Getting Started with Technology
If you are not sure where to begin, this path walks through the ideas most home-tech projects assume you already know, pairing each stage with a small real project from the catalog. Work through it in order, or jump to the stage that matches what you want to build.
Skills you will pick up
- Working in a terminal
- How devices find each other on a network
- Basic Linux and services
- Reading a simple wiring diagram
- Thinking in terms of threat models
Stages
- 01
Foundations
What a computer actually is: the split between hardware and software, how files and filesystems work, what the terminal is for, and what an operating system does.
Hardware vs softwareFiles and filesystemsThe terminalOperating systemsBrowse Programming blueprints → - 02
Networking Basics
How devices talk: IP addresses, DNS, what a router does, and what leaves your network when you load a page.
IP addressesDNSRouters and gatewaysPortsTry: Network-wide Ad Blocking with Pi-hole → - 03
Linux & Self-Hosting
Enough Linux to be dangerous: the command line, packages and services, and running something useful on a machine at home.
Shell basicsPackages and servicesDocker containersLocal serversTry: Self-Hosted Media Server with Jellyfin → - 04
Electronics Basics
The physical side: microcontrollers, GPIO pins, powering things safely, and reading a simple circuit.
MicrocontrollersGPIOBreadboardsReading a schematicTry: ESP32 Universal IR Remote → - 05
Security Foundations
Thinking defensively: what a threat model is, how permissions and isolation work, and why network segmentation matters.
Threat modelsPermissionsNetwork segmentationBackupsExplore: Segmented Home Network with OPNsense →
Related blueprints
- Network-wide Ad Blocking with Pi-hole — Networking
- Self-Hosted Media Server with Jellyfin — Self-hosting
- ESP32 Universal IR Remote — Electronics