We Just Wanted to Deploy a PHP Website We Just Wanted to Deploy a PHP Website What started as a small deployment modernization turned into a journey through Forgejo runners, isolated CI, custom Docker images, PHP 8.5, Yarn 4, reproducible artifacts, restricted SSH and our own provisioning stack — all so a PHP website could update itself in under a minute. Read
CoreDNS at Home: Reclaiming Local DNS from pfSense CoreDNS at Home: Reclaiming Local DNS from pfSense Local DNS starts out harmless: a few host overrides here, one internal service there. But once VLANs, multiple interfaces, and a growing homelab enter the picture, those convenient little firewall UI entries turn into hidden infrastructure state. Read
Taming Firefox’s places.sqlite: A Weekend Performance Breakthrough Taming Firefox’s places.sqlite: A Weekend Performance Breakthrough A bored-weekend side project turned into a tiny masterclass in database design. I rebuilt a “works-for-now” importer into a set-based, transactional loader and dropped runtime from 4 hours to under 10 seconds for 300k+ rows – on an average NVMe host with MariaDB. Same machine, same data, different architecture. Here’s the story, the thinking, and just enough code. Read
Windows 11 on unsupported PCs: Why I Upgraded Everything Anyway Windows 11 on unsupported PCs: Why I Upgraded Everything Anyway Upgraded all my “unsupported” PCs to Windows 11—zero issues, no drama. This post unpacks why it worked, how Microsoft uses fear (FUD) to push upgrades, and what TPM 2.0 really means. Less of a how-to, more of a rational, systems-level reflection on tech, trust, and long-term hardware strategy. Read
Securing Your LAN with SSL: A Comprehensive Guide for Home Servers Securing Your LAN with SSL: A Comprehensive Guide for Home Servers Secure your local network with trusted SSL certificates that are recognized by every device. In this guide, we’ll explore how to set up out-of-the-box SSL for your LAN projects, highlight the advantages of owning a personal domain, and discuss how even a modest investment can elevate your web presence. Read
What's the Most Reliable Way to Run Jobs Every Minute? What's the Most Reliable Way to Run Jobs Every Minute? Running jobs every minute might sound simple, but there’s a lot that can go wrong. From overlapping tasks to missed executions, choosing the right approach is crucial for reliability. While tools like cron and systemd timers are great for most use cases, I’ve found that a custom PHP daemon strikes the perfect balance of control and flexibility for certain scenarios. Read
Why I Don’t Use RAID on My Home Server – And Haven't Looked Back Why I Don’t Use RAID on My Home Server – And Haven't Looked Back RAID may be the gold standard for data redundancy, but for my home server, I’ve found a simpler, more energy-efficient approach: nightly manual backups. This setup gives me flexibility, protection from accidental deletions, and lets me use older drives efficiently. Here’s why my daily rsync strategy beats RAID for personal use and how it’s saved my data more than once. Read
Ventoy: The Game-Changer for ISO Booting – Say Goodbye to Burning ISOs Forever Ventoy: The Game-Changer for ISO Booting – Say Goodbye to Burning ISOs Forever Ever found yourself scrambling to "burn" yet another ISO onto a USB stick, juggling formats and wasting time reformatting? With Ventoy, there's a better way. This tool transforms any USB drive into a multi-boot powerhouse, allowing you to carry all your essential OS and utility ISOs in one place, making it invaluable for troubleshooting, setup, and backup tasks. Read
Ultimate Guide to Configuring Samba for Time Machine Backups on Debian Servers Ultimate Guide to Configuring Samba for Time Machine Backups on Debian Servers Setting up Time Machine backups for Apple devices on a Linux-based NAS has become significantly easier and faster thanks to Samba’s new features. With a well-configured Samba server on Debian, you can seamlessly backup macOS devices over the network and access your NAS with minimal setup. No more manually creating sparsebundles or struggling with complex configurations. Read