Sarah Robin’s personal blog explores technology, AI, society, strategy, identity, creativity, and human progress through a systems-thinking lens.
Local DNS starts out harmless: a few host overrides here, one internal service there. But once VLANs, multiple interfaces, and a growing homelab enter the picture, those convenient little firewall UI entries turn into hidden infrastructure state. In this post, I walk through how I moved my LAN DNS from pfSense host overrides to a clean CoreDNS-based control plane — fast, deterministic,…
From time to time, someone dismisses one of my posts as “AI slop.” I understand where that reflex comes from. The internet is increasingly flooded with synthetic filler, inflated claims, and content that was never truly thought through by anyone. But that is not how I work with AI. I use it much more like an editorial room, a sparring partner, and sometimes a very fast assistant: to turn my own…
A bored-weekend side project turned into a tiny masterclass in database design. I rebuilt a “works-for-now” importer into a set-based, transactional loader and dropped runtime from 4 hours to under 10 seconds for 300k+ rows – on an average NVMe host with MariaDB. Same machine, same data, different architecture. Here’s the story, the thinking, and just enough code.
Every morning and evening I skim ~350–450 headlines – roughly 800 per day – in 15–20 minutes per session. No doomscrolling, no algorithm. Just a calm, custom-built RSS flow that keeps me globally aware and leaves me with more time (and sanity) for deep work. Here’s how it works, why it’s not crazy, and how you can adopt a lighter version on your own terms.
For the past few months, I’ve been quiet — at least on the outside. But it wasn’t a break. It was a deliberate restructuring. Of how I think, how I work, how I operate in the world. And who I’ve now become because of it.
Upgraded all my “unsupported” PCs to Windows 11—zero issues, no drama. This post unpacks why it worked, how Microsoft uses fear (FUD) to push upgrades, and what TPM 2.0 really means. Less of a how-to, more of a rational, systems-level reflection on tech, trust, and long-term hardware strategy.
Turn a cheap DVB-T USB stick and €20 wireless sensors into a reliable, real-time climate monitoring system for your entire house. This guide walks you through setting up tfrec on Linux, collecting temperature and humidity data over 868 MHz, and integrating it seamlessly into OpenHAB, Home Assistant, or any MQTT-capable platform. No cloud, no vendor lock-in—just efficient, low-cost data from every…
When the network drops, regimes tighten their grip or a storm wipes out the fibre cabinet, uninhibited access to knowledge should not vanish with the signal. Kiwix lets you compress the cultural treasure-trove of Wikipedia — and thousands of other open resources — into a handful of ZIM files you can carry on a USB stick.
Backups are essential – yet many solutions are bloated, expensive, or unnecessarily complicated. But there’s a simpler way: With PowerShell and Robocopy, you can create an automated, rsync-like mirror backup that runs reliably in the background, securing your most important data – all without third-party software!
Secure your local network with trusted SSL certificates that are recognized by every device. In this guide, we’ll explore how to set up out-of-the-box SSL for your LAN projects, highlight the advantages of owning a personal domain, and discuss how even a modest investment can elevate your web presence.
Running jobs every minute might sound simple, but there’s a lot that can go wrong. From overlapping tasks to missed executions, choosing the right approach is crucial for reliability. While tools like cron and systemd timers are great for most use cases, I’ve found that a custom PHP daemon strikes the perfect balance of control and flexibility for certain scenarios.
RAID may be the gold standard for data redundancy, but for my home server, I’ve found a simpler, more energy-efficient approach: nightly manual backups. This setup gives me flexibility, protection from accidental deletions, and lets me use older drives efficiently. Here’s why my daily rsync strategy beats RAID for personal use and how it’s saved my data more than once.
Setting up Time Machine backups for Apple devices on a Linux-based NAS has become significantly easier and faster thanks to Samba’s new features. With a well-configured Samba server on Debian, you can seamlessly backup macOS devices over the network and access your NAS with minimal setup. No more manually creating sparsebundles or struggling with complex configurations.
Why settle for bloated, one-size-fits-all solutions when you can create something uniquely tailored to your needs? As a developer who thrives on optimization and performance, I built my own blog engine from scratch—anchored by the powerful Charm PHP framework and seamlessly integrated into my PentaPaper SaaS platform.
Do you still have old VHS tapes stored away in the basement, full of memories you can't afford to lose? VHS tapes aren't made to last forever. In this article, I’ll show you how to transfer those valuable recordings into the digital world, with practical tips for preserving them.
Imagine you could travel back in time—not with a complex device or intricate technology, but with something you use every day: your smartphone. Let’s embark on a philosophical journey and explore how our digital recordings become a modern time machine.
Have you ever wondered where you really come from? Genealogy is like embarking on a journey into the past, and for me, it all started in the dusty corners of our basement. What began as a random find of old documents has, over the years, evolved into a deep exploration of my ancestors' stories.
Ready to take your OpenStreetMap skills to the next level? In this post, we walk you through creating a custom tile server for the entire European region—from setting up powerful hardware to generating map tiles and serving them on your own web server.
Ever wondered what it takes to create your own map server using OpenStreetMap data? Spoiler: it’s a long, winding journey filled with challenges, retries, and valuable lessons. In this post, I share my experience navigating the complexities of OSM.