Announcing Reflex, a Pelican theme

Posted on 2026-02-16 in Software • Tagged with free-software , pelican

I'm happy to announce the public availability of my Pelican theme: Reflex. It is published on PyPI, which should be the best way for most users to install it.

When I first started this blog I decided on Pelican because I had lots of experience with Python, so it would …


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Self-hosted Home, Part 1: Design and Planning

Posted on 2026-01-25 in Software • Tagged with free-software , linux , self-hosting

Those who have been paying attention to the blog know that I bought a house and have been planning its full renovation. As a computer nerd what excites me the most is the opportunity to implement my dream smart home, networking and home server.

I have a clear idea of …


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Periodic script to back up installed OS packages

Posted on 2025-12-08 in Software • Tagged with backup , fish , free-software , howto , linux , shell

A while ago I switched to yadm for managing my dotfiles. One of its features I have been enjoying is its bootstrap support. I have been adding idempotent setup operations

My latest addition is a script that creates backup files with all installed OS packages. In case of disaster if …


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Responsible education in computing

Posted on 2025-11-09 in Software • Tagged with education , free-software , linux

My oldest daughter is turning 7 soon, and I have promised her a gift: her first computer. I'm secretly hoping that she will develop an interest in computing similar to my own. Not because I want to reproduce my childhood in her (although, of course, I would like to share …


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Now with self-hosted comments

Posted on 2025-02-10 in Software • Tagged with blog , free-software , howto , linux , privacy , self-hosting

A few days ago I received an email from a reader and fellow blogger, to let me know that he was following my blog and also gave me a shout out about my New Year's resolution to write at least one article every month of 2025, and that I was …


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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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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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