Hello world!

So this is the very first post on this blog. Woo!

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while now, there just wasn't ever a right time. Anyway, here we are, let's do this!

What I'll write about

I always have a few projects that I'd like to start working on and a few that are in progress.

Right now I'm waiting to get some time to start working on an eInk-display-based image frame and weather dashboard. I've been eyeing the Inky Impression 13.3" one. Still haven't bought it since I also have a Guitar Hero guitar at home that is waiting for me to hook up and play with, and that one already cost me ~100€. So I'm a bit hesitant when it comes to new purchases right now.

I also have a Dell Wyse 5070 Thin Client lying around. I installed Home Assistant on it and even that wasn't as straightforward as I thought it was going to be. Apparently you have to live-boot Ubuntu from a USB stick and then do the installation to the main drive from there. I didn't RTFM well enough on the first run and ended up with it installed to the USB stick. Took a while to figure out why it wasn't booting properly once I took the USB stick out.

Installing Home Assistant was one thing, then I wanted to set up VLAN in my home network. I thought it was going to be a piece of cake and it probably would've been if I had just one router to set up, but I have an OpenWRT set up as a dumb AP connected to an OPNsense router acting as the main router, so I have to set up VLANs on both ends... I've had some luck, but it's not easy to play around and test configuration when my wife watches TV on the same network.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I have a lot of projects going on and I'd like to share them with the world. Maybe you'll learn something by reading about my pain, or maybe, even better, I'll learn something when you write to me about a better way of doing a certain thing.

A few examples of things I'd like to write about at some point:

• my homelab, what I host there and how I built it
• terminal and shell, not enough people know about CTRL + R for example
• Nix/NixOS/Nixpkgs/home-manager tips and tricks
• home automation projects, there is always something extra to tinker with
• soldering projects, like the air quality sensor I assembled
• Emacs and how I configure it
• my home network and DNS setup, how to block ads network-wide
• how to fix gadgets when they break - like the remote scroll wheel
• and so much more...

First post down, hopefully a lot more to follow. Here's to a healthy posting schedule!