Generating Colorful Random Backgrounds in the Browser

This is a short one because I was working on too many things at once and I wasn't able to get any of them done. So i figured I'd talk about a small thing I made a while back for some of my web pages. It's a random blurred color generator that creates random backgrounds every time it's rendered. I'll take you through my process of how I started with a prototype on the server side and slowly made my way to the final client side product.

Journey Into The Home Automation Sinkhole

Home automation. There have been many products, ecosystems, and clouds pushed over the years that claim they are The Best™ at automating your home. Recently with the wave of IoT devices, companies big and small, foreign and domestic, real and fake have been clamoring to get into the home automation space. This leads to fragmented homes with multiple devices running across multiple apps on your phone. If you decide to lock yourself into an ecosystem, it's expensive to get out. Hell, it's expensive to stay in some ecosystems (*cough* nest *cough*). But, the real question here (at least for me)... could we build a better smart home out of 'dumb' electronics or make electronics that are smart and extensible. Of course we can. Companies don't because they wouldn't make money that way.