New Year's Resolutions for 2024

Posted on 2024-01-01 in Personal • Tagged with personal

I have been reflecting on life for several months, perhaps I am going through my particular midlife crisis.

This year 2024 I want to do my part to correct what is in my power (and worry less about what is not in my power), hence this list of New Year's …


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My homelab setup

Posted on 2023-12-29 in Software • Tagged with backup, caddy, debian, docker, free-software, homelab, linux, kodi, nextcloud, nginx, privacy, self-hosting

Welcome to my homelab!

If you don't know what a homelab is, it refers to running servers from your home. What is a server? It's basically a computer that is always on, connected to the network, often with no display or input. For a longer explanation take a look at …


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Migrating to fish shell

Posted on 2023-12-07 in Software • Tagged with fish, shell, linux

I'm a heavy shell user. As a programmer I enjoy the power and flexibility of the shell, so I always keep multiple terminals open (just one keystroke away thanks to Yakuake).

I have been using Bash for as long as I have been a GNU/Linux user, that's 24 years …


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Replacing Nginx with Caddy in Docker Compose

Posted on 2023-11-09 in Software • Tagged with caddy, docker, homelab, nginx

The main server in my homelab runs a bunch of services, but the heart of it is a Docker Compose configuration, several of them exposed to the Internet via a reverse proxy webserver.

Before I was using three Docker images to run Nginx, proxy traffic to other services and have …


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Automating Python code quality

Posted on 2023-06-23 in Software • Tagged with programming, python, automation, howto, free-software

In this article I explain what I mean by code quality and how it benefits developers.

In the first half I discuss general concepts and workflows that apply to most software projects. Even if you are not writing Python code you might learn something from it.

In the second half …


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Public record: my BTC bet with tripu

Posted on 2023-05-06 in Cryptocurrency • Tagged with cryptocurrency, bitcoin, btc, fiat, money, inflation

On the back of the bet on the future relative prices of Bitcoin and US dollars that Balaji and Medlock settled publicly on 2023-05-02 (confirmation by Balaji; confirmation by Medlock), today tripu and I agree on the following terms of a bet:

  1. The object of the bet is whether Bitcoin …

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Privacy-respecting self-hosted Web Analytics

Posted on 2022-05-27 in Software • Tagged with privacy, web, analytics, self-hosting

It all started with a desire: I wanted some basic analytics for this blog to know how it's doing, which articles are popular and which are the main referrers. But therein lied the conundrum: I am a privacy zealot, very much against extensive online tracking (just look at the browser …


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My free-software photography workflow

Posted on 2022-03-31 in Photography • Tagged with photography, free-software

In this article I present a step-by-step walkthrough of my photography workflow. I won't go through all the details of every piece of software I mention, they have their own manuals and documentation for that, I will highlight the operations I do.

My main goals are:

  1. Full ownership of all …

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Web browser add-ons I use

Posted on 2022-02-23 in Software • Tagged with firefox, web, addons, privacy, security, cryptocurrency

This article lists the web browser extensions I use and why. I will keep it updated from time to time.

I use Firefox as my main web browser, because despite its shortcomings I think it's still the best available option for me, for reasons that would be worthy of a …


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Nextcloud CardDAV and CalDAV discovery with DNS records

Posted on 2022-02-17 in Software • Tagged with nextcloud, howto, self-hosting, dns

I use a self-hosted Nextcloud instance to hold a lot of my personal data, and that includes my contacts and calendars. Recently I had to reinstall DAVx5 on my phone, and I was surprised that the Nextcloud account was failing to be added.

The DAVx5 error logs showed that it …


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