Since all the changes on Twitter, I am now active on Fosstodon, which is a Mastodon. I joined back in 2018, but I just started using it more.
On the home network front, I finally retired the big server as the drivers were failing. I decided to move the containers running there to my old desktop which was not doing anything. Some new disks, and life is better there.
One of the other things I have been looking into is NixOS which is a declarative Linux distribution. What does that mean? By describing the machine in a single file (or multiple for readability), you can have a easily reproducible install. After a little research and testing, I was able to install two separate machines which are identically configured expect for the host name. Pretty cool. And since installing a new program is done in this file, you always have a complete record of what is installed and you get OS versioning as an added feature. I am going to flip my main machine over during the holiday break.
I am still doing my P52 project (posting a new photo every week) over on my photo blog. I had gotten out of the habit of carrying my camera with me, so I am trying to get back into it. Sometimes, it is not with my main rig, but with smaller point-n-shoot cameras which I can keep in a pocket. I have also switched my phone case so taking pictures with my phone is easier.
Looking back, I realize that during this whole plague thing, I switched teams three times, finally going back to a position which I held last time I worked for my employer. I also have been working here for 6 years last month this time. Is this my final or dream job? I do not think so, but it is interesting and stable, so there is that.
A couple of major endings in the last few months. School is out for everybody, and summer is here. Also, a program that I have done with the kids for the last 15 years wrapped up operations due to declining numbers which was not helped by Covid. And, I have been tweaking some things in the home-lab.
With the end of school, everybody is back home full time now. I am required to go into the office two days a week right now, so it is not a full house all the time like it has been during lock-down. Everybody else has slipped into their summer schedule, which of course has me getting up hours before anyone else. The kids seem to be enjoying just hanging around the house, although we are going to the beach and to visit family over the summer.
This past April was the last official campout for Katori, which is the Father/Child program I have been involved in since the eldest was in kindergarten. It was bitter-sweet. While I have been the president of the program for the last few years, I was getting tired of the lack of support and our numbers had been dropping. After having to cancel the 2020-2021 schedule, and only pulling off two events this year, the officers decided that the time had come.
In other geeky news, I finally got around to setting up the basics for a CI/CD (Constant Integration/Constant Deployment) pipeline for my git server. What does that mean? Well, I can now script out what I want done with my code/websites/config files when I push them to my git server. For example, I keep the contents of the posts for this and my other websites in git, and now, when I push a change up, it will automatically be pushed to my web server. Besides getting some geek cread, this is one more thing I needed to figure out how to do so I can finally close out my shared-hosting provider which I am not using too much anymore. I have one more puzzle piece I need to figure out before I can close that out.
So, I guess I have been busy with life recently, and I have checked-in a long time. Sorry about that. What have I been up to? Well, on the $JOB front, I was able to switch groups at work. I am not back in the Linux Engineering group, returning to something that I am much more comfortable and familiar with as apposed to what I had been doing. Also, for Christmas, I got a new toy, a 3D Printer. This is now my new hobby.
Returning back to the Linux Engineering has dramaticly improved my outlook on life. While my last group of coworkers were for the most part a good bunch of people, the work was not something I was very strong in, and as such was under a lot of pressure to not screw up. Due to the fact that I was working out of my core skill areas, I ended up being tasked in areas which I did not enjoy as they were far less technical, and much more frustrating for me to work on. In returning to a group which I used to belong to 10 years ago when I worked for my company before, I am very much at home. While I still have to learn the systems and the changes over the last decade, the work is familiar enough for me to start contributing right away. While most of the team is based in the UK, there are two others here in Houston, so I am not alone locally. However, I do not think there will be any trips to the UK any time in my future.
My Christmas present was an Easy Threed 3D K1 Printer. This is one of the cheapest 3D printers on the market right now. With the reduced price, it does come with some limitations which I quickly found. The print size is limited to 100x100x100 mm, so no larger prints. The other major limitation is that it is a closed system without much in the way of easy user repairability. While there are parts avaliable, they are only from Alie Express which means that parts have a 2-3 month lead time. However, it was a perfect platform to learn some basics. A few weeks ago, I upgraded to an Creality Ender 3 Pro. This is one of the most popular hobbist 3D printers which gives me many options to find parts, upgrades, and more important, documentation on how to do things with the printer.
So far, I have mainly printed little toy type things while getting comfortable with the process, but I have actually printed something for the house. I have more ideas of projects around the house, but I need to first learn how to design something before I can print it, which means I will need to figure out either a CAD or 3D modeling program.
