I did the same thing when I started self hosting. I followed some guides that recommended all these tools. The more I learned, the more I realized I hardly used some of the stuff but when I disabled them it broke the stuff I did use. That’s when I took the time to wipe my system and build from the ground up, but this time actually understand what I was doing and not just blindly following guides.

Good luck!

I don’t think you’re crazy. Sometimes when my shit gets bloated and I start getting confused about how things go together, I wipe everything and start fresh to refresh myself and organize better.

That might be the case. But I have done a great job of reducing the power load of my server from 1200 watts down to 65 watts. And I am slowly trying to get the point that I can off load my servers to solar and battery. I live in a place with not so great of sun.

But I realize I didn’t include that in the original post. So, fair point and thanks for the info!

I would want to do a cluster. Just to learn how that works. But just thinking of the electricity cost, I would personally donate them.

I probably wouldn’t do it. I do have AI help at times, but it is more for bouncing ideas off of, and occasionally it’ll mention a library or tech stack I haven’t heard of that allegedly accomplishes what I’m looking to do. Then I go research the library or tech stack and determine if there is value.

I have been watching Risc-V for years, and I am super excited.

In the last year or so I have been trying to learn low level code specifically to work on adding hardware support for ARM and Risc-V hardware. I am not even close to being able to contribute meaningfully anywhere, but at night after my kids are in bed I am reading books and following tutorials. Maybe in a few more years I will be able to contribute a little bit.

I never used Plex. Up until my kids were born I used to just watch my videos on my desktop, but now I find myself watching on my phone and TV more often. My Jellyfin server has been super stable for the last 6 months or so running on a super low powered machine and external hard drive. The only issues I have is with movies with Dolby digital, they tend to get out of sync when scrubbing the timeline. I am assuming that is due to the lower power of the machine. But, I have a 400watt desktop with a 7th gen i7 and a pascal Quadro P1000 that I am planning on migrating to. Then adding a 20tb internal drive for storage. Hopefully that will resolve the small issues I have seen with it.

I use traefik. I like it. Took a bit to understand, but it has some cool options like ssl passthrough and middlewares for basic auth.

I use emacs when on my personal machines. VS Code at work.

The fastest tool is the one you are best at using. I find that my tool doesn’t make me fast, my ability to solve issues makes me fast. I very rarely learn a new tool unless it accomplishes something for me my other tools do not.

For example, at work I use windows and regularly ssh to servers. My entire job is spent ssh’d into other servers. Emacs terminal emulator is spotty at best when using ssh on windows. There are ways to make it work, but some modifications get flagged by our SEIMs. So in that case I use vs code, and the ssh remote connection options and split terminal interface.

At home I use emacs. I have all Linux machines so my terminal plays nicely. I also am working on reducing my RSI from years of tech work. The less mousing I have to do, the better. Emacs allows me to keep my hands on my keyboard.

You good? We’re talking about PDFs and physical books homie. Take a breath.

Physical books are great. Internet goes out or other devices die and you need to complete work. These are reasons I like to have book references.

Also, one of my favorite things to do when reading is writing in my margins. When I figure something out or find something interesting I like to write it in my own words in the margins, and then if I have to reference again, I have my own words and explanation in the margins to help myself understand faster and better.

I also like to add sticky notes for the same purpose.

This is a good point. Generally if can accomplish what I want with my own scripts, I will go that route. I’ll probably avoid adding additional software to the mix since what I have works fine enough.

I’ll check it out! Thanks!

I run a Fedora server.

All of my apps are in docker containers set to restart unless stopped by me.

Then I run a cron job that is scheduled at like 3 or 4am that runs docker pull on all containers and restarts them. Then it runs all system updates and restarts the server.

Every week or so I just spot check to make sure it is still working. This has been my process for like 6 months without issue.

I just tried tailscale in the last month and it will now be my preferred way to access my services outside of my network.

The ability to read, and maybe watch a video. And then persistence for some of the trial and error you will run in to. All skills you need can be picked up with the above.

I would totally be down for this. I am currently reading zero trust networks (2nd edition), but this is mainly due to the company I am working for looking to open up some web apps to the public internet. I am also reading Net Zeros and Ones to look more at data sanitizing.

Then fun reading is 2001 a space Odyssey.

I think my job requires me to work in too many different areas. So although I can work in several languages and dev stacks, I am probably only a 2 or 3 or less out of 5 in all of them. However, network and server infrastructure, and cybersec/opsec I am probably more in the realm of a 4-4.5.