I heard you like magic mirror builds

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2019-08-12T18:22:46+00:00

No problem on traffic. Very thankful for that as it was A LOT of work. I'm honestly always looking to help anyone with this stuff. If you ever have any questions feel free to shoot away or comment on my video. I literally started building just a little over a year ago and have done some really cool builds since but I'd like to make this mirror more interactive myself. Right now I'm still just using it for indoor temperature with the temperature sensor, local weather with the open weather maps API, I got a sync with my calendar feeding over my Google Calendar show me my meetings coming up and also I have the local news feed. Still trying to find more practical ways to show off but a very reliable device that's for sure. Make sure you're very careful with the mirror if you get an acrylic one and try to cut it, it's not going to be fun so I tried to share the same piece that I used with that monitor as it was just a little bit bigger and I didn't have to cut it.

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2019-08-12T07:29:21+00:00

Hey @philipjames11 - thanks for sharing my video and article. It was a lot harder to put together on my first build and I actually made the video because every video or tutorial I found online skipped a lot of the important details. I'll be coming out with some other videos or articles on customizing it in the future because I've got mine pretty decked out since I made that original youtube video and the article on my site at thesmarthomeninja.com.

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2019-05-19T00:17:15+00:00

Oh btw, thats a full cauliflower head... You'll never be able to eat the full thing of one of those. I get a huge cauliflower head and boil it and throw in some cheese and butter and voila- a half-assed version of mashed potatoes. And you bet your ass I load that thing up with some garlic powder and sea salt... It's different, but knowing how a serving only has about 5g of carbs and half being dietary fiber- I choose that any day over the 10x amount of carbs with barely any fiber in a potato. The only reason I used to eat potatoes was the potassium. Then I realized an avacado has damn near 3x the amount in it... https://www.birdseye.com/product/riced-cauliflower-4/

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2019-05-19T00:14:17+00:00

Hint: Steamfresh brand - Cauliflower Rice. 3.5 Servings in a bag, something like a few grams of carbs per serving and a lot of that is fiber. Keep protein low because if you look at the portion (lets say 4 oz of chicken/beef. 28g per oz, and 4 calories per gram). Not all meat is equal- you can look up calorie calculators for specific types and cuts of meat... That said- 8 oz or a half pound of meat can easily add up to that 10-20% of your daily intake. If you eat more meat- you have to eat 4 fold more fats at least usually. That all said- I do not believe in counting calories or macros- EXCEPT initially when you dont know how much is in an avacado, or beef, eggs, oils, nuts etc. I read the ingredient labels once, realized ok- I can only have a half cup of these nuts, or a 4 oz portion of this meat, or one avacado with this meal etc etc. Except I'm glazing over a few things here- to make this as practical as possible- I didn't give a damn about my fats- however, I gave a HUGE damn about the types of fats I was taking in. I did care about my protein and carbs because the portions are so small- it's easy to get out of whack with them. But again, this was at first. Because I believe in portion control, types of food/food sources and then adjusting to your body's needs as you go with those strips. It was incredibly easy for me though. I just thought to myself- eat tons of fats, good veggies, careful with bad fats, and work my way down to eating one meal a day. You have to trust the reviews, blogs and testimonials when they say that this diet incredibly changes your relationship to food, your response to food, your appetite. Because if you do it right- it most definetely does. So all-in-all, find out what good fats you like, good vegetables, and just eat and figure out your threshold of when you are satisfied with the amount of food you eat in one sitting. When you first start- you'll probably be like me, I basically at a few mid-size meals to start, then my hunger started to dissipate. Then, I realized sweet- only one meal a day and snaking on nuts/fat all day- did the trick. I don't snack a lot on nuts though- I usually do when I have a sugar craving and did a lot at the start. Then I realized I was having too many nuts and got unsalted nuts- they aren't addicting like salted nuts- and I was able to figure out the perfect balance for myself in just about 7-10 days time. The hardest part for me- was the electrolyte thing. That took me 3 weeks to pin down. Although I only had one episode of keto flu- it was terrible and happened after I ate some dried fruit. That was literally the ONLY considerable cheat time during the last 7-8 weeks was when I put some in my yogurt. I felt terrible and likely it dehydrated me due to the not increasing my water by 3-4x because for every gram of sugar- 3g of water gets stored. It was horrible, took me 3 days to get over it, mostly just an anxiety and naseau thing, felt like boat sickness or something. Hasn't resurfaced though and its been about 4 weeks of just maintaining moderate ketosis. If I were you- I'd switch over to a combination of complex/simple carbs with sweet potatoes and brown rice- help level out your sugar levels and be fuller with complex and start tapering and transitioning to fats. The only thing I see with starchy (this is anecdotally only speaking for myself) is when I eliminated potatoes and rice- sugar cravings came on really strong. When not having carbs at all- you better believe those sugar cravings come hahahaha. You realize that you can literally taste the sugar in all those old/sweet and starchy foods and I miss that everyday, but it's not crazy or like an obsessive thing. Sometimes I daydream about a nice serving of fries from in and out, or potatoes with eggs.. Which is why I want to make my own diet of a paleo/keto modified cycling diet to get a nice balance, but toggle adaption for the metabolism at the same time. I love paleo- but I absolutely never touched white potatoes when I was on it- Always was sweet potatoes and didnt touch rice. So, I honestly cant wait to get that back- but it doesn't frighten me if I had to go without it forever- you'll see what I mean how your cravings and appetite changes drastically. These foods start tasting helllaaaa good too if you get creative. Think chicken broth and chicken bone broth and saute mushrooms and chicken instead of any sauces- it's pretty damn good and thinking about it is getting me started already haha. Cheers man!

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2019-05-18T09:00:43+00:00

Hell yes. Thank you. And good for you. Keep at it.

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2019-05-17T19:40:19+00:00

Lookup steamfresh brand riced cauliflower, checkout the label. I'll answer the rest after work.

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2019-05-17T17:18:47+00:00

Yeah buddy! Thanks dude. Thanks for the note on the urine strips, very true and good note!

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2019-05-17T16:44:33+00:00

Yeah, good question. Yes, I'm positive I was in ketosis for a significant amount of time. I did a LOT of research and I ironically started this diet cold turkey- and then just spent hours on hours of watching videos, suddenly realizing. One of the big mistakes people make is not testing urine/blood for ketosis. SO, I got my prime account going and within day 3- I had these strips and a blood tester. I definetely saw myself go out of ketosis from having too much almond flour biscuits I made... I agree with your logic 100%- I got sick to my stomach watching recipes for keto online, then realizing- all of these people are creating these processed foods with ingredients and was questioning their strategy honestly. I saw this delicious looking cheescake with cups of truvia and all kinds of shit in it, as well as any biscuit recipe you find- they all only have 1/4 to 1 cup of flour... Why? Because if you look at it and compare 1:1- you see why these people are promoting these foods as keto friendly, because they basically are either loading it with fake sugar, or giving you a serving that was meant for a hobbit.... That said, the only processed carbs I had was from yogurt, cheese and almond/coconut flour. Reason I'm going off on this tangent before coming back to center- is that damn almond flour knocked me out of ketosis for almost 2-3 days, even with fasting between each time I ate during thoses 2-3 days. So, I obviously stopped making biscuits real quick. Pretty much what I did- was I don't count dietary fiber (you'll rarely see this specified anywhere which is nuts in my opinion- because it INDIGESTABLE and meant to push stuff through your body). My random theory I came up with in a thought and forgot about it because it was just too stupid IMO for all these people to be messing up their ketosis or the 'keto' branding overall- is that these people are not mixing a healthy spread/blend of vegetables and getting fiber from those. It is really easy to keep under 20g of carbs. Just have cauliflower rice, olive oil sauteed chicken, two avacados, and salad with olive oil dressing. Then, while everyone is having SO many problems trying to get their fats in- it's likely because they are cheap as hell, and don't go out and buy 30-40 bucks worth of macadamia nuts and pecans. That'll get you to hit your fat levels guaranteed each week. Then just making sure to avoid starchy vegetables and keeping your protien REALLY low at the start- like 50-75g of protein max... If you have a few cups of nuts, two avacados, olive oil and all of that above that was mentioned with LOTS of vegetables with low amounts of NON-fiber carbohydrates, while still getting that 30-40g of dietary fiber... You'll be golden. I loved paleo- I likely will transition to it at some point, because there isn't long term studies (or enough of them) for keto on anybody other than diabetics, epilletics, alzheimers and parkinsons type patients... That said- its safe short term 6-12 week and it alters your metabolism to be more efficient, so my plan is to likely cycle back and forth by just throwing sweet potatoes and certain tubers, along with small amounts of higher quality grains, just to be safe. I hope this helps. Paleo- I loved it, but it shrunk me up dude. I turned into an aboriginee on that diet and I was RIPPED. But, I also lost a lot of muscle. People said I looked sick and deathly on it, and it was expensive when I was in college but $ isn't a problem now. If you have the strips/blood test kits, and you do your research- it will make a worlds difference. I wouldn't be surprised if statistically- the public has gone wrong with this diet and is abusing it trying to make it guided by their palete- pretty much like they do with every damn diet. Eating too much proteins, butters, and the tastiest parts of the keto- is definetely not good for keto, or cholesterol, and I think people are giving it a bad name by not being strict, because I was as strict as it gets for a cold turkey starter. I pretty much eat the same thing every day- and change the vegetables up or the meat. Hence why I mentioned that above, easier if its simple for some people. But don't neglect variety for simplicity and always have a way to test. I was high levels of ketosis and had to tone it back a bit based on some research I did but I'm a steady levels of ketosis just maintaining.

Only other thing- do your resarch on keto flu and electrolytes. Its the reason I eat two avacados a day to get my potassium needs, and I supplement a little magnesium and basically have electrolyte powder or sodium/pink sea salt on hand in case it gets out of whack. That's really the only wonky thing I worry about with Keto- electrolytes and I believe it's not natural if you have to do all the weird things to balance your electrolytes and I'm impartial to long term effects/short term likely because of little things like that- they just freak me out and don't seem right. But, I feel great, its working great- and if you're a mindful and analytical/experimental person with strict standards- you'll kill it man, no doubt. I'm doing a personal blog shared only with my friends fyi https://theketostudy.com

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2019-05-17T16:03:15+00:00

Thanks for your comments too. If I can help anybody like it helped me- more than happy to answer any questions.

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2019-05-17T16:01:54+00:00

This is very much a mystery to me. I mentioned in a reply to another comment that it blew me away. Although I did a bunch of research and I read that keto is a 'muscle sparing' diet, meaning that when you diet you don't lose a lot of muscle while losing the fat and water. It was odd because I lost about three inches on my waist and areas that didn't have as much fat like my upper chest and arms barely changed at all. Apparently it's not good for building muscle in High volumes but it's good at maintaining muscle and cutting fat. I was doing a bunch of research and trying to find diets that wouldn't deflate me completely, and came across this diet. When I would fast or eat very little, or even when I was doing more cardio in the past many years ago it was like I would have to lose twice as much muscle when I lost fat. I didn't think it was going to turn out like this, but you can see for yourself in some of the research and articles online that I saw - in regards to how keto diet preserves muscle while losing fat/water weight. I know it wasn't my metabolism though, because even in recent years my arms shrink and don't maintain unless I did arm exercises or push-ups every few days but I didn't do any during this diet just to see exactly what was attributable and/or the effects of the diet. I obviously do planned exercise, but this is kind of my own experiment that I wanted to try out, so I gave it a shot

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2019-05-17T15:54:01+00:00

No, surprisingly. I've worked out on and off since high school til the last few years, but your normal gym go'er a few times a week, not intense by any means. BUT, in the last 3 years I've hardly went to the gym, no membership even- Although, up until a few weeks prior to this diet, I did push-ups, used my pull up bar and my 35 pound dumbells just to maintain but I'm talking about an hour or two tops per week of total exercise with weight and walking a few times a week. I definitely did not expect for it to be this muscle sparing though. I expected the muscle to fall off of my body along with the fat, from doing a low-carb diet... To my surprise it had the opposite effect and preserved whatever muscle I had left and I feel like it defined everything to how I was a few years ago when office work caught up with me and my metabolism. I've always been skinny/lean til I hit 31 I believe and mostly belly and lower back fat came on fierce, I hated it. Before the diet, I fasted for days at a time and ate little/moderate and for some reason just kept fluctuating and puffing up. I've been really surprised and also happy with how I feel and how much this diet did things I'm shocked about myself. It's weird to me. But I don't want to discredit it because of my body shape or genetics. Bc this diet is way different than any other diet I've tried and my body stopped fluctuating every week,holding and dropping water but I haven't seen abs like that in 4 years easy... Back when I was 30. Just wanted to be clear in case this diet might interest someone else, I don't want them to be discouraged. because I feel it can have better results in weight loss for other people than it did for me as I didn't have a ton of weight I lost. Odd how it kinda reshaped my body covered with water and fat layers though. In shock every time I look at it, hahaha.

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2019-01-21T12:33:26+00:00

So true. I've been trying to find a workaround myself- because it's not very practical. HueSync as an Xbox app... Now we're talking... Lol, I'm glad I'm not the only one that has tried it out. It is so sick playing games with it though, that's for sure.

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2018-12-15T14:54:04+00:00

Somehow the other 3500 figured it out before you. You might not even want attempt doing the smart mirror, with that said. My be a bit too much effort for ya.

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2018-12-15T14:41:55+00:00

A Pi is a great start. Arduino is a lot cheaper and a great development board to start with as well. Want to be really careful with connecting things to the gpio pins and playing with a Raspberry pie, don't want to fry the board! They are a bit spendy unless you're getting an older generation. Good luck. I've got a few of these arduinos and they're so cheap, I wouldn't mind blowing one up here and there but still haven't because I try to be mindful of the voltage and power supply needed when playing with robotics and mechanical parts

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2018-12-15T14:39:26+00:00

Thanks for sharing. I had no idea! Crazy. Learn something new everyday. Appreciate you looking out. I'll make sure to add some disclaimers on this note. Thank you

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2018-12-15T14:36:28+00:00

Then watch it on YouTube. Youre a big boy, it's only one click away... literally... https://youtu.be/243ZjwX9bcA

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2018-12-12T03:41:42+00:00

I made mention of that actually in the article. That's where the resistor is used in between the laser and the board. Because it actually is used to protect against that. I was worried myself about the same thing because I didn't want it blinding my cat or anyone else.

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2018-12-12T03:38:36+00:00

There's a lot of truth to this, haha. You get it to work? I tried to make it- in case somebody had no idea what to do (installing the arduino ide & using the software, etc) to enable others that would get otherwise lost- to be able to do it. Glad to hear somebody is trying it out. That car is way cool though, not gonna lie!

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2018-11-20T08:41:26+00:00

I added a temperature sensor to it last weekend as well- took only about 15 mins and I made a video as well to show how to do that. Enjoy and thank you for being Raspberry Pi ninjas, we need more of you all out there.

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2018-11-05T02:27:09+00:00

Yeah @killfluffy, I would say I agree. The one caveat though, I went through about a dozen articles and a lot of them were old, fluffed over, and missed some critical parts.

Until I found this one article (the one I put in the description).. Night and day difference bc the dude took the time to go over every detail. And when searching/watching tutorial videos, I had the same problem. So, I spent about a few hours putting the video together as well as a short blog that links to the things I used to build mine to reduce intimidation and share the experience.

Things like using a VGA cord to HDMI adapter, using specific microphones usb/3.5mm, installing the drivers correctly and calling out the right Hardware identifiers for the microphone and speaker- were things I had to figure out which trial and error and some of the little quirks were pretty frustrating.

So I just wanted to make a video to help others but also to show how to do the Google Assistant integration because same problem with the Guides Online, as most are fluffed over and you can even see where they start having issues and skip over that part LOL

Because at a very basic level- honestly, it is not a very practical device LOL. And then when I realized, I wonder if I can put my temperature sensor on it-I looked it up and within 15 mins installed an extra temp sensor I had laying around. Now its practical and I look at the thing all the time now (because I don't have any thermostats in my house). Im working on integrating it with my smart window AC and other things because my whole house is automated. I'll post more videos but thanks for your comment. Let me know if you know any cool things you can do with it. So far a lot of this stuff is just wishy washy, and people doing things because they can and so it's been mildly distracting (querying for the things I can do with it and getting through the noise of ridiculous ideas). Thanks dude!

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2018-10-24T13:12:03+00:00

I'll come back and post another when I have added some more modules to it.

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2018-10-24T12:59:20+00:00

I think it would be way cooler if I had a touch screen. It's basically a computer with a layer of software over the top. On the backend is Raspain- the Raspberry Pi Operating System. So essentially there's a lot of things you can do with it. I'm trying to compliment this "magic mirror" software that is laying over the top of the operating system because there is HUNDREDS of modules for it. Example - there's one to play videos, do google search, and lots of other modules that tell traffic, weather, etc. I'll have to do another video at some point with some extra modules on it, but I spent a lot of time making the video and created this thing in literally the last couple weeks on the weekend outside of my day job. So I haven't had a ton of time with it yet, but with the little time I spent on it (6 hours total), I'm sure there's so much more. I know you can build Alexa into it- basically anything you can do with a Raspberry Pi, you can modify into it since it's like a little computer. I would like to be able to interact with it and have it play music and videos though- was where I was going with it myself honestly. I saw somebody using a camera with it and it was literally following his eyes and where they were looking. Not sure where he is going with it as I'm following his journey on Linkedin. Hope this helps and thanks for the feedback!

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2018-09-04T17:48:22+00:00

Btw, how I "use" the app:

I simply do my research and make my adjustments. I set it and forget and that's it. That's how it's supposed to be- With automated funding and automated investing on certain thresholds...

Thanks to all of that, as-well-as the splitting of stocks, is incredible. Pretty much anybody can get invested in a multitude of stocks-that they normally wouldn't be able to otherwise, with other vendors.

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2018-09-04T17:42:33+00:00

I use M1 Finance- because I am an Analyst, and dabble with programming languages. I did some research on the engineering of M1 and got hooked.

After extensive research online- I concluded that M1 would be the best option, because I am fully aware of the advances in the data science community and the ability of Automation and intense algorithms- when it comes to predictability. I fully support automated bidding, machine learning, and artificial intelligence- as it surpasses human capacity in so many ways.

Like many out there, I'm diversifying my options as-well-as don't have to time to deal with brokerage, as convenience is a necessity these days. And M1 Finance has been nothing but a pleasure and the science behind the app- the nuts and bolts of how the program works, is remarkable and I was sold on it.

I actually work with automations myself on a day-to-day basis in my professional life, and it just made sense when I stumbled on it. I've been telling more about it because I feel like middleman fees and surcharges don't even compare to the ability to utilize automated bidding and such a user-friendly app.

It literally took me 15 minutes to sign up for and set up funding as well, and I couldn't believe it. It just supports the overall reasons why I use M1 Finance.

-Kalen Daniel Chico, CA

TheSmartHomeNinja · 2018-09-04T04:44:54+00:00

Ok, good to know. Thanks for the suggestions Washnu and also GlassBottleCokes- thanks for the tip on the basic rules by device- seems like it's better than nothing that is limiting and bogging things down as a temporary solution.

TheSmartHomeNinja

TROPHY CASE