zkbro

My career history through software

2026-06-20T15:43:43+00:00

A big part of what I enjoy about all my previous jobs is that I get to become familiar with a whole lot of big and small software packages that enable me to do my work. This is a brief history of what I've used, after my landscaping and farm-hand days, when I started work that involved a computer. A lot of these are quite hefty tools, and I always used just a fragment of their capabilities. It was both fun and frustrating at times. I certainly don't miss the spinning wheel in ArcGIS Pro. The most enjoyment I got was working at the fringes with custom scripts that integrate with the tools, or data migrations from on software to another where you really get to know the underlying architecture, and the data itself. Screenshots are from their official websites, otherwise mentioned at the end.

2009 -> 2019 - Spatial Information Officer -> Spatial Technician -> Technical Surveyor</h2>
Maps and surveying! I loved this stuff. The perfect blend of indoors and outdoors, technical and physical, land and software. I started with a 2 year traineeship in GIS, rotated around teams of spatial technicians, surveyors, and digital imagery and LiDAR acquisition and processing teams. I eventually landed in the Surveying team where my skills and interests gelled the most.
In a nutshell my role involved field trips around NSW capturing survey data for imagery and elevation programs, processing data in the field and then back in the office, ingesting that data into the state's survey database (SCIMS), and continued maintenance of that database, which is used by public and private surveyors.
ArcMap</a> was the main tool we used to view our data. We had SCIMS layer of course, but also the rest of NSW's public data - roads, property parcels, points of interest, water bodies, etc, which was all part of the Digital Cadastral Database (DCDB) and Digital Topographic Database (DTDB). We made packages of maps we took in the field, with existing and planned survey networks overlayed. Both printed copies and digital, which we uploaded to our Toughbooks, alongside survey mark sketch plans, property owner contacts, safety and risk management documents, and accomodation and timeline details.
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ArcMap data view</figcaption></figure>
Trimble Business Centre</a> - I didn't use this a huge deal, as we processed our survey data using GeoLab and other in-house software, though we still ran it through here before injesting it into those. From memory, here we could identify poor GNSS results from our Trimble data in order to determine what was good for survey control or floated points, which we'd then process in a least-square adjustment.
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Trimble Business Centre</figcaption></figure>
Like TBC, but for our Leica survey equipment, we used Leica Geo Office</a>.
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Checking time overlaps in Leica Geo Office</figcaption></figure>
GeoLab</a> is where we did our least-square adjustments to get our final horizontal/vertical co-ordinates, alongside statistical reports we could analyse before accepting, and adjusting data accordingly. We then wrote up a report explaining our findings and why we have recommended class and orders types to our network of survey marks. This went into a queue to be reviewed by a senior surveyor before making it into SCIMS. It was a very thorough process.
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GeoLab report</figcaption></figure>
2019 -> 2023 - Parks Analyst</h2>
This role was primarily managing park and reserve data for our local district Council. The main repository was again in ESRI's Arc suite, but across the organisation there was other suites for asset management and financial teams, so I regularly worked on the fringes there too, helping with data migrations and syncing programmes. Sometimes we pushed data out to other organisations as well.
While my previous job back in NSW were slowly starting their transition from ArcMap to the more modern ArcGIS Pro</a>, here in Council we were already there. Again, I had various datasources loaded into my maps. I was the only one with editing rights outside of the GIS team who managed permissions across the organisation, and who I also worked very closely with. I did a few little python scripts to work with our geodatabases, usually building from within ArcGIS Pro using Notebooks and the Python window.
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ArcGIS Pro showing map, TOC, table and layer symbology config</figcaption></figure>
I created a bunch of forms for capturing data in the field using Survey123</a>. These went out to our maintenance contractors (gardeners, cleaners, sports field specialists, tracks and trail maintainers) to capture completed works aligned to their contract with Council, and asset condition assessments. I built a bunch of custom scripts to smoothly injest this data back into our asset database. I also created auditing forms for the contracts team to audit contractor work, with reporting platforms showing results for monthly contract meetings. I had a lot of free reign here, and drove a heap of improvements I'm quite proud of, which to my understanding are still being used.
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Survey123 suite</figcaption></figure>
2024 -> 2026 - Cable Infrastructure Technician</h2>
Completely new industry for me here. All about integrated "smart home" systems. Primarily we install physical KNX devices through the home (din rail modules in switchboards, manifolds and data racks; pucks behind regular light switches, and actual KNX light switches and touchscreens). KNX is the communication protocol that travels through a twisted pair copper bus. In addition to the physical wiring, all devices need paramaterising and programming.
ETS</a> was the tool. Here we add all devices, assign them to lines and rooms, give them individual addresses, paramaterise to perform their functions, then assign group addresses (the addresses the devices listen for), the group objects which relate to those functions. It gets really complicated when you're doing things like underfloor heating, reading temperatures off probes under the floor and air temps from keypads, and the state of an air conditioning unit, to determine if the valves in a manifold should be turned opened or closed, and pass that feedback to local and remote touch screens. There's also "scenes" like turning the whole house lighting on or off, or set a "mood" like "relax" which turns on LEDs at the drinks cabinet and setting dimmers at 50%. When devices don't do things you want out of the box, you can build logic to add even more complexity. The software can monitor the bus live off the WiFi, or if there's an IP interface installed you can log in remotely. Useful in the early stages when clients are getting used to their system and start requesting tweaks.
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ETS showing group addresses and building layout with some devices listed</figcaption></figure>
We used a lot of Basalte lightswitches and touchscreens, which has it's own software to configure called Basalte Studio. This integrates with the group addresses in ETS, so you have further scene development, touchscreen GUI configuration, and audio/visual settings if using the Basalte server and amps. You can import an ETS project file to see all the group addresses, and similar to ETS you can paramaterise devices and assign those group addresses. This means if a button is pressed on a Basalte lightswitch for example (programmed in Basalte Studio), the KNX switching group address assigned there will respond by switching an output on a dimming module in a din-rail which was programmed in ETS and wired into a lighting load. There is no documentation for Basalte Studio, which is an absolute joke.
On a side note, personally, I don't like Basalte light switches</a> (their touchscreens are ok). Although they look pretty flash, they are quite flimsy on the back, and the physical feel and layout does not seem practical. Even if I'm the one who has done the programming I always have to think before I switch or tap a button as to what they do. I like standard Schneider or Legrand light switches, or, if you are going to spend up, Buster and Punch</a> for that real mechanical look and feel.</aside>
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Configuring a Core server in Basalte Studio</figcaption></figure>

There is so much more software that I popped in and out of, like Technology One</a> for financials, OpusXenta's byondpro</a> for cemetery database management, ERDAS Imagine</a> for imagery processing and Bentley's MicroStation</a> for LiDAR processing, but the ones above are the ones I had most to do with.
I've always pushed the tools to their limits, regularly finding bugs or glitches that the IT teams sometimes assisted me with, which in turn built some pretty good relationships. It also gave me a heap of opportunities, being pulled into fun data projects not always within my team, or given the more technical jobs that others don't really want a part of anyway. I guess there's something in that which I'll carry into my next chapter in life.
This was fun remembering some of those older tools and how I used them. Maybe I'll do one on hardware.
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Me having a standoff with my Trimble</figcaption></figure>

Photos that didn't come from the official sites:

https://www.xueceliang.cn/ce/leica_geo_office_lgo.html</a></li>
https://guideofgreece.com/</a></li>
https://www.smartest-home.com/basalte-lisa-touchscreen/</a></li> </ul>

Noticing

2026-06-14T10:00:36+00:00

Cows following farmer across paddock, bull in adjacent paddock having a belch
Chip packet, now in pocket, never to be noticed again
Morning mist rising off the fast flowing river
A parted path of fallen leaves on the understory of deciduous woods
Naked poplars
Drops of dew on the lowpoints of branches, spider webs and 12-gauge farm fencing
Coffee cup caught in bracken from when the river was high, no longer
Smooth exposed grey sand from the lowering river
Birds chirping above in the naked willows
Fingers starting to get cold
Fellow walking dogs, 'mornin, one off lead, bounces happily over for a wet-nose touch of my hand, hey pup
Frozen tops of fence posts
Pamphlet, another pamphlet, a coffee cup lid, no longer
Frost covered cars
Hunger

Self-hosting a Snac ActivityPub Server with a Raspberry Pi and Caddy

2026-06-07T20:13:32+00:00

TLDR - I'm back on the fediverse - @zkbro@pub.zkbro.com</a> - using a self-hosted instance of snac</a>.
I came across Jeff Sikes' Installing Snac - A Minimalist ActivityPub Server</a> post. I hadn't heard of snac</a> before, but a minimalist, lightweight, small footprint and simple architecture piece of software sounded about how I wanted to return to the fediverse.
Not only that, SNAC is an acronym for "social networks are crap". I love this tongue-in-cheek stab at socials, given snac itself is a social network tool. I've also joined an IRC network recently where the main channel is #antisocial. They are not anti-social. It's just good humour. I'm actually not against socials. I just don't like how the bigwigs operate, so I stay clear of them, and I have some social anxiety that is on me. I think owning a website with personal notes, blogs, logs, or whatever you want to call them, is part of social networking too. Add is RSS, linkrolls, blogrolls, reply posts, emailing, comments, likes and boosts... that's a lot of interaction... you get the point.
But I like the smaller spaces, and smaller alternative software. Hosting my own ActivityPub</a> server with snac, I can control how much I federate, making it as tiny as I like. Only relay</a> hashtags and individuals I subscribe to appear in my feed. This keeps it nice and cosy.
I also just like to try new tools</a>, and go through the process of installing and tweaking them.
I am using snac as a single-user server on my Raspberry Pi 4 running Debian 12 Bookworm. It could be used for multiple users if I wish. Caddy</a> is handling reverse proxies and TLS certificates.
Installation</h2>
Install dependencies:
sudo apt install libssl-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev</code></pre> Install snac:
git clone https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2.git cd snac2 make && make install</code></pre>
Initiate and configure</h2>
snac init $HOME/snac</code></pre> Set up an "A + Dynamic DNS" record in my domain register for pub.zkbro.com</code>. Copy current public IP address into the field.
Update ddclient</a> at /etc/ddclient.conf</code> with the new subdomain, appending pub.zkbro.com</code> to the last line.
Restart the service and force an update to load in the new subdomain:
sudo systemctl restart ddclient.service --force</code></pre> Allow port 8001 in ufw</a>, or whatever port you choose: sudo ufw allow 8001 sudo ufw reload</code></pre> Set up a reverse proxy in Caddy</a>: sudo nano /etc/caddy/Caddyfile</code></pre> Add in: pub.zkbro.com { reverse_proxy localhost:8001 log { output file /var/log/pub.log format json } encode gzip }</code></pre> Then: sudo systemctl restart caddy</code></pre> Copy web interface language files into snac directory: cp /path/to/repo/po/en.po ~/snac/lang/</code></pre> This means you can choose your interface language from a dropdown (though it defaulted to English anyway, so not sure if I actually need this. Might help others when searching/filtering actors via language or something). Add user: snac adduser $HOME/snac zkbro</code></pre> A password will be generated. Copy this down. Add a systemctl service and run server: sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/snac.service</code></pre> Enter: [Unit] Description=snac ActivityPub Server After=network.target [Service] Type=simple User=root Group=root ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/snac httpd $HOME/snac Restart=always [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target </code></pre>sudo systemctl daemon-reload sudo systemctl enable snac.service sudo systemctl start snac.service sudo systemctl status snac.service ## check</code></pre> Now, pub.zkbro.com</a> is up and running. For my user account (zkbro) I just go to pub.zkbro.com/zkbro</a> and login via the private</code> button and I can start using it. Adding relays</h2> These are for discovery. Other fediverse servers relay their user's feeds through these. When my user zkbro subscribes to #hashtags, it will pull any post with said #hashtag from these relays into my main feed. On snac we add a special "relay" user and this user subscribes to relays. I am using the fedi.buzz relay endpoints</a>. This bit is a bit confusing to me. I think by using fedi.buzz it reduces load on my own server. I think I could potentially add instance relays directly into snac, but I couldn't figure that out. So... I follow a bunch of instances via the relay user, which means I can focus on #hashtags at the actual user level. snac adduser $HOME/snac relay snac follow $HOME/snac relay https://relay.fedi.buzz/instance/mountains.social snac follow $HOME/snac relay https://relay.fedi.buzz/instance/infosec.exchange snac follow $HOME/snac relay https://relay.fedi.buzz/instance/mapstodon.space snac follow $HOME/snac relay https://relay.fedi.buzz/instance/indieweb.social snac follow $HOME/snac relay https://relay.fedi.buzz/instance/hachyderm.io etc...</code></pre> Now any #hashtags I'm subscribed to will come from those servers. In summary</h2> All in all my setup was pretty straight forward. I had done a few steps in other self-hosting projects so what used to cause me a headache is now a bit more familiar: creating new subdomains on my DNS provider</li> auto updating dynamic DNS records with ddclient</li> creating a systemctl systemd daemon service</li> using Caddy to handle reverse proxies</li> </ul> More specific to snac, I have only done some basic configuration and added a few relays. The default ~/snac/server.json</code> configuration file remains relatively untouched, though I made a couple tweaks regarding how long before posts are purged/removed, and shortened the duration of how long the relayed instance posts stay live. I do like the simple style of the web interface, however I may set up tut</a> TUI as I sometimes prefer to be in the terminal. For now though, I'll start to follow some folk and hashtags and try to interact a little.
📸 What's in my pocket Friday 2026-05-29 2026-05-29T17:36:48+00:00 Haven't done one of these for a while because I've been pretty good at unloading into containers or the center console of the van before the end of the day (which is becoming a problem). </a>The usual suspects.</figcaption></figure> </a>What a mess.</figcaption></figure> I was looking for those sunnies for a week. It wasn't until I looked at the photo that I saw them! 🗓️ Weeknote 2026-W21 2026-05-24T18:00:00+00:00 🩸 Health</h2> My back recovered quickly. I was back at work this week with no major flair-ups. I am weening off the drugs, and upping my exercises. In a slightly related note, I decided to revamp my health</code> folder to keep track of all my broken things: zkbro@laptop:~/02-Areas/health$ tree -d . ├── 2002-05-27-left-clavicle-fracture │ ├── 2002-05-27-x-ray-and-surgery │ ├── 2002-06-06-x-ray │ ├── 2002-06-18-x-ray │ ├── 2002-07-23-x-ray │ └── 2002-08-26-pin-removal ├── 2004-07-08-thumb-puncture │ └── 2004-07-08-x-ray ├── 2005-08-19-lower-back │ ├── 2005-08-19-x-ray-and-ct │ └── 2005-10-07-mri ├── 2006-02-15-dental │ └── 2006-02-15-x-ray ├── 2007-04-18-lower-back ├── 2008-11-20-wisdom-teeth-removal ├── 2011-11-02-left-knee-and-right-ankle │ ├── 2011-11-02-x-ray │ ├── 2012-01-31-orthopaedic-surgeon │ ├── 2012-02-16-mri │ ├── 2012-02-24-orthopaedic-surgeon │ └── 2012-04-03-orthopaedic-surgeon ├── 2012-12-18-left-shoulder │ ├── 2012-12-18-mri │ ├── 2013-01-11-doctors │ └── 2013-01-25-orthopaedic-surgeon ├── 2017-10-23-thoracic-spine │ ├── 2017-10-23-x-ray │ └── 2018-03-13-mri ├── 2018-06-25-left-ankle-fracture │ ├── 2018-08-15-doctors │ └── 2018-10-12-mri ├── 2024-08-26-mental-health │ ├── 2024-08-28-psychologist │ ├── 2024-09-05-psychologist │ ├── 2024-09-12-doctors │ ├── 2024-09-12-psychologist │ ├── 2024-09-17-psychologist │ ├── 2024-09-24-psychologist │ └── 2024-10-09-psychologist ├── 2025-02-25-ear-blockage │ └── 20250225-hearing-test ├── 2025-07-04-arm-pain ├── 2025-07-04-dentist-regular-checkup ├── 2025-10-13-left-knee-pain ├── 2026-01-10-dentist-hygiene-appt ├── 2026-01-14-right-foot-pain ├── 2026-02-11-ear-blockage ├── 2026-05-01-mental-health │ └── 2026-05-01-doctors └── 2026-05-13-lower-back ├── 2026-05-13-doctors ├── 2026-05-14-physio └── 2026-05-21-physio</code></pre> A lot of these were from me going through my physical stack of scans I have in the cupboard. There is a hell of a lot missing, like the hundreds of physio sessions I've had. A lot more dental too, but I'm not going to go through all my email appointments. 🏃 Activities</h2> Wed Morning Pilates</a></li> Thu Morning Pilates</a></li> Fri Morning Pilates</a></li> Sat Queenstown Hill (Hike)</a></li> Sun Morning Strength</a></li> Sun Back at it (Run)</a></li> </ul> </a>Hiking up Queenstown Hill</figcaption></figure> </a>Rugged guerilla mountain bike trails leading into the woods</figcaption></figure> </a>Into the inversion layer at the top</figcaption></figure> 🏢 Work</h2> In a post just two years ago posted on my old blog, just before I resigned my job as Business Process Advisor at my local Council, I wrote: I've traded borderline burnout in my old role for something that's close to impostor syndrome in this one. Not good. </blockquote> I was seeing a doc, Councillor and Psychologist to get me through day to day. In the end I left, and picked up a role in a completely different industry. 17 months later, I'm burnt out again. Or at least that is part of what is going on. And again, I've resigned. This time I don't have a job to go to. I simply can't put on a face in a new job right now. I am too rattled. I need space. I also have no idea what I want to do. Right now the thought of career makes me sick. My plan is to figure out how to not get myself into this position again. It destroys me. I have inklings of why these things happen, and I know they are going to take a lot of work. Calling myself these things does not help.</aside> I'm a people pleaser. I have low self-esteem. I beat myself up. I hate confrontation. I internalise. It's kind of a perfect recipe for this dark place I get myself into. I am sensitive, in that I have a high sense of things happening around me, so when there's something off I'll feel it, but because I don't like confrontation, I'll hang on to it, let it fester, even brush it off in conversation (people pleaser), then beat myself up about it, and form this new image of the environment that I live in. It's living in a state of fear, and I'm worried I've let that make me who I am. There are legitimately bad things going on at work though, which I can't take responsibility for. Vick</a> makes me feel less alone, and a bit better for not internalising this: It's far from being the first time I was pushed into a burnout. And yes, I'm using the passive voice here intentionally. I don't mind the narrative of "every man is the artisan of his own fortune" but I also find it to be quite delusional and harmful when you try to take accountability for the things inherently out of your control. Reality-detached, irresponsible CEOs and management are the problem. Unhealthy, unmeasured, unsystematic and unpredictable workload is the problem. Employers treating adult people with adult qualities and adults needs like kindergarteners — both control and payload-wise — is the problem. </blockquote> So although this stuff is for the most part beyond my control, I am still the receiver of many similar things every day, which wears me down. I do find little nuggets where I can make a difference, but it doesn't even scrape the surface. What I can do though is remove myself. I should have done it a while back, not let it get to this point. That is what I need to work on - identifying when things are starting to wear me down, and doing something about it much much earlier. I am going to rent my house out and go back to Australia for how long, not sure. I plan to see family, and some friends. I also want to hit the road for a bit. It will all depend on the income I get from the house. I'm not anticipating much, even though the property manager suggested otherwise. I bumped into my old manager from Council today. She totally got what I was going through. She was feeling it too. It seems quite a thing for folk here in Queenstown. It is a unique place. It is upper class. There is ridiculous amounts of money going around from tourism and developments. With that is cut-throat drive and pressure from business owners so they can get the jobs and the cash. Never mind how unsustainable this growth is. This place drives locals out, and just leaves the thickest skinned who are OK with this way of life. In 4 weeks I will be unemployed. I will wrap up sorting my house and possessions out and hop on a plane. I am looking forward to breathing again. I need this reset. On a good note, the drive to work is quite beautiful these days, if a little cold: </a>Driving towards Wanaka</figcaption></figure> 💻 Tools discovered</h2> KOrganizer</a> - Chose this desktop calendar over Thunderbird</a> as it has better colour functions based on tags. I have added my Radicale</a> CalDAV calendar hosted on my Raspberry Pi. KOrganizer is a component of KDE's Kontact suite</a>, which includes mail</a>, contacts</a>, and even an RSS reader</a>, but I'm just sticking with the calendar for now. I would like to use the email component, which looks tidy, but my free Outlook and Proton accounts don't have POP3/IMAP compatibility.</li> </ul> 📺 Watched</h2> All You Need Is Kill (2025)</a> ***</code> - Not a bad little anime. Lots of action. </li> Industry (Seasons 2 & 3)</a> ***</code> - Its getting a bit better. </li> </ul> 🗓️ Weeknote 2026-W20 2026-05-17T20:06:32+00:00 I put out my back on Tuesday, so had the remainder of the week off, seeing docs and physios, lying down, light exercises and popping anti-inflams. My spondylolisthesis on the L5 S1 has given me grief since 2005 when I first put it out as a landscape gardener. I've been in maintenance mode ever since. I let the ball drop recently, and with my physical job, it is no wonder it tweaked again. I'll be back at work tomorrow, but it's not 100% just yet. My uncle is visiting. It is good to catch up. Good chats. We are doing a little bit on the pergola, but only light work as I'm mindful of the back. </a>Bracing added to the corners</figcaption></figure> On Saturday We walked Sawpit Gully</a> in Arrowtown, a short 7km loop which is my go-to for visitors. It is the time of year when it gets a bit treacherous with ice on the trails out that way. </a>Frosty Arrowtown</figcaption></figure> Today we walked the Tiki trail</a>, which is a bit more sheltered, but straight up. It was a good amount of exercise for our battered bodies. </a>Love this trail</figcaption></figure> </a>Queenstown views</figcaption></figure> With the time off work, I baked the sourdough finally. I forgot about the timing of things. You need to plan for 24 hours of folding, resting, refridgerating, baking. I ended up baking it at 9pm last night because thats how the time aligned. For a Sunday morning bake, I think I need to start Friday evening with the first "feed". I'll work on the routine. </a>It was like a brick</figcaption></figure> Weather is fresh but sunny. Not many leaves left on the trees. Winter is very close. </a>Golden tree tops becoming golden carpet</figcaption></figure> I installed Debian 13 Trixie. It was a pretty straight forward upgrade from 12. As part of it I tried out some new backup methods which I will use carrying forward. 💻 Tools Galculator</a> - Simple calculator. Surprised Xfce doesn't come with it pre-installed. </li> BorgBackup</a> - Simple CLI backup utility with tight documentation. Can be used on both client and server machines. It is impressively quick to both backup and retrieve, recognises file changes so reduces duplication. A lot of front-ends to go with it, like BorgWarehouse below, but for my laptop as the client, this is perfect. </li> BorgWarehouse</a> - Server side web GUI for BorgBackup. Has minimal functions which is great. Just set up a repository and share a key. Was available in the TrueNAS community application list too so it was a no-brainer for me. </li> GNU Stow</a> - Symlink farm manager which I've started using for storing dotfiles/config files/systemd service files in the one place. Still wrapping my head around the best process to stow when folders exist and cause conflict. Creating a reverse-stow shell script (rstow.sh) helped me get files and folders into the original stow directory, rather than manually creating the paths. </li> </ul> 📺 Watched Cold Echoes (2025)</a> - My kiwi cousin plays the lead bad dude in this Icelandic film. It was fun to watch, but the script was pretty bad. </li> Industry (Season 1)</a> - It's ok. Not enough likeable characters. </li> </ul> Installing Debian 13 Trixie 2026-05-15T19:19:34+00:00 Had this one on the todo list for a while. Finally got around to it. This is essentially a revamped post of my 2024 Setting up Debian and GNOME DE</a> notes. Since then I've dropped some software like zellij</a>, added a few more, moved from GNOME to Xfce, and changed some preparation processes to make life a little easier during the upgrade. I know that I could have just followed these steps</a> and done an upgrade, and it seems Debian is pretty good at doing this successfully</a>, but I like to do a clean install as it gives me a chance to clean out the junk, find new workflows and force some documenting for future me (thus this post). Preparation</h2> Ensure all dotfiles, config files and systemd service files are stowed</a> in my ~/.dotfiles</code> directory, and that directory has been pushed to the Forgejo</a> repository on the Raspberry Pi. PARA</a> folders are backed up using BorgBackup</a> onto the TrueNAS</a> Supermicro server BorgWarehouse</a> respository. Prepare a USB stick with the new OS</a> Reboot with stick in tapping F12 on my Dell laptop, load via USB, and run through the installation steps. Once in</h2> Add user to sudo group</h3> su sudo usermod -aG sudo [username] groups [username] # check user has been added exit</code></pre>Enable firewall</h3> sudo apt install ufw sudo ufw enable sudo ufw logging off sudo ufw status verbose</code></pre>Install available packages through apt</h3> sudo apt install borgbackup btop buku feh flameshot galculator gimp git imagemagick jhead ncal newsboat peek pipx qbittorrent ripgrep rsync stow syncthing tmux tmuxp tree vlc xsane xsel</code></pre>Clone dotfiles stow repository and spit out all the symlinks</h3> In ~/</code> git clone...</code> repo. cd dotfiles stow xyz</code></pre>Extract PARA folders from TrueNAS</h3> borg list ssh://borgwarehouse/./3281bb14 ## "borgwarehouse" is defined in my .ssh/config file which was restored via stow in the previous step. cd / borg extract --list ssh://borgwarehouse/./3281bb14::zkbro-2026-05-10T12:02:04 ## or whatever the latest backup is.</code></pre>Additional software installations</h2> Install yazi</h3> curl -sS https://debian.griffo.io/EA0F721D231FDD3A0A17B9AC7808B4DD62C41256.asc | sudo gpg --dearmor --yes -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/debian.griffo.io.gpg echo "deb https://debian.griffo.io/apt $(lsb_release -sc 2>/dev/null) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.griffo.io.list sudo apt update sudo apt install yazi</code></pre>Install Surfshark VPN client</h3> curl -f https://downloads.surfshark.com/linux/debian-install.sh --output surfshark-install.sh #gets the installation script cat surfshark-install.sh #show script’s content sh surfshark-install.sh #installs surfshark</code></pre>Install tailscale</a></h3> curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh</code></pre>Install neocities-cli</h3> neocities-cli</a> is installed via ruby, so first install ruby-full and a bunch of other crap: sudo apt install ruby-full build-essential ruby-dev libssl-dev zlib1g-dev</code></pre> Now install neocities-cli: sudo gem install neocities</code></pre>Install async-neocities</h3> This is to make it quicker to upload my website to Neocities. First, install latest version of Node.js (see https://tecadmin.net/install-latest-nodejs-npm-on-debian/</a>): sudo apt-get install curl software-properties-common curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_22.x | sudo bash - sudo apt-get install -y nodejs</code></pre> Then to install async-neocities: npm install async-neocities</code></pre>Install Librewolf</h3> sudo apt update && sudo apt install extrepo -y sudo extrepo enable librewolf sudo apt update && sudo apt install librewolf -y</code></pre>Uninstall Firefox</h3> sudo apt remove --purge firefox-esr rm -rf ~/.mozilla/</code></pre>Install software from binaries</h3> stew</a> binary package manager. Once installed, try and install the following binaries through stew</code>:</li> helix</a></li> lagrange</a></li> lazygit</a></li> marksman</a></li> rucola</a></li> soulseek</a> - use the Latest Linux 64-bit AppImage</a> link in stew.</li> zola</a></li> </ul> Install duckdb</h3> curl https://install.duckdb.org | sh</code></pre>Install Oracle VirtualBox</h3> This is so I can run my Amibroker trading software. See Install VirtualBox 7.1 on Debian 13/12 | Computing for Geeks</a> sudo apt update sudo apt install -y linux-headers-$(uname -r) dkms build-essential gcc make perl curl wget gnupg2 apt-transport-https curl -fsSL https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/oracle-virtualbox-2016.gpg echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/oracle-virtualbox-2016.gpg] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian trixie contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list sudo apt update sudo apt install -y virtualbox-7.2 sudo usermod -aG vboxusers $USER groups $USER</code></pre>Software-specific Customisation</h2> Librewolf</h3> See Configuring Librewolf</a> Configure syncthing</h3> Just get the thing started. Config file symlinked out of ~/dotfiles</code> has it already set up as before. My Android didn't even blink. systemctl enable syncthing@zkbro.service systemctl start syncthing@zkbro.service</code></pre>Install/inject packages into pipx environments</h3> Not 100% I am using pipx correctly, but I have been injecting all the packages under pylsp once installed. pipx install python-lsp-server pipx inject python-lsp-server [package-name]</code></pre>pipx install flask pipx inject flask duckdb</code></pre> Kinda fucked this up, but most of it is under python-lsp-server: zkbro@laptop:/etc/apt/sources.list.d$ pipx list --include-injected venvs are in /home/zkbro/.local/share/pipx/venvs apps are exposed on your $PATH at /home/zkbro/.local/bin manual pages are exposed at /home/zkbro/.local/share/man package flask 3.1.3, installed using Python 3.13.5 - flask Injected Packages: - duckdb 1.5.3 package pandas 3.0.3, installed using Python 3.13.5 - f2py - numpy-config package python-lsp-server 1.14.0, installed using Python 3.13.5 - pylsp Injected Packages: - bs4 0.0.2 - datetime 6.0 - duckdb 1.5.2 - feedgen 1.0.0 - feedparser 6.0.12 - fitdecode 0.11.0 - fitparse 1.2.0 - folium 0.20.0 - geopy 2.4.1 - gpxplotter 0.2.12 - gpxpy 1.6.2 - icalendar 7.1.2 - python-lsp-black 2.0.0 - python-lsp-ruff 2.3.1 - pyudev 0.24.4 - reportlab 4.5.1 package wheel 0.47.0, installed using Python 3.13.5 - wheel</code></pre> Download fit2gpx.py</a> and paste into /home/zkbro/.local/share/pipx/venvs/python-lsp-server/lib/python3.13/site-packages/</code>. For whatever reason I can't inject this package. Configure git</h3> See Setting up Git (The Odin Project)</a> for a good how-to. git config --global user.name "Your Name" git config --global user.email "yourname@example.com" git config --global init.defaultBranch main git config --global pull.rebase false</code></pre> And confirm: git config --get user.name git config --get user.email</code></pre>Additional packages needed for Garmin mounting in Xfce</h3> sudo apt install gvfs-backends gvfs-fuse libmtp-runtime mtp-tools</code></pre>Desktop Environment Customisation</h2> Appearance</h3> All I did here was move the top bar to the bottom and removed the bottom shortcuts panel. Set keyboard shortcuts</h3> In Keyboard --> Application Shortcuts: set xfce4-appfinder to Super+L</li> set thunar to ALT+E</li> set flameshot gui to Print</li> set flameshot full to SHIFT-Print</li> </ul> In Window Manager --> Keyboard: set Maximize Window to Super+KP 5</li> </ul> Well, that was 175 lines shorter than my last post, so I must have made things easier. I haven't noticed anything different except codeblock syntax highlighting breaking in zola (config file change in a newer version), and that the newsboat</a> v2.36-1.1</a> RSS TUI is available in apt which is compatible</a> with FreshRSS, unlike v2.21-1.5</a> in Bookworm. Was really looking forward to reading RSS in my terminal. Hoorah. During the process I also tried a couple of tiling window managers - i3</a> and ratpoison</a> (cool name), because I've got some kind of addiction to trying these things, but also because I don't really use desktops so why not just use something that manages my windows? And they are supposedly lighter weight than even Xfce, so if we can free up some RAM why not? Anyway it felt a bit too much... I'm still learning helix and tmux shortcuts, so to throw that on top I'll probably tie my fingers in a knot. I also believe that multi-tasking is a myth, so just have everything fullscreen - no tiling, and I agree with points made in Xah Lee's post Why tiling window manager sucks</a>, but I know I'll enjoy learning the thing. So maybe one day. For now though, Trixie and Xfce is running smoothly so happy days. Managing dotfiles with GNU Stow and Forgejo 2026-05-14T08:30:54+00:00 Note, I am not a sysadmin professional, so please if you notice wrong terminology or things I am doing wrong, get in touch so I can learn and fix it up. Brandon</a> does a much better write-up of this, which is where I first heard about Stow and committed to use one day. </blockquote> Since my migration from Windows to Linux a couple of years ago, I have forever been installing and customising tools to suit my needs</del> wants. That is the beauty of Linux for me. It gives me a level of freedom that Windows never gave me. I'm making an assumption there though... I never tinkered in Windows with static site generators, text editors, network monitors, git, etc etc. I imagine it can all be done, but surely all that is easier, and faster, with the use of a Linux terminal emulator and apt package manager? As a tinkerer, Linux is easier, not harder as we were led to believe. With that said, by tailoring our workflows and digital environments via configuration files and custom scripts, we add complexity. Luckily there are more tools out there to then reduce complexity. It sometimes takes a bit to set up, but once it's all going, it generally looks after itself. Git</a> for version control, Syncthing</a> for syncing, BorgBackup</a> for general backups, and here now I'll run through my GNU Stow</a> setup for config file backup and deployment. I am also trialing this with systemd service files and ssh keys. GNU Stow is a "symlink farm manager". As far as I know, symlinks</a> are essentially like a traditional shortcut where there is a source file stored elsewhere and the symlink just points to it (that is a big simplification). By reading subfolder paths to create symlinks, Stow is a great way to deploy these symlinks for config files and the likes, which can be scattered all over a machine. Stow is available via apt: sudo apt install stow</code></pre> If you have a folder, say ~/dotfiles/</code> and within there files and folders like .bashrc and .ssh/config, and at the ~/</code> level your type stow dotfiles</code>, it will create symlinks at ~/.bashrc</code> and ~/.ssh/config</code> respectively, which link back to this dotfiles directory. Then, when you edit say ~/.bashrc</code>, you will be editing the ~/dotfiles/.bashrc</code> file, which is tucked in with all the other files you are stowing. Turn this ~/dotfiles</code> folder into a remote Git repository, and you've got all your config files at the ready for any machine that can access it. Just clone the repo and start stow</code>ing. I've got the repo stored on a Forgejo</a> instance on my Raspberry Pi. It may be more appropriate to store it off-site on Codeberg</a> however. Rather than stowing the entire ~/dotfiles</code> folder in one go, I like to create individual folders for each package or function. This means I can pick and choose one by one when they are required. Useful for when you use multiple machines for different purposes. My current stow folder looks like this: zkbro@laptop:~/dotfiles$ tree -L 1 . ├── async-neocities ├── bashrc ├── buku ├── certs ├── helix ├── lagrange ├── librewolf ├── neocities ├── ssh ├── stew ├── syncthing ├── systemd ├── tmuxp ├── tut └── yazi</code></pre> As an example, the ssh subfolder has a config file and ssh keys, and looks like: zkbro@laptop:~/dotfiles/ssh$ tree -a . ├── .ssh │ ├── config │ ├── id_ed25519 │ ├── id_ed25519_borgwarehouse │ ├── id_ed25519_borgwarehouse.pub │ ├── id_ed25519_forgejo │ ├── id_ed25519_forgejo.pub │ ├── id_ed25519.pub │ ├── id_rsa │ ├── id_rsa.pub │ ├── known_hosts │ └── known_hosts.old</code></pre> So, when in ~/dotfiles</code> I type stow ssh</code>, it will create a symlink ~/.ssh/</code> to that directory: zkbro@laptop:~$ ls -a | grep ssh lrwxrwxrwx 1 zkbro zkbro 17 May 14 10:02 .ssh -> dotfiles/ssh/.ssh</code></pre> Now, like I mentioned earlier, when I edit say ~/.ssh/config</code>, I will actually be editing ~/dotfiles/ssh/.ssh/config</code>, which is regularly backed up in a Forgejo repository. Likewise if I create a new ssh key, because the folder is symlinked, that ssh key will be part of the repo. I am yet to pull all these into a new system, and I will no doubt hit some problems, especially since I'm trying systemd service files where I always have ownership issues. I have probably missed some important files too, which I'll soon discover, but I'll update the repo as I go. I've seen others use chezmoi</a> for similar use-cases, but this looks a little advanced for me. I started this post saying software like this reduces complexity, but I think I was wrong there. I've made my system more complex, but I have simplified the workflow of restoring configuration files. Backing up my PARA folders with TrueNAS and BorgBackup 2026-05-10T13:09:05+00:00 I am preparing to move from Debian 12 Bookworm to 13 Trixie, and rather than do a straight upgrade, I like to take the opportunity to wipe the machine completely and start afresh. This is prompting me to do some overdue backups, so I can pull everything into the new OS when all installed. These instructions are for backup of my PARA</a> folders only - that's Projects, Areas, Reference and Archive folders. My media is handled separately. For now anyway. This is a learning curve for me. All my backups in the past has been dumping things on external usb hard drives. I'm still a way off anything robust like a 3-2-1 backup strategy, but I feel like I'm making some steps in the right direction. I have a TrueNAS</a> operating system running on a Supermicro server, housing 4x 4TB hard drives (overkill, but futureproofing). My media is already stored there on a different dataset. Rather than doing my usual slow copy of my PARA data to a couple of external hard drives for an OS upgrade, I thought I'd start to actually utilise the power of TrueNAS and dedicated backup software, rather than syncing tools like rsync and syncthing (they have their own purpose). TrueNAS has BorgWarehouse</a> available in the App list, which is the server-side of BorgBackup</a>, which I have come across before. BorgBackup is available in the Debian apt package manager so I will use that on the client side (my laptop). I am really impressed by the simplicity of it, the demos, and the documentation</a>. That's a win-win-win-win. I am doing a separate backup of my dotfiles and systemd service files using a GNU Stow</a> and Forgejo</a> workflow. I am still working on that one. Again, I am enjoying learning about these dedicated software packages to tackle specific use-cases. There is a slight double-up of backing up repos in my ~/02-Areas/repos</code> folder, which are pushed to Forgejo on my Raspberry Pi, but that's no problem. The more the merrier. Install BorgBackup on laptop. sudo apt install borgbackup</code></pre> In TrueNAS --> Apps --> Discover Apps, install BorgWarehouse. Leave default settings. Login with admin/admin Update password Back on laptop, create an SSH key: ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_borgwarehouse cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_borgwarehouse.pub</code></pre> Copy the key, and back in BorgWarehouse, create a repository using that public key. To make it easier going forward for ssh, in my ~/.ssh/config</code> I added: Host borgwarehouse HostName 192.168.x.x Port xxxx User borgwarehouse IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_borgwarehouse</code></pre> The ssh port was created on installation, and can be viewed in the TrueNAS app details under Workloads. Initialise an encrypted empty repository: borg init -e repokey-blake2 ssh://borgwarehouse/./3281bb14</code></pre> 3281bb14 is the repository name that was generated on creation. repokey-blake2</code> is the BLAKE2b encryption mode</a>. Create a backup of my PARA folders: borg create --stats --progress --compression lz4 ssh://borgwarehouse/./3281bb14::{user}-{now} \ ~/01-Projects \ ~/02-Areas \ ~/03-Reference \ ~/04-Archive</code></pre> This creates a compressed timestamped archive of multiple folders: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Repository: ssh://borgwarehouse/./3281bb14 Archive name: zkbro-2026-05-10T11:55:17 Archive fingerprint: 7c4fd84443e99d34c4307e97049b5e39f571c3c210e1f0e8848a9899190288d4 Time (start): Sun, 2026-05-10 11:55:22 Time (end): Sun, 2026-05-10 11:57:00 Duration: 1 minutes 37.51 seconds Number of files: 90712 Utilization of max. archive size: 0% ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Original size Compressed size Deduplicated size This archive: 10.90 GB 7.79 GB 6.03 GB All archives: 10.90 GB 7.79 GB 6.03 GB Unique chunks Total chunks Chunk index: 63514 92682 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------</code></pre> That's quick! Somewhere along the line I accidently whacked CTRL-C mid-process, which locked the appplication down, so I had to kill a couple of suspended processes in btop, then enter borg break-lock ssh://borgwarehouse/./3281bb14</code>. Now if I change a file or two, then run the same command above, borg will append changes only, making it super fast. zkbro@laptop:~$ mv 02-Areas/notes/apt.md 02-Areas/notes/apt2.md zkbro@laptop:~$ borg create --stats --progress --compression lz4 ssh://borgwarehouse/./3281bb14::{user}-{now} ~/01-Projects ~/02-Areas ~/03-Reference ~/04-Archive Enter passphrase for key ssh://borgwarehouse/./3281bb14: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Repository: ssh://borgwarehouse/./3281bb14 Archive name: zkbro-2026-05-10T12:02:04 Archive fingerprint: 9e5529afa8dad4ff71a543aa5460e148f491b783c318d87cf434cf1d0a3763e2 Time (start): Sun, 2026-05-10 12:02:12 Time (end): Sun, 2026-05-10 12:02:19 Duration: 6.25 seconds Number of files: 90712 Utilization of max. archive size: 0% ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Original size Compressed size Deduplicated size This archive: 10.90 GB 7.79 GB 133.62 kB All archives: 21.81 GB 15.59 GB 6.03 GB Unique chunks Total chunks Chunk index: 63516 185364 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------</code></pre> 6.25 seconds with a deduplicated size of 133.62kb (Borg recognising it doesn't need to duplicate unchanged files). Brill! To list archives: zkbro@laptop:~$ borg list ssh://borgwarehouse/./3281bb14 Enter passphrase for key ssh://borgwarehouse/./3281bb14: zkbro-2026-05-10T11:55:17 Sun, 2026-05-10 11:55:22 [7c4fd84443e99d34c4307e97049b5e39f571c3c210e1f0e8848a9899190288d4] zkbro-2026-05-10T12:02:04 Sun, 2026-05-10 12:02:12 [9e5529afa8dad4ff71a543aa5460e148f491b783c318d87cf434cf1d0a3763e2]</code></pre> Use borg diff</code> to check differences: zkbro@laptop:~$ borg diff ssh://borgwarehouse/./3281bb14::zkbro-2026-05-10T11:55:17 zkbro-2026-05-10T12:02:04 Enter passphrase for key ssh://borgwarehouse/./3281bb14: [ctime: Sat, 2026-05-09 09:55:59 -> Sun, 2026-05-10 12:01:53] [mtime: Sat, 2026-05-09 09:55:59 -> Sun, 2026-05-10 12:01:53] home/zkbro/02-Areas/notes added 500 B home/zkbro/02-Areas/notes/apt2.md removed 500 B home/zkbro/02-Areas/notes/apt.md</code></pre> That's it. My data is backed up. Now, to extract the entire archive to my current directory, I just pick out the latest archive: borg extract ssh://borgwarehouse/./3281bb14::zkbro-2026-05-10T12:02:04</code></pre> or a specific folder, also printing extraction as it runs (with --list</code>): borg extract --list ssh://borgwarehouse/./3281bb14::zkbro-2026-05-10T12:02:04 home/zkbro/01-Projects</code></pre> There are a lot more features in both the client and server side of Borg, but for now I'm happy this will serve it's purpose in temporarily holding my files while I upgrade my operating system. It doesn't look like there's a scheduler function built into BorgBackup, but my next steps might be to setup something like a cronjob or systemd timer. Borgmatic</a> and BorgUI</a> both make scheduling easier. To be continued... Configuring Librewolf 2026-05-09T21:17:24+00:00 How I set up my Librewolf browser. Thanks to Benjamin Brunzel</a> for how to set up the custom CSS, and Michael Kjörling</a> for how to make the scrollbar larger. Set Librewolf as default browser:</h2> xdg-settings set default-web-browser librewolf.desktop</code></pre>Set keyboard shortcut</h2> In Debian Xfce, Keyboard --> Application Shortcuts and map exo-open --launch WebBrowser</code> to ALT-W. Install plugins</h2> Auto Reader View</a> - In case a website is difficult to read. Styled to how I want to see it.</li> Bitwarden Password Manager</a> - Mapped to CTRL-SHIFT-L</li> Dark Mode Website Switcher</a> - Mapped to CTRL-SHIFT-D</li> Force Dark Mode</a> - Forces dark mode when there is none. Mapped to CTRL-Comma</li> Get RSS Feed URL</a> - Sometimes it is hard to find an RSS link. This does it for you.</li> Google Sign-in Pop-up Blocker</a></li> News Feed Eradicator</a> - I used Facebook solely for Marketplace. This extension ensures when I log in I don't see anything in the main feed, other than a single nice quote.</li> uBlock Origin</a> - Ad blocker. Mapped to CTRL-SHIFT-U</li> Vimium</a> - Enables me to do 99% of my browsing from the keyboard.</li> </ul> Keyboard mapping is found in Settings --> Extensions --> Manage Extensions --> Cog wheel --> Manage Extension Shortcuts. I had to remap a couple in my Xfce keyboard application shortcuts that were competing. Create a custom CSS stylesheet to minimise the toolbar</h2> As per userChrome.org</a>, find your Profile Directory: Click the menu button --> Help --> More Troubleshooting Information --> Application Basics --> Profile Directory --> Open Directory. Profile directory will open. Create .../chrome/userChrome.css</code> in the Profile Directory and paste this code (this is exactly from Ben's post</a>): /* asciijungles's userChrome.css * write to ~/.config/librewolf/librewolf/{yourProfile}/chrome/userChrome.css */ /* hide header tab bar */ #TabsToolbar { visibility: collapse !important; } /* hide huge sidebar header*/ #sidebar-header, #search-box { display: none!important; } #sidebar-header { display: none !important; } /* minimize sidebar splitter */ #sidebar-splitter { background-color: black!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0px!important; }</code></pre> Enable the new stylesheet to load on every startup: about:config</code></li> userprof</code></li> Switch toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets</code> to True.</li> </ul> Make scrollbar bigger, square and always visible</h2> about:config</code></li> widget.gtk.overlay-scrollbars.enabled = false</li> widget.non-native-theme.gtk.scrollbar.thumb-size = 1</li> widget.non-native-theme.scrollbar.style = 4</li> widget.non-native-theme.scrollbar.size.override = 20</li> </ul> Other minor changes</h2> Reload tabs on startup</li> Disable ResistFingerprinting to load window at full size on startup</li> </ul> That's the gist of it. Autumn 2026 2026-05-06T18:22:29+00:00 This has been the most beautiful Autumn I've experienced in Queenstown. We've had unusually still days so all the leaves are hanging on. There is an orange glow everywhere. I've been leaving slightly earlier in the mornings before work so I can stop on the way at this spot and simply breathe, before the day destroys me. When I used to holiday here, rather than live, I used to love the drives anywhere on these cusp seasons. It is truly a remarkable place. </a> Lake Hayes on dawn</figcaption> </figure> Tree planting at Whitechapel Reserve 2026-05-02T14:45:25+00:00 I joined a group of volunteers today to plant some natives at Whitechapel Reserve, just 9km ride from home. The community planting day was organised by Whakatipu Reforestation Trust</a>, who to date, have planted over 135,000 natives throughout the Whakatipu Basin. They put on a morning tea with lots of home-baked treats. We've had some amazing Autumn weather, so it was good to get out and do something with it. </a> One of the areas we were planting on Whitechapel Reserve</figcaption> </figure> </a> Willows showing off their bronze canopy while a morning mist hovers above the Kawarau River </figcaption> </figure> </a> More colours on the way out</figcaption> </figure> I can't finish blog posts 2026-05-01T19:03:32+00:00 When I read blogs I see so many tight impactful words of wisdom is just two or three paragraphs. How the hell do you do it? Every time I go to write something my mind wanders on a million tangents, I never feel like I've given enough context on anything, so I start explaining myself, which lead to more tangents, and then I lose excitement for my original idea, and give up. Wait no, I think I know what's happening. I'm writing for you, not me. Damnit. I thought I wasn't doing that. Why do I do that? I don't need to explain to myself. Maybe that's the trick. Pretend there is no audience. This was a brainfart. Here's my middle ground while I figure it out. Three little blinking dots that say "Even though there is much more I'd like to say, I've simply run out of puff, so I'm leaving it here"... 19,349 paragraphs were deleted in the making of this post.</li> I'm kinda chuffed I learnt a technical solution (@keyframes</a>) to a psychological problem right in the middle of writing about it. Yet another type of tangent!</li> Maybe now I'm just not going to make sense to anyone...</li> </ul> 🗓️ Weekendnote 2026-W17 2026-04-27T16:45:17+00:00 Today the Autumn colours were out in full swing. Temperatures were fresh, but not glove weather. I went to Bunnings to pick up nail punches for my pergola build (wrong size, should've just used screws), The Warehouse to pick up cheap coffee, and Pack N Save to get a Sunday roast (currently cooking) and some other weekly supplies. Hardware store, department store, supermarket - the NZ dream. Bleh. On the ride back I stopped at a loaded apple tree, put a couple in my backpack (it was a heavy pack by now), and ate one while I rolled on home. A friend and her little bub waved me down at a playground so had a nice chat enroute. This is the Shotover Bridge, going over the Shotover River, which is the only way into town from the East and North, and my home. On this side of the bridge there are three big suburbs locally, and commuters from Wanaka and Cromwell join the party too. With only one lane each way it bottlenecks regularly. On the other side is Frankton, the main shopping area - industrial area, supermarkets, department stores etc, and then beyond is the main town, Queenstown, or a departure South. </a> Shotover Bridge and main road into town.</figcaption> </figure> There is a footbridge to the right out of shot, which is where I ride my bike, then swing under the Shotover Bridge before coming up the other side to join a bike lane alongside the road. At the top of the hill I'm basically at the start of all the shops. It's just over an hour round trip to do some errands. I built most of a pergola this weekend. It was difficult. Don't look too close. I'm not confident it is stable enough so will throw in some upper braces in the coming weeks, hopefully before it topples over. If I were to do it again I'd use 4-sided post supports, not 2 sided, or at least would have turned two of them 90 degrees so there's a bit more anchoring each direction. I'll add some palings across the top for a little more cover, and stability. I got tired and bored so this will do for now. When I stain the house again, I'll whack a coat or two on this too. One day I might pave the area. BBQ and seating required. </a> Before shot.</figcaption> </figure> </a> After shot.</figcaption> </figure> I'm really just writing this post to test out my new website design. I wanted to play with <figcaption></code>s, which I only just realised were a thing. I figured I would try and keep the theme going. Simple and bold, hard edges etc. The photos displayed on this page are small GIFs stretched to 100% width, so they should load fast, but are also clickable to the larger, but also compressed, photos. I actually like how the GIFs look all blury. Almost like a dithered effect</a> I see around the traps a lot. I need to figure out how to make a shortcut in Helix to paste in the complete <figure></code> HTML code snippet. I'm also using </code> which is a bit limiting. Flexing</a> is probably the way to go. Anyway, the style of the site has given me more joy than expected. The dark mode yellow/black looks kind of like a chalkboard. The mobile responsiveness on the menu bar is surprisingly stylish with the angled buttons. I'll pretend I planned that. TOOLS Latest finds. For a full history of all the tools I've discovered and used over my years of blogging see the tools</a> page. It's an interesting journey. I didn't know what SSH was just two years ago! iNaturalist</a> mobile app - A great little app to capture and discovery flora and fauna in the area. When I have a spare 5 minutes I've been loading the map and just looking up some local discoveries. It's a good way to learn some names. Our area has a huge collection so the tool must be used by a lot of folk. </li> rss-bridge FilterBridge</a> - I cannot for the life of me get filters to work in FreshRSS, but managed to do it via this tool. Bye bye hashtag spammers. </li> Little Snitch</a> via Rodrigo</a> - Tidy looking network monitor. I couldn't get it to work unfortunately. </li> ncal</a> - quickly check calendar in the terminal. I like ncal -bw -A 2</code> which shows weeknumbers and the next two months, and highlights the current day. </li> </ul> zkbro@laptop:~$ ncal -bw -A 2 2026 April May June w| Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa w| Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa w| Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 14| 1 2 3 4 18| 1 2 23| 1 2 3 4 5 6 15| 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 19| 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 24| 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 16| 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20| 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 25| 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 17| 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 21| 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 26| 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 18| 26 27 28 29 30 22| 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 27| 28 29 30 23| 31</code></pre> paste image rename</a> Obsidian plugin - using to retain original image filenames when adding from my phone. It is the default setting so absolutely no config changes required. </li> surfshark-vpn</a> - CLI tool for the Surfshark VPN. I had no idea this was available. Looks like it is discontinued for whatever reason, but it works fine with my same account. </li> DitherEffect</a> - Webtool for dithering (and othering) images. </li> </ul> 🔗 Link Stash | 26th April 2026 2026-04-26T22:44:15+00:00 Fresh dump of interesting and/or useful web links I've found recently. Full link stash here</a>. This week: More randomness. </div> 343. Brutalist Web Design</a></div> PDF guides on Brutalist web design. Just flicking through gave me a bunch of ideas. Their Brutalist framework website describes the philosophy as CRUDE (Creatively Cynical & Confrontational - Raw, Rugged and Real - Uncompromisingly Unconventional & Unpolished - Deliberately Deconstructive & Dysfunctional - Extremely Exciting & Enthralling). It reminds me of concrete styling with hard edges, zines, punk and anarchy. The only two guides available are from 2023 and 2024, so it's possible the others won't ever see the light of day.</div> TAGS: brutalist, inspo, resources, style</div> 342. Passweird</a></div> Password generator. "Passwords too gross to steal". Love the artwork on the site too. Found this while looking up brutalist website designs in the Brutalist Substyles reference guide</a>. Was a pleasant surprise. I'll probably use it for random username generation, or passwords that I'll share with friends. It gives me a laugh. They are pronouncable too which I find helps when you have to type or tap these things out (before it makes it into your password manager of course!). Examples: SIck1y0RG4Ns37@6, $N0TTYhOl346]0, cRuddymAy0+67, SLuRpybRAIn$2~88.</div> TAGS: password-generator, tool, username-generator</div> 341. Kagi Small Web</a></div> Quite a trove of small web sites. An open source project that aggregates posts from websites listed on their smallweb.txt, but had a headstart by pulling an original list from other small web directories like ooh.directory and personalsit.es. There is a "river" view and search bar, you can click through posts one by one, or choose a topic. Also mobile apps and browser extensions.</div> TAGS: aggregator, blogs, directory, small-web</div> 340. Bubbles</a></div> Another aggregator of blogs, via Stephen</a>. Blogs were initially sourced from ooh.directory, indieblog.page, Bear Blog, blogroll.org, IndieWeb Webring, and personalsit.es (it's a big list</a>) and newer blogs are added via emailing them by the looks of it. You can upvote posts, which I'm not a fan of, and top ranked posts are shown in the "top" page which is the landing page. The "new" tab is simply sorted by date. Much better. I have no idea how the "hot" posts get on that list. Anyway, bookmarked just in case I finish reading everything else on the internet and need some more content. Ha!</div> TAGS: aggregator, blogs</div> 339. Urban Commuter</a></div> Interesting bunch of articles on the art of commuting in both new and familiar environments. Could see this as a handy resource for travelling, but also how to handle the everyday in this crazy world.</div> TAGS: commuting, security, travel</div> 338. Blogosphere</a></div> An aggregator of blog posts. Initial set of blogs came from Ye Olde Blogroll</a>, but now can be submitted on the site. Links take you to the author's site. I like the plain style (this is the textier version of blogosphere.app</a>) and the main page is ordered by date, newest to oldest.</div> TAGS: aggregator, blogs, directory</div> 337. Random Notes | Scott Nesbitt</a></div> A minimal personal notes site giving me a bit of inspo at the moment. It is very plain and text only which is perfect. I find I can concentrate better when reading on sites like these, though it is probably the writing itself. Posts like On being an individual</a> spark some thoughts.</div> TAGS: blog, minimal, personal, style, text</div> 336. Design Systems News | PJ Onori</a></div> A regular curation of discovered articles related to design systems. Lots of tips and deep dives into specific topics. A lot is a little advanced for my crappy little web building and tinkering world, but they are nice to read and spark some small ideas sometimes. Links will take you to other author sites which again are a trove of interesting articles. PJ provides some thoughts on each article.</div> TAGS: curation, design-systems, style</div> 335. On Privacy | 47nil</a></div> Not the author's landing page, but a good introduction to their site, which I love for the simplicity and freedom of writing in private. I am going through some similar thoughts, and built a website with similar intentions. Some notes are as small as a sentence only. Others are longer thought-pieces. Their links page sent me down another rabbithole.</div> TAGS: blog, minimal, personal, style, text</div> 334. John Labovitz's E-Zine-List</a></div> A big list of old online digital magazines and zines. Pretty sure most of them aren't going anymore, but the Wayback Machine has done a good job in archiving these gems.</div> TAGS: curation, zines</div> 333. Spunk Library</a></div> Collection of articles related to anarchy and the likes. It's an archived website which is no longer updated, the latest content was from 1999 by the looks of it. Still, there is a lot there in the catalogues. I particularly like the Entire Title Index</a>.</div> TAGS: anarchy, curation, resources</div> 332. Sprout Distro</a></div> Collection of downloadable PDF zines on anarchy topics.</div> TAGS: anarchy, curation, zine</div> 331. Open Subtitles</a></div> Downloadable subtitle files for movies and TV series.</div> TAGS: subtitles</div> </div> Full link stash here</a>. New website design 2026-04-25T08:27:51+00:00 Trying something different. I want to strip back a few things, work with just posts, tags and a couple of pages. It's a bit of a work in progress, but I've mustered something I'm relatively happy with. Here are some before and after shots in light/dark mode: </a> </a> I've fallen onto this style because it is a reflection of how I feel right now, which is not much. My site has always been a means of expression and a kind of log of my life, both via design and words. A new design is a start. It might start to encourage me to put some words here on things I'm working through, but for now this will do. 🗓️ Weeknote 2026-W15 2026-04-12T19:29:34+00:00 It's been a while. I've been in a slump. I won't write about it here. I've tried, but it is too complex for me to put into coherent words. I've been writing privately because it doesn't need to make sense and I can just stop mid thought. I mean I could do that here, but it'd be a waste of your eye space. I will drop these themes though: Work.</li> The world is pissing me off and I can't unsee it.</li> I feel like an outsider, a coward and fraud.</li> </ul> However, I must've turned a corner this last week, as I've started to look at things within my control that can get me back on track. They're small things, but I think they are keeping me sane. So this is those things. Homebrews</h2> I've ramped up my kombucha (bigger vessel, more yield), started fermenting ginger and making ginger ale, and kicked off a sourdough starter again (not quite ready for baking, but it sure is alive). Not only are these things delicious, they are very fun to watch them bubble and grow, and they are very inexpensive ways to eat and drink nice things. Volunteering</h2> I went to a tree planting day just around the corner. We planted natives along a steep bank. It was a genuinely nice day with nice people. A few familiar faces from Council (my previous job). It was really nice to catch up with them, and to meet some other locals. I got there early to help with the set up, moving weed mats, tree guards, buckets of compost and plants into place. I have started contributing more to OpenStreetMap</a> data of my local area. A couple of times a while back I loaded CoMaps</a> and was a little annoyed that there were some points of interest missing which I needed at the time. I didn't do anything about it, but just switched to Google Maps and didn't load CoMaps again for a while. Rather than ignore that shit, I've started to act on it. If I am going to advocate community-led tools like CoMaps and OpenStreetMap to friends, I want to do my part and be involved. Selling my shit</h2> I finally sold my paraglider. I've had it on the market for over a year, come close to selling it a couple times, but the cost was always just that little bit too much, or buyers only wanted the wing or reserve by itself. I gave in to a low offer because I just wanted it out of my garage. The buyer was excited though. He just finished is PG2 certification the day before so he was stoked he's got a full kit to get going on his own. I'm really happy it's with someone who will get some use out of it now. On a roll, I spruced up an old manual push mower I had in the garage, posted it on marketplace, and within 10 minutes had it sold. Again the dude was so happy. This made me happy too. My clutter gives me anxiety. I don't own stuff. Stuff owns me. By freeing me of these things I have more mental space. I don't have a huge deal, but big things like those take up space and I feel guilty that I don't use them. I'm looking at a guitar in the corner of my room right now... Reading</h2> I've picked up reading again. I canned a book I was struggling through and went for books I know I'll enjoy. Currently I'm reading A New Green History of the World</a> by Clive Ponting. It's kinda old (this is a 2007 update of his 1991 release), but it is very interesting so far. I read Fight Club</a> by Chuck Palahniuk ****</code>, The Art of Spending Money</a> by Morgan Housel ***</code> and The Courage to be Disliked</a> by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitaki Koga ****</code>. Simplifying a blog</h2> I'm getting over having to think about a blog</a> vs quick-post</a>, I've offloaded my activities to another site</a>, and I don't write lists or update my crop-log any more. I've never utilised tags, but I figured out how to do it when I created my activities site. I also like very few things on the screen. So, I have created a new style which has just a main page, an archive page, and tags pages: </a> I haven't decided if I'll just replace this site willy nilly or move to a new site completely. I never intended to hang onto "html-chunder" for as long as I have. I named it that because thats what it was when I started. I was just spewing code into HTML until I figured out a style I wanted. It eventually got to a state that I was happy with, but I never got around to changing the domain name. The time is right now. I am changing. My site should change with me. I might leave this one as is, and write a parting post, and start on blog.zkbro.com or something. I've also renting out the spare room again. It is a young couple only for 2 weeks. They are good folk to talk to and very tidy and respectful. So what has made me feel a little better? It must be the interactions with people (folk at the tree planting day, housemates, marketplace peoples), simplifying things (blog, decluttering) and doing some basic stuff (reading, homebrewing). I will try and remember this for future me. CSS Naked Day 2026-04-09T07:09:09+00:00 It's CSS Naked Day</a>. My site</a> seems to handle it ok. Another important upcoming date: Steal Something From Work Day (April 15)</a> 🔗 Link Stash | 17th March 2026 2026-03-17T05:54:22+00:00 Fresh dump of interesting and/or useful web links I've found recently. Full link stash here</a>. This week: I accidently closed a bunch of tabs I was saving for bookmarking by crashing my browser. I could have recovered them, but chose not too. The blank slate is nice. I went one step further and removed the tab bar completely in Librewolf, after reading Ben's Building a LibreWolf Browser Setup with reasonable privacy and Vim Keybindings</a> article. Now I rarely have more than one tab open, have more reading space, and less distractions. My interneting is changing. Maybe one day those lost tabs will appear in my eye-space again, maybe not. These ones made it in before and after the event. </div> 330. Guerilla Gardening and the Art of Plant-based Protest</a></div> Really like how this article describes guerrilla gardening, a "deceptively gentle strain of activism". A fight against "aesthetically bland and politically toxic" environments. I think I have a calling.</div> TAGS: activism, guerrilla-gardening</div> 329. The Resistance Hub</a></div> A well curated and tidy resource hub on resistance. It's not based on fear, but on preparedness. Plenty of free PDF downloads, and recommended reading. The resilience toolkit page sent me down a rabbithole - I like how the domains are structed - physical, mental, social, economic and planning resilience. The resistance toolkit focuses on non-violent actions, from digital security to street-level tactics. Some great principles to live by, embed in organisations or apply as an individual.</div> TAGS: resilience, resistance, resources</div> 328. Kanban Reading Board | ReadBeanIceCream</a></div> ReadBeanIceCream shares his barebones kanban setup for tracking his reading. Simply utilising folder structure and naming conventions (and grep, tree, and a small script) he's come up with a pretty smooth method that does what it needs to do. If I kickstart my reading habit again I might give something like this a go.</div> TAGS: blog-post, kanban, plain-text, reading, tracking</div> 327. CLOAK - Concealment Layers for Online Anonymity and Knowledge</a></div> Lots of tips for maintaining privacy online. Inspired by MITRE ATT&CK. Well organised with search. Not very in-depth, but some links are shared, and I can easily follow up with wider web searches.</div> TAGS: how-to, infosec, privacy</div> 326. How I use Wireshark | Julia Evans</a></div> Julia shares some of her use-cases for Wireshark.</div> TAGS: blog-post, how-to, networking, sysadmin, wireshark</div> 325. Wireshark</a></div> A powerful FOSS network analysis GUI tool that I would like to learn to help me grasp a few more networking concepts. The user guide is extensive.</div> TAGS: foss, networking, sysadmin, tool</div> 324. Change your default date format to the least ambiguous | Practical Betterments</a></div> Complete rundown of why the best date format to use is the best date format to use. Spoiler - 2026-02-26 and the corresponding human readable 2nd February 2026 wins. I'll be flicking this to anyone who thinks otherwise (work colleague insists on DDMMYY. YUCK!)</div> TAGS: best-practice, dates</div> 323. mixflow</a></div> Another chill radio station, via Rodrigo</a></div> TAGS: radio</div> 322. Linux becoming a Windows / OSX clone | Ciprian Dorin Craciun</a></div> There are a lot of linux distros out there. This is a refreshing post from someone knowledgeable to keep me falling for the hype. A few personal thought nuggets on differences in distros helps me understand the ecosystem a bit better. I've been happy with Debian for my short time in Linux, but funnily enough the only one I MAY try next is openSUSE, which the author uses (or used at time of writing at least). But still, I'm probably not going to change any time soon unless its to refresh myself on installing an OS, and giving my laptop a spring clean.</div> TAGS: blog-post, contrarian-thinking, distros, linux</div> 321. The Cheapskate's Guide to Computers and the Internet</a></div> What the title says, but so much more. Lots of sub-topics of computers and internet like permacomputing, networking, and online communities. A heap of resources and links to the wider web.</div> TAGS: frugal-computing, permacomputing, sustainability</div> </div> Full link stash here</a>. Reflection on the growing season 2026-03-15T15:19:10+00:00 Summer crops are still producing in full swing, so thought I'd jot down some thoughts, while they're fresh, on what went well and what didn't so I can tweak some things next year. In the greenhouse</h2> One zucchini and one cucumber is more than enough. I have just kept up with the zucchini's, but a couple of cucumbers were donated to the compost pile because I couldn't get to them in time. </li> All my tomatoes were self-sown from previous seasons, however they ended up all being cherry tomatoes. Kept 7 in total, and have kept up. I think 3 cherries and 3 regulars will be better next year. I like Romas. </li> Greenhouse is great for cucumbers and tomatoes, pruning to a single leader and tying to the top rail. It can seem a bit heavy handed to trim so much back, but yields were still strong. </li> Zucchini ended up taking up a fair bit of room in the greenhouse. It liked it there, so I will do it again next year, but dedicate a single bay (out of the 12) to it. </li> 6 chillis is too much. 2 will do. The "wild fires" are delicious, and mild. I've only been eating them green so far, but they're meant to be red. They're long and plants produce a lot. Will collect the seed. </li> Capsicum "redskin" doing well in the greenhouse. Plant 2 next year. </li> Capsicum "lunchbox red" also doing well. Bugs seem to bore holes, but I've never seen one inside. They're a good in-between while the redskins grow. 1 is enough. Produces well. </li> Nasturtiums and borage were beautiful in the greenhouse, and the bees loved them, but they took up a lot of room. Saved seed of the nasturtiums (more than enough borage in the soil). Will plant out in the fruit tree orchard next year. </li> Old seeds of my greens mix are starting to fail (mesculin mix is no longer a mix, just mustard). I bought new spinach for the last sow and it's looking good. Will stick to my fav 4 mix next year - Rocket, Spinach, Red Russian Kale, Tatsoi. </li> Trial of greens plantings in front of cucumbers and chillis got a bit leggy. Rocket did ok, but it was still a bit busy. Stick to dedicated bays next year. 5 cuts is about what each planting receives. Plant successions at cut 2. </li> Eggplants slower to produce. Only just started harvesting my 2 plants. Will monitor and decide if I want more next year. I have a delicious marinated eggplant recipe I want to give a crack again if they don't all make it into my cooking. </li> More radish. Best snacks while I'm in the garden. </li> Keep the succession plantings of beets up. They've been great in roasts and shredded fresh in salads and sandwiches. </li> 1 bay of silverbeet is enough, probably reduce to 3 rather than 4. Got busy. Also had an unexpected glut out in the fruit tree orchard once weeds were removed. </li> Scarlett runner beans doing well, happy running up the back of the greenhouse with the steel mesh in front of brown onions. </li> Plant more brown onions. Didn't feel right buying them a couple times. Maybe down at allotment. Need to make extra beds. </li> Keep up spring onions. They go in everything. </li> </ul> Backyard</h2> Time to extend more into the lawn. Keep grass to the left for now, but extend in front of orchard. </li> Strawberries under fruit trees doing really well. Thanks to dad for covering up with netting, much to the dismay of the blackbirds. I'm trying to save some runners to spread into a new area. </li> Apple and 1 plum tree produced in the orchard. Little moth traps seemed to work, though I cut the string off a bit late when I saw them ringbarking. Keep an eye on it next year. No apricots yet. </li> I thought I was pruning quite a bit to keep the trees small, but I can do better. They hardly blinked. Keep reading up on the art of tiny tree pruning, though just do it. All the information is conflicting. I'm sticking with the idea that Summer pruning just after the solstice is best for the hard prunes to reduce size because they energy has switched to going back into the trunk, while Spring prunes will promote new bushy growth because photosynthesis is in full swing (or something like that). </li> Prepare 3 new tree planting areas over winter for (ideally) peach, nectarine and persimon. </li> "The graveyard" is useless. Dries out too quick with the western sun. Unless I extend it to be a proper bed, leave for the grass to grow over again. </li> </ul> Down at the allotment</h2> Garlic did not do too well because of water-logging. Couldn't help that. Will do 3 rows this winter. </li> Potatoes did well despite thinking I lost them all to mould from leaving them in the garage too long after dicing the eyes up. A lot of little spotty blemishes, which word on the street sounds like I'm not alone. They haven't seemed to affect the taste or quality, just appearance. 3 beds are enough, though there will be a crossover with garlic, so maybe I'll just have 2 (only have 5 rows available currently). </li> My random scattering of sunflowers were a delight to see down at the allotment. Saving seed. I'm going to put these everywhere. Guerilla gardening? </li> </ul> Other notes</h2> Shadecloth on direct-sows works really well keeping water dispersed, soil from drying out, and pesky birds eating the seed. Find more shadecloth. </li> I didn't grow corn. I want corn. New beds in front of orchard? </li> More berries. Can never have enough. Prepare new beds over winter. Do more lurking at that big berry patch around the corner so I can find the owner and ask for shoots. In front of orchard? May need to do some borders to prevent from spreading. Research. Blueberries should be ok. </li> More perennials. Prepare an area for asparagus. Find out when shoots are available. Same time as potatoes? </li> Plant out rosemary in corners of backyard garden beds, and at front letterbox. </li> Pumpkin. None this year. Last year in the greenhouse was fun making a tunnel, until they fell off. Not the best spot. Might do some guerilla gardening out at the bus stop across the road or my front verge. </li> Broccoli. I love the stuff, but never figured out when the best time to plant is. Just plant. Figure out how not to have some many seedling failures. </li> Chooks. Design new garden beds around the almost certainty that I will be getting chooks again. bok bok. </li> Donate more. Take to work. Be more social with the neighbours. </li> </ul> Next actions</h2> Sow more beets, carrots, spring onion and greens in greenhouse for Winter. </li> Planting garlic and broad beans down at the allotment for Winter. </li> </ul> </a> </div> </a> </div> </a> </div> </a> </div> </a> </div> </a> </div> </a> </div> </a> </div> </a> </div> </a> </div> </a> </div> </a> </div> </div>

📺 Watched</strong></h2>

All You Need Is Kill (2025)</a> `</code> - Not a bad little anime. Lots of action.</p> </li>`
`Industry (Seasons 2 & 3)</a> </code> - Its getting a bit better.</p> </li> </ul>`

Additional software installations</h2>

Software-specific Customisation</h2>

Librewolf</h3>
See Configuring Librewolf</a></p>

Desktop Environment Customisation</h2>

Appearance</h3>
All I did here was move the top bar to the bottom and removed the bottom shortcuts panel.</p>

Set keyboard shortcut</h2>
In Debian Xfce, Keyboard --> Application Shortcuts and map `exo-open --launch WebBrowser</code> to ALT-W.</p>`

Other minor changes</h2>

Reload tabs on startup</li>
Disable ResistFingerprinting to load window at full size on startup</li> </ul>
That's the gist of it.</p>

zkbro

My career history through software

Noticing

Self-hosting a Snac ActivityPub Server with a Raspberry Pi and Caddy

📸 What's in my pocket Friday 2026-05-29

🗓️ Weeknote 2026-W21

🗓️ Weeknote 2026-W20

Installing Debian 13 Trixie

Managing dotfiles with GNU Stow and Forgejo

Backing up my PARA folders with TrueNAS and BorgBackup

Configuring Librewolf

Autumn 2026

Tree planting at Whitechapel Reserve

I can't finish blog posts

🗓️ Weekendnote 2026-W17

🔗 Link Stash | 26th April 2026

New website design

🗓️ Weeknote 2026-W15

CSS Naked Day

🔗 Link Stash | 17th March 2026

Reflection on the growing season

zkbro

My career history through software

Noticing

Self-hosting a Snac ActivityPub Server with a Raspberry Pi and Caddy

In summary</h2> All in all my setup was pretty straight forward. I had done a few steps in other self-hosting projects so what used to cause me a headache is now a bit more familiar:</p>

📸 What's in my pocket Friday 2026-05-29

🗓️ Weeknote 2026-W21

🗓️ Weeknote 2026-W20

Installing Debian 13 Trixie

Clone dotfiles stow repository and spit out all the symlinks</h3> In ~/</code> git clone...</code> repo.</p>

Additional software installations</h2>

Install duckdb</h3> curl</span> https://install.duckdb.org</span> |</span> sh</span></span></code></pre>Install Oracle VirtualBox</h3> This is so I can run my Amibroker trading software.</p>

Install Oracle VirtualBox</h3> This is so I can run my Amibroker trading software.</p>

Software-specific Customisation</h2>

Desktop Environment Customisation</h2>

Appearance</h3> All I did here was move the top bar to the bottom and removed the bottom shortcuts panel.</p>

Set keyboard shortcuts</h3> In Keyboard --> Application Shortcuts</strong>:</p>

Managing dotfiles with GNU Stow and Forgejo

Backing up my PARA folders with TrueNAS and BorgBackup

Configuring Librewolf

Set keyboard shortcut</h2> In Debian Xfce, Keyboard --> Application Shortcuts and map exo-open --launch WebBrowser</code> to ALT-W.</p>

Other minor changes</h2> Reload tabs on startup</li> Disable ResistFingerprinting to load window at full size on startup</li> </ul> That's the gist of it.</p>

Autumn 2026

Tree planting at Whitechapel Reserve

I can't finish blog posts

🗓️ Weekendnote 2026-W17

🔗 Link Stash | 26th April 2026

New website design

🗓️ Weeknote 2026-W15

CSS Naked Day

🔗 Link Stash | 17th March 2026

Reflection on the growing season

Appearance</h3>
All I did here was move the top bar to the bottom and removed the bottom shortcuts panel.</p>

Set keyboard shortcut</h2>
In Debian Xfce, Keyboard --> Application Shortcuts and map `exo-open --launch WebBrowser</code> to ALT-W.</p>`

Other minor changes</h2>

Reload tabs on startup</li>
Disable ResistFingerprinting to load window at full size on startup</li> </ul>
That's the gist of it.</p>