Stillness amidst the chaos.
1. Introducing: Orgo For a long time, I've been using weblorg , a static site generator (SSG) for org-mode. It uses Emacs Lisp, which pairs well with Emacs. However, it has a few downsides: since it requires Emacs, the set-up and maintenance is heavy it has upstream dependencies that must also be installed and loaded into Emacs it re-runs the full process every time you need to regenerate the…
Just a shout-out that I was recently featured on Zachary Kai's People and Blogs series. Go check out the post here: People and Blogs: Christian ! Lots of praise to Zach and his predecessor, Manuel Moreale, for their series of interviews with various people on the web!
1. Why 10 Gbps? The short answer: fiber finally became available at my current residence, so I jumped on it immediately. The slightly longer answer is that I'd previously enjoyed proper 1 Gbps fiber, but for a while now I'd been stuck limping along on "1 Gbps" cable from Cox that, in reality, often crawled along at 100 Mbps regardless of what I did to fix it. New modem, new cables, different…
I wanted to briefly share a couple achievements I've experienced lately from the apps I've published on the iOS app store. If you're new to my blog: I'm not a full-time developer and don't do this for a living. I develop sites, apps, etc. for fun as a hobby. I open-source everything I create so others can share or fork as they please, and I've never even included a tip option (until now - that iOS…
1. SkunkyArt I've forked SkunkyArt , an alternative privacy frontend for DeviantArt that works entirely without JavaScript, over to the Zero Labs organization on GitHub. 1.1. Project Links Source Instances Issues 1.2. Why Fork? I didn't fork this project just for fun. At the time I found it, the upstream repository hadn't been updated in over a year, carried a number of unresolved bugs, and every…
To summarize my answer to Antonio's post: good! I don't read posts in my feed reader to look at styles, I do it to consume content - to read their thoughts. I use my feed reader because it's configured exactly how I like it. The colors are tweaked to a palette that's pleasing to my eyes and doesn't cause strain. The font family, font size, and other elements are customizable and configured exactly…
1. Linus on AI Linus Torvalds' recent defense of AI in the Linux kernel sparked the predictable backlash, but the real debate is far more nuanced than that. This specific blog post is in response to Simon Willison's post of the quotation below on his website. As Linus says in his message: I realize that some people really dislike AI, but this is an area where I'm willing to absolutely put my foot…
1. The Night Feeling There is a feeling I’ve had most of my life that I’ve never had a good name for. It shows up at night, usually when nothing is happening. A quiet road. A gas station glowing under the only visible lights in a black landscape. A parking lot after the store has closed, perhaps lit by a flickering neon sign. A bedroom lit by a monitor. The rest of the world asleep, or at least…
1. Introduction The internet; what can I say? It's the driving force behind nearly the whole world today - economies, countries, communities, and more run solely on the internet these days. However, it wasn't always this way. Once upon a time, the internet didn't even exist. When it did, the internet was a place . It was a place you went. You selectively chose to visit the internet, based on your…
It's true. I don't maintain my homelab… it maintains itself. Have I reached nirvana? Is this the ultimate goal of homelabbers? It seems that I've somehow automated myself out of a job (hobby?) by building a resilient homelab. Let's figure out where it all went "wrong". 1. Infrastructure 1.1. Server I have used a few different servers over the years, but have since consolidated all of my services…
Like others participating in Junited have mentioned, I recently discovered this project and love the idea. While the month is more than halfway past, I'll make sure to update this post with the best links I discover throughout the remainder of June 2026. Smallweb is Becoming an Archipelago : Coincidentally, I browse most of these websites as well. Emacs, how it all started (for me) : I love…
1. Messages of the Day ( motd ) A message of the day is, in computer terms, a welcome message that provides information and may help users logging onto the system. This is useful for numerous reasons, depending on the system, such as community announcements, compliance requirements, contextual information for that system, etc. In this post, I'll be walking through a simple way to generate a…
1. Git Is Not GitHub People often use "Git" and "GitHub" interchangeably. Sometimes it's for convenience, but often it's a genuine lack of clarity around these two concepts. I work with IT auditors daily and you'd be surprised how often I come back to explain this topic, which is why I've written an internal document and am rolling that into this blog post itself to share with a broader audience.…
1. Plain Text Won There has been a battle around how to format and store text since computers were invented. As computers moved to a more consumer-facing market, developers faced the challenge of determining the best way to store text. Early consumer software such as WordStar, WordPerfect, and Microsoft Word implemented proprietary document formats and rich-text systems, including binary word…
Zerobyte is a slick backup solution you can self host. It's one of the easiest apps I've self hosted and the backup jobs are running smoothly. In this post, I will show you how I've configured backups on my server to back up data to Cloudflare R2. 1. Installation 1.1. Docker First, let's install the app with Docker Compose. Create a directory for your compose.yml file in a location you'll…
1. Hutch I'm proud to announce that I've released my third (and, in my opinion, most useful) iOS app: Hutch. 1.1. Project Links I don't want to bury the lede, so let me start with links to the app and various project pages: Product App Store Website Development Source Project Issues 1.2. Overview Hutch is a mobile client for Sourcehut , a development host & forge. If you're not familiar with…
This is the latest in my series of posts on auditing AWS, a cloud platform that has existed for around two decades but can still be a mystery to auditors who aren't familiar with how cloud platforms operate. One of the older, and most popular, offerings from AWS is Simple Storage Service (S3), a scalable object storage service that can hold any type of data. With this ease of use comes risk.…
One of the first controls an IT Auditor learns is how to audit passwords in any number of IT systems. However, things have changed with the introduction of cloud platforms. This post covers the process and results of auditing AWS passwords. The scripts are available at audit-labs/audit-tools . 1. Scoping First thing first: scoping. To audit AWS passwords, we need to understand that AWS IAM…
If you've ever asked an IT team for a list of who has access to an AWS account, you've probably received a spreadsheet that was already out of date. Or worse, an out-of-context screenshot that doesn't explain anything. Or worse, they don't know either and ignore you, hoping you forget about the request (ask me how I know!). To make it worse, IAM Identity Center doesn't make this easy to extract…
As I've mentioned in previous posts, I utilize a unique pipeline to draft posts, compose my website, and to build and deploy the static files. This stack uses the following software: Emacs Weblorg Python Minify rsync Environment variables I've historically relied on the following build and deployment methods: Manually running ENV=prod emacs --script publish.el ; Then building out a build.py script…
1. What is GNU Stow? GNU Stow is described as a "symlink farm manager" on its homepage, which is true, but feels a bit underwhelming. Rather, I'd describe it as a tool to systematically and logically link, organize, and version control any files on your system. 2. Installation First things first: let's install Stow. I'm on macOS, so I run the following command: brew install stow To ensure it's…
I thought about this topic for a long time today before starting to write this post, as I don't think of myself as someone with intersecting interests. I generally lean pretty hard into interests and in my mind, they're all technology-related. However, I've settled on the following topic: The Minimalist Technologist . 1. Personal Life In my personal life, I spend my leisure time doing a few…
I'm having a great time with the Emacs Carnival, as it has inspired me to write two posts in such a short time. It's been a much-needed inspiration to write during my busy season at work. Anyway, let's get to it. The topic today is Completion : the magical thing that turns someone like me, who cannot remember long lists of commands to save my life, from an illiterate to a literate programmer. 1.…
This year in Emacs, I expect to do a lot. However, here are some actionable goals for myself that should have a positive impact as I start out 2026. 1. Dive Deeper into Org-Mode Org Agenda : Move beyond simple TODO lists. I want to implement a custom dashboard using org-super-agenda to group tasks by context rather than just file. ob-ipython : Fully embrace Literate Programming. This year, my data…
1. Overview I've used Home Assistant off and on for years, but I've never written a guide on it because it always felt like a half-baked solution with my combinations of products and my Home Assistant configuration. However, Home Assistant looks much better these days and now has native UniFi Protect support, so I decided to switch back to using it full time and writing up a proper guide to…
1. Installation First, install the Tor package. I'm using Ubuntu, so I'll be using apt to install Tor. sudo apt install tor 2. Configuration 2.1. Tor Next, let's configure the service we'll be serving via Tor. For this, edit the file below and add the lines below to the end of the file. sudo nano /etc/tor/torrc The following lines you add to the file will define the directory to use and the…
1. My AI Toolkit As others in the Big 4 will probably tell you, AI is a strategic tool that allows for a far more efficient and impact audit. However, the key is understanding when to use it, how to use it, and how to translate the output from your AI into actions. This post will walk you through how I personally leverage AI in my role. Let's start by stepping through the tools I have at my…
1. WCAG 2 What are the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 requirements? While the full list of WCAG requirements may seem intimidating, it's actually straightforward for a static site like cleberg.net if you are intentional about design. Luckily, they offer a Quick Reference guide that is much easier to parse than the full specification. So, while it wasn't onerous to push myself over…
Figure 1: aerc-mail Shout-out to Jack Baty for inspiring me to write about my aerc-mail client after chatting about it over email recently! 1. Overview aerc is a text user interface (TUI) email client with intuitive defaults, easy setup, and hassle-free operations. This post will walk through my personal configuration for aerc on macOS. 2. Installation Since I am on macOS, I opted to install aerc…
1. What's a Digital Garden? Before I start describing digital gardens, I want to show a couple examples that are distinct enough to show how varied digital gardens are. The first is a website ( ava's space ) and the second is a private collection of notes, using org-roam . Figure 1: avas.space Figure 2: Org Roam A digital garden is a personal space, just for you. It could serve any number of…
Figure 1: Rocket League on macOS 1. Intro Rocket League isn’t natively supported on macOS, but you can run it using CrossOver, a compatibility layer that lets Windows applications run on macOS. This guide walks you through installing CrossOver, setting up the Epic Games Store (or Steam), and getting Rocket League up and running. 2. Install CrossOver To start, we will install CrossOver with…
1. VPN I use a few different VPNs for different purposes. For general use, I use Mullvad due to its private account creation process, support for private payment options, and rock solid consistency. This is by far the most stable and high-speed VPN I have used over the last ~10 years. I also use Njalla whenever I need to use a service where Mullvad is blocked. I have found that the Njalla IP I was…
I know what you're thinking: "ANOTHER blog post about redesigning the website?" Yes. Another blog post about redesigning the website. I enjoy it, what can I say? I wrote my latest post about redesigning from a monospace-driven, terminal-styled theme to a more natural paper-inspired theme. However, it left a nagging feeling that something was missing. What if I took it further? Was there really any…
Please note that this redesign is a work-in-progress and is not complete. The content below describes the beginning of this journey and where I think it may take me next. Figure 1: The Old Theme Figure 2: The New Theme 1. Inspiration I've written numerous times on this blog about minimalism, so it shouldn't surprise any readers here that I've redesigned my website again for even more minimalism.…
The world is evolving into a privacy nightmare, where our own devices are being used by numerous parties to constantly track and report on our activities. This is especially prevalent on iOS, where platform restrictions leave users without many options to lock down their data. However, there are apps that exist that can help enhance the privacy of an iOS device. The post below details a number of…
1. Introduction As trends have shown, the auditing and assurance world is increasingly becoming overwhelmed with topics like AI , Digital Assets , Cloud , DevOps , and Automation . While these trends are rapidly transforming businesses and industries, audit firms and departments are working hard to ensure they stay aligned with business objectives. Throughout my career, I've seen topics like "AI"…
1. Trying out Asahi Linux While debating if I should find a replacement laptop and get rid of my MacBook Pro, I decided to try Asahi Linux . To put the bottom line up front, I love the experience and support for popular features has come a long way since I originally checked out their website a few years ago. From Asahi's website, as seen below, I noticed that almost all targeted features are now…
This is a short post detailing how I maintained repositories on GitHub and mirrors on GitLab - including both public and private repositories. Since GitLab locks pull-only mirrors behind their Premium and Ultimate tiers, I found a different solution. 1. Creating Mirrors I'll skip the setup and just hit the bullet points: I have a plethora of GitHub repositories. I used GitLab's mass-import…
1. The Setup I recently migrated my emails from Proton Mail to Migadu after a failed attempt to get myself into the Proton ecosystem and wanted to detail my process, as it was far more painful than expected. To give some context: I had nearly 5000 messages stored, accounting for around 2.5 GB of space. Overall, this process would have taken all day had I done it in one sitting, but I decided to…
This review is written at a high-level for users, not a technical deep-dive of VPN technologies. 1. What is Obscura? Obscura is a new VPN offering that's partnered with Mullvad to provide a unique service: a VPN that "can't log your activity" due to the fact that it uses Obscura servers for initial traffic routing and then passes off the traffic to Mullvad's WireGuard servers as exit nodes. This…
1. Overview Tandoor is a smart recipe manager web application that allows you to: Store your recipes Search for recipes and ingredients Share recipes with a link and permission system Put recipes and ingredients into a shopping list Plan your meals with a built-in calendar Calculate nutritional values Import recipes from websites and apps Load existing recipes 2. Installation The Tandoor docs…
1. The Lounge The Lounge is a self-hosted IRC client for the web, which supports a lot of desirable features for a modern IRC client. The Lounge supports push notifications, link previews, file uploads, always connected, multi-user support, and is available as a PWA for mobile devices. I wanted to write this as I had written a post about self-hosting Convos and have recently migrated over to The…
1. Background As someone who doesn't do software development full time and intends to actually enjoy it as a hobby, I've been interested in the concept of code assistants for a while. However, I had a few issues: I'm not a full-time developer, so I wanted to actually learn all the various features and rules of the projects I was building. The quality was quite low until recently. I wanted to use…
If you're torrenting anything sensitive, I highly recommend you use a VPN. Something like mullvad-cli is incredibly simple to use and can be configured to have a "killswitch" or "lockdown mode" to ensure that if the VPN disconnects, your traffic won't be leaked to your ISP. 1. Transmission Transmission is a cross-platform bittorrent client that supports running a remote control utility , a daemon…
This tutorial will guide you through the process of: Configuring a free Grafana cloud account. Installing Prometheus to store metrics. Installing Node Exporter to export machine metrics for Prometheus. Installing Nginx Exporter to export Nginx metrics for Prometheus. Visualizing data in Grafana dashboards. Configure alerts based on Grafana metrics. 1. Grafana Cloud To get started, visit the…
1. n8n This guide will show you how to self-host n8n , a workflow automation platform, and use it to create a workflow that automatically analyzes the sentiment of all incoming emails on your account. This is a completely free process that only requires that you have access to (1) an email account with IMAP/SMTP options and (2) a computer or machine where you can install and use Docker. 1.1.…
1. Cycling (Folding) View this section in org-mode. My absolute top-used feature is global and local cycling and it's not even close. Being able to hit S-TAB and collapse all headings when opening a file or needing to see a file's headings is an under appreciated trait. 1.1. Local Cycling When focused on a heading, you can press TAB ( org-cycle ) to cycle that subtree among the states folded ,…
This post describes the process to install and use Emacs on the iPad Air 13-inch (M2). The iPad used in this post is running iPadOS 17.6. 1. Shell Application In order to use Emacs on an iPad, you will need a terminal emulator application. I recommend iSH , since it runs a version of Alpine Linux within the app itself and will allow you to install packages that you need. Figure 1: iSH Application…
1. System Warning When running an update on an Ubuntu system, you may have run into a system warning that looks like the example below. W: https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/dists/stable/InRelease: Key is stored in legacy trusted.gpg keyring (/etc/apt/trusted.gpg), see the DEPRECATION section in apt-key(8) for details. While this example references the yarn package, the warning message is the same for…
Being a macOS user who previously used Linux for many years, I often find myself searching for alternatives to the Linux-native tools and methods that I had become used to over the years. Luckily, there's an option to simply use Linux directly on your macOS device without having to boot the whole device into Linux or having to SSH into another Linux machine. In this post, I use OrbStack to create…