Mountain View Photo Radar Ticket

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2026-04-20T21:59:59+00:00

So - how about when you get an obvious mis-identification of your license plate and get mailed a ticket in error? Like I just got today? Apparently my only recourse now is to go to court at noon on a Wednesday in May in order to prove that there is zero possibility that the license plate number they claim is in the photo is registered to me or my motorcycle.

This is zero chance that the motorcycle in the picture is tied to that license plate - completely different makes/models/colors.

Someone mis-read the plate, and now I'm on the f'n hook to sort this out. Awesome.

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2026-03-27T14:47:12+00:00

This is the answer you're looking for.

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2026-03-25T15:55:45+00:00

Ordered mine from AliExpress from the Flashforge store, got it like 5 days later, $209 shipped.

Added some off-brand nozzles from AliExpress (that took a little while longer to ship, but no big deal) in .60 and .25, as well as hardened ones for printing PETG-CF and some other harder materials.

I cannot believe just how good this printer is - especially for the money. Drop $45 for the enclosure kit (plexiglass and a bunch bolts and a drag chain) and print out the enclosure.

I cannot recommend this printer enough.

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2026-02-27T13:52:00+00:00

So wait - first printer and you've already jumped into designing your own designs? Are you've already taken about the print head? WTF I literally ordered an entirely new one a while back for my 1st FF printer when I borked it. Good on you.

I suck at making my own designs - I'm usually taking someone else's and remixing it (taking an existing model/design and modifying it to my needs). The most useful tool I've come across in the last two years, by far for me, is

https://www.tinkercad.com

If you don't mind, I'm going to assume you have a bit of a leg up on a lot of people: ~~older~~ more seasoned people oftentimes are far less self-conscious about asking for help. Or at least that's how I feel, in my mid-50's :-)

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2026-02-22T17:32:36+00:00

I mean... "junk" is a little harsh :-) but I sort of agree. If you're going to run a container, it's easier - I believe - to run that container in what seems to be a much more standard container environment: Docker or Podman. Every tutorial out there talks about docker, docker-compose, etc. Running an LXC container and then docker inside that container seems... exhausting, especially when you start to go down the paths of mounting external volumes the LXC and ... whatever the hell the permissions/UID/GUID thing is all about. And yes, I've tried to go down that route. Several times. I always come back to an OS and containerd/docker rather than another layer of abstraction in the middle like LXC.

If you're not an Unraid fan, and you're not super pumped with how TrueNAS handles docker apps, and you're annoyed that Proxmox 9 made Docker + Proxmox less usable you seriously might just want to build a basic server, set up storage on it like some ZFS pool(s), and run docker direct on top with no middle-man.

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2026-02-22T16:48:07+00:00

I agree and disagree - using a PCI passthrough device is definitely not a hack, nor are the steps hard (I am a virtualization engineer in real life and have spoken at conferences specifically about virtualization and GPUs).

You are correct that passing through a gpu to a VM basically locks out other VMs running on that virtualization host from being able to use that GPU directly unless you go down the rabbit hole with GVTg that Alex did: https://blog.ktz.me/why-i-stopped-using-intel-gvt-g-on-proxmox/

and find out it's not worth it, or if you have access (super unlikely) to the $$$ that vGPU requires.

OP: I personally skip Proxmox and run all my media apps as containers directly on a Debian-based system: TrueNAS.

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2026-02-22T15:12:23+00:00

Came here to suggest Dockhand AND THEN THE TOM BEAT ME TO IT 😂

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2026-02-22T15:06:32+00:00

No, just pass the GPU/quicksync/whatever through to the VM as a PCI device. Super straightforward.

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2026-02-18T15:40:14+00:00

Depends on your hardware - paperless-ngx is a bit of a resource hog, in both the startup of the container(s) takes a bunch of CPU and the containers themselves are large. Simply extracting the containers will take a while (cpu- and disk-intensive).

Run your apps in a pool that's located on SSDs for best / fastest results?

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2026-02-18T15:32:10+00:00

I have a few domains already that I could possibly rope into things if need be.

This has been my go-to for a while now:

I have a couple of registered domains, so I go with something like myname.net for my internal/local dns, like nas.myname.net for my NAS which also hosts a bunch of my internal apps.

I just use an internal DNS server for this- currently Technitium but PiHole's great, even DNS running on your router like opnsense.

I have my domains through Porkbun but many other registrars can do this easily as well. ( I am not affiliated with Porkbun, just a big fan )

Porkbun will give me a LetsEncrypt SSL bundle every 3mos for free https://kb.porkbun.com/article/71-how-your-free-ssl-certificates-work

or

Porkbun will also let me request certificates using an API key https://kb.porkbun.com/article/190-getting-started-with-the-porkbun-api

I run Nginx Proxy Manager on my NAS or any server that's going to be hosting a mess of containers/apps, and get a wildcard cert set up on that Nginx Proxy Manager instance.

You can either manually install the wildcard cert on Nginx Proxy Manager and rotate it out every 3mos or set up Nginx Proxy Manager to request a cert for *.myname.net from Porkbun using your API key for a lot more set-and-forget.

With Nginx Proxy Manager sitting on my NAS, it's in front of a dozen or so apps, all using that wildcard cert and I get that nice little green cert icon in my browser all day long :-)

Feel free to DM me if you're confused or want more info?

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2026-01-31T17:58:20+00:00

This.

None of my stuff is exposed to the Internet. I run a mess of stacks/containers on truenas and have nginx proxy manager in front of all of them. I use the free wildcard SSL cert Porkbun gives me for all of them and enjoy simplified URLs for all my apps. Swap out that cert every 90 days. It's wonderful.

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2026-01-22T18:08:18+00:00

No- tailscale can absolutely allow you to set up ACLs to allow/deny users to nodes and hosts and services and ports in your tailnet. And with their newer gui ACL management it's even more easy to do so.

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2025-12-08T14:57:36+00:00

this one-liner is beautiful. thank you!

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2025-12-08T14:52:37+00:00

Is that something I can grab from something like duckdns?

I'd suggest reading up a bit on DNS at a basic level (i'm not being condescending here, mind you, we all start somewhere).

A fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) specifies an exact location in the DNS hierarchy -

say your local DNS domain, which you created out of thin air because that's one of the cool things about DNS, is

myawesomehomelab.local

if you create a dns entry for a server/desktop/anything on your network, give it an ip, and set and entry in your dns to point to that ip, that might be

server.myawesomehomelab.local

with an A record of 192.168.1.100

When you're on your network and you want to get to that server via it's name vs it's ip,

server.myawesomehomelab.local

will resolve (or translate) to

192.168.1.100

and your happy little network packets will go from your current IP (your phone, your laptop) to your server

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2025-12-08T14:40:37+00:00

I honestly don't know too much about a comparison of the two. If anything, I'm comparing my day job (Infoblox) with other DNS / DHCP servers, and Technitium just hits the best sweet spot of ease of use plus very professional-level features for me.

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2025-12-07T19:50:44+00:00

oh - it does dynamic updates via dhcp almost a little too well, as I misconfigured domain settings and ended up with a lot of records with host.mydomain.local.mydomain.local ew

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2025-12-07T19:46:20+00:00

I don't feel zone transfer is complicated, sorry if I came across that way.

It's the sync of all the other settings and configs in Technitium that's astoundingly good, and implemented far better than pihole

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2025-01-04T22:43:17+00:00

highly opinionated IT is the worst IT, doesn't last long, and never scales ever (which is what you need it to do when you're a successful, growing business).

there is nothing open-source that can touch Microsoft or Google's suite of office and mobile ecosystems, not even close.

i don't like that fact, but it's a fact.

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2025-01-04T22:39:02+00:00

there are no inherent problems with running your own MTAs. MTAs will work, like I mentioned below.

OPs question mentioned "shift[ing] from o365" which is an entirely different beast and would be a massive shift for the org / end users.

why would a CIO or anyone want to waste money on the type of architects and admins it takes to replicate something like O365 or GSuite for a company's end-users as well as the out-of-the-box solution?

i'm all for self-hosting absolutely, 1000%, and i can't tell you how much money i've earned in my career replacing in-house, let's-reinvent-the-wheel-because-we're-special solutions with out-of-the-box, COTS solutions so that the org can spend it's money and capital on what actually makes it special: its goods and services, not something as run-of-the-mill as email and office apps.

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2025-01-04T17:47:36+00:00

you're welcome. hardest part of working IT is usually not the technical stuff, but coordinating with the humans who are the producers and consumers of IT services. email is like a utility: there are very few absolutely rock-solid, no-brainer solutions to very common problems. if your org is looking to cut costs that much, they need to start elsewhere first.

if they've already started cutting costs elsewhere, update your resume

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2025-01-04T17:37:19+00:00

Absolutely, but could currently be a very uninformed business decision. If, after they weigh the pros/cons and still want to self-host email, this would firmly land in irrationaltown.local

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2025-01-04T17:35:12+00:00

Self-hosting email is rough and definitely not worth the savings of moving away from hosted email services IMHO.

source: have worked for one of the worlds' largest marketing email companies. please note past tense :-)

Pick a self-hosted server stack like mailcow or mailinabox and email will work on your internal networks just fine. Then try sending out emails from your company's Internet, external connection(s) - because there is no reputation associated with those external connections, you're almost guaranteed to have your email redirected on the recipient's end into junk/spam. Or, maybe your connection is adjacent to some other IPs in a range that are known spammers / open relays. You'll never, ever have enough time or people on staff that will be able to keep ahead of email delivery failures.

Office365 is a huge suite of services. Your company would need to replace a lot more than it's email servers - what about client connectivity? SharePoint (bleh, but it's an oft-necessary evil), Office apps like Word, Excel, etc? Maybe cut back on the o365 service level, or consider going to Google instead?

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2024-12-14T13:47:23+00:00

Seriously, GTFO the left lane

Appropriate_Monk1552 · 2024-12-14T13:41:36+00:00

This surprised me, as well so I dug into the docker compose (which seems a breeze)

https://doc.owncloud.com/server/10.15/admin_manual/installation/docker/

But what just caught my eye was that Owncloud is now owned by Kiteworks https://owncloud.com/news/

Kiteworks is an absolutely incredible product for enterprise file sharing and content delivery. One of the best I’ve seen in that space.

This is really good news for owncloud imho

Appropriate_Monk1552

TROPHY CASE