It feels like this year has passed rapidly and without incident. Writing these end-of-year posts helps me remember what has happened. The vast majority of my days were filled with client work, my weekends often with other programming related projects, and my evenings often spent running or cycling before sitting in the slob position and drinking beer, eating pizza and watching Netflix. Windows and Chimneys ¶ The year started with 3 storey-high scaffolding around my flat, scaffolding to replace my windows and fix the damp seemingly eminating from the chimney stack. Read more...

This article describes roughly how I configured a Mini PC as a NixOS homeserver hosting Pihole, Syncthing, Jellyfin, Home Assistant and Music Assistant. It is not a tutorial but may provide some useful snippets. History ¶ I’ve been running a mess of services within my home network: Rasberry Pi 4: Pihole (ad blocker and local DNS) MPD (Music Player Daemon) Jellyfin (Media Server) Syncthing (File synchronization service) Music Assistant (another music server) Rasberry Pi 5: Home assistant (Controls and monitors the flat) Faster Whisper (Open AI’s voice recognition service, used by HA) Piper (text to voice service) Synology Diskstation (NAS): Syncthing (the “master” synchronization service) Linkling (a web bookmark manager) My sophisticated stack Read more...

This morning I woke early and said hello to my cousin with whom I was staying. I had decided both to do the 5k Parkrun in Lee-on-Solent and to cycle back to Weymouth. The apparent 80 mile distance would be a relatively “small” day compared with previous rides and the weather looked good enough. I ran the Parkrun in my barefoot shoes, significantly slower than if I had my usual trainers, but I managed to speed up progressively as I became more confident with the running style - normally I strike the ground with my heel, but with barefoot shoes you tend to get better results by landing flat on your foot and pushing your self forwards. Read more...

Broken sleep in the dormitory due to snoring and ingress and egress of the room no matter how considerately done. It’s dark in the morning now, the sun doesn’t come out until almost 8am. I wasn’t cycling today, that much was clear and I felt a bit lost. Breakfast was included in the hostel price. The room had a sink. There were toilets in the hall. The toilets did not have sinks. Read more...

I’m in Rouen. I’ve been walking about trying to find a pizzeria for about an hour. My first attempt was an abject failure. I was directed to a table adjoined to the table of the only other customer in the shop. It was a small pizzeria and I felt self-concious and I had no personal space and I’d be intimately concient of my dining partners movements and noises and I hardly wanted to whip out my laptop out and start writing. Read more...

I was greeted enthusiastically by the AirBnB host, the automatic gate at the back and I wheeled my bike inside and parked it on the terrace. The shower was occupied I waited, I showered. Upon getting changed I suddenly felt ill. I lay down and woke up an hour later having dreamt strange dreams and being monetarily confused. I had stomach issues and I didn’t feel hungry but I decided it would be better to eat. Read more...

I’m not in Reims. Reims is pronounced “rance” with a french “urghhh”, so “rurghance”. There is no “m”. It’s not “reems” or “rhymes”, it’s “rance”. I’m not in Reims because I booked an F1 hotel which is 5k from the center and in the commercial commune “Tinqueux”. It was my intention to stay in Reims. “To see the cathedral and eat a pizza” I thought. As it is I’m in Tinquex. Read more...

Now sitting outside at a Pizzeria in Verdun, it’s quiet and I hhave a strong IPA beer, the pizzeria doesn’t serve beer but I was adivsed to grab one from the bar next door, it’s slightly cold. I’m staying with at a bed-and-breakfast for about €40 which is pretty reasonable. Today was a long day and my back hurts slightly, the laptop has 13% charge due, I think, to it being on in my bag. Read more...

Now in a hotel after having walked around in my barefoot shoes for a few hours in Saarbrüken (where luck can be found according to the advertisements on the way in). The hotels are quite cheap here and the town is nice. My ankle was giving me some grief probably due to barefoot shoes and the running a few days ago. But it’ll be fine. I left Mannheim this morning after having attended the conference yesterday. Read more...

Disclaimer: There was no significant cycling today Ear plugs in I woke multiple times in the A&O hostel deciding to stay in bed just a little longer and getting up at around 8am. I was interestred in Breakfast and ventured to the below-ground breakfast area and checked the price – 12€ per person – no! I thought, that is far too expensive, I’ll go and find a bakery. I walked out of the hotel, to the bakery, and got a coffee for €4. Read more...