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
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
Crafting My Own Blog Engine Crafting My Own Blog Engine Why settle for bloated, one-size-fits-all solutions when you can create something uniquely tailored to your needs? As a developer who thrives on optimization and performance, I built my own blog engine from scratch—anchored by the powerful Charm PHP framework and seamlessly integrated into my PentaPaper SaaS platform. Read
How to Create and Serve Europe’s Maps with OpenStreetMap How to Create and Serve Europe’s Maps with OpenStreetMap Ready to take your OpenStreetMap skills to the next level? In this post, we walk you through creating a custom tile server for the entire European region—from setting up powerful hardware to generating map tiles and serving them on your own web server. Read
Map Mastery: My Journey to Building an OpenStreetMap Server Map Mastery: My Journey to Building an OpenStreetMap Server Ever wondered what it takes to create your own map server using OpenStreetMap data? Spoiler: it’s a long, winding journey filled with challenges, retries, and valuable lessons. In this post, I share my experience navigating the complexities of OSM. Read
High-Precision Time with GPS on a Raspberry Pi and providing it via NTP High-Precision Time with GPS on a Raspberry Pi and providing it via NTP Ever wanted to maintain high-precision time in your local network, independently from public NTP servers? Whether for projects like an ADS-B airplane tracker or just to have an ultra-precise time source, setting up a GPS-based NTP server on a Raspberry Pi can be the perfect solution. In this detailed guide, I'll walk you through every step of the process. Read