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./techtipsy

./techtipsy
The optimization treadmill: why I keep changing my computing setup all the time I have a bad habit of changing my computing setups all the time. I tend to see new gear, then I...
a year ago
157
a year ago
I have a bad habit of changing my computing setups all the time. I tend to see new gear, then I get some new ideas, and then I obsessively think about it for weeks and months until I just buy it. And then the cycle repeats. I’ve had time to think about why that keeps happening...
./techtipsy
OpenWRT, ISP modem and dynamic IP addresses: how to fix connectivity issues without rebooting your... My current ISP provides an internet connection over a copper wire. To use it, I have a crappy modem...
9 months ago
155
9 months ago
My current ISP provides an internet connection over a copper wire. To use it, I have a crappy modem (Technicolor CGA2121, DOCSIS 3.0). It’s running in bridge mode, meaning that all it does is convert the signal running over the coax cable into plain old Ethernet. My main...
./techtipsy
Fairphone 5: my heavily biased overview after 58 days of use (and counting) After months of contemplating I finally pulled the trigger and got myself a Fairphone 5. The...
11 months ago
152
11 months ago
After months of contemplating I finally pulled the trigger and got myself a Fairphone 5. The fact that iPhone X stopped receiving major iOS updates certainly helped make that decision. “But why? My Xiaomi/Oneplus/Samsung/other glued-together device is like so much cheaper and...
./techtipsy
Monitoring energy usage with smart plugs, Prometheus and Grafana This post isn’t a detailed line-by-line tutorial on how to set up each individual piece of the setup...
9 months ago
138
9 months ago
This post isn’t a detailed line-by-line tutorial on how to set up each individual piece of the setup as those types of guides tend to get out of date really easily, but if you know your way around Linux and the command line, then you can definitely replicate this setup on your...
./techtipsy
Control - how to make a game enjoyable for casual audiences I’ve decided to intentionally take more time to play video games this year, since it’s a relatively...
a year ago
135
a year ago
I’ve decided to intentionally take more time to play video games this year, since it’s a relatively healthy way to escape from the real world once in a while. A friend recommended one game in particular: Control: Ultimate Edition. During the Steam summer sale of 2023, I went...
./techtipsy
The hidden media play/pause/stop keys on the Lenovo ThinkPad L390 Yoga ThinkPad keyboards were once well known for their great layouts, feel and functionality. This...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
ThinkPad keyboards were once well known for their great layouts, feel and functionality. This included the media playback control keys. On the ThinkPad T430, the new chiclet keyboard layout moved the media keys to the function row. Still there, but less convenient to access. The...
./techtipsy
How to take down production with a single Helm command You’re Cletus Kubernetus: a software developer, and a proud Fedora Linux user.1 You know Kubernetes,...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
You’re Cletus Kubernetus: a software developer, and a proud Fedora Linux user.1 You know Kubernetes, especially after the time you migrated some services to it. Everything is calm. Your pods are running. Your service is up. Business as usual. You release some minor changes to...
./techtipsy
My very first career day This post is a short overview of my experience at a career day in Valga, Estonia, hosted with the...
a year ago
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a year ago
This post is a short overview of my experience at a career day in Valga, Estonia, hosted with the help of GreenDice. I’ve never spoken at a career day before nor attended one as a student, which is why I instantly agreed to going to one when GreenDice reached out to me. Why? I...
./techtipsy
Zimaboard: the closest thing to my dream home server setup I stumbled upon this Hardware Haven video about the Zimaboard recently. I liked it a lot. I finally...
a year ago
122
a year ago
I stumbled upon this Hardware Haven video about the Zimaboard recently. I liked it a lot. I finally bought one. In short, Zimaboard is a small single-board computer that is relatively affordable and comes with an interesting selection of ports, which includes an exposed PCI...
./techtipsy
ThinkPad T40: it can still run modern Linux, for now I recently busted out my old ThinkPad T40, the last of the OG IBM ThinkPads. I picked it up some...
9 months ago
118
9 months ago
I recently busted out my old ThinkPad T40, the last of the OG IBM ThinkPads. I picked it up some time around my university days because I liked collecting ThinkPads at the time, and it was a nice complement to my existing ThinkPad T60 and T430. The battery is dead, but everything...
./techtipsy
Lenovo ThinkPad P14s gen 4 (AMD): it doesn't suck under Linux I’ve had the opportunity to try out another new laptop at work. I’ve used a brand new laptop...
10 months ago
117
10 months ago
I’ve had the opportunity to try out another new laptop at work. I’ve used a brand new laptop recently, and it was horrible. But this time I’m pleasantly surprised. The Lenovo ThinkPad P14s gen 4 has great specs: CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U (8 cores, 16 threads, up to 5.1 GHz) GPU:...
./techtipsy
Steam Deck: I like it I got a Steam Deck. Only took me a year or so of contemplating getting one, and trying out HoloISO,...
8 months ago
104
8 months ago
I got a Steam Deck. Only took me a year or so of contemplating getting one, and trying out HoloISO, the unofficial SteamOS installer finally convinced me to get one.1 It took another year to actually get down to writing down my thoughts on it. This post is written from the...
./techtipsy
They make USB-C cables with displays now! I’ve reached a point in my setup where most of the devices that I use are based around the coveted...
8 months ago
101
8 months ago
I’ve reached a point in my setup where most of the devices that I use are based around the coveted USB-C port. This meant that I had a valid reason to get a few extra because I didn’t yet have a stockpile of good USB-C cables. That’s when I found out that there exist cables that...
./techtipsy
About the time my ThinkPad T430 ran with an external GPU The ThinkPad T430 is not a remarkable laptop. It’s thick, bulky and built like a tank. I got mine in...
7 months ago
100
7 months ago
The ThinkPad T430 is not a remarkable laptop. It’s thick, bulky and built like a tank. I got mine in 2016 when the first university scholarship money dropped, and it’s still my backup laptop of choice. Around 2017 I did something every reasonable poor computer science...
./techtipsy
Oops, I published my drafts! Those of you who follow my blog using the RSS feed might have seen that new, incomplete posts popped...
a year ago
99
a year ago
Those of you who follow my blog using the RSS feed might have seen that new, incomplete posts popped up around the time I published my FOSDEM 2024 post. Oops. I recently tried looking for an alternative to writing blog posts in IntelliJ and out of all the options I stuck...
./techtipsy
How to save an old printer from the e-waste pile with a Raspberry Pi A family member has a Canon PIXMA MP250 printer, originally released in 2009. It has been a very...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
A family member has a Canon PIXMA MP250 printer, originally released in 2009. It has been a very reliable piece of hardware, especially for a printer. Then came Windows 10. The printer would not work out of the box with it and the official drivers got stuck during installation....
./techtipsy
Back to roots This blog is running on a home server again. I have once again gained access to a competent internet...
8 months ago
93
8 months ago
This blog is running on a home server again. I have once again gained access to a competent internet connection1, and I think I have figured out the IPv6 setup as well2, leading to this change. The IP address is dynamic, there are occasional power outages and I might just mess up...
./techtipsy
FOSDEM 2024: my experience, some notes and tech tips I finally went to FOSDEM. I’m sleep-deprived, completely exhausted, but incredibly excited about the...
a year ago
92
a year ago
I finally went to FOSDEM. I’m sleep-deprived, completely exhausted, but incredibly excited about the whole experience. I’ve split this post into three separate sections. overall notes on the conference and the city less technical, but sheds light on the FOSDEM experience the...
./techtipsy
No HDMI port on the ThinkPad T430? No problem! The ThinkPad T430 has a few options for running it with an external display: VGA port, which is...
7 months ago
91
7 months ago
The ThinkPad T430 has a few options for running it with an external display: VGA port, which is pretty much obsolete at this point mini DisplayPort connector on the laptop itself DVI or DisplayPort on a dock The mini DisplayPort port has annoyed me for as long as I’ve had this...
./techtipsy
The IKEA-powered homelab on a wall I recently learned about the IKEA SKÅDIS series, which is a pegboard that supports a variety of...
a year ago
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a year ago
I recently learned about the IKEA SKÅDIS series, which is a pegboard that supports a variety of extras. During my self-hosting journey having to figure out the best place for putting all my compute stuff to has always been at the back of my mind, especially due to limited...
./techtipsy
My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter It turns out that you can’t trust any USB type A power adapter to be within spec. I have a Catit...
a year ago
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a year ago
It turns out that you can’t trust any USB type A power adapter to be within spec. I have a Catit Flower Fountain for my two adorable cats. The idea of a water fountain for cats may sound odd, but having one really helps with cats staying hydrated and that alone avoids all sorts...
./techtipsy
The simplicity of the modulo operator: how I scaled an inefficient solution on a legacy system Your service cannot process events fast enough during peak hours. There is no obvious quick and...
a year ago
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a year ago
Your service cannot process events fast enough during peak hours. There is no obvious quick and dirty fix. Refactoring would take ages. People have been unhappy for a while now. What the hell do you do? Background I had the pleasure of working with a legacy backend system...
./techtipsy
My trip to the Communication and Laptop Museum in Estonia While on vacation I went on a small road-trip across Estonia. During the second half of the trip I...
a year ago
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a year ago
While on vacation I went on a small road-trip across Estonia. During the second half of the trip I ended up being in Võrumaa, and while driving I suddenly remembered a random fact that some people mentioned in a hackerspace Slack channel: there’s a new museum around here! The...
./techtipsy
Steam local network game transfers are a game-changer Steam recently launched a new feature: local network game transfers. The idea is simple: if you have...
a year ago
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a year ago
Steam recently launched a new feature: local network game transfers. The idea is simple: if you have a game downloaded on another PC and you’re both on the same local network, then Steam can download game data from that PC, avoiding the need to download the game over public...
./techtipsy
How I ended up working as a software developer I’ve officially worked as a software developer since August 2016, and by now I have a fair share of...
6 months ago
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6 months ago
I’ve officially worked as a software developer since August 2016, and by now I have a fair share of stories to tell from those years. But those are stories for another time. Today I’d like to focus on where it all got started. The early days I never considered myself good with...
./techtipsy
Why you might not want to publicly self-host a Wikipedia clone A while ago I wrote about how easy it is to download an archive of Wikipedia and host it...
a year ago
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a year ago
A while ago I wrote about how easy it is to download an archive of Wikipedia and host it anywhere you want using Kiwix. I’m still hosting Kiwix sites publicly, but here are a few things you might want to consider before doing so yourself. The spam I have a specific e-mail address...
./techtipsy
Dell Latitude 5411: the Linux compatibility sweet spot Oh boy, here I go testing a new laptop again! Well, it was new back in 2020. You might remember my...
a year ago
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a year ago
Oh boy, here I go testing a new laptop again! Well, it was new back in 2020. You might remember my article on why I went back to a ThinkPad T430 in 2022. Or that other time when I got a new HP laptop for testing and got so frustrated that I wrote about it. Well, today I’m writing...
./techtipsy
Cool projects This is an unsorted list of projects that really cool and neat. Chromebook cluster someone took...
a year ago
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a year ago
This is an unsorted list of projects that really cool and neat. Chromebook cluster someone took some old Chromebooks, stripped them down and built a cluster. I love this kind of jank!
./techtipsy
I held a talk about my self-hosting adventure! There are two reasons why I haven’t written much lately, and one of them is that I was cooking up...
a year ago
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a year ago
There are two reasons why I haven’t written much lately, and one of them is that I was cooking up a talk about self-hosting, more specifically my own self-hosting adventure (the other one is the Steam Deck, more about that in the future). The talk took place on May 25th 2023 at...
./techtipsy
I looked at this site on the Wayback Machine Yesterday was election day in Estonia and the results are in, which is why I remembered that one...
a year ago
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a year ago
Yesterday was election day in Estonia and the results are in, which is why I remembered that one time I looked at my website on the Wayback Machine. This domain used to point to a Wordpress site that hosted content for a candidate in the local elections, at least around...
./techtipsy
Shrinkflation, SanDisk style 2023-02-16 update: this post is not about the “GB vs GiB” issue, or the “lost disk space” that...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
2023-02-16 update: this post is not about the “GB vs GiB” issue, or the “lost disk space” that you notice after formatting the device in an OS. Please read the article in full before making inaccurate comments online. For many years, I have used two SanDisk Ultra 16 GB USB flash...
./techtipsy
Anything's a portable speaker if you're brave enough I hate buying things that are single-purpose, which is why I ended up with this setup. Take a...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I hate buying things that are single-purpose, which is why I ended up with this setup. Take a speaker, a battery, put them together, and what you now have is a portable speaker. Since I had access to both, I felt no need to buy a separate portable speaker for use in social...
./techtipsy
The Fedora Linux starter pack: everything you need for a smooth experience I like Fedora Linux. It’s the Linux distro that stopped my habit of distro-hopping. Big deal? Ooh,...
4 months ago
67
4 months ago
I like Fedora Linux. It’s the Linux distro that stopped my habit of distro-hopping. Big deal? Ooh, big deal! It’s stable in day-to-day use, ships with up-to-date software, and the software selection is adequate out of the box. It also ships with a fresh Linux kernel version1,...
./techtipsy
This site will be offline on 2022-08-17 between 18:00-19:00 EEST There really isn’t much to say here, nor is there a rational reason behind this. I just see it as an...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
There really isn’t much to say here, nor is there a rational reason behind this. I just see it as an opportunity to send a signal and test the capabilities of my UPS. I’ve prepared for this moment with my self-hosting setup, let’s see how well it holds up. Hopefully better than...
./techtipsy
techtipsy, now hosted on k-space! This site is now hosted on infrastructure provided by k-space, a friendly hackerspace in Tallinn,...
a year ago
66
a year ago
This site is now hosted on infrastructure provided by k-space, a friendly hackerspace in Tallinn, Estonia. If you’ve been reading any of my previous posts, you might be wondering why I made that move, especially since I was quite proud of hosting my website over a residential...
./techtipsy
My blog successfully survived a scheduled power outage I had the opportunity to test the resiliency of my home server setup due to a scheduled power outage...
5 months ago
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5 months ago
I had the opportunity to test the resiliency of my home server setup due to a scheduled power outage on 2024-09-13. It was also Friday the 13th. I’m not superstitious, but I’m a little stitious. My setup usually consists of the home server, a Wifi AP/router combo box, a converter...
./techtipsy
btrbk is awesome I like having a safety net whenever I’m doing something potentially destructive, which is why I use...
over a year ago
65
over a year ago
I like having a safety net whenever I’m doing something potentially destructive, which is why I use the btrfs file system for my operating system and my data. Snapshots are one half of my “whoops, there goes all my work” strategy (backups are the other half). I’ve written about...
./techtipsy
About the time I used Google Drive as a CMS for a web app Near the beginning of my software development career, I worked on a pretty standard web application....
over a year ago
65
over a year ago
Near the beginning of my software development career, I worked on a pretty standard web application. The project was not a commercial success, but it did give me a good technical foundation that turned out to be very useful for my career so far. For those interested, the tech...
./techtipsy
ThinkPad as a server: the follow-up It’s been a while since I last wrote about my ThinkPad T430 that was tasked with being a home...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
It’s been a while since I last wrote about my ThinkPad T430 that was tasked with being a home server. After doing some experiments with my setup a couple of times, it is once again the main server for all my self-hosting needs. However, this time I have made some...
./techtipsy
How to copy media off of an iPhone the hard way (using Linux) I helped a family member upgrade to a newer iPhone and make some room so that the internal storage...
5 months ago
62
5 months ago
I helped a family member upgrade to a newer iPhone and make some room so that the internal storage does not run out. They had Nextcloud installed on the current phone, but due to limitations of the Nextcloud iOS app, the backups only take place if the app itself is open, meaning...
./techtipsy
ASRock DeskMini X300: the future form factor of desktop PC-s? I wasn’t happy with my “one machine that does it all” setup, which is why I finally bit the bullet...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I wasn’t happy with my “one machine that does it all” setup, which is why I finally bit the bullet and got myself an ASRock DeskMini X300 bare-bones kit. This is a fantastic little desktop PC kit that is very small, quiet and can still be configured to have ridiculous amounts of...
./techtipsy
So you want to migrate to Kubernetes: observations from a software developer Kubernetes: everyone wants to do it, regardless of their scale and business objectives.1 Common...
4 months ago
61
4 months ago
Kubernetes: everyone wants to do it, regardless of their scale and business objectives.1 Common justifications include better scalability, cost savings, standardization and being super modern and stuff. It’s the future! In my personal experience, Kubernetes is far from the...
./techtipsy
The IPv6 situation on Docker is good now! Good news, everyone! Doing IPv6 networking stuff on Docker is actually good now! I’ve recently...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
Good news, everyone! Doing IPv6 networking stuff on Docker is actually good now! I’ve recently started reworking my home server setup to be more IPv6 compatible, and as part of that I learned that during the summer of 2024 Docker shipped an update that eliminated a lot of the...
./techtipsy
ASRock X570M Pro4 motherboard overview Not too long ago, I had the goal of consolidating all my computing needs onto a single desktop PC....
over a year ago
61
over a year ago
Not too long ago, I had the goal of consolidating all my computing needs onto a single desktop PC. That meant moving from an mITX-based build to something that had a bit more expandability. Since I already had a Fractal Meshify C Mini, I decided to go for an mATX motherboard. And...
./techtipsy
Running my ThinkPad T430 with an eGPU in 2024 I probably shouldn’t have written down my notes on the eGPU setup I had years ago. I’d be lying if I...
6 months ago
61
6 months ago
I probably shouldn’t have written down my notes on the eGPU setup I had years ago. I’d be lying if I wasn’t considering remaking this setup with everything I’ve learned 6 years later. Oops. I got access to an allegedly-faulty AMD Radeon RX 480 and an NVIDIA GTX 1650 for free...
./techtipsy
How I blew up my backup server (Valve pls fix) It all started with me getting a Steam Deck. Background After getting familiar with the Steam Deck...
a year ago
59
a year ago
It all started with me getting a Steam Deck. Background After getting familiar with the Steam Deck and how the Proton compatibility layer works, I decided to write a backup script that would back up everything in the home folder, excluding the Steam games themselves due to the...
./techtipsy
The best laptop is the one somebody else had In 2011, I was finishing 9th grade. As a gift, I got to choose a laptop in the 400 EUR range. I...
3 months ago
56
3 months ago
In 2011, I was finishing 9th grade. As a gift, I got to choose a laptop in the 400 EUR range. I ended up picking an ASUS Eee PC 1201PN. It was new and the first computer in my life that was 100% mine, but awfully slow for a lot of tasks. It was so slow that I ended up giving...
./techtipsy
Tiered storage: use the right tool for the job Hard drives are still the default choice for many homelab and data hoarding enthusiasts. They still...
a year ago
56
a year ago
Hard drives are still the default choice for many homelab and data hoarding enthusiasts. They still hold the gigabytes per dollar advantage over SSD-s (for now), and if you buy the big external drives and take the drives out of the enclosures, you can get a pretty good...
./techtipsy
Life is maintenance, maintenance is life Over my relatively short career (6+ years), I’ve noticed a change in the way I approach building...
a year ago
56
a year ago
Over my relatively short career (6+ years), I’ve noticed a change in the way I approach building things. When I was still an inexperienced junior developer who barely survived operating in a Linux environment and saw backend development as a black box, I was happy to get...
./techtipsy
Tech rants: PC-s use way too much power in 2021 Welcome to 2021. We have: supply chain issues no reasonably priced GPU-s consumer-grade CPU-s with...
over a year ago
55
over a year ago
Welcome to 2021. We have: supply chain issues no reasonably priced GPU-s consumer-grade CPU-s with peak power consumption at 296W GPU-s that consume 350-400W of power under normal use At the same time, we have made great leaps in CPU/GPU architectures and chip manufacturing...
./techtipsy
I have a 'Dall UD19PB ThundeRbglt Dock': my experience with the HP Elitebook 845 G9 I’ve decided to give a new laptop a test drive, mainly because I had the opportunity at work, and...
over a year ago
54
over a year ago
I’ve decided to give a new laptop a test drive, mainly because I had the opportunity at work, and also out of morbid curiosity. It’s the HP Elitebook 845 G9, and it has pretty good specifications: CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 6800U RAM: 2x16GB DDR5 Storage: 512GB KIOXIA NVMe SSD...
./techtipsy
The minimum viable fan control script I’ve always been a fan of tinkering with cooling setups on my computers. I’ve even went as far as...
over a year ago
54
over a year ago
I’ve always been a fan of tinkering with cooling setups on my computers. I’ve even went as far as writing crappy solutions to make up for deficiencies on the hardware level. After years of dumb experiments I’ve seen how little you can get away with in cooling and how to run your...
./techtipsy
How to build a fleet of networked offsite backups using Linux, WireGuard and rsync Just like most people out there, I have some files that are irreplaceable, such as cat pictures. At...
2 months ago
54
2 months ago
Just like most people out there, I have some files that are irreplaceable, such as cat pictures. At one point I had a few single-board computers sitting idle, namely the Orange Pi Zero and the LattePanda V1, and a few 1TB SSD-s. I hate idle hardware, so I did the most sensible...
./techtipsy
What I've learned running Linux and Windows off of USB flash drives I’ve recently made an effort to reduce the amount of tech stuff that I own. Lack of space, lack of...
2 months ago
53
2 months ago
I’ve recently made an effort to reduce the amount of tech stuff that I own. Lack of space, lack of time and the guilt of storing perfectly functional hardware unused in a box were the main motivators. This has resulted in experiments with my assortment of USB flash storage that...
./techtipsy
I finally found an use case for my Raspberry Pi Model B+ You have probably heard about the Raspberry Pi. It’s a nice little affordable single-board computer...
over a year ago
52
over a year ago
You have probably heard about the Raspberry Pi. It’s a nice little affordable single-board computer with a huge community using it for all sorts of projects. I got my first Raspberry Pi, the Model B+, during my first year at university, which was around the winter of...
./techtipsy
My self-hosting setup has an UPS now, here's my experience with it I changed my setup again. I’m now the proud owner of an APC Smart-UPS 750. Why? Because I got it as...
over a year ago
51
over a year ago
I changed my setup again. I’m now the proud owner of an APC Smart-UPS 750. Why? Because I got it as a gift, and I have never actually had an UPS before, so it makes for a good introduction to this world. Overview My setup is quite basic: everything that I have on my table...
./techtipsy
You can use almost anything as a key file for your encrypted storage device Imagine that you have an unencrypted drive containing your private data and one day it starts...
3 months ago
51
3 months ago
Imagine that you have an unencrypted drive containing your private data and one day it starts throwing a bunch of errors. You have backups of the data so you’ve got that part covered, but would you feel comfortable sending the drive in to be warrantied? You have no control over...
./techtipsy
Your Wi-Fi might be terrible because of Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) For a few months, I had issues with my Wi-Fi network. The 2.4 GHz network would be fine, but the 5...
3 months ago
51
3 months ago
For a few months, I had issues with my Wi-Fi network. The 2.4 GHz network would be fine, but the 5 GHz one would suddenly stop working and completely disappear from the available Wi-Fi networks. OpenWRT upgrades also didn’t improve the situation. This was very annoying. After...
./techtipsy
I tried out the CyberPower UT650EG UPS After some spicy feedback to my post where a ThinkPad T430 acted as a server, I decided to try out...
over a year ago
51
over a year ago
After some spicy feedback to my post where a ThinkPad T430 acted as a server, I decided to try out one UPS that was recommended on the basis of it being much more power efficient compared to the APC UPS that I previously ran. That UPS? CyberPower UT650EG. Why switch out a...
./techtipsy
AMD Ryzen 7 5700G: first impressions on Fedora 34 Introduction I’ve covered my self-hosting setup in a previous post. It has been a couple of months...
over a year ago
49
over a year ago
Introduction I’ve covered my self-hosting setup in a previous post. It has been a couple of months and the setup has mostly been fine. Sure, the power usage was pretty big under load, and yes, my internet did cut out every time I turned the VM on with all the services starting,...
./techtipsy
TOMO M4: probably the coolest power bank I've owned A friend once showed me a power bank that was so cool that I had to get one myself. Ended up getting...
a year ago
49
a year ago
A friend once showed me a power bank that was so cool that I had to get one myself. Ended up getting two, and here’s why. This post is not sponsored. Removable batteries Let’s start with the feature that I appreciate the most: removable batteries! The TOMO M4 accepts up to 4...
./techtipsy
Can a laptop from 2012 be a viable home server? I’m a man of many ideas. It’s a shame that most of them are quite stupid. This is one of them, but...
over a year ago
48
over a year ago
I’m a man of many ideas. It’s a shame that most of them are quite stupid. This is one of them, but at least it makes for a fun experiment. Intro After adding an UPS to accompany my server, my setup was as complete as it could reasonably be. The server is low power, but packs...
./techtipsy
I encourage you to write a blog It’s been over 4 years since my first post on this blog. During those 4 years I’ve written over 90...
5 months ago
48
5 months ago
It’s been over 4 years since my first post on this blog. During those 4 years I’ve written over 90 posts, received over 1 million clicks, a dozen legitimate reader e-mails and thousands of spam e-mails. And I love it! I’ve found that writing can be very fulfilling and I encourage...
./techtipsy
Strangling your service with a Kubernetes misconfiguration This is a quick story about a fun discovery that I made a while ago. For legal reasons, all of this...
over a year ago
48
over a year ago
This is a quick story about a fun discovery that I made a while ago. For legal reasons, all of this is made up and no such service ever existed. Once upon a time, we had this Java service that handled all the backend work that you’d expect to occur for a product with a web...
./techtipsy
ThinkPad as a server: third time's the charm This is a follow-up to my two previous attempts on this topic: Can a laptop from 2012 be a viable...
4 months ago
47
4 months ago
This is a follow-up to my two previous attempts on this topic: Can a laptop from 2012 be a viable home server? ThinkPad as a server: the follow-up Since then, I’ve had quite a few changes to my home server setup: I put my home server stuff on an IKEA pegboard I tried the...
./techtipsy
VR, VFIO and how latency ruined everything I’ve been running my all-in-one PC for a while now. It was my desktop, my NAS and my gaming...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I’ve been running my all-in-one PC for a while now. It was my desktop, my NAS and my gaming PC. However, during the next couple of months I kept hitting small bumps along the road. Most of these were quite straightforward to fix, but there is one that finally convinced me to go...
./techtipsy
Disabling the crappy Broadcom Bluetooth adapter in your ThinkPad T430 running Linux You’ve disabled the boneheaded Lenovo WiFi adapter whitelist using a tool like 1vyrain, installed a...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
You’ve disabled the boneheaded Lenovo WiFi adapter whitelist using a tool like 1vyrain, installed a better adapter like the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, and found that Bluetooth is not working as intended on your ThinkPad T430 running Linux? Here’s a guide on what you can...
./techtipsy
Overcoming hardware limitations: the time-to-sleep script As some of you might own, I’m still rocking a ThinkPad T430, a laptop model originally released in...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
As some of you might own, I’m still rocking a ThinkPad T430, a laptop model originally released in 2012. It’s not the fastest laptop out there, but it is plenty fast for a number of tasks, even most software development work. I also try to keep my machines up to date and properly...
./techtipsy
Trying out VR on an AMD Ryzen 4000 series APU You may know that I really like small, efficient APU-based builds. At this point in time, they’re so...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
You may know that I really like small, efficient APU-based builds. At this point in time, they’re so close to being a viable mainstream option for gaming, especially the Ryzen 6000-series mobile APU-s. Forza Horizon 5, at 1080p high settings? Yes, they’re that good. I don’t have...
./techtipsy
HoloISO: the unofficial Steam Deck experience on your PC If you have spent any time in gaming hardware circles, then you’ve probably heard about the Steam...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
If you have spent any time in gaming hardware circles, then you’ve probably heard about the Steam Deck, the Linux-based handheld gaming PC built by Valve. Yes, you heard that right: not Windows, but Linux. I’ve had my fair share of attempts at gaming on Linux. When it works,...
./techtipsy
Testing a cheap ExpressCard to NVMe SSD adapter on my ThinkPad T430 I stumbled upon this post in /r/thinkpad, which got my attention. It showcases an ExpressCard to M.2...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I stumbled upon this post in /r/thinkpad, which got my attention. It showcases an ExpressCard to M.2 NGFF adapter that they purchased from AliExpress. The adapter has a similar purpose to the one designed by thinkmods.store, with the added bonus that it could fit longer NVMe...
./techtipsy
Surviving the front page of HackerNews on a 50 Mbps uplink Around a month ago I shared my blog post on HackerNews. I guess I lucked out with the choice of the...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Around a month ago I shared my blog post on HackerNews. I guess I lucked out with the choice of the topic, because it brought out a lot of enthusiasts who shared their own experiences with older machinery that still works in 2022. I really appreciate the feedback and...
./techtipsy
Accidentally turning the ASRock DeskMini X300 into a semi-passively cooled PC After playing around with fan curves on my ASRock DeskMini X300 based home server, I noticed one...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
After playing around with fan curves on my ASRock DeskMini X300 based home server, I noticed one interesting thing. At least it was interesting to me. Background I had one goal: to try to see if I could turn it into a semi-passive PC by only turning the fan on when the PC was...
./techtipsy
Cool links This is an unsorted list of links that I find to be cool. slow roads sit back, relax and let the AI...
a year ago
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a year ago
This is an unsorted list of links that I find to be cool. slow roads sit back, relax and let the AI do all the driving or don’t, I’m not your dad
./techtipsy
Why I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012 This post is inspired by this article from the Low-tech Magazine. I highly recommend giving that a...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
This post is inspired by this article from the Low-tech Magazine. I highly recommend giving that a read as well! Over my lifetime, I’ve used a bunch of different computers, mainly due to new ideas and requirements popping into my mind every time I’m content with my current setup....
./techtipsy
DIY cloud gaming setup with VFIO, Parsec and AMD This is a follow-up to my previous post where I covered the VFIO setup in general. For many people...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
This is a follow-up to my previous post where I covered the VFIO setup in general. For many people that would have been good enough, but my goal with this setup was to have a powerful gaming setup that I could access from my living room PC with 20 meters of Ethernet cables...
./techtipsy
My experience at the k-space hackerspace hackathon k-space is a hackerspace in Tallinn, Estonia, and they organized a hackathon recently. Unlike in...
a year ago
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a year ago
k-space is a hackerspace in Tallinn, Estonia, and they organized a hackathon recently. Unlike in most hackathons, in this one you could whatever you like with no expectations about building a business or coming up with an MVP, just come on down to the space and start working on...
./techtipsy
What changing the CPU on a laptop looks like This post illustrates something that is not common on modern laptops: changing the...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
This post illustrates something that is not common on modern laptops: changing the CPU. Background One of the modifications that you can do to a ThinkPad T430 laptop is changing the CPU to a more powerful quad core model. That’s exactly what I did back in 2017, but due to the...
./techtipsy
Oversimplified guide into snapshots on the btrfs filesystem Friday afternoon. You’re trying out a script that you wrote to mass-rename and move some files...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Friday afternoon. You’re trying out a script that you wrote to mass-rename and move some files around. You finish the script and test it out. Oops. All the files now have all the wrong names, and some have been randomly moved 10 folders deep. It’s a mess. And you didn’t make a...
./techtipsy
LattePanda V1 - my experience with a Raspberry Pi alternative As with many homelab experiments around 2022/2023, it all started with Raspberry Pi-s being either...
a year ago
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a year ago
As with many homelab experiments around 2022/2023, it all started with Raspberry Pi-s being either out of stock or absurdly overpriced. I once noticed a listing for a LattePanda V1 on a local auction site. The price was reasonable at 45 EUR, and after I looked at the...
./techtipsy
How to make digital copies of your old video tapes Introduction This is a short overview of one way to take your old video tapes and make digital...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Introduction This is a short overview of one way to take your old video tapes and make digital copies of their contents. To get started, you will need the following: old video tapes that you want to make copies of (VHS and its variants) a device that can read analog AV signals...
./techtipsy
My very first Dungeons and Dragons campaign In December 2024, I did something that I had never done before: I participated in a short (~6 hours)...
a month ago
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a month ago
In December 2024, I did something that I had never done before: I participated in a short (~6 hours) Dungeons and Dragons campaign. It was the nerdiest thing ever, and I loved it! The setting After another day of keeping a critical production service up, the whole team met up at...
./techtipsy
Quest towards energy efficiency part 1: the water heater While listening to the SelfHosted podcast, one of the hosts brought up their peculiar...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
While listening to the SelfHosted podcast, one of the hosts brought up their peculiar living arrangement multiple times. Essentially, he and his family are living in an RV that runs off of batteries, has solar panels, utilizes Home Assistant for automation, supports multiple...
./techtipsy
The absolute state of Bluetooth audio in 2022 I have the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones. They’re good for consuming content. Audio calls with your...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I have the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones. They’re good for consuming content. Audio calls with your colleagues? Forget about it. This is the setup I have to go with, and it has all to do with how Bluetooth works. Your options with Bluetooth headsets are the following: high quality...
./techtipsy
Turning leftover PC parts into a decent gaming PC Introduction About a year ago, I bought an used PC based off of a Lenovo Erazer X510. It had a...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Introduction About a year ago, I bought an used PC based off of a Lenovo Erazer X510. It had a dual-core Intel Pentium G3220 CPU, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a crappy Codegen 400W power supply and a 60GB SSD. I added an Nvidia GTX 1050 and just like that, a budget gaming PC was born. My...
./techtipsy
Self-hosting Wikipedia using Kiwix Do you have a need to host Wikipedia on your computer? Or a StackExchange site, like Super...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Do you have a need to host Wikipedia on your computer? Or a StackExchange site, like Super User? It’s easier than you think! Step 1: download stuff! The Kiwix project provides ZIM files for many popular websites, including Wikipedia. These files can be downloaded over at Kiwix...
./techtipsy
So you need some tech tips... I’m an experienced software developer located in Estonia 🇪🇪🇪🇺 . I don’t simply get things done,...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I’m an experienced software developer located in Estonia 🇪🇪🇪🇺 . I don’t simply get things done, I get them done done. Here’s what I bring to the table: software development skillset building useful solutions monitoring, observability incident response I know how to use...
./techtipsy
How I treat my urge to hoard data The tagline for /r/datahoarder reads: “It’s A Digital Disease!”. I agree. At some point I realized...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
The tagline for /r/datahoarder reads: “It’s A Digital Disease!”. I agree. At some point I realized that the pursuit to hoard all the things will just keep on consuming more and more of my time and money. Storage is cheap up until to a point, once you find yourself tracking hard...
./techtipsy
DIY cloud gaming: NVIDIA and Moonlight As you might have read from my previous post on this topic, I have a pretty neat “cloud” gaming...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
As you might have read from my previous post on this topic, I have a pretty neat “cloud” gaming setup running. I have one powerful desktop PC, one virtual machine with a GPU attached to it, and client machines that can be used to stream games from. To keep things simple (and...
./techtipsy
Database optimization adventures on low-end hardware I used to work on a short-term project a while ago where the goal was to visualize some metrics that...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I used to work on a short-term project a while ago where the goal was to visualize some metrics that were collected from a pretty fancy smart home setup. This data included power usage of various sections of the building, temperature sensors, water usage levels and more. The data...
./techtipsy
Recovering a password-protected ThinkPad T60 A couple of years ago, I worked on a ThinkPad T60. That ThinkPad had been in use by a family member...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
A couple of years ago, I worked on a ThinkPad T60. That ThinkPad had been in use by a family member before that, and I started its cleanup by disassembling the whole machine and making sure that it was pristine. However, once I put it all back together, I saw that it was password...
./techtipsy
Tech tip: eliminate HDD humming noise Anyone that has bought themselves external WD drives from the Elements/My Book/Easystore series are...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Anyone that has bought themselves external WD drives from the Elements/My Book/Easystore series are probably familiar with the acoustic characteristics of the drives. The drives have a loud hum caused by WD running the drives at 7200rpm while claiming the drives to be...
./techtipsy
How to start your self-hosting adventure: a high-level overview Reddit is a great starting point for getting new ideas for your homelab: racks full of machines in...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Reddit is a great starting point for getting new ideas for your homelab: racks full of machines in /r/homelab, storage measured in terabytes (or even petabytes) over at /r/datahoarder, all the different services that people host over at /r/selfhosted. This can be a bit...
./techtipsy
Stupid project ideas: the War Machine LinusTechTips has some pretty great videos about building insane PC and server setups, such...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
LinusTechTips has some pretty great videos about building insane PC and server setups, such as: unboxing and deploying petabytes of storage 7 gamers, 1 CPU building sleeper PC-s testing sketchy CPU-s opening up a 100TB SSD I have the ideas, but not the budget of LinusTechTips, so...
./techtipsy
I've reached the self-hosting endgame Setup After I had a perfectly functional, quiet and performant server up and running, I fell victim...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Setup After I had a perfectly functional, quiet and performant server up and running, I fell victim to my imagination and completely changed my self-hosting setup. Again. Here it is, in all its glory: Well, at least that’s what’s on the table. This machine is a true all-in-one:...
./techtipsy
How I fixed one hardware issue with another one I happen to run on an ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac motherboard that used to run fine, but ever...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I happen to run on an ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac motherboard that used to run fine, but ever since I installed one UEFI update, it has had this one annoying issue: whenever you reboot, it gets stuck at POST. Cold boots work fine and the shutdown-and-push-the-power-button...
./techtipsy
Running on fumes After a run-of-the-mill Windows BSOD, I was redirected to the UEFI settings and was presented with...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
After a run-of-the-mill Windows BSOD, I was redirected to the UEFI settings and was presented with this fun little bug: 0GB ought to be enough for anybody.
./techtipsy
My server setups throughout the years My self-hosting adventure started during my university days. Once I actually had money to buy myself...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
My self-hosting adventure started during my university days. Once I actually had money to buy myself a decent used laptop (ThinkPad T430) that had more than 3GB of RAM that my ThinkPad T60 had, I could use some of my older hardware as testbeds for any of the stupid ideas that I...
./techtipsy
My attempt at archiving nfscars.net Background My mother once had a laptop: the Compaq Armada 1592DT. It came with Windows ME which...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Background My mother once had a laptop: the Compaq Armada 1592DT. It came with Windows ME which later got “upgraded” to Windows 98 SE after I managed to completely screw up the OS, a whopping 96MB of RAM and a hard drive that probably wasn’t much larger than 1-3GB. It wasn’t...
./techtipsy
Things I've learned during my self-hosting adventure This is a list of lessons that I’ve learned while playing around with my computer setup during the...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
This is a list of lessons that I’ve learned while playing around with my computer setup during the last 6-7 years or so. USB connected storage is a bad idea when you are using BTRFS. USB connected storage is still a bad idea when you are using ZFS, but it is at least much more...
./techtipsy
Good reads This is an unsorted list of articles that I find to be good in one way or another. Maker’s Schedule,...
a year ago
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a year ago
This is an unsorted list of articles that I find to be good in one way or another. Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule a must-read for anyone working in a software development team. Helps express what most of us have felt at some point in our careers. The case of the 500-mile...
./techtipsy
Testing GPU passthrough on AMD Ryzen 7 5700G APU Introduction Before we jump into all the nitty-gritty details, I’d like to go over what we are...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Introduction Before we jump into all the nitty-gritty details, I’d like to go over what we are dealing with here since these topics may be unfamiliar to you. VFIO is quite a niche topic and not everyone knows about it. GPU passthrough: the process of allowing a VM...
./techtipsy
Whacky setups: seedbox on a wall The Orange Pi Zero is one hell of an SBC. It has served as a Wi-Fi access point for months without...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
The Orange Pi Zero is one hell of an SBC. It has served as a Wi-Fi access point for months without issues and as a testbed for playing around with MySQL. I wanted it to be a useful device again, but had trouble finding an use case for it due to its hardware limitations. After...
./techtipsy
Archive
over a year ago
./techtipsy
This page looks better in the app You’re a web developer at a social media company that has recently made a big push for modernizing...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
You’re a web developer at a social media company that has recently made a big push for modernizing their frontend for the mobile-first era. It has taken a lot of time and effort from many people. Countless challenges, arguments, testing. The release is near. You’re probably a bit...
./techtipsy
What running out of SATA ports looks like One day I stumbled upon a Craft Computing video about his new server build, and on the parts list...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
One day I stumbled upon a Craft Computing video about his new server build, and on the parts list was a Sedna PCI Express 2x SATA adapter card: There are different designs out there, including a 4x SATA card, which is bonkers. Anyway, I thought that I might as well give this a...
./techtipsy
Backing up another PC with a single Ethernet cable I was in a pinch. I needed to make a full disk backup of a PC, but I had no external storage device...
a month ago
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a month ago
I was in a pinch. I needed to make a full disk backup of a PC, but I had no external storage device with me to store it on. The local Wi-Fi network was also way too slow to transfer the disk over it. All I had was my laptop with an Ethernet port, a Fedora Linux USB stick, and a...
./techtipsy
The little Wi-Fi AP that could I have a bad habit of testing things whenever a “good” idea pops into my head. This is a short...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I have a bad habit of testing things whenever a “good” idea pops into my head. This is a short overview of one of them. The Orange Pi Zero is a SBC (single board computer) that has a slow 32-bit ARM 4 core CPU, 512MB of RAM and no display output. It’s actually quite OK for many...
./techtipsy
Why my blog was down for over 24 hours in November 2024 In November 2024, my blog was down for over 24 hours. Here’s what I learned from this absolute...
a month ago
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a month ago
In November 2024, my blog was down for over 24 hours. Here’s what I learned from this absolute clusterfuck of an incident. Lead-up to the incident I was browsing through photos on my Nextcloud instance. Everything was fine, until Nextcloud started generating preview images for...
./techtipsy
How to fix ZFS pool not importing at boot Issue description You are running a Linux-based machine with an install of ZFS on Linux. Everything...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Issue description You are running a Linux-based machine with an install of ZFS on Linux. Everything seems to work correctly, but after restarting your machine, the ZFS pool is not visible. You can still import your pool manually using zpool import poolname or zpool import -a. In...
./techtipsy
How to mess up a simple ThinkPad X230 BIOS flash and how to recover from it Background I have a Lenovo ThinkPad X230. It’s a small and good laptop that I’ve used as my main...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Background I have a Lenovo ThinkPad X230. It’s a small and good laptop that I’ve used as my main laptop and a server as well. A couple of years ago I messed around with flashing alternative BIOS implementations on the X230, such as the skulls project, which made installing...
./techtipsy
Disk is OK Maybe I am unlucky with computer hardware. Maybe I have the opposite of the golden touch of...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Maybe I am unlucky with computer hardware. Maybe I have the opposite of the golden touch of Midas. Or maybe it’s just the fact that I use my hardware for things they were never meant to be used for. Anyway, I have acquired two Seagate 4TB external hard drives for doing some...
./techtipsy
I'm done with Ubuntu I liked Ubuntu. For a very long time, it was the sensible default option. Around 2016, I used the...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
I liked Ubuntu. For a very long time, it was the sensible default option. Around 2016, I used the Ubuntu GNOME flavor, and after they ditched the Unity desktop environment, GNOME became the default option. I was really happy with it, both for work and personal computing...
./techtipsy
Feature toggles: just roll your own! When you’re dealing with a particularly large service with a slow deployment pipeline (15-30...
a week ago
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a week ago
When you’re dealing with a particularly large service with a slow deployment pipeline (15-30 minutes), and a rollback delay of up to 10 minutes, you’re going to need feature toggles (some also call them feature flags) to turn those half-an-hour nerve-wrecking major incidents into...
./techtipsy
IODD ST400 review: great idea, good product, terrible firmware I’ve written about abusing USB storage devices in the past, with a passing mention that I’m too...
a week ago
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a week ago
I’ve written about abusing USB storage devices in the past, with a passing mention that I’m too cheap to buy an IODD device. Then I bought one. I’ve always liked the promise of tools like Ventoy: you only need to carry the one storage device that boots anything you...
./techtipsy
Turns out that I'm a 'prolific open-source influencer' now Yes, you read that right. I’m a prolific open-source influencer now. Some years ago I set up a...
5 days ago
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5 days ago
Yes, you read that right. I’m a prolific open-source influencer now. Some years ago I set up a Google Alert with my name, for fun. Who knows what it might show one day? On 7th of February, it fired an alert. Turns out that my thoughts on Ubuntu were somewhat popular, and it ended...