Month: November 2025

What a struggle it was to get through this book, but thanks to perseverance and excited how the story would end, I managed to complete it.

The novel is a puzzle by design. Not to frustrate, but to force the reader into the same uncertainty the characters live in.

Reflecting back on the mangled contents and what I can piece together, the following questions pique my curiosity:

• Am I human because of origin or behavior?
• If identity is inherited, can it be stolen?
• If identity is performed, does origin matter at all?
• If aliens become human in mind, are they alien anymore?

Like the characters, we can never be sure. And that unsettling ambiguity is the answer.

Shape shifting identity where the division between human and alien no longer separates the two.

Still not sure how the book ended, maybe another read some time could clear up the many ambiguities (or not).

Here it is, my own little pi-hole ad blocker which I managed to build from scratch using my own hands.

Some helpful references:

# Pi-hole
Network-wide Ad Blocking
https://pi-hole.net/

## Pi-hole Made EASY - A Complete Tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_EfmKdP2ng

## The Firebog - The Big Blocklist Collection:
https://firebog.net/

## Commonly whitelisted domains:
https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/commonly-whitelisted-domains/212

## Barton Bytes DNS over TLS:
https://bartonbytes.com/posts/configure-pi-hole-for-dns-over-tls/

## How to Install Raspberry Pi 5 & X1200 UPS & X1200-C1 Metal Case:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKlRIPLSck0&t=52s

## Unbound - Pi-hole as All-Around DNS Solution
Secure dns for all outgoing requests.
https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/dns/unbound/

## Geekworm X2100
Geekworm X1200 2-Cell 18650 5.1V 5A UPS HAT for Raspberry Pi 5 Series
https://geekworm.com/products/x1200?srsltid=AfmBOor9h0PNlO8EVIuuWLLGBZGXh7ELEwD9iLnNudADdCC7Myor7kk2

## Wiki
https://wiki.geekworm.com/X1200

## https://www.nkon.nl/en/
Samsung INR18650-35E 3400mAh - 8A (production year 2025)

## Power management script for monitoring supply and authomatic shutdown at threshhold:
https://suptronics.com/Raspberrypi/Power_mgmt/x120x-v1.0_software.html

## More blacklists:
https://pastebin.com/h1sSSSjH

## Checking your Raspberry Pi's view of its power supply
https://share.google/DrBWsob6fZowYGTDb 

## Pi.alert
https://github.com/pucherot/Pi.Alert

Crontab low voltage shutdown (according to ChatGPT):

You don't actually use *crontab itself* to detect the low voltage -- you use a small script that checks the voltage status, and then you schedule that script in crontab.

On a Raspberry Pi, the usual way to detect undervoltage is via:

```bash
vcgencmd get_throttled
```

This returns a hex bitmask. If bit 0 or 16 is set, the Pi is/was undervolted.

Below is a complete solution:

---

## 1. Enable `vcgencmd` and test it

Make sure `vcgencmd` works:

```bash
vcgencmd get_throttled
```

You should see something like:

```text
throttled=0x0
```

If it's nonzero, some throttle/undervolt flags are set.

---

## 2. Create the low-voltage check script

Create a script, e.g.:

```bash
sudo nano /usr/local/sbin/check_low_voltage.sh
```

Paste this into it:

```bash
#!/bin/bash

# Simple low-voltage check for Raspberry Pi
# Uses vcgencmd get_throttled and performs a controlled shutdown
# if undervoltage is detected.

LOGFILE="/var/log/low_voltage_monitor.log"

# Ensure vcgencmd exists
if ! command -v vcgencmd >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') - ERROR: vcgencmd not found" >> "$LOGFILE"
    exit 1
fi

THROTTLED_RAW=$(vcgencmd get_throttled 2>/dev/null)

# Expected format: "throttled=0x50000" or similar
VALUE_HEX=$(echo "$THROTTLED_RAW" | awk -F= '{print $2}')

# Strip leading "0x" if present
VALUE_HEX=${VALUE_HEX#0x}

# Convert hex to decimal
VALUE_DEC=$((16#$VALUE_HEX))

# Bit 0  (0x00001): under-voltage currently detected
# Bit 16 (0x10000): under-voltage has occurred since last reboot

UNDER_VOLTAGE_NOW=$((VALUE_DEC & 0x1))
UNDER_VOLTAGE_PAST=$((VALUE_DEC & 0x10000))

if [ "$UNDER_VOLTAGE_NOW" -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') - CRITICAL: undervoltage detected now (throttled=$THROTTLED_RAW). Initiating shutdown." >> "$LOGFILE"
    /usr/sbin/shutdown -h now "Undervoltage detected - shutting down to protect system."
elif [ "$UNDER_VOLTAGE_PAST" -ne 0 ]; then
    # Optional: treat "has occurred" as a warning only
    echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') - WARNING: undervoltage has occurred in the past (throttled=$THROTTLED_RAW)." >> "$LOGFILE"
else
    # All good
    echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') - OK: no undervoltage (throttled=$THROTTLED_RAW)." >> "$LOGFILE"
fi
```

Save and exit.

Make it executable:

```bash
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/check_low_voltage.sh
```

### About "threshold"

The Pi doesn't let you specify a numeric voltage threshold directly; it just flags "undervoltage" based on its own internal threshold (~4.63 V on 5 V rail). The script above treats *any* active undervoltage flag as critical and shuts down.

If you want a "softer" threshold, you can, for example, only shut down after multiple consecutive detections -- I can add that logic if you'd like.

---

## 3. Add to root's crontab

Edit root's crontab:

```bash
sudo crontab -e
```

Add a line like this to check every minute:

```cron
* * * * * /usr/local/sbin/check_low_voltage.sh
```

Or every 5 minutes:

```cron
*/5 * * * * /usr/local/sbin/check_low_voltage.sh
```

Cron will run it as root, which is required to call `shutdown`.

---

## 4. Quick test (without actually shutting down)

Before enabling the real shutdown, you can comment out the `shutdown` line and replace it with an `echo`, run the script manually, then restore the shutdown command once you're confident:

```bash
sudo /usr/local/sbin/check_low_voltage.sh
tail -n 20 /var/log/low_voltage_monitor.log
```

---

If you tell me how aggressive you want the shutdown behavior (immediate vs. after X consecutive low-voltage detections), I can tweak the script to include counters and a configurable "threshold" for number of hits.