What I am doing now
Updated: 20 May 2024
Writing Django applications again
I forget how awesome Django is, and Python in general. For getting a project done, with the minimal amount of fuss, with everything you need built-in, Django is great. My insatiable curiosity has taken me to Rails and Go in recent times; the former too magical and the latter too bare-bones (at least for web development). Django is a great balance and I really love it.
I am developing a basic e-commerce site for my awesomely talented wife, Joanna Lemon.
Exploring self-built cloud infrastructure
I’ve used Linux for years but only now getting a feel for what I want to use it for to build my personal cloud infrastructure. I have a very modest home server running mostly Debian containers using LXD. These provide various services to me and my family, such as Adguard, Radicale, Minecraft, Mumble, PostgreSQL, syncthing and taskd amongst a few other things.
I have recently had to learn OpenShift and I really dislike it. Obviously, for big enterprise applications I appreciate the benefits but for me - for now - Docker containers feel like an additional layer of complexity that you still have to get through before the benefits are realised. Certainly for doing projects at may scale.
I want to do more hands-on work with PostgreSQL as part of this.
I am also continually interested in the BSDs - OpenBSD and FreeBSD in particular - and want to make use of them where I can.
VMWare Workstation Pro
A lot of people in the homelab/hacker space were no doubt excited to find out recently that VMWare Workstation Pro became free of charge. It’s not free/open source of course but in terms of performance, it is a lot better than VirtualBox which I never really took to anyway, and KVM. Just starting to set up a playground for my networking aspirations using FreeBSD and Devuan.
Moved back to Spotify
I’m generally wary of any kind of dependence on a cloud service but we tried Amazon Prime Music Unlimited recently when Spotify put their prices up. A bit like with Django, sometimes you need to move away to realise how awesome the thing is you just left: Spotify’s UI, music discovery, desktop and TUI application options and focus on music rather than trying to ram podcasts down your neck - is what was important.
[This page is created under the wise instruction of Derek Sivers….]