Sometimes it feels like nothing gets done on one's side projects - it's a feeling I do not enjoy. At the start of the year I decided to keep a daily list of things I actually did as a reminder of what I have done, mostly just as a reminder that I am in fact making time for my different projects.
This post is a short note about where I spent some time this month, February 2025.
serializer.io: I still 'operate' this little newsreader I built as a student - despite not using it myself for a number of years. I have updated its configuration to restart if it fails health checks. I had a donation to the running costs again this month (thanks!), proof that someone still uses it! As a non-user, I do not have a lot of energy for this one at the moment but it's fun that it still gets some usage - and that it still works.
Fairphone: after FOSDEM at the start of the month I picked up a 'new but opened' Fairphone 5. I wasn't initially committed to using it as my main phone (I've been enjoying the dying breed of iPhone mini), but after some recent events, I thought it might be interesting to see what's possible without big tech. The main issues are:
- you need to use Google for push notification delivery (luckily all the apps I need push notifications for are E2E encrypted).
- Goodbye Apple Wallet (you will be missed). Not running the Google services on Android is hard mode, but generally it works well enough that I'm giving it a go. I do feel like I'm in the waiting room for a smaller Android phone though.
OwnTracks clients don't seem to behave in the same way. The iOS one uses different topics and expects different responses. Luckily I use a limited number of features. However, it is important that my OwnTracks server implementation does work since it is how I add data to photos taken with my cameras (and now I am off to Seville for a week!).
GPD Pocket: On the topic of small gadgets... I got a GPD Pocket 4 this month. It's a form factor I've been interested to try for some time. I found myself not wanting to carry two whole Macbooks enough times now and, encouraged by Nixos, I have been interested to find out if 2025 is the year of Linux on Desktop. With the help of nix-hardware, I've been able to get it working great and while it's early days I am really encouraged so far. Using systemd to manage your laptop is a big selling point.
nixpkgs: I added opa-envoy-plugin to Nix Packages. This is how I plan to authorise access to various side projects which will eventually be publicly exposed for family and friends. I also spent some time working on a PR to get OPA 1.0 into the repo too, since my developer environments are managed with Nix, I needed this to land before being able to use the OPA CLI in some cases!
NocoDB: I've used Airtable to manage my contact database for some time but have been looking for a self-hosted alternative. NocoDB appears to be good enough and so I have started migrating my airtable-contacts tool over to its different APIs. It plays quite nicely with my self-hosted MinIO for contact photos too.
Vaultwarden is a mature, self-hosted implementation of the Bitwarden server component. This month, after quitting Firefox sync for 'reasons', I have migrated over to using Bitwarden again (having not used it for some years). What goes around comes around. I find the syncing works great over my VPN to the home server and enjoy that the cached vault still works offline too. Both the web UI and the integration with the Bitwarden clients are slick.
I get Pushover notifications from Prometheus, I updated the alert config to make the links and message content more useful when I do get warnings. Pushover is a great service and I feel like I didn't pay enough for it all those years ago.
UPS down. I arrived back from a trip to the Lakes with my UPS whining. Sadly it looks like the battery in it has lasted less than a year. This meant I needed to disconnect it and replace it with just a normal power supply for the time being. Good job we never really get power cuts anyway right?
nm-online. I use NetworkManager on my GPD pocket and on the home server, and have been having some issues with the online target holding up or blocking Nixos rebuilds. I have just disabled it for the time being as it seems like I don't have anything running that really needs connectivity before boot anyway. This took me a while to get to the bottom of and thought it was related to Tailscale's interface not having a gateway for some time.
Finally, I use a number of Sipeed NanoKVMs to monitor my home server and router. However, I'd let them get out of date and they seemed to have stopped updating and connecting to Tailscale. I took them apart and flashed the new firmware to them and now they work even better than when I first got them. Yay for open source firmware - these things are awesome.
So that's it! I wonder what I'll get up to in March?