paid Eero Secure service but you need to use them as your DNS.
Almost forgot, I may try NextDNS (looks like itâs really just more or less pi-hole in the cloud? you use them as your DNS ( https://nextdns.io )?
Thanks!
Just a small note to say that just because the UK isnât part of the EU we are still part of the continent of Europe 
Iâm using it! Here in the UK we donât have Eero secure, but it works perfectly for me. I will note that Iâm not using my Eeros as HomeKit routers as that messes up custom DNS setups. Iâm just running PiHole on a Raspberry Pi 4, along with HomeBridge and some other nerdy things.
@RosemaryOrchard can you tell me how you use your Aqara window and door sensors as part of hour automations? I bought 8 of them and currently use them to monitor bathroom/kitchen windows, etc but thatâs about it.
I really want to get the Switchbot Curtains but canât justify buying 4 units for one room.
I will be using your suggestion of an Aqara vibration sensor on my office chair.
I have them linked to lights, sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly. E.g., if itâs between sunset and sunrise and I open one outside door, it turns on lights in that living room. Opening the windows or doors in a room with electric heaters, turns off the heaters until the window or door closes. The indirect actions are using a HomeBridge plugin for occupancy.
I also have one on my airer, if itâs open and the humidity level in my hallway is above 50%, then it turns on the dehumidifier. When I close it then the dehumidifier turns off. The dehumidifier also automatically turns on and off regardless at certain humidity levels, but the laundry being out to dry widens the parameters for it.
And, when I go to bed I run a shortcut, it tells me if any windows or doors to the outside are open.
Thank you, I will have to try that HomeBridge plugin, I use Philips Hue lights everywhere so this might come in handy. I have the Tado smart radiator values so could hook them up to turn off the radiator when a window is open.
The one room in my house which is mine is my tiny 7ftx7ft study. I would like to fully automate my lighting in this room without having to press the wall switch (like a cave man). I have a meeting indicator Hue spotlight outside my door which turns to red when I am in a meeting, I would like to be able to sync this up with my Google calendar so that it comes on when I have a meeting scheduled.
I love home automation.
This made me laugh: âOn Automators we go super deep and nerdy (âŠ)â.
You mean using TextExpander and Keyboard Maestro? It may be one (tiny) step further than what the average Joe does with his Mac or iPad. But to call that super deep and nerdyâŠ
Automators goes a fair deeper and nerdier into programming for KM and other things, yes. I donât actually have enough time on my hands to follow it at the moment, unfortunately.
The average Joe would not touch the deeper things covered there (it ainât what you do, itâs the way that you do it, as the ancient proverb says).
Here we are deep and nerdy in a different aspect.
Iâve gone with a hosted solution, and NextDNS is really good and can work with Eero - as just use it for DNS settings.
Apps for Mac and iOS so my daughter and wife are on their on profiles.
Great episode, as youâd expect⊠I had to laugh around the 11 minute mark when @RosemaryOrchard remembered talking to someone about the proper dock locationâŠ
âŠshe just didnât remember who.
HrmâŠ
Isnât the dock incredibly far away on the right if you are at the other end?
Sometimes, but I rarely use the dock itself. My app launcher is Alfred, and I have a great mouse! (Logitech MX Master 3.)
Thatâs been my reasoning. Purely personal preference, but on large monitors, I put the dock at the bottom, set on autohide, because itâs slightly annoying (to me) to drag the cursor across the wide screen to get to the side. I guess could avoid this and take advantage of the screen real estate by setting up a keystroke in Keyboard Maestro to jump the cursor to the side.
Even with a 27" display + 13" MacBook Air the Dock can be far away, thatâs why I have a keyboard shortcut to move the dock where I want it
I took my cue from ââ„D being âHide/Show the Dockâ (this is a standard macOS shortcut)
â„D = my Keyboard Maestro macro to move the dock: left » center » right » leftâŠ
â„â§D = my Keyboard Maestro macro to move the dock right » center » left » right
same here, and I use â+Tab or Alfred far more than the Dock. I mostly just use the dock to notice badges as I have most notifications turned off, and definitely almost all notification sounds, but I allow badges for some things.
Yes, I think now they could remove the Dock as a feature and I wouldnât notice. I never see it, I use Alfred on one machine and the native search thing on the other and hide the dock on both, I never even run the cursor round the bottom of the screen so I never even see it âaccidentallyâ now. No badges either, I have never used them,
Iâve heard discussion about people accessing their Mac from their iPad on this episode and some other podcasts. What are people finding the best app and/or service combination for this use case?
Jump Desktop for ios.