Techory.com – Regular Ramblings About Technology

How I Built a Kids Media Library in Home Assistant (and helped me get more sleep)

Scott — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 18:50:55 +0000

Business cards with movie posters (and NFC stickers on the back)

Anyone with young children knows they love to get up early! I personally prefer sleeping in, which led me to build a system for my son (who was five at the time) so he could pull up approved content to occupy himself in the mornings.

Our TV remote was a bit too advanced for him to navigate, and since we no longer use DVDs, he needed a way to bypass the complicated menus. I decided to build an automated system that would handle the “heavy lifting” of turning on the tech and jumping straight to his favorite shows.

The Foundation: Home Assistant & ESPHome Reader

I already use Home Assistant to automate our lights and doors, so it was the natural choice for the brain of this project. My setup already included a Logitech Harmony Hub connected to Google TV for controlling the power and volume of our theater system.

The missing piece was a kid-friendly interface. In 2020, Home Assistant introduced a Tag integration that was perfect for this. I found a wireless, USB-powered tag reader using an ESPHome board. While you can certainly build your own, I purchased a pre-built version that came in a clean, 3D-printed case. Once I powered it up and added it to my Wi-Fi, it showed up instantly in Home Assistant.

How NFC Works

Once configured, the reader picks up any NFC (Near-Field Communication) tag tapped against it. An NFC chip is a tiny, secure integrated circuit that enables short-range wireless data transfer. When a tag comes into contact with the reader, its unique ID is sent to Home Assistant, allowing me to trigger specific automations. I bought a pack of small NFC stickers so I could create a physical “launch card” for every show and movie.

Connected NFC Card Reader

NFC stickers on the back of the media cards

Integrating the Media

To make this work, Home Assistant needs access to the media library. Years ago, I connected my Plex Media Server to Home Assistant using the official integration. Since most of our kids’ shows are stored there (ripped from our old DVD collection), the integration allows me to bridge the gap between the NFC scan and the Harmony Hub.

The automation logic looks like this:

When: Scanning “Big Hero 6”
Then do: Turn on TV (Harmony Hub)
- Delay for 10 seconds (to fully power up TV and soundbar)
Perform action: Media player: Play media “Big Hero 6” on entity: Living Room TV

The Final Result

I created a unique automation for each movie or show Owen wants to watch. I periodically update the library as he discovers new favorites or loses interest in old ones. To make the physical cards, I used a simple business card template with the movie poster printed on the front and an NFC sticker hidden on the back.

Now, on weekend mornings, I get a bit more sleep. My son can head to the living room, grab the card for the movie he wants, and simply tap it to the reader to start his morning—no remote required.

Mentos 14-flavor Discovery Roll

Scott — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 20:25:26 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve been truly impressed with a new Mentos flavor (or flavors!). I’m a little delayed on this, but sometime over the summer Mentos released a new 14 flavor roll that includes like the title says, 14 individual Mentos with 14 individual flavors. There are a lot of the normal flavors in there that you know and love, but there are some interesting new ones that snuck into the mix. Flavors include passion fruit, grapefruit, blackcurrant, blueberry, lime, strawberry, raspberry, orange, lemon, watermelon, banana, grape, cherry and pineapple. The standout ones in my mind are banana (don’t think I’ve ever had a banana Mentos before), and the passion fruit or blackcurrant. I feel like the last two have popped up before in other rolls. Mentos claims, “Thanks to special packaging technology, the 14 flavors are wrapped in the same order, every time.” But in the multiple rolls I’ve had that has not been true. After painstakingly eating several rolls, I created a color key that aligns colors to flavors in case you get one that isn’t quite in the right order.

Anyway, find a roll and check them out!

2025 Holiday Geek Gift Guide

Scott — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 20:12:39 +0000

Happy Black Friday! Here we are again with another long list of geeky gift guides to help me (an you!) with your 2025 holiday shopping. As usual, I hope this helps you find the techy gifts for your friends and loved ones and avoid the dreaded “gift card cop-out.”

(Guides from previous years: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004)

What to Do With a Lifelong Mentos Collection

Scott — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 03:24:26 +0000

I like Mentos (which I think is obvious from an entire topic category dedicated to them on this site). I have liked Mentos for a very long time. I’m not sure exactly when my ~~obsession~~ love of Mentos started. It was probably sometime in high school, or maybe a bit earlier and was tied to the kitschy ads they were running in the 90’s. I got hooked, and never turned back.

My love of Mentos also turned into a collection over the years. I discovered that you could find unique flavors in different countries that were not available in the U.S. To feed my need for more (special) Mentos, I created a Mentos Ambassador Program so that when friends traveled abroad they could be awarded for bringing back flavors I’ve never seen or can’t get domestically. As you can imagine this led to a lot of Mentos!

I still love Mentos, but started some much-needed cleaning of the basement storeroom recently. This involved going through boxes that I’ve moved houses with multiple times and boxes that I haven’t opened since I got married many many years ago. Well guess what I found… a lot of Mentos that I’ve collected over the years. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve thought about what to do with a (quasi-perishable) collection of candy over the past 30 years and never really came up with a good answer. I love that these Mentos are somewhat unique, and they do bring back memories of when I got them and who gave them to me, and of course, the amazing flavors. I’m not really sure what to do with them. I’ve thought about somehow finding a way to archive them by taking photos and writing up tasting notes, but never really got around to it. At one point this site is where those new/special Mentos posts went, but I’ve fallen out of that a bit. So now I’ve got boxes(!) of old Mentos.

Some of these boxes and rolls needed to go. As I pulled them out of the storage boxes, they kind of stuck to the sides. It made me a little sad, but I guess it wasn’t that surprising that a perishable food product (even though they are the candy of the gods) would eventually spoil. So I tried to take some photos as a nod to archiving photos of the ones that I had to throw away.

I also have a bunch of Mentos-branded memorabilia. Obviously I don’t have the same spoilage problem with that, but thought it also had a place here. I don’t need to throw that out… but would like to find a way to display it somewhere. I will still from time to time do a random search for collectibles on ebay for Mentos.

I also found the letter and folder I was sent when I won a “year’s supply” (note the quotes, they did not last a year) of Mentos from a competition they held around 1998. I think they were doing some sort of Mentos music tour and I had to write a response to a prompt on their website and send in a certain number of wrappers.

This was not the only Mentos contest I won. Unfortunately, my second Mentos prize did not survive. It was an inflatable Mentos hot tub (with jets!) that was thrown away sometime in the early 2000’s. I probably have a 35mm photo of it somewhere in one of the other basement boxes I haven’t opened in 20 years.

As you can see… lots and lots of Mentos still live in my basement. Any ideas on what I should do with them? They have sentimental value to me, but soon they’ll just be a puddle of Mentos goo on the bottom of a box.

2024 Holiday Geek Gift Guide

Scott — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 17:48:47 +0000

Happy Black Friday, everyone! Yes, I’m still alive! ? My annual tradition of disappearing after my gift guide and then reappearing right before Black Friday continues! But hey, I’m back with a fresh batch of geeky and techy gift ideas for 2024. BTW, we’ve hit a milestone… 20 years of gift guides! Hopefully, this helps you avoid the dreaded “gift card fallback” this year.

(Guides from previous years: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004)

Palm OS Retrospective

Scott — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 20:07:00 +0000

I love these types of nostalgia inducing articles that take a look over computing history. Ars Technica just came out with one covering the history of Palm: Palm OS and the devices that ran it: An Ars retrospective. A Palm device is where I, along with many people, jumped into handheld computing, which with smart phones, we take for granted today. Palm the company may have been a bit ahead of its time, but seemed to have been mismanaged and bought and sold a lot, which eventually led its downfall. The article does a nice job of covering the early history of the company and what made this new area of tech take off, but they gloss over the end of lift for Palm as the moved into the smartphone era and Apple changed the game. I was one of the (probably very few) owners of the Palm Pre, which was a pretty unique device that did some things at the time that the smart phones it was up against couldn’t do. In fact, my old Palm Pre is still sitting on a shelf at home gathering dust.

2023 Holiday Geek Gift Guides

Scott — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 16:31:00 +0000

Happy Black Friday, y’all! It’s holiday shopping and gift giving time again! Has it been a year already? I’m a little bit delinquent in my posting here, since last year’s gift guide was the last time I posted… oops. Anyway, the traditional list of geeky and techy gift guides below helps me with my own holiday shopping, and hopefully helps you too. Most the links and list are geared towards geeks and gadgets, but there are several that include more general gift-giving. Like usual, I will keep this list up to date as I run across more throughout the holiday gift-giving season.

(Guides from previous years: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004)

2022 Holiday Geek Gift Guide

Scott — Fri, 25 Nov 2022 01:18:46 +0000

Here we go again. It’s holiday shopping and gift giving time! My tradition going back to 2004 has been to compile a list of geeky and techy gift guides to help with my own holiday shopping. Hopefully this list helps with your own gift giving. Most of these are geared more towards geeks and gadgets, but there are several that include more general gift-giving. As usual, I will keep this list up to date as I run across more.

(Guides from previous years: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004)

Firefox UI History

Scott — Sun, 27 Mar 2022 17:00:22 +0000

I love a good trip down tech memory lane. This one doesn’t to back too far, just 20 years to 2002. Firefox (originally Phoenix) came at the tail in the browser wars. Internet Explorer had pretty much won. Mozilla split out the browser from the bulky Netscape Communicator suite. It was truly a community project to make a smaller nimble fast browser. I recall installing Firefox on computer lab machines where I was working at the time and being excited with each new version. There were a lot of changes coming pretty quickly at that time, including the introduction of the tabbed browser window. This site popped up recently documenting the history of the UI/UX for Firefox as it evolved.

2021 Holiday Geek Gift Guide

Scott — Sat, 27 Nov 2021 19:38:18 +0000

We just passed Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year and are almost to Cyber Monday (do they still call it that?). My tradition going back to 2004 has been to compile a list of geeky and techy gift guides to help with my own holiday shopping. Hopefully this list helps with your own gift giving. Most of these are geared more towards geeks and gadgets, but there are several for more general gift giving. As usual, I will keep this list up to date as I run across more.

If you know of any more, let me know and I’ll add ’em to the list.

(Guides from previous years: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004)