I have a middling self-hosted/homelab setup, and it occasionally breaks. Alas, no monitoring tool has ever sparked joy in me. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that they’re essential for large fleets of services with fast-changing software and teams of oncallers working around the clock to understand the complex ways that complex systems fail… but my stuff doesn’t change that often, failures are…
I run an ephemeral NixOS system ( previous post ), based on the “Erase your darlings” idea of erasing your system on every boot, and selectively persisting state. My Firefox profile ( ~/.mozilla ) was a prime candidate for this treatment: I’ll have it wiped on every boot. This post details my two-year journey of managing customised ephemeral Firefox profiles. Firefox offers enterprise/distribution…
Fresh OS installs are bliss. But the joy fades quickly as installing and uninstalling programs leave behind a trail of digital debris. Even configuration management and declarative systems like NixOS miss crucial bits, like the contents of /var/lib or stray dotfiles. This debris isn’t just unsightly. It can be load-bearing, crucial to the functioning of your system, but outside of your control,…
Disclaimer: All ways of using Emacs are valid ways of using Emacs. This is describing just one. Emacs is a complex program, to the point that the dreaded emacs bankruptcy afflicts many, in which your config “gets so large that you really need to start over”. I’ve nearly been there, drawn in with the allure of a useful package here and there, which results in various long-term costs: random slow…
French domains have eligibility requirements, which I met when I registered a domain in 2013. In July 2023 I received a notification from AFNIC (via my registrar, Gandi) saying if I couldn't prove eligibility, they would suspend my domain in 7 days, and delete it in 30 days. I figured there had been some mistake, and replied with eligibility documents to prove eligibility. While waiting for a…
To back up my Android photos, I would manually sync them via USB to my local server. Needless to say, I forget to do this, so it’s time for a better solution! Requirements Here’s the rough set of things I was looking for: Privacy: Avoid photos being visible to third parties. Security: My phone shouldn’t have full access to the backup server. Just enough to write files. Simplicity: Avoid state. Use…