So i have a pi5 8gb sorta collecting dust, ive mess with it a little but i have a laptop and im not sure what use to give the pi 5? i wanted to explore ai stuff but ai requires a powerhouse of a device? Im also thought about nas but i feel i dont need nas right now?
What would you advise i do with my pi?
The typical advice (from anyone who hasn’t outright drank the kool-aid) is to avoid automating things like locks or doors. If your shit gets hacked, you don’t want it to allow physical access. And automating door unlocks is an easy way to accidentally allow people into your house.
Instead, most try to focus on automation for things like lights turning off when you leave home, automatically dimming the lights when you start a movie, automatically stealing from billionaires when a new movie hits streaming services, blocking ads, self-hosting your own smart speakers to divest from Google/Amazon/etc, meal planning, etc…
Leave the locks dumb, because you can’t hack a pin and tumbler system. Leave building molotov cocktails dumb, because it can be a fun family activity.
I always like to think: what happens if some random hacker (either a bored teenager or hostile state) was able to control this thing?
Operating locks? Hell no. Controlling my thermostat/furnace? Hell no.
Monitoring locks? Like, having a sensor that indicates that a door or window is locked or unlocked and can notify you when it changes? Well, personally I still don’t do that because broadcasting to the internet that my window is unlocked seems dangerous, but I could also understand how that could be helpful, especially for people with OCD.
Controlling my window-mounted AC units? Mild inconvenience at worse. I could go without them in the summer and just be a bit uncomfortable (and some years I do to save money). They aren’t powerful enough to be dangerously cold. I could always unplug them or kick them off my wi-fi if I had to. Worst-case scenario is that someone runs up my electric bill if in away from home for a bit. The ability to change the settings, set automation, and monitor room temperatures remotely is convenient enough to be worth the risk.
Lights? No problem at all, especially because I still have dumb lights in some fixtures that I just don’t use often. So the worst-case scenario is that someone turns them on/off when I don’t want, and the solution is just… Unscrew the bulb, unplug the fixture, or flip the switch to cut the power. Or turn on a dumb light. LED’s are so efficient that I probably wouldn’t notice a difference on my electric bill if all of my lights were on vs off for a full billing period. In exchange, I’m able to use light turning on as a much gentler alarm in the morning, or turn everything off from bed when I’m ready to sleep, or if I’m out at a friend’s house it’s nice to have lights on before I go home.
Each piece of automation is its own evaluation. What could go wrong, and how much damage would that cause? What information do I care about potentially being leaked? How much efficiency and convenience am I getting in return?