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Aug 7, 2023: My ideal journalling app WYSIWYG front-end editor Data stored as light-weight markup (Markdown, etc) 1 Data stored as plain text files in a directory …

Aug 7, 2023: The things I like to write about I write sporadically about a few different things. Each of these fills a different purpose in my life, and I want to share them differently …

Aug 6, 2023: micro.blog markdown summary Structure Heading 1: prefix with hash (#), or ==== on the next line Heading 2: prefix with double hash (##) or ---- on the next line Horizontal rule: …

Aug 5, 2023: Mechanical keyboard thoughts In August 2020, I bought my first mechanical keyboard: a Keydous NJ68 from Aliexpress 68 keys(5 rows typewriter, with arrows and a few editing keys) …

Aug 4, 2023: NZ Post scam text I received a text today, purporting to come from NZ Post, saying that a parcel could not be delivered, with a link to click to arrange re-delivery. …

Aug 3, 2023: Move TLS certicates to a new host Use ssh to tar a file on the remote host and pipe it to tar on the new host. This avoids the risk of leaving a file around with this sensitive data. …

Aug 3, 2023: Access home router web UI from a remote location The home-router web UI is only accessible from the internal network, not from the outside world. This is to prevent the evil outsiders from try to …

Aug 3, 2023: Self-hosted server: router/firewall configuration The internet router is a residential model from Vodafone. It seems to do the following Supports IPv6, including full support for outgoing IPv6 …

Aug 3, 2023: Self-hosted server: software required Install and configure the following applications and services Matrix homeserver Server - synapse Facebook messenger bridge - mautrix-facebook …

Aug 3, 2023: Self-hosted server: server hardware I have an old HP EliteDesk G3 Mini PC 4 core CPU 8 GB RAM 256 GB SSD (SSD) Gigabit ethernet Wi-Fi, etc This is twice the specs of both of my current …

Aug 3, 2023: Self-hosted server It seems wasteful to rent two virtual servers from a cloudy-provider when the same money would buy a real server with twice of everything (CPUs, RAM, …

Aug 1, 2023: Self-hosted Matrix server: move database to a new server On both servers, create a ~/.pgpass file with the database usernames and passwords. Each line is the login credentials for one database, in the format …

Aug 1, 2023: Self-hosted Matrix server: configure nginx and Let's Encrypt Assuming that nxginx and Let’s Encrypt are installed Create nginx configuration file /etc/nginx/sites-available/irons.nz server { listen 80; …

Aug 1, 2023: Install Let's Encrypt -- for nginx, using pip Edit: this turned out to be too complicated. As much as I prefer to avoid a Snap package, I decided to go with it rather than jump through these …

Aug 1, 2023: Self-hosted Matrix server: Install Synapse Create a system-user SYNAPSE_USER_DIR=/var/lib/synapse sudo adduser --system synapse --home $SYNAPSE_USER_DIR/synapse Install a Python3 virtual …

Aug 1, 2023: Self-hosted Matrix server: set up PostgreSQL for Synapse Assuming PostgreSQL is installed. Synapse and the various bridges will use the same database. Do the following Create a user sudo -u postgres …

Aug 1, 2023: Yet another calendar-time special case In the beginning, time was simple for computers. We just did everything in our local time. Sure, calendars were tricky, what with months with a …

Jul 31, 2023: Self-hosted Matrix server: Overview System HP mini PC 4 core, 3.1 GHz, 12 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD Other context A few other services running on the server Domain name irons.nz already set …

Jul 27, 2023: Using CANView on Ubuntu 22.04 CANView is a tool for viewing CAN bus data. It can view live data when connected to a suitable tool, or can view saved log files in a few formats. It …

Jun 25, 2023: Credit-card single-board computers I have used the following credit-card sized single-board computers. Raspberry Pi family BeagleBone Black family Rock64 My preference is for the …

Jun 25, 2023: Home-made deodorant Tired of looking for my homemade deodorant recipe every few months, trying to remember which one I used, and how to modify it with the ingredients I …

Jun 25, 2023: Device driver taxonomy A controller is a piece of hardware that does something: a GPIO, a UART, an I2C controller, etc. A naïve device (NDev) is one that just does what it …

Jun 19, 2023: On-line weather data I have one of those cheap (-ish) outside-the-house weather-stations that reports the weather data (windspeed, rainfall, etc) over a wireless link to …

Jun 17, 2023: On-hold to sort out an airline booking. They are playing terrible music, very loud. With the volume turned down to save my ears, it is hard to hear …

Jun 17, 2023: Monthly computer system checklist Well, that was a major update session. It is easy to install something to test it. But after a few months, when the excitement has worn off, but the …

Jun 17, 2023: Updating matrix-whatsapp bridge The matrix-whatsapp bridge stopped transferring videos and images a few months ago, and stopped working completely a few weeks ago. It seems that Meta …

Jun 17, 2023: Updating matrix server The matrix server has been running for many months now. It is time to update. The process was seamless. ###Assumptions python package matrix-synapse …

Jun 17, 2023: Linux installed apps Is it my imagination, or are ‘free’ phone apps and web apps much, much better than Open Source Linux installed apps? A spreadsheet is my …

Jun 16, 2023: Photo tagging Many years ago, I stopped tagging my photos with short (one-word) tags. Either the tools only allowed a limited number of tags, or they stored the …

Jun 15, 2023: Dance acro photos Base Acro recently contracted a professional photographer to record what we have been up to. These are some of our favourites. It is very different …

Jun 14, 2023: Uses for ansible Ansible seems like a useful tool to manage remote servers. Some things it might be useful for regular OS updates sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade …

Jun 14, 2023: Ubuntu 22.04: Use .deb version of firefox Remove firefox snap sudo snap remove --purge firefox Add PPA from mozilla team sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa Ensure that the PPA …

Jun 14, 2023: OpenSSH certficate renewal Using ssh keys to login to remote servers provides a huge improvement in security over password login [1]. However, it creates a new problem – …

Dec 7, 2021: Cargo bike: frame preparation Donor frame hacked up and mounted on a building jig to keep everything lined up. Main spine cut to fit the frame, and partly welded together, but not …