diziet | Network

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/03/04/the-big-idea-lauren-c-teffeau-2/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=59707

Futuristic fiction doesn’t always have to be dystopian, and in fact author Lauren C. Teffau wanted to show readers a more hopeful narrative where people work together for the betterment of the planet and a goal of reaching a brighter future. Follow along in her Big Idea for Accelerated Growth Environment and see what a more optimistic future could look like.

LAUREN C. TEFFEAU:

We are living at the intersection of competing futures. Ones we thought were inevitable and others being forced down our throats by billionaires, technocrats, and foreign interests that are counter to our own. This fight over our collective future is happening while the climate crisis rages on, institutions are tested, and the informationsphere weaponized. It’s no longer a question of how to avoid the worst outcomes, but how bad those outcomes will be.

But I firmly believe optimistic stories about the future are our way out of the doomloop. Not because they’ll accurately predict what is to come, but because they give us something to work toward, together. To that end, I wanted to explore what an international response to the climate crisis would look like in my latest book, the eco-thriller Accelerated Growth Environment, and introduce a generation of readers to one possible future full of cooperation, resilience, and competency porn.

Such a goal is not completely out there. Once upon a time, the world came together to reduce ozone emissions in response to the discovery chlorofluorocarbons were punching a hole in the atmosphere. The effort was so successful, the ozone layer is on track to completely regenerate, according to Wikipedia, by 2045. That’s amazing, even moreso considering that level of international coordination seems impossible today. But maybe, just maybe, it’s something we can work toward in the years to come.

So imagine things change, and the political will is finally ascendant to tackle the climate crisis. Enter the Climasphere, a groundbreaking megastructure that can support nearly every biome on Earth and grow plants essential to rewilding efforts across the world, signifying a new era of climate cooperation. It’s also the high-tech setting for Accelerated Growth Environment. Principal Scientist Dr. Jorna Beckham just wants to focus on her research while her horticulture techs are on break following the grueling inaugural harvest.

She manages the habitat with the help of her trusty robot sidekick Savvy while Commander Kaysar sees to everything else. But when an explosion rocks the Climasphere, Jorna is the commander’s number one suspect. Her family belongs to a technology-adverse religion that believes the Climasphere’s genetically-altered plants are a rejection of God’s gifts to humanity. Jorna must clear her name if she wants to keep her dream job and any possibility of a future with the commander.

I’m honored Accelerated Growth Environment is the first acquisition and release from Shiraki Press, a new publisher specializing in hopepunk stories for a brighter future. Keep an eye out for more titles from them in the months to come.

And never forget we are capable of great things—we need to be. No matter all that has happened this year as we grapple with betrayals of the past and the predatory power grabs of the present, we must remember all the amazing things we can do in preparation of the future we will build together.

Accelerated Growth Environment: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Shiraki Press

Author Socials: Website|Instagram|Bluesky|Linktree

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/03/04/the-big-idea-lauren-c-teffeau-2/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=59707

cosmolinguist

I listened to the Twins game against Puerto Rico this evening, which was happening while I was making dinner and at the gym.

I figured my Twinkies would get hammered; PR has lots of good players. But two of the best, Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa, couldn't make the team for insurance reasons. Made me laugh that the lead-off hitter is another Minnesota Twin, Willi Castro. (Apparently he's not as good any more but I still have such a soft spot for him! There were other former Twins on this team too, Eddie Rosario is another that got mentioned fondly by the Twins radio guys, Kris and Dan.

The Twins actually won! 6-3. Good start by Zebby (phew), good game by Alan Roden (who I keep forgetting about; one of the many players they got in the fire sale last trade-deadline).

apnic_blog_feed

Posted by George Michaelson

https://blog.apnic.net/2026/03/05/podcast-measuring-the-use-of-dns-over-ipv6/

https://blog.apnic.net/?p=99494

Geoff Huston explores how DNS operates over IPv6 and the challenges of measuring it. His findings reveal interesting variances by geographic region and network, raising questions about whether IPv6-only DNS is reliable enough to guide future operational practices.

https://blog.apnic.net/2026/03/05/podcast-measuring-the-use-of-dns-over-ipv6/

https://blog.apnic.net/?p=99494

kaberett

This evening I am having A Headache. It's an annoying headache; it's definitely a distracting headache; but it's "just" A Headache. No other symptoms that I'm noticing.

... except that it's Exactly The Right Time For A Migraine, and yesterday I had a bunch of migraine prodrome symptoms. (Being Too Warm. Wanting to close my eyes a lot. Nausea. Overwhelming despair.)

I find myself Wondering whether my regular menstrual migraines actually started on 1^st January 2021, or if that's just the point at which symptoms tipped over into very obviously photosensitive migraine. At that point I was on continuous acute pain relief, and it is slowly dawning on me that An Annoying Headache with no other symptoms distinguishable from background noise (anxiety, depression, thesis-related stress, ...) is the kind of thing I'd have just merrily ignored, and for that matter that I'd still be ignoring if I weren't now Keeping A Headache Diary...

chickenfeet

https://operaramblings.blog/2026/03/04/midday-melodies-canada-meets-france/

homeassistant_feed

Posted by Home Assistant

https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2026/03/04/release-20263/

https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2026/03/04/release-20263

Home Assistant 2026.3! 🎉

After last month’s massive release, this one is a nice and relaxed one. We took a step back from the big headline features and fully focused on something equally important: getting the amazing contributions from our community reviewed, polished, and merged. 💚

And did our community deliver! This release is packed with tons of new integrationsIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more], lots of noteworthy improvements to the ones you already use, boatloads of bug fixes, and a really nice list of integrations that climbed up the integration quality scale. 📈

It’s releases like these that really show the strength of our open-source community. Every single contribution matters, and this month that shows more than ever. Thank you all! 🙏

My personal favorite this month? The automation editor change: Continue on error has finally landed in the UI. I actually wrote this feature years ago, but it was only available through YAML. Seeing it now land in the visual editor (making it accessible to everyone) is just awesome. It’s one of those small things that make a big difference in everyday use. 🤩

Oh, and before I forget: have you seen our brand new merch store? The Open Home Foundation store is live! I have to be honest: the quality is really great. The hoodie is so darn comfy it’s ridiculous. I’ve been wearing mine non-stop. Go check it out! 🏃

Also, mark your calendars: State of the Open Home 2026 is happening on April 8 in Utrecht, the Netherlands! Join us live in the audience for a celebration of everything we’ve built together, a look at what’s ahead, and your chance to help shape the future of the Open Home. Tickets are limited, so grab yours while you can! 🎟️

Enjoy the release!

../Frenck

A huge thank you to all the contributors who made this release possible! And a special shout-out to @TimoPtr, @arturpragacz, and @MindFreeze who helped write the release notes this release. Also, @CoMPaTech, @balloob, @OnFreund, and @silamon for putting effort into tweaking its contents. Thanks to them, these release notes are in great shape. ❤️

Send your vacuum to clean specific areas

Got a robot vacuum? You can now tell it exactly which areas to clean! This release introduces the clean area action, which lets you send your vacuum to clean one or more specific areas on demand, right from Home Assistant. In this release, it’s supported by Matter, Ecovacs, and Roborock.

The best part? The action uses your existing Home Assistant areas, not some obscure vendor-specific identifiers. You simply map the segments your vacuum knows about to the areas you’ve already set up in Home Assistant, and that’s all there is to it.

Getting started

When your vacuum supports area cleaning, you can set up the mapping through the vacuum’s entity settings. Open the vacuum entity, select the settings icon, and look for the Map vacuum segments to areas section. From there, you can match the segments your vacuum has detected to your Home Assistant areas.

Screenshot of the vacuum area mapping dialog, allowing you to map vacuum segments to Home Assistant areas.

If your vacuum’s internal segment layout ever changes (for example, after remapping in the manufacturer’s app or the vacuum rediscovering its environment), Home Assistant will notice. A repair issue will alert you that the segments have changed, so you can update your mapping and make sure everything stays in sync.

Paving the way for voice

Because the mapping uses native Home Assistant areas, this feature lays the groundwork for future voice assistant support. Imagine simply saying “clean the kitchen” and having your vacuum head to the right area. That’s not available just yet, but the foundation is now in place to make it happen.

Energy dashboard improvements

The Energy dashboard received a nice batch of improvements this release.

The Now view gained badges that show real-time power consumption, gas flow rate, and water flow rate at a glance. Water also gets its own Sankey chart in the Now view, giving you a visual breakdown of water usage across your home, just like the existing power Sankey chart.

Screenshot of the new badges in the Energy dashboard.

To reduce ambiguity, the second tab on the Energy dashboard has been renamed from Energy to Electricity, since the dashboard covers electricity, gas, and water. On the configuration side, the energy settings page is now split into three tabs: Electricity, Gas, and Water, making it easier to find and manage your energy sources.

Screenshot of the new tabs in the Energy dashboard settings page.

Finally, energy bar chart tooltips now include the day of the week, helping you quickly spot usage patterns.

Thanks, @MindFreeze, @NoRi2909, and @gpoitch! 🎉

Continue on error in the automation editor

The automation editor now has a Continue on error option for actions, directly accessible from the visual editor. Previously, this setting was only available through YAML.

You can find it in the three-dots menu of any action. When enabled, a visual indicator appears on the action row, so you can quickly see which actions will continue running even if they encounter an error.

Screenshot of the automation editor showing the Continue on error option.

This is especially handy for automations where a single failing action shouldn’t stop the rest from running. For example, if one of several notification actions fails, the remaining ones will still be sent.

Thanks, @wendevlin! 🎉

Wake word detection on your Android phone (experimental)

Your phone just became a voice satellite! The Home Assistant Companion app for Android now supports on-device wake word detection, allowing you to open Assist from anywhere; even when your phone is locked.

Inspired from the great work from @brownard in Ava.

This feature uses microWakeWord, the same lightweight wake word engine that powers the Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition. All processing happens locally on your device, no audio is sent to the cloud, and no server-side processing is needed. Your voice stays on your phone.

You can choose between three wake words:

Okay Nabu
Hey Jarvis
Hey Mycroft

To enable wake word detection, open your Android device’s Settings > Companion App > Assist for Android, and enable the Enable wake word detection toggle. Once enabled, simply say your chosen wake word and the Assist pipeline will open, ready to take your command.

Watch the video to see wake word detection in action on an Android device.

It already integrates with your voice equipment at home, and if another satellite is nearby, only the fastest one will respond. This also applies to multiple Android devices.

Battery usage

Because wake word detection requires continuous microphone access and CPU usage, this feature does have a noticeable impact on battery life. To help manage this, you can use automations to start and stop wake word detection based on your context, for example, only enabling it when you’re connected to your home Wi-Fi or within a specific zone. This way, you get hands-free voice control when it matters most, without draining your battery all day.

Note

Battery usage could be drastically reduced if Google opened their API for hardware hotword detection. Unfortunately, this is hidden behind a system API that only phone manufacturers have access to. Maybe one day they will open it up to improve the experience.

Thanks, @TimoPtr! 🎉

Integrations

Thanks to our community for keeping pace with the new integrationsIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] and improvements to existing ones! You’re all awesome 🥰

New integrations

We welcome the following new integrations in this release:

Ghost, added by @JohnONolan
Monitor your Ghost publication metrics, including member counts, revenue, post statistics, and email newsletter performance, right from your Home Assistant dashboard.
Hegel Amplifier, added by @boazca - launching at 🥈 silver quality
Control your Hegel Music Systems amplifiers locally over your network. Manage power, volume, input selection, and mute with real-time push updates for instant feedback.
Homevolt, added by @Danielhiversen - launching at 🥈 silver quality
Read local data from your Homevolt battery over your network, no cloud required. Monitor power, energy, voltage, temperature, and battery status.
Hypontech Cloud, added by @jcisio
Monitor your Hypontech solar inverter system through the Hypontech Cloud platform. Track power production, energy yields, and system status.
IDrive e2, added by @patrickvorgers
Back up your Home Assistant to an IDrive e2 bucket. IDrive e2 offers affordable S3-compatible cloud storage with flexible access controls for keeping your backups safe.
Indevolt, added by @Xirt
Communicate directly with your Indevolt energy storage devices over the local network. Monitor energy production, consumption, and battery status.
IntelliClima, added by @dvdinth
Integrate your Fantini Cosmi Ecocomfort 2.0 ventilation devices. Control fan modes and speeds of your mechanical ventilation with heat recovery system.
Liebherr, added by @mettolen - launching at 🥈 silver quality
Control and monitor your Liebherr SmartDevice refrigerators and freezers via the cloud. Monitor temperatures, adjust cooling settings, and automate food safety alerts.
MTA New York City Transit, added by @OnFreund - launching at 🥈 silver quality
Get real-time arrival predictions for all NYC subway and bus lines using data from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
MyNeomitis, added by @l-pr
Connect your Axenco MyNeomitis heating and energy management devices, such as electric radiators, towel rails, and underfloor heating, to Home Assistant.
OneDrive for Business, added by @zweckj - launching at 🏆 platinum quality
Use OneDrive for Business as a backup location for your Home Assistant backups. Great for users with a Microsoft 365 business subscription.
Powerfox Local, added by @klaasnicolaas - launching at 🏆 platinum quality
Gather data from your Powerfox Poweropti device directly over your local network, offering faster updates with no cloud dependency.
Redgtech, added by @Jonhsady
Connect your Redgtech smart switches to Home Assistant. Control and monitor your cloud-connected switches and relays from this Brazilian smart home brand.
System Nexa 2, added by @konsulten - launching at 🥈 silver quality
Integrate your System Nexa 2 smart home devices locally. Control lights, switches, and smart plugs with support for dimmers and outdoor plugs.
Teltonika, added by @karlbeecken - launching at 🥈 silver quality
Monitor your Teltonika Networks routers running RutOS. Track cellular signal quality, modem temperature, and network connectivity.
Trane Local, added by @bdraco
Locally control Trane and American Standard thermostats over your network using a direct mTLS connection. No cloud required.
Zinvolt, added by @joostlek
Monitor your Zinvolt batteries in Home Assistant, including state of charge and other battery metrics.

This release also has new virtual integrations. Virtual integrations are stubs that are handled by other (existing) integrations to help with findability. These ones are new:

Ubisys, provided by ZHA, added by @abmantis

Noteworthy improvements to existing integrations

It is not just new integrationsIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] that have been added; existing ones are also being constantly improved. Here are some of the noteworthy changes to existing integrations:

Matter now supports carbon monoxide alarm states and TVOC air quality level sensors. If you have Matter-certified CO sensors or air quality devices, they now show up in Home Assistant. Thanks, @Leo2442926161 and @lboue!
HomeKit Controller now exposes water level sensors, so devices like the Smartmi Humidifier Rainforest will show their current water level in Home Assistant. Thanks, @romanlytvyn!
Reolink cameras gained five new diagonal and continuous rotation PTZ buttons, plus the PTZ patrol switch now correctly reports its real-time status. Thanks, @starkillerOG!
SmartThings now supports dual-cavity Samsung ovens, with separate entities for each chamber. It also gained switch and select controls for Samsung dishwasher washing options like sanitize, heated dry, and speed booster. Thanks, @mik-laj and @edu-tsen!
Roborock now fully supports Zeo washing and drying machines with program selection, temperature control, drying modes, and detergent status sensors. Thanks, @yangqian!
OpenAI Conversation now supports the gpt-image-1.5 image generation model for AI Tasks, offering cheaper and faster image generation. Thanks, @Shulyaka!
UniFi Protect cameras now have PTZ support with a ptz_goto_preset action for triggering presets and a PTZ patrol select entity with live state updates. Thanks, @RaHehl!
SwitchBot now lets you add passwords to Keypad Vision devices programmatically. It also gained a slow mode setting for curtain devices, which can reduce noise and improve reliability with heavier curtains. Thanks, @zerzhang and @ljmerza!
Alexa Devices now supports Amazon Air Quality Monitor devices, exposing sensors for air quality index, VOC index, humidity, temperature, and particulate matter. Thanks, @jamesonuk!
VeSync humidifiers now have a switch to enable or disable auto-drying mode for humidifier pads. Thanks, @cdnninja!
SwitchBot Cloud now supports the SwitchBot AI Art Frame with battery level, next/previous picture buttons, and a display image entity showing the current picture. Thanks, @XiaoLing-git!
KNX now allows configuring number entities and sending the current time directly from the UI. Additionally, expose gained a new periodic send option to periodically re-send entity states to the bus. Thanks, @farmio!
MELCloud air-to-water devices now have additional sensors for RSSI signal strength, condensing temperature, fan frequency, and estimated energy produced. Thanks, @ffourcot!
Nanoleaf replaced its underlying library with aionanoleaf2, fixing authorization errors that prevented newer Nanoleaf Essentials devices from connecting. Thanks, @loebi-ch!
Uptime Kuma monitors now have uptime ratio and average response time sensors for 1-day, 30-day, and 365-day periods. Thanks, @tr4nt0r!
Radarr gained two new actions: radarr.get_movies and radarr.get_queue, returning detailed information about movies in your library and the current download queue. Thanks, @Liquidmasl!
Renault vehicles now have buttons to remotely sound the horn or flash the lights. Thanks, @sebastiaanspeck!
Proxmox VE gained a sensor platform with CPU usage, memory usage, disk usage, and status sensors for nodes, virtual machines, and containers. Thanks, @erwindouna!
Mealie now has a get_shopping_list_items action that returns structured shopping list data, useful for automations that need more detail than the to-do entity provides. Thanks, @andrew-codechimp!
Ambient Weather Station now exposes sensors for the AQIN indoor air quality monitor, including PM2.5, PM10, CO2, temperature, humidity, and AQI measurements. Thanks, @n-6!
WeatherFlow Tempest stations now show battery level as a percentage for consistency with other integrations. Thanks, @pkolbus!
SleepIQ now provides five new sleep health sensors per sleeper: sleep score, sleep duration, heart rate average, respiratory rate average, and heart rate variability. Thanks, @rhcp011235!
Anthropic now supports the Claude Opus 4.6 model with adaptive thinking effort levels, and gained native structured outputs for more accurate tool calls on models 4.5 and newer. Thanks, @Shulyaka!
Tessie received several enhancements: an energy remaining sensor for vehicles, battery health diagnostics, island and grid status sensors for energy sites, and full energy history support for the Home Assistant Energy Dashboard. Thanks, @jrhillery and @Bre77!
Portainer now supports Docker stack monitoring and control with status sensors, container counts, and start/stop switches. It also gained a prune_images action to clean up unused Docker images. Thanks, @erwindouna!
Nintendo Parental Controls now has a bedtime end time entity, complementing the existing bedtime start time for a complete bedtime schedule. Thanks, @pantherale0!
LG Soundbar now supports play/pause media control, shows track title, artist, and album art, and reports playing/paused state. Thanks, @alexmerkel!
Velux now supports on/off switches connected to the KLF 200 gateway. Thanks, @wollew!
Switcher now supports Switcher heater devices for monitoring and control. Thanks, @YogevBokobza!
Cambridge Audio devices now have a room correction switch for compatible models. Thanks, @noahhusby!
Vera metered switches now expose power and energy sensors, bringing energy monitoring to your Vera devices. Thanks, @jronnols!
Control4 thermostats now support fan mode control with Auto, Circulate, and On modes. Thanks, @davidrecordon!
BSB-Lan now shows the current HVAC action (heating, cooling, idle) on the climate entity and gained a button to synchronize your heating system’s clock. Thanks, @liudger!
JVC Projector gained a wide range of new sensors and controls: source, color depth, HDR status, picture mode, installation mode, light power, and switches for E-Shift and Low Latency Mode. Thanks, @SteveEasley!
NRGkick EV chargers now have a switch to enable or pause car charging directly from Home Assistant. Thanks, @andijakl!
Green Planet Energy now shows timestamp sensors for the highest and lowest energy price times of the day, helping you time your energy usage. Thanks, @petschni!
Compit expanded significantly with new water heater, number, and binary sensor platforms for controlling hot water, adjusting temperature settings, and monitoring device states across their HVAC product range. Thanks, @Przemko92!
Saunum now has a start_session action, letting you start a sauna session with custom duration, target temperature, and fan duration in a single call. Thanks, @mettolen!
Watts Vision + now supports controlling smart switches alongside the existing thermostat support. Thanks, @theobld-ww!
Sunricher DALI now tracks energy consumption for DALI light devices connected through a Sunricher gateway. Thanks, @niracler!

Integration quality scale achievements

One thing we are incredibly proud of in Home Assistant is our integration quality scale. This scale helps us and our contributors to ensure integrations are of high quality, maintainable, and provide the best possible user experience.

This release, we celebrate several integrationsIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] that have improved their quality scale:

9 integrations reached platinum 🏆
- GIOŚ, thanks to @mik-laj
- HDFury, thanks to @glenndehaan
- Immich, thanks to @mib1185
- Namecheap DynamicDNS, thanks to @tr4nt0r
- Portainer, thanks to @erwindouna
- Ubiquiti airOS, thanks to @CoMPaTech
- Watts Vision +, thanks to @theobld-ww
- WLED, thanks to @mik-laj
- Xbox, thanks to @tr4nt0r
1 integration reached gold 🥇
- UptimeRobot, thanks to @chemelli74
6 integrations reached silver 🥈
- BSB-Lan, thanks to @liudger
- devolo Home Control, thanks to @Shutgun
- Mastodon, thanks to @andrew-codechimp
- NRGkick, thanks to @andijakl
- Teslemetry, thanks to @Bre77
- Velux, thanks to @wollew
7 integrations reached bronze 🥉
- Aladdin Connect, thanks to @JamieMagee
- Anthropic, thanks to @Shulyaka
- OpenAI, thanks to @zweckj
- OpenEVSE, thanks to @c00w
- Prana, thanks to @prana-dev-official
- Splunk, thanks to @Bre77
- VeSync, thanks to @cdnninja

This is a huge achievement for these integrations and their maintainers. The effort and dedication required to reach these quality levels is significant, as it involves extensive testing, documentation, error handling, and often complete rewrites of parts of the integration.

A big thank you to all the contributors involved! 👏

Now available to set up from the UI

While most integrationsIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] can be set up directly from the Home Assistant user interface, some were only available using YAML configuration. We keep moving more integrations to the UI, making them more accessible for everyone to set up and use.

The following integrations are now available via the Home Assistant UI:

InfluxDB, done by @RobBie1221
Ness Alarm, done by @Poshy163
Splunk, done by @Bre77

Other noteworthy changes

There are many more improvements in this release; here are some of the other noteworthy changes:

The settings pages for Matter, Z-Wave, Zigbee, and Bluetooth have been reorganized for better clarity and discoverability. Thanks, @matthiasdebaat!
You can now ask your Assist to remove items from a to-do list! The new remove item intent complements the existing complete item intent, so managing your lists by voice just got even easier. Thanks, @mistic100!
The statistics graph card editor now offers “Year” as a selectable period, making it easy to view annual trends right from the UI. Thanks, @karwosts!
The Security dashboard now also shows window-type covers (automated windows), so they appear alongside your other window and door sensors. Thanks, @jhenkens!
The sections view now supports footer cards, giving you a sticky card at the bottom of the viewport, similar to the existing view header. Thanks, @MindFreeze!

Running on Python 3.14 🚀

This release ships running on Python 3.14! In case you are wondering what that means: Python is the programming language Home Assistant is built with.

So, why does it matter to you? Python 3.14 brings performance improvements to the foundation that Home Assistant is built on. The new version includes a faster interpreter, improved startup times, and better memory usage, all of which contribute to a snappier Home Assistant experience. 🚀

Don’t worry! We handle the upgrade to Python 3.14 automatically for you on all officially supported installation methods. Just upgrade Home Assistant as you normally would, and you are good to go! 😎

Need help? Join the community

Home Assistant has a great community of users who are all more than willing to help each other out. So, join us!

Our very active Discord chat server is an excellent place to be, and don’t forget to join our amazing forums.

Found a bug or issue? Please report it in our issue tracker to get it fixed! Or check our help page for guidance on more places you can go.

Are you more into email? Sign up for the Open Home Foundation Newsletter to get the latest news about features, things happening in our community, and other projects that support the Open Home straight into your inbox.

Backward-incompatible changes

We do our best to avoid making changes to existing functionality that might unexpectedly impact your Home Assistant installation. Unfortunately, sometimes it is inevitable.

We always make sure to document these changes to make the transition as easy as possible for you. This release has the following backward-incompatible changes:

BSB-Lan

The water heater operation mode state on has been changed to performance for the BSB-Lan water heater. If you use this state in your automations or scripts, you will need to update them to use the new state value.

(@liudger - #160256) (BSB-Lan documentation)

Container image

Home Assistant container images are now compressed with zstd instead of gzip. Since containerd has supported zstd since 2021, this is not expected to break current installations. If you are running a very old container runtime, make sure it supports zstd before updating.

(@duhow - #160665)

LIFX

Passing the color_temp parameter (in mireds) to the lifx.effect_pulse action is no longer allowed. Use the color_temp_kelvin parameter instead.

(@Djelibeybi - #161848) (LIFX documentation)

Lights

Using color_temp (in mireds) to set a light’s color temperature is no longer supported. Use color_temp_kelvin instead.

Additionally, the color_temp, kelvin, min_mireds, and max_mireds light entity state attributes have been removed. Use color_temp_kelvin, min_color_temp_kelvin, and max_color_temp_kelvin instead.

(@emontnemery - #161777) (light documentation)

Satel Integra

Binary sensors and switches now have an initial state of unknown while the alarm panel is still reporting all states during startup. Previously, the default state was off, which was incorrect, as no data had been received from the panel yet.

The chance that you are impacted is low, as most states are reported before Home Assistant fully finishes setup; but this might occur on larger installations and slower connections.

(@Tommatheussen - #158533) (Satel Integra documentation)

Snapcast

Media player entities for Snapcast groups have been removed. Additionally, the Snapcast-specific grouping actions have been removed. If you use these entities or actions in your automations or scripts, you will need to update them.

(@luar123 - #160945) (Snapcast documentation)

StarLine

The ignition and autostart state attributes of the engine switch have been removed. Two new binary sensors have been introduced to replace them. If you reference these attributes in your automations or scripts, update them to use the new binary sensor entities instead.

(@epenet - #163289) (StarLine documentation)

Tado

Mobile device tracking has been removed from the Tado integration. Mobile devices and their associated device tracker entities are no longer available. This change resolves re-authentication issues and reduces unnecessary load on the Tado API.

(@erwindouna - #160881) (Tado documentation)

Template

The behavior of template fans has changed:

A template fan’s state will be unavailable if the state template encounters a syntax error. Previously, a template error would show the fan’s state as off.
The percentage attribute will be None if the percentage template encounters a syntax error. Previously, it would be 0.
Template fans can now have the unknown state. A state template that returns None will render the entity as unknown instead of off.

(@Petro31 - #162328) (Template documentation)

Z-Wave

Percentage speeds reported by Z-Wave fans have been corrected to align with other integrations. As a result, values may differ slightly. For example, a value previously reported as 67% may now appear as 66%. If you have automations that trigger on exact percentage values, you may need to adjust them.

(@arturpragacz - #163093) (Z-Wave documentation)

If you are a custom integration developer and want to learn about changes and new features available for your integration: Be sure to follow our developer blog. The following changes are the most notable for this release:

All changes

Of course, there is a lot more in this release. You can find a list of all changes made here: Full changelog for Home Assistant Core 2026.3.

https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2026/03/04/release-20263/

https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2026/03/04/release-20263

starthorn posting in

pokestop

This was actually only the second time that I've made it all the way through one of the Go Passes! I tend to play very sporadically even though I've had an account for ages, so this was super exciting.

Did y'all make it to the end of the Go-Pass too? Do you have advice for completing them more reliably?

Current Mood: accomplished

james_davis_nicoll

This new Ninja Crusade Bundle presents The Ninja Crusade, the tabletop fantasy roleplaying game from Third Eye Games of ninja, conspiracies, and martial arts.

Bundle of Holding: Ninja Crusade

oursin

What I read

Finished A Slowly Dying Cause and she does seem to be grinding these out rather. Also I didn't actually check the details but there were some descriptive passages of places that seemed very similar, or least deploying the same epithets - 'the demilune beach' I think was one - that seemed a bit cut and paste. Also maybe more Havers, but when she finally appeared did we want that plot development??? And something entirely new (or rather, old and heritage) for Lynley to angst about.

Then read the latest Slightly Foxed.

Then onto GB Stern, The Woman in the Hall (1939), which it is longer since I last read than I thought. Still v good but not sure that I will be reccing it for the book group.

Then this already discussed - further thought that it was rather like hearing somebody tell one about book they have read - at least this bore a fairly close resemblance to the original, was not like that scene in one of E Nesbit's Bastable novels in which they talk about Charlotte Yonge's The Daisy Chain and all appear to have been reading entirely different book.... But still left a lot out.

On the go

After that I actually started Nicola Barker, TonyInterrupter (2025), Kobo deal/sortes ereader, which I was quite enjoying, and then -

Arrival of Barbara Hambly, Death at the Palace (A Silver Screen Historical Mystery Book 4) so am currently immersed in that.

Next up

And after that, imagine it will be straight on to Cat Sebastian, Star Shipped, which also published yesterday. Then maybe back to TonyInterrupter.

ffutures

Starting in an hour, Ninja Crusade Bundle featuring "the Third Eye Games RPG of ninja, conspiracies, and high-flying martial arts."

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/NinjaCrusade

The premise here looks rather a bit like last week's Mists of Akuna but without the steampunk elements, and as with that this really isn't a setting that interests me much, I'm just not knowledgeable enough about ninja and martial arts generally to be interested in running games where they're a major part of the background. Parts of it were in a 2016 bundle, and I wasn't really very interested then either. Having said that it's cheap and presentation looks OK., and they don't refer to multiple Ninja as Ninjas which is a friend's pet peeve about most games that use them...

lsanderson

Protesters demanded hotels ban ICE agents. Here’s why that didn’t happen.
Despite widespread opposition to Operation Metro Surge, local leaders have so far been stymied in efforts to limit their hotel stays.
by Trevor Mitchell
https://www.minnpost.com/metro/2026/03/protesters-demanded-hotels-ban-ice-agents-heres-why-that-didnt-happen/

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended her characterization of Minnesotans killed during Operation Metro Surge as “agitators” during a nearly five-hour Senate hearing on Tuesday, the AP reports. “It was Noem’s first congressional appearance since the shooting deaths of the two protesters galvanized widespread opposition to how the Trump administration is executing its mass deportation agenda, a centerpiece policy of President Donald Trump’s second term.” Via MinnPost
https://apnews.com/article/noem-testifies-congress-homeland-security-immigration-enforcement-ebb715699e3f4f6dd6fdd22157b4e1a7 ( Read more... )

spiralsheep

- Birbs, 19 Feb 2026: as I scattered bird food an acrobatic female Dunnock flew cms in front of my legs to perch just inside the hedge but her male follower had to brake suddenly and veer off into the snow.

- Reading, February 2026 part 2 of 2: finished book 26, still no dnfs this year.

19. The Fossil Woman, by Tom Sharpe, 2020, 5/5
The best biography of professional palaeontologist Mary Anning imo.

20. The Stone Book Quartet, by Alan Garner, 1978, 5/5
A children's, historical-ish, composite novel (or collection of short stories). As good as the first time I read it (and garnering much the same reactions from me).

23. Physics for Cats, by Tom Gauld, 2025, 5/5
Another excellent collection of science-themed cartoons (or short comics): "And then, as suddenly as he'd appeared, the masked botanist was gone, leaving the townspeople with only an enriched knowledge of local flora and fungi to remember him by."

24. The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, by India Holton, 2021, 5/5
A comedy, fantasy, romance novel, which does what it does as well as it can.

25. A Year with Gilbert White, the first great nature writer, by Jenny Uglow, 2025, 5/5
( Shorter: it's Jenny Uglow so it's a good biography. )

pg67: Each hanging catkin is a long cluster of around 240 minuscule flowers, formed the previous summer; the slightest breath of air makes them shiver, wafting dusty yellow pollen to another tree, sometimes quite far away. The female flowers appear as a green bud, but though each one contains up to fourteen flowers, only the styles poke out - delicate, brilliant red tubes no longer than a millimetre or two - with a sticky stigma to catch the wind-blown pollen. From these, the clusters of hazel nuts grow. A strange, elaborate magic.

pg334 found poem (so many, lol):
My well rises.
My hedges are beautifully tinged.
Wood-larks sing sweetly
thro' this soft weather.
No swallows.

26. Drawn to Nature, Gilbert White and the artists, by Simon Martin, 2021, 5/5
An art exhibition catalogue but published as a normal format hardback book.
( Contents under cut. )

spiralsheep

A mild horror-themed post for you to skip. :-)

- Cute Ceriodaphnia water flea (wikipedia) cosplaying as a screaming ghost in a nice comfy empire-line patchwork dress.

- Another Daphnia water flea (wikipedia) ghost planning to lay her eggs soon... somewhere very near you.... ;-)

- Reading, February 2026 part 1 of 2: the Darkwood series.

18. Darkwood, Darkwood 1, by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, 2019, 4/5

The author is better known for her contributions to Horrible Histories and various topical satire shows including The Now Show so she's well equipped to write a satirical fantasy novel critiquing anglophone western culture, as it slithers towards the far right, through the medium of a "middle grade and up" novel reclaiming populist fairytale motifs. The motivations that cause many ordinary people to accept creeping fascism are explored through fear of difference, and an army marching to the rhythm of "Something must be done. Something must be done." The main characters include step-parents who're doing their best, girls who do maths and engineering, boys who do witchcraft; and Snow, the White Knight, who has been "living as a Dwarf" for years. Snow and Buttercup, the Cake Witch, share some Very Special Smiles. I additionally enjoyed the in-jokes about the Bin Men who must have offerings left out every Monday night, and gossiping Mother Goggins (Postman Pat shoutout), and the many humorous one-liners and puns, e.g. chapter titles: The Spider Who Came in from the Cold; and Run, Forest, Run. The plotting and pacing of the ending didn't fully work for me (the fascists are mostly talked out of their fanatical murderous hate and That One Guy who can't be talked around seals his own fate so Our Heroes keep their hands clean and their hats white) and the cliffhanger for the second book was as irritating as such ploys always are so 4/5.

21. Such Big Teeth, Darkwood 2, by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, 2020, 4/5

The fascists continue to back down, and chat, and walk away, and fail to be convincingly murdery enough, so the protags can survive encounters and stroll away with unambiguously clean hands. And when the fash with comparatively high tech weapons, including a flying boat, set an ambush they bring melee weapons instead of bows which is wholly unrealistic. Their elections, during which blustering male "orange" candidate stands against a mumsy female "green" candidate (who is very much a lesser EVIL in this book - the use of "green" here being the one truly bum note from a UK point of view), are as rigged as democracy in our world. And fear of the Other is used to justify fascist control as always. Apart from my few quibbles the writing is funny and the protags have their hearts in good places. A transgendered werewolf is added to the main characters.

22. The Glass Coffin, Darkwood 3, by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, 2021, 4/5

( One paragraph cut for spoilery details. )

A consistent 4/5 for each novel and the whole series.

Warning for irritation to people who have to deal with real-world fascists and know they can't be talked around (see western politics).

dinosaur_comics_feed

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=4442


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March 4th, 2026

March 4th, 2026: It's March! It's the month where Winter Finally Starts To End A Li'l Bit!

– Ryan

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=4442

cakewrecks_feed

Posted by Jen

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/peek-a-who-2026

Sometimes when I'm bemoaning the fact that most cakes today are just plastic flotsam delivery vehicles...

Here's your cake, enjoy! Just don't try to eat that thing. Or that one. Or that. Or that. Or that. Or that. Or that. Or that. Or that. Or that.

...Or that.

...I remember there's a REASON bakers rely so heavily on flotsam and toys:

Nemo? More like Ne-NO, am I right?

[Ba-dum-CHA!]

I... I think this is supposed to be Spider-Man:

Hold me.

Now, see, this would have been perfect if the customer had actually ASKED for a zombie-fied Spongebob:

As it is, I'm pretty sure little Levi needs therapy now.

This Darth Vader cookie is so ridiculously pathetic that I actually kind of love it:

(At least, I hope it's Vader. If not, then I'm never getting those thirty seconds of squinting back. Never EVER, you guys.)

Seriously, it's so bad I want to hug it.

And I like how the baker just gave up on the other cookie cakes, like she was all, "YOU GET VADER OR YOU GET NOTHING."

And finally, let's end with a little mystery:

WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?

Please, you guys, I have to know.

It says "Where Kermet," so of course my first thought was Kermit the Frog. But it's blonde and has four eyes with a giant red clown nose. Or is the red thing its mouth? And why "Where Kermet?" Where Kermet what? Where he stores his wigs? Where he met his untimely demise?

I went back to Holly J.'s original e-mail, seeking answers, and was delighted to find she'd included a few more angles of the mystery:

....

Well, THAT clears things ups, doesn't it? 0.o

Hang on. Holly says she thinks this is... MISS PIGGY!? Really? I mean, I guess she must be right, but... How. HOW. How is this possible?

I will not rest until I have answers!

Or until I get tired. Or John gets back with our burritos.

But otherwise, TOTALLY NOT RESTING.

Thanks to Sabrina, Kristen O., Sean K., Patrice D., Tori S., & Holly J. for pointing out today's character flaws. We know it's only because you care, guys.

*****

P.S. Good news, there's a Volume 2!

Exceptionally Bad Dad Jokes, Vol II

This one has the word "spiffing" in the title AND comes with a lovely green-and-gold cover, so folks will recognize your sophisticated taste while begging you to stop telling these terrible, TERRIBLE jokes.

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/peek-a-who-2026

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3215/

This replaces the previous solar activity watch, which was issued last month when the sun took off its sunglasses.

https://xkcd.com/3215/

cosmolinguist

I am not surprised at all that someone is gonna try to primary Klobuchar. I'm only mildly surprised it's someone I know online because he's on the same fedi instance as me. I just know him as the Cookie Mom and now he's doing a new thing!

He's campaigning on abolishing the Department of Homeland Security, bringing our neighbors home, and not taking the support of the DFL base for granted.

james_davis_nicoll

Two pair of linked speculative fiction stories.

I'm Waiting for You And Other Stories by Kim Bo-Young

tamaranth

2026/032: Maria — Michelle Moran

Dear Mr Hammerstein,
It may come as a surprise that I am writing to you, as it appears that the theater industry believes I am dead and can now make up whatever they wish about me... [opening line]

I read this for the prompt 'based on the top-grossing movie in the year of your birth'. Set in 1959, it's a novel about Maria von Trapp and her response to the forthcomming stage musical of 'The Sound of Music': her letter informs Hammerstein that she has 'several ideas about how the script can be fixed'. Hammerstein -- already ill with the stomach cancer that would kill him within a year -- is too busy (and possibly too nervous) to talk to her, so instead his secretary Fran has a series of conversations with Maria.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: calm

dewline

Seeing how many of my friendlist were already in her circles, it seemed like a good idea to add her to mine. Even so, she and I didn't chat directly all that much. I'm learning more of her through the surprising-to-me news of her death.

That said...

To those of you who've been closer to her: I'm sorry for your loss.

Current Mood: melancholy