Technology Solutions for Everyday Folks

Welcome to Matt Zaske Online

Behind the scenes of Matt Zaske Online is Matt Zaske: automation evangelist, technology grief counselor, developer, systems admin, freelancer, father, moustache aficionado, and jack of all trades.

I provide practical advice, extraordinary ideas, and no-nonsense technology solutions for everyday folks. Let's work together to do something amazing!

Recent Tech-related Blog Posts:

December 4, 2023 3 minutes

I decided to post a quick follow-up to the original fix I'd implemented about ten months ago.

The $1M question was...

November 27, 2023 5 minutes

Man, it's embarrassing to see that I haven't published anything really technical (beyond my MMS Miami Beach recap) since the end of July...and before that anything on a regular schedule since April!

November 13, 2023 5 minutes

I had the great honor and pleasure of being a speaker at MMS Miami Beach Edition at the end of October. It was the first speaking event I've had since 2019, largely due to the pandemic, and the experience was marvelous! The entire team behind MMS is outstanding, and their attention to detail really makes a difference in the experience both for attendees and speakers.

July 31, 2023 4 minutes

I recently (and finally) upgraded my home network to a UniFi system after years of consideration and an incorrect assumption it would cost a small fortune to enact.

July 10, 2023 5 minutes

It's been a couple months since my last post, and while I had some things in the queue I have lacked time to finish them out due to MMS in early May, being involved in a community theatre production that just wrapped up a couple weeks ago, and for random reasons building a chicken coop of all things. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

April 24, 2023 8 minutes

For about two years we fought with getting firmware (BIOS) updates to install on our Dell Latitude 54X0 models during their build/rebuild using a MEMCM task sequence. No matter what random trick I tried or thing I read, I just couldn't get the update executable to successfully apply the update in our primary build/refresh task sequence.

April 10, 2023 9 minutes

Several years ago I implemented a mechanism in our primary [re]build [Configuration Manager/MEMCM/SCCM] task sequence to address upgrades of our fleet's firmware (BIOS). On the whole, the process has worked very well and definitely helped keep things updated.

March 27, 2023 10 minutes

It's been a while since I wrote about any Home Assistant stuff so I figured this was as a good time to write about something I'm super happy with: custom/reference sensor templates!

March 13, 2023 6 minutes

Almost as soon as I started using OctoPrint, I also set up an old webcam to let me remotely "see" things since I keep the printer in the basement. That whole process was an adventure, because I don't use a Raspberry Pi for OctoPrint like most folks; I have an old Intel NUC (also used as a local dev server) running Ubuntu on which I installed OctoPrint.