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Android (1)
There are many reasons to degoogle your phone and there are 2 main ways how to do it. The hardcore way and the second one, for the sake of this article, can be called the "gracefull degradation way". Both of them end with your stock android OS replaced by a custom ROM that will lack all of the the Google apps and background services.
2021-01-18 | 8 minutes reading | tags:
Android, Degoogle, MicroG
Degoogle (1)
There are many reasons to degoogle your phone and there are 2 main ways how to do it. The hardcore way and the second one, for the sake of this article, can be called the "gracefull degradation way". Both of them end with your stock android OS replaced by a custom ROM that will lack all of the the Google apps and background services.
2021-01-18 | 8 minutes reading | tags:
Android, Degoogle, MicroG
Gentoo (1)
I started working with linux 17 years ago (in 2003). It was Debian Woody. Kernel version was 2.4.x and everybody was talking about making the big step to 2.6. Linux of that era was complete disaster when it comes to UX, or working "out of the box", but for me it was fun and I also liked that "underground" feeling about it. I didn't understand most of the underlying things, and to be honest, every time I got sick of it, or I wanted to play some games, I just rebooted to Windows XP :)
2020-06-13 | 7 minutes reading | tags:
Gentoo, Linux, Personal
Laptop (5)
I am a very happy user of a X330 for almost a year now, and I would like to share my thoughts with you.
2024-01-04 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
Minimalism, Laptop
This blog post is a step by step wizard for those who think about using OpenBSD as a primary OS and daily driver, but don't know if it meets the requirements. I am trying to focus on desktop/laptop use in this case. First thing most people would probably ask is, if they will be able to run their current personal setup after migrating to OpenBSD, or at least, if there is a working alternative for those apps/functionalities which are not available. So here is the software and hardware list of things you need to consider.
2023-03-13 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
OpenBSD, Laptop
If there is something I don't like on OpenBSD, then it is lack of information when it comes to problem solving. The main reason, of course, is the size of the OpenBSD community. But even when I try to target the community on the main communication channels like IRC, or Mastodon, I often don't get the answer I am looking for. Therefore, I decided to do it another way. Research the topic, make a blog post, publish it and let people only comment on what is wrong and what is missing. For most people, it is more fun to correct someone, than to prepare the full response to the question.
2023-03-10 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
OpenBSD, Laptop
Last year in March, I made another review of OpenBSD and finally decided to migrate from Linux. At least in the case of my servers. But somehow I stuck with it on my personal laptop too, thanks to a lucky coincidence. Here is my migration story and my 5 cents about using OpenBSD as a daily driver on all my personal machines.
2022-08-08 | 5 minutes reading | tags:
OpenBSD, Laptop, VPS, Self-host
After almost 20 years of using Thinkpads, I feel ready to leave this family. I took some effort and focus. It came as a side effect really. But I am very happy for it.
2021-06-02 | 5 minutes reading | tags:
Personal, Laptop, Thinkpad, Minimalism
Linux (11)
I used to be xfce user for very long time. But I am suckless for several years now. Let's find out if it is good for me and/or if it may be good for you too.
2021-11-21 | 5 minutes reading | tags:
Linux, Minimalism
There are several good reasons to have your own chat server instance. Some are philosophical like federalization of internet, some practical like keeping your data safe and only for yourself, some ethical like creating secure communication node for those who for any reason can not host their own. Or maybe you would like to know how the basic architectural patterns of client-server and server-server communication works. So let's dive in.
2021-08-04 | 11 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
Do you like to backup or share your calendar and contacts, but you don't want to rely on proprietary companies and solutions built into your phones? You don't like to share such information? You don't want to be restricted to specific number of calendars, events or contacts? You want to be sure your provider won't close the service and lock you out from your data? Then it is time to self-host your own CalDAV and CardDAV service!
2021-07-01 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
Many services available for self-hosting provide promised functionality, but let you take care of security and/or authentication. These are the cases when web server comes to the rescue with its ability to create a layer between internet and your service, which will provide additional features like authentication, upgrade to https with valid certificate, DoS prevention using fail2ban, or ability to communicate with service using custom (sub)domain. These features were explained in the previous article.
2021-02-12 | 7 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
Web server is one of the most basic services you can self-host. Very simple to install, reasonably simple to configure for basic use. Not that hard to setup for more robust usage, but the hardest thing is to run it in secure way. This is also the reason why this episode is a bit longer than usual.
2021-01-08 | 20 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
Fourth article of the Linux VPS series covers some of the services you can selfhost and and what are the pros and cons of selfhosting them compared to using established cloud services from big companies.
2020-12-30 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
I have been using several TUI libraries. curses, urwid, Npyscreen and also some non Python ones. The story is always the same. Library is written using catasthrophic api, obsolete paradigms and with no simple way of extending existing code. The code is often very hard to understand. So I went on a quest to find the most understandable one, that will suit my needs.
2020-10-04 | 5 minutes reading | tags:
Linux, TUI
This is the third part of a small "Linux VPS howto" series and it talks about securing the default linux installation.
2020-09-22 | 15 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
This is the second article of a small series about taking care of your own VPS. This one is about all necessary non admin things to think about when setting the VPS up.
2020-08-21 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
This article is first from a small series about owning your personal VPS. It is about reasons why you should or should not host services by yourself on personal VPS.
2020-07-20 | 3 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
I started working with linux 17 years ago (in 2003). It was Debian Woody. Kernel version was 2.4.x and everybody was talking about making the big step to 2.6. Linux of that era was complete disaster when it comes to UX, or working "out of the box", but for me it was fun and I also liked that "underground" feeling about it. I didn't understand most of the underlying things, and to be honest, every time I got sick of it, or I wanted to play some games, I just rebooted to Windows XP :)
2020-06-13 | 7 minutes reading | tags:
Gentoo, Linux, Personal
MicroG (1)
There are many reasons to degoogle your phone and there are 2 main ways how to do it. The hardcore way and the second one, for the sake of this article, can be called the "gracefull degradation way". Both of them end with your stock android OS replaced by a custom ROM that will lack all of the the Google apps and background services.
2021-01-18 | 8 minutes reading | tags:
Android, Degoogle, MicroG
Minimalism (4)
I am a very happy user of a X330 for almost a year now, and I would like to share my thoughts with you.
2024-01-04 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
Minimalism, Laptop
I used to be xfce user for very long time. But I am suckless for several years now. Let's find out if it is good for me and/or if it may be good for you too.
2021-11-21 | 5 minutes reading | tags:
Linux, Minimalism
I practice Stoicism more or less successfully for more than a decade. I would like to share with you brief practical cheatsheet, that will show you what (I think) Stoicism is about in real world situations and how can it help you to be better person and live better life.
2021-06-06 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
Personal, Philosophy, Minimalism
After almost 20 years of using Thinkpads, I feel ready to leave this family. I took some effort and focus. It came as a side effect really. But I am very happy for it.
2021-06-02 | 5 minutes reading | tags:
Personal, Laptop, Thinkpad, Minimalism
OpenBSD (4)
This blog post is a step by step wizard for those who think about using OpenBSD as a primary OS and daily driver, but don't know if it meets the requirements. I am trying to focus on desktop/laptop use in this case. First thing most people would probably ask is, if they will be able to run their current personal setup after migrating to OpenBSD, or at least, if there is a working alternative for those apps/functionalities which are not available. So here is the software and hardware list of things you need to consider.
2023-03-13 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
OpenBSD, Laptop
If there is something I don't like on OpenBSD, then it is lack of information when it comes to problem solving. The main reason, of course, is the size of the OpenBSD community. But even when I try to target the community on the main communication channels like IRC, or Mastodon, I often don't get the answer I am looking for. Therefore, I decided to do it another way. Research the topic, make a blog post, publish it and let people only comment on what is wrong and what is missing. For most people, it is more fun to correct someone, than to prepare the full response to the question.
2023-03-10 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
OpenBSD, Laptop
Last year in March, I made another review of OpenBSD and finally decided to migrate from Linux. At least in the case of my servers. But somehow I stuck with it on my personal laptop too, thanks to a lucky coincidence. Here is my migration story and my 5 cents about using OpenBSD as a daily driver on all my personal machines.
2022-08-08 | 5 minutes reading | tags:
OpenBSD, Laptop, VPS, Self-host
I was never really a distrohopper, I use to stick with things that work for me. I need to use my system most of the day and squeeze maximum from it both in work and during personal free time, because I don't have much to spare. Most of the time, the only reason why I change things is to further minimalize and optimize my workflow. But there is one exception. I always loved OpendBSD and I was coming back to it every couple of years since I switched from Windows to Linux. I got that feeling, that OpenBSD is the right system for me, but it never showed up that way during the practical usage :D So every now and then I install it and try to emulate my current personal workflow on it. You know, just to reevaluate the state of progress and usability. Everytime until now I decided to stay with Gentoo/Linux because of so many missing things. So how does OpenBSD (version 6.8 as current stable) feel in hands of Gentoo Linux oldtimer in 2021?
2021-03-29 | 10 minutes reading | tags:
OpenBSD
Personal (5)
It was 10th of October 2001 when I delivered my first paid order. I was a teenager on high school and it wasn't very special for me that day. I was happy for the pocket money, but much more important was, that on the same day, I started dating my first girl ever and I was completely fallen in love :). Surprisingly, that relationship lasted 5 years, and it almost looked like it would be my only one, but years passed, rivers has flown and at the end of 2021, I am equally happy for both of these happenings. First made me a developer and second made me a stronger person. But this article is in the first place tribute to the most important people of those 2 decades.
2021-10-26 | 8 minutes reading | tags:
Personal
I have been using a customized zettelkasten method for my personal knowledge database since university, but recently I have deleted all strong (hard) links from the data and I like it. Here is why...
2021-09-18 | 5 minutes reading | tags:
Personal, Zettelkasten
I practice Stoicism more or less successfully for more than a decade. I would like to share with you brief practical cheatsheet, that will show you what (I think) Stoicism is about in real world situations and how can it help you to be better person and live better life.
2021-06-06 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
Personal, Philosophy, Minimalism
After almost 20 years of using Thinkpads, I feel ready to leave this family. I took some effort and focus. It came as a side effect really. But I am very happy for it.
2021-06-02 | 5 minutes reading | tags:
Personal, Laptop, Thinkpad, Minimalism
I started working with linux 17 years ago (in 2003). It was Debian Woody. Kernel version was 2.4.x and everybody was talking about making the big step to 2.6. Linux of that era was complete disaster when it comes to UX, or working "out of the box", but for me it was fun and I also liked that "underground" feeling about it. I didn't understand most of the underlying things, and to be honest, every time I got sick of it, or I wanted to play some games, I just rebooted to Windows XP :)
2020-06-13 | 7 minutes reading | tags:
Gentoo, Linux, Personal
Philosophy (1)
I practice Stoicism more or less successfully for more than a decade. I would like to share with you brief practical cheatsheet, that will show you what (I think) Stoicism is about in real world situations and how can it help you to be better person and live better life.
2021-06-06 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
Personal, Philosophy, Minimalism
Self-host (9)
Last year in March, I made another review of OpenBSD and finally decided to migrate from Linux. At least in the case of my servers. But somehow I stuck with it on my personal laptop too, thanks to a lucky coincidence. Here is my migration story and my 5 cents about using OpenBSD as a daily driver on all my personal machines.
2022-08-08 | 5 minutes reading | tags:
OpenBSD, Laptop, VPS, Self-host
There are several good reasons to have your own chat server instance. Some are philosophical like federalization of internet, some practical like keeping your data safe and only for yourself, some ethical like creating secure communication node for those who for any reason can not host their own. Or maybe you would like to know how the basic architectural patterns of client-server and server-server communication works. So let's dive in.
2021-08-04 | 11 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
Do you like to backup or share your calendar and contacts, but you don't want to rely on proprietary companies and solutions built into your phones? You don't like to share such information? You don't want to be restricted to specific number of calendars, events or contacts? You want to be sure your provider won't close the service and lock you out from your data? Then it is time to self-host your own CalDAV and CardDAV service!
2021-07-01 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
Many services available for self-hosting provide promised functionality, but let you take care of security and/or authentication. These are the cases when web server comes to the rescue with its ability to create a layer between internet and your service, which will provide additional features like authentication, upgrade to https with valid certificate, DoS prevention using fail2ban, or ability to communicate with service using custom (sub)domain. These features were explained in the previous article.
2021-02-12 | 7 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
Web server is one of the most basic services you can self-host. Very simple to install, reasonably simple to configure for basic use. Not that hard to setup for more robust usage, but the hardest thing is to run it in secure way. This is also the reason why this episode is a bit longer than usual.
2021-01-08 | 20 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
Fourth article of the Linux VPS series covers some of the services you can selfhost and and what are the pros and cons of selfhosting them compared to using established cloud services from big companies.
2020-12-30 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
This is the third part of a small "Linux VPS howto" series and it talks about securing the default linux installation.
2020-09-22 | 15 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
This is the second article of a small series about taking care of your own VPS. This one is about all necessary non admin things to think about when setting the VPS up.
2020-08-21 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
This article is first from a small series about owning your personal VPS. It is about reasons why you should or should not host services by yourself on personal VPS.
2020-07-20 | 3 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
TUI (1)
I have been using several TUI libraries. curses, urwid, Npyscreen and also some non Python ones. The story is always the same. Library is written using catasthrophic api, obsolete paradigms and with no simple way of extending existing code. The code is often very hard to understand. So I went on a quest to find the most understandable one, that will suit my needs.
2020-10-04 | 5 minutes reading | tags:
Linux, TUI
Thinkpad (1)
After almost 20 years of using Thinkpads, I feel ready to leave this family. I took some effort and focus. It came as a side effect really. But I am very happy for it.
2021-06-02 | 5 minutes reading | tags:
Personal, Laptop, Thinkpad, Minimalism
VPS (9)
Last year in March, I made another review of OpenBSD and finally decided to migrate from Linux. At least in the case of my servers. But somehow I stuck with it on my personal laptop too, thanks to a lucky coincidence. Here is my migration story and my 5 cents about using OpenBSD as a daily driver on all my personal machines.
2022-08-08 | 5 minutes reading | tags:
OpenBSD, Laptop, VPS, Self-host
There are several good reasons to have your own chat server instance. Some are philosophical like federalization of internet, some practical like keeping your data safe and only for yourself, some ethical like creating secure communication node for those who for any reason can not host their own. Or maybe you would like to know how the basic architectural patterns of client-server and server-server communication works. So let's dive in.
2021-08-04 | 11 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
Do you like to backup or share your calendar and contacts, but you don't want to rely on proprietary companies and solutions built into your phones? You don't like to share such information? You don't want to be restricted to specific number of calendars, events or contacts? You want to be sure your provider won't close the service and lock you out from your data? Then it is time to self-host your own CalDAV and CardDAV service!
2021-07-01 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
Many services available for self-hosting provide promised functionality, but let you take care of security and/or authentication. These are the cases when web server comes to the rescue with its ability to create a layer between internet and your service, which will provide additional features like authentication, upgrade to https with valid certificate, DoS prevention using fail2ban, or ability to communicate with service using custom (sub)domain. These features were explained in the previous article.
2021-02-12 | 7 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
Web server is one of the most basic services you can self-host. Very simple to install, reasonably simple to configure for basic use. Not that hard to setup for more robust usage, but the hardest thing is to run it in secure way. This is also the reason why this episode is a bit longer than usual.
2021-01-08 | 20 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
Fourth article of the Linux VPS series covers some of the services you can selfhost and and what are the pros and cons of selfhosting them compared to using established cloud services from big companies.
2020-12-30 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
This is the third part of a small "Linux VPS howto" series and it talks about securing the default linux installation.
2020-09-22 | 15 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
This is the second article of a small series about taking care of your own VPS. This one is about all necessary non admin things to think about when setting the VPS up.
2020-08-21 | 6 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
This article is first from a small series about owning your personal VPS. It is about reasons why you should or should not host services by yourself on personal VPS.
2020-07-20 | 3 minutes reading | tags:
VPS, Linux, Self-host
Zettelkasten (1)
I have been using a customized zettelkasten method for my personal knowledge database since university, but recently I have deleted all strong (hard) links from the data and I like it. Here is why...
2021-09-18 | 5 minutes reading | tags:
Personal, Zettelkasten