iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 20/08/2026

Asking AI for advice on topics I don't understand: 🤩 Asking AI about my actual job: 💀 😜

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 18/08/2026

Love the SLOP signs from the @hope.net conference.

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Reposted by Tom Lawrence

Klara Inc @klarainc.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Tuning ZFS for databases shouldn’t feel like guesswork. Next week @allanjude.com & @lawrencesystems.com break down safe ways to improve latency + IOPS. Real bottlenecks. Real metrics. No risky changes. 👉 Register: na3.hubs.ly/y0sW6J0

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Reposted by Tom Lawrence

Klara Inc @klarainc.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

On our upcoming webinar, we're featuring @lawrencesystems.com of Lawrence Systems! 30+ years in infrastructure, security, and open source. He’s joining Klara to share practical ways to improve ZFS database performance—cut latency, boost IOPS, and find real bottlenecks. 👉 na3.hubs.ly/y0sRy90

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Reposted by Tom Lawrence

Klara Inc @klarainc.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

@lawrencesystems.com joins @allanjude.com for a live ZFS webinar. Tuning for Latency + IOPS 📅 May 27 Cut latency, boost IOPS, and find real bottlenecks—without risking production. PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle. Real-world tuning. Save your spot → na3.hubs.ly/y0sj110

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Reposted by Tom Lawrence

Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

have never seen popular public opinion shift so fast about a surveillance product than the fallout from ring's super bowl "search party" ad. they'll teach this in advertising courses one day. chef's kiss baby www.404media.co/with-ring-am...

404media.co

With Ring, American Consumers Built a Surveillance Dragnet

Ring's 'Search Party' is dystopian surveillance accelerationism.

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 09/02/2026

Comet Pro Review: The KVM That Gives You The Finger Full Video Here: youtu.be/la0rbheTx2c

Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 06/02/2026

Happy Friday, hope no one gets a surprise pen test today!

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 04/02/2026

Check out this video to see what the experience of upgrading my Framework laptop with a Ryzen AI 7 350 CPU and RTX 5070 GPU was like, and if an upgradable system like this one is for you: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYST...

Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 31/01/2026

Well, you see, when two networks like each other very much...

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 15/01/2026

VLOG Thursday 471:IoT Firewall Security, Docker, Self hosted, and Homelab Q&A Live at 5pm EST www.youtube.com/live/QtfTfNK...

youtube.com

VLOG Thursday 471:IoT Firewall Security, Docker, Self hosted, and Homelab Q&A

YouTube video by Lawrence Systems

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 09/01/2026

Testing the UniFi AI PTZ Precision 31x zoom

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 08/01/2026

VLOG Thursday 470: Remote Management Tools, and Homelab Q&A going live at 6/8/26 6:00 EST youtube.com/live/vPUFfxq...

youtube.com

VLOG Thursday 470: Remote Management Tools, and Homelab Q&A

YouTube video by Lawrence Systems

Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 06/01/2026

In this video, I demonstrate how to use Wireshark with UniFi to capture live packets directly from your network devices. Whether troubleshooting DNS, DHCP, or mysterious disconnects, Wireshark lets you go beyond the UniFi dashboard and see the truth in the traffic. www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_H1...

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 02/01/2026

Not sure what the assembly is called but those appear to be standard fans.

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 24/12/2025

Kubernetes is great... if you like complexity. Here’s how I keep my homelab simple: running Docker on one Debian 13 VM with straightforward bind mounts. Clean, easy to manage, and simple to back up - plus a look at the containers I rely on day to day. youtu.be/Z5aGH4XltP4

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 23/12/2025

TP-Link acknowledged security reports but... Did nothing until the research was made public. Take a close look at the timeline 📄 Research write-up: www.evilsocket.net/2025/12/18/T...

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 22/12/2025

A few seconds, an exposed port, or the right timing can lead to a serious incident. In this video, I break down an event that struck shortly after onboarding a client, what could have gone wrong, and why it didn’t - lessons for anyone managing real-world IT environments. youtu.be/2lLKZsd4QqY

Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 17/12/2025

Few people know ZFS like Allan Jude, and in this discussion, we dive deep into what makes it so powerful - and occasionally so tricky. From alignment tuning and drive choices to ZFS with containers and NVMe optimization, we unpack what’s changing, what’s coming next, and more. youtu.be/OscKOZ5nxxA

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 17/12/2025

pfSense+ has made some changes in 2025. There's better security defaults for OpenVPN, they made PPPoE significantly faster, added VXLAN support, and Netgate Nexus - their new multi-instance management tool that you can self-host on your own system: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCNy...

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 17/12/2025

RAID isn’t a backup, and failures don’t wait for a schedule. In this video, I show how I use Syncthing for real-time backups that alert you to changes as they happen. Perfect for Homelab setups, tests, or anyone who likes keeping data safe without waiting for a nightly job. youtu.be/cccPnXnh6wA

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 12/12/2025

n8n 2.0 Docker Setup in 5 Minutes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vypp... #automation #homelab #docker

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 12/12/2025

In this video, I test a tiny Beelink Cube to see if it can handle a TrueNAS instance. Compact, surprisingly capable, and yes… a little borg-cube-esque. Perfect for homelab tinkerers who like to push small hardware a little too far (but not lightyears or anything.) youtu.be/35piaJgaeEA

Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 09/12/2025

Who says open source is just for tinkering? Companies like Vates prove it can power a real business: youtu.be/19oGMBQypeE

Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 09/12/2025

This is about when ZFS replication goes wrong – how you recover from it or fix it, so you don’t have to resend everything, and how to fix a stuck process. There’s some command line work involved, but it’s well worth the effort. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKuX... #truenas #zfs #replication

Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 08/12/2025

I Moved to Immich... Can It Really Replace Google Photos? www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5td...

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 04/12/2025

Live in five! Today we're talking surveillance cameras, open source note taking, and answering your Homelab questions! www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MaF...

Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 04/12/2025

Turning a Mini PC into a NAS sounds like a stretch - but that’s half the fun. Here’s an experiment using an NVMe-to-SATA adapter to see how far small form-factor hardware can go. Compact, unconventional, and it just might inspire your next budget-friendly homelab build. youtu.be/-bpEyuMO55E

Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 04/12/2025

Back in 2019, I compared Synology and UniFi’s camera platforms. A lot has changed since then. In this update, I walk through how both systems have evolved, where each one shines, and what you should focus on when evaluating them or any modern surveillance stack. youtu.be/fMVFCPzV41g

Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 01/12/2025

Need a safer way to browse without putting your system at risk? In this clip, we look at Kasm, a sandboxed browser environment built for security and convenience. It’s perfect for testing unknown sites, isolating risky tasks, or keeping your main system squeaky clean. youtu.be/TbtGd3lWc4M

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 27/11/2025

VLOG Thursday 464: Happy Thanksgiving! www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlh_...

Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 26/11/2025

Three years in, still the best label maker I’ve owned. Reliable, simple, and it hasn’t jammed once - can’t say that about most printers: youtu.be/6PfJoDIzrlo

Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 25/11/2025

ZFS Dedupe: How it works and when *NOT* to use it. youtu.be/0CcykFYHlt0 #zfs #datastorage #nas #truenas

Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 21/11/2025

Privacy, not anonymity. In this clip, I share why Signal remains my go-to for secure messaging and why it still earns my trust today. Some apps talk about privacy - Signal just delivers. What’s your messenger of choice? youtu.be/3cX2BBYi0cU

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 20/11/2025

Live in five! We're talking about getting back to independent work, new UniFi cameras, and answering your Homelab questions! www.youtube.com/watch?v=37KU... #homelab #unifi #networking

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 20/11/2025

Will setting up a special metadata VDEV on your ZFS pool make it faster? www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex35... #zfs #truenas #datastorage #metadata

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 20/11/2025

If the xkcd comic 2347 made today... 😂

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 19/11/2025

Don't attrible malice to what can easily be explained by legacy code - or a file getting so big it filled up multiple systems causing them to run out of space and crash. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xzY... #networking #outage #cloudflare

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Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 19/11/2025

Never attribute to malice what can be explained by… 𝙡𝙚𝙜𝙖𝙘𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙙𝙚 Here is the report from Cloudflare: blog.cloudflare.com/18-november-... More thoughts I have on this topic here: www.linkedin.com/posts/lawren...

Tom Lawrence @lawrencesystems.com · 18/11/2025

Passkeys and password managers improve security - but they aren’t foolproof. In this video, I explore how storing passkeys can weaken MFA and outline best practices to keep your accounts truly secure. Essential knowledge for IT pros and Homelab enthusiasts alike. youtu.be/eLaSonHB9mE