ZeldaFreak

To be more specific: Postgresql requires manual steps with major versions. Tutorials I found require you to dump the database in the old version first, then update and then import. You could use a tagged version of postgresql and just auto update there but the main container might require a newer version. I saw containers who try this but none looked production ready.

Yeah I expected that this would happen. They already did this with RAM. They just rebrand RAM, sell it for a way higher price and add a check. When they brought their own branded HDDs, I knew they will pull of the same scam.

Building an own server isn’t that more expensive and you don’t have to deal with the whole lockout with Synology. For example I had quite the issue to access hardware. I wasn’t able to get Home Assistant running on my NAS. The issue was my Zigbee USB Stick. I got it running to the point where I was able to send commands (e.g. turn on or off lights) but the status didn’t came back. I threw it on my Pi3 (now Pi5) and zero issues.

The next NAS is self build. Probably Proxmox as base, with truenas or so as main server and the rest depends on what I might need.

Auto updates can cause problems. Some recommend it, some tell you to not do it. My standpoint is, when a container can’t work with auto updates, they suck. Sure there are containers who require some additional attention after an update, like gitea with some config changes but I use it in an environment where it can be offline of some time.

If a container uses Postgresql, you can’t auto update. So far I didn’t found a well maintained container, that can do this. You also should keep an eye on your containers. As I mentioned, Gitea had some config changes, breaking the default theme (nothing major). They even screwed up their tags and I had 3 times an RC in a tag where no RC should get published. With Jellyfin I was on a tag that didn’t got any updates anymore and I needed to use a different one.

I don’t think there are people attempting to log into HA, because it has zero value to them. HA would log failed login attempts but not bots trying other stuff. When I look into my web statistics for my rented server for march with 404 errors, I got over 750 and they try to access wordpress, find old (and probably not updated) stuff and some config files, like .env files. This kinda makes sense and probably would find everybody in their access logs. Its just automated stuff and they probably run auto exploits. Wordpress sites are interesting and its worth just getting access to a kinda serious email sender or just other stuff. My ssh blocklist currently has 14000 banned IPs. Might not sure how I set it up, but it looks I picked 1 year ban time.

If you know where to look, you would see bots trying to enter your system but you would see they aim big, not small. HA is small. Sure if HA has a serious hole, you would get attacks from pranksters. Still is always a good idea to have proper security procedures for all of your accounts and servers. Most interesting are targets where they could find value within these services or using the hardware but there are always people who just want to mess with someone. There are for example people who search the internet for Minecraft servers, that they can grieve the shit out of it. Doesn’t matter if its a big professional server or just a server from 2 kiddos, that play together after school.

Auto update. Works like a charm, except PostgreSQL. For me it’s good enough and even though works with containers, where they don’t recommend it. I do have backups and for my private time, I don’t get paid, so it should be as maintenance as possible from my side.

I do check from time to time if something is broken and I noticed a container where they removed a version tag, I was using. The “biggest” thing that was broken, was my gitea server where they changed the config for the default Theme.

Also that’s why I hate PostgreSQL. It requires manual labor for updating. Had a recipe Docker and they cut support for previous major version quickly. Not good. That stuff could break, ist an option with every update. This is why backups exist. As a single user, it’s not a problem. For a big system, I wouldn’t do auto updates, so I can check if everything works.

I’ve never seen a USB-A to A cable in the wild, except recently, where I finally unpacked my SATA/IDE USB adapter from Ugreen.

Not Nextcloud. livesync is better. Requires CouchDB (Docker available) but with that, its a powerful sync option. Even Settings can be synced

It really depends. Whitespaces are something most languages don’t care. The only people who care are enforcing style guides. Level 2 is the same but there it start to get more critical, because can you be sure that it makes no difference? Level 3 is critical. While it can help to eliminate code that probably didn’t caused the problem, it makes a difference. In code review this can make a difference. If a specific Hex number is well known, like of example 0x4711 and someone changes it to 18193 or even Binary, information to the programmer gets hidden. And even in style this makes a difference. When you have a flag Enum, the thing to use is binary or bit shift, because both is readable. Decimal is readable to a certain point. 4 bytes is fine but at the 5th I don’t know them by heart and can’t even spot them. Level 4 is irrelevant, when its on top of the file and bothering to hide it, is not necessary. Also this can be relevant. For example a while ago at our company we had code that needed to work with .NET 2 and we had parts with .NET 4 and at some point, new files had the using for LINQ, that isn’t available in .NET 2. This happened a lot.

The best solution is to have options and let the person using it decide. What I’m missing is to add my own ignore list. For example with our XML files, we have a date in them. The XML Class is badly written, because instead of having one date attribute for the first node, we have them on all. This is pretty irrelevant to show in a diff, because its not even used. Rewriting the Class is a big task, because its a core feature and can break everything, when one thing is missed.

With a digital electric meter, I could read that out but I still have an old analog meter. But individually measuring devices is also appealing. HA allows for that. Opening the box would require an electrician and it only gives measurements per room or circuit. This may also be appealing to some.

I now look into ESP Home. I sadly didn’t found a clamp meter here that works outside the distribution box or require lose mains power but ESP has the option for clamp meters

Do updates switch the switch? I have Homematic IP plugs. They do work but had one update that switched my PC off but besides that, pretty reliable but expensive af. I don’t want to take a chance with important devices. Sure I don’t need to update the plugs but I have an urge to install updates.

I’m kinda stupid. I’ve seen these but they always show pictures within the distribution box. Here only certified electricians are allowed to open them. But I totally didn’t saw the option to just clamp it on a wire outside the box. I even asked Bing AI for help, because not everyone must sell on Amazon and Google Search just spits out the affiliate link sites, that suggests always the same popular options. 90% of the time switchable plugs.

Still switchable? Man I wish there would be a pure power meter plug available, with no switching ability. I would plug them into a lot of things. I know you could measure the whole power usage of a line or your home but that requires the right equipment (power meter) or an electrician to install it

Docker is amazing but not needed. You can compare it to a simpler VM. You can take a docker and run it on any machine. You have an environment that is separate from your host and you and the container can only access it via defined points (volumes and ports).

Imagine you need to run a 2nd Mumble Server. I never set on up but its often that a 2nd instance is not that easy. With docker its easy. The only difference is that you need to use different ports, when you have only one network access or you use a reverse proxy. You can create a 2nd instance to test stuff, without interrupting your productive system. Its a security benefit, because its isolated to some degree and you can remove one easily.

I started using it with MSSQL Server, because I hated how invasive it is on a windows machine, especially I just needed it temporarily to do stuff with it. I’m not a microsoft admin and I know that Servers from Microsoft are a different level. Docker allowed me to start and stop it and remove it very easily. After that I started using it for a lot of and brought my NAS on the next level.

Also one thing worth mentioning are Linux Containerx (LXC). They are in Proxmox but I have less knowledge. It feels more like a full VM than docker but uses less resources. This is the reason why containers in general are more popular. They are less resource hungry than a full VM but have some benefits than running everything on one machine. LXC feels more like a full system, than docker. With docker you rarely get into the system. You may execute some commands, like a create user command or a one time job but don’t access it via a shell from the inside (its possible). LXC on the other hand, you use the shell.

Then use a dummy public repo. You don’t get the nice integration. We used Mantis Bugtracker at work for quite some time but switched to Gitea (a selfhosted Github clone) and are trying to get our testers to use it more.

Also you should keep one thing in mind: needing an additional account, might stop people to use it. With Github I contribute for even smaller ideas. When I need to make an account first, I wont do it. Or when they want to use Discord. I do have Discord but come on…

Except that there exist multiple physical layouts and then keys can be missing and some keys are shaped different.

I program like I learned it? I use my German QWERTZ layout. A lot of keys are different, yes, but I grew up with this layout and I’m used to it. Imagine giving me a US QWERTY layout and I would misstype every time. I even hate it when Windows swtiches my keyboard layout, even though I removed the shortcuts to it and I misstype constantly. Heck even Visual Studio switched my shortcuts and it sucked.

After some time I realized that (Game) Devs suck, because they forget that other layouts exist. Its not a big deal, but at some point I realized that the Chats on T, Y, U makes much more sense on a QWERTY Layout. Also Markdown with ` kinda sucks. For a codeblock, I need to hold shift and press the key that is left of backspace 3 times and then one space, because when I press it once, nothing happens but pressing it a second time, 2 appear. Pressing space let it appear directly. Or I type 4 and remove one.

But this it what I’m used to. And if I ever would work outside Germany, I will bring my own QWERTZ keyboard and require them to install the German Keyboard. I don’t need a German UI. I have all programming related software in English, because its easier to google stuff.

So far so good. The URL is correct, because its the external address. You also don’t need to publish both http and https ports. I only map external https to internal http but you can do https to https. No serious modern browser tries http first and because I always force https anyways, it doesn’t need to be public. Only the reverse proxy may need it, for Let’s Encrypt.

Both UDP aren’t needed for public access. I only have mapped 8096 to my reverse proxy and it works.

Audible + OpenAudible. OpenAudible does “stuff” and you end up with audio files, that you can listen on most devices. Don’t know and care how they do this. Its not free but so is Audible.

When you have an active Audible subscription, you also have access to free Audiobooks. You can download and convert them too. But be aware, that Audible is rate limited. Had downloaded a ton of free audiobooks and after a short limit (maybe 1 hour), I got a long limit for around 24 hours. But I still use Audible. I just have it as a backup and this way I can give my family access to the books I have. But so far my mother only listen to the ones I got for free. I like Science Fiction a lot but my mother not.

A college who I recommended Audiobookshelf, has a subscription from a German only site (Thalia), where apparently the Audiobooks can be downloaded as MP3s. So far I prefer Audible, even with DRM, just because the availability. Not all books I listen to, are available on that site or much later.