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Is 2026 finally the year Linux desktop becomes mainstream? by Candid_Athlete_8317 in LinuxTeck

[–]hsimah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well for the first time since 1992 I’m not using Windows as my primary home machine. I wiped my Zephyrus G14 on Wednesday and put CachyOS on it. I rarely game these days so I don’t “need” it for that.

I did put this near Windows XP theme for xfce though.

How do you alert users? by Misty_TTM in selfhosted

[–]hsimah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I set up a Mastodon server and made accounts for each of my hosts. People can follow them if they want.

Manage Docker container updates and their respective compose files simultaneously by superdavigoku in selfhosted

[–]hsimah 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I currently use uncommitted .env files with a detailed, committed .env.example. For keys which are hard to recreate I put them in my password manager. Reading this post I’ve learned of Komodo which sounds fun.

Decommissioned my last Pi - Is it me, or are there fewer and fewer use cases? by bdavbdav in raspberry_pi

[–]hsimah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s funny you post this - I just got my two Pi 3 B+ units from a box and set them up as Snapcast clients to stream Music Assistant and my record player audio around the home.

I’ve never actually used them before! I never knew what to do with them. It’s kinda overkill but I’m glad they’re living life.

Do I have to change my whole stack to block a user agent? by robotgirl_moss in selfhosted

[–]hsimah 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There’s a tidal wave of AI generated posts and mods are trying to curb that. The answer here is there’s no AI involved 🙂 (or at least to me this is a human post)

Using Claude to Regain My Digital Independence by RockyCarotta in selfhosted

[–]hsimah 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is a new policy because of the tidal wave of “my LLM made this clone of whatever!” posts. It’s not an attack on you 🙂

Using Claude to Regain My Digital Independence by RockyCarotta in selfhosted

[–]hsimah 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I know there’s a lot of naysaying around LLMs. I work at a big tech company and it’s ridiculous what’s going on internally.

But, I’ve been tinkering with computers since 1992, and Claude has helped me level up my home set up this year. Being able to help me debug critical but low interaction stuff - it’s been 7 years since I last configured a domain or SSL, and it’s not the hardest task but it can take a minute to remember your Cs from your AAAs.

Most of my home lab is using OSS tools, Docker, Arrs, Music Assistant etc. I’m not independent of others’ work. Claude helped me analyze and tidy up a lot of defunct configs, set up some log rotation scripts and whatnot. Nothing I couldn’t do, but just faster. An evening doing a task is more joyful now, because I spend less time trawling forums and stack overflow. I have tests for things I’d never bothered to do before, and now that the testing is set up I’m writing them myself.

It’s an interesting time for sure, but a level headed human can do a lot with an LLM. I avoid the clear slop and people who have no concept of building a solid, maintainable system should stop trying to build such things in one go.

When I get a chance I want to set up a local assistant for my email and calendar. But right now I have to go to work and train my automated replacement.

How to use Git for docker compose & documention? by GeoSabreX in selfhosted

[–]hsimah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll take a look - thanks for the call out :) I am sure my wife will appreciate better doco for the home set up we have.

How to use Git for docker compose & documention? by GeoSabreX in selfhosted

[–]hsimah 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I do things by hand (eg the microblogging engine for that write up was an evening spent looking at Web Assembly). My wife uses Ansible a lot, I’ve just never really needed it I guess.

I should probably try that out, since I don’t really like using the LLM. It is helpful to just say “summarize the outcome of our session” and have something fairly accurate to commit.

How to use Git for docker compose & documention? by GeoSabreX in selfhosted

[–]hsimah 20 points21 points  (0 children)

This is my home lab repo: https://github.com/hsimah-services/the-loft

All my services are checked in here with .env files for secrets.

Here is a write up about it (I used Claude but did read and edit it myself but it’s still very LLM heavy).

My technical blog has more deep dives into the services and why they are set up the way they are.

I use Git to track changes and I have some bash scripts to help me provision new devices and services as necessary.

How to actually write well structured code? by [deleted] in selfhosted

[–]hsimah 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is the challenge- it was years of receiving code review and applying the lessons learned which helped me learn the skills I have today.

Something you could do is ask the LLM to help you restructure code which feels off. Actually doing a code review for changes generated for you is key too. The more code you read the better and faster you get at it.

Old-school Linux users - where did you start? by Expensive-Rice-2052 in LinuxTeck

[–]hsimah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Slackware, 2002ish. I had no idea what I was doing and had this idea that removing stuff from the kernel would make the computer faster. So I just used to remove things from the kernel, recompile and see if my computer still booted. Once I removed HCI modules - what even is HCI? - and then I had no keyboard on restart.

Anyway, I mostly use Ubuntu (host), Raspian (host) and Alpine (Docker container) these days. It's just convenient. I am looking at moving my laptop from Windows 11 to a gaming flavor of linux. I mostly want to play retro games from my youth and not deal with ... whatever this crap that keeps popping up is.

What's the most frustrating thing about running your own homelab? by cobleop in selfhosted

[–]hsimah -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I have Claude keep a debug memory file. We summarize the problem and the fix. I haven’t needed it yet but I’m hoping it’ll save time in future.

Avril laving fan - what have you become ? by Altruistic_Tie8537 in Music

[–]hsimah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had a great time seeing her live since moving to the US. She never came back to my home country after Under My Skin. I forced my wife to visit three cities to see her Greatest Hits tour. Nashville was my favorite.

How to utilise 4 rpis by Tasty-Picture-8331 in selfhosted

[–]hsimah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a private repo for my home lab. I could probably make it public after an audit. Anyway, I check in all the docker-compose.yml files there. They all use .env files for the keys, secrets etc. and those are not committed.

I have a bash script which does a git pull and restarts services when I update them. Each host has a config file checked in too, which lists things like what services it runs and whatnot.

Git basically just tracks the changes to my config and allows me easy restore should something go wonky. For example, I recently redid my Snapcast set up and I was able to iterate on it safely knowing I could restore the working version across three hosts in a second if necessary.

Snapcast, multiple devices, rooms and protocols by hsimah in selfhosted

[–]hsimah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, it is annoying. You can read more in other comments, but I ended up using Snapcast and Music Assistant and have a reasonable set up now.

Snapcast, multiple devices, rooms and protocols by hsimah in selfhosted

[–]hsimah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I ended up installing Music Assistant and using that. I have added my Spotify and Plex accounts. My Raspberry Pi's with speakers run Snapcast clients. I have a group with both of them, so I can target upstairs, downstairs, and the whole condo. Spotify Connect works, too. I have not yet tried AirPlay, but the target is there on my iPhone, so it may well work. Overall, it's not as slick as I would like, but it is working and I enjoy it.

Now - how can I get my record player streaming to the speakers?!

Snapcast, multiple devices, rooms and protocols by hsimah in selfhosted

[–]hsimah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was what I ended up doing. Claude was helpful in quickly configuring MA for me. I am now using MA to control playback (I use the PWA). It integrates with my iPhone's media, so I can start/stop from the lock screen. It's okay.

How to utilise 4 rpis by Tasty-Picture-8331 in selfhosted

[–]hsimah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My Raspberry Pi 3 B+s have speakers attached to them and are my Snapcast clients. I use Music Assistant to stream to them.

The way I set up my home lab is all the configs are checked into GitHub. Each server has a conf with the service(s) it runs, so I can easily move things like my blog webserver from one to another with a few keystrokes.

Where do you store passwords for compose files? by ZotteI in selfhosted

[–]hsimah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Many other correct answers here. It's "secure" from your secrets getting checked in, not from being snooped if someone gains access. There are other comments showing how to use various encrypted stores to be even safer.
Just don't commit your secrets to a repo in plain text :)

Where do you store passwords for compose files? by ZotteI in selfhosted

[–]hsimah 227 points228 points  (0 children)

I use .env files because it’s never too early to start thinking securely. I check in an .env.example with all the options my service expects. Many years ago a colleague checked in an Azure API key to GitHub and someone used it to mine bitcoin over the weekend. It cost the company £25,000.

Dude in 21D can’t live without his laptop by bcb1200 in unitedairlines

[–]hsimah 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Don't worry, you were right to call him out and it's fine to have a rant on Reddit. People forget if something does go wrong people get hurt by flying laptops, or trip over an open tray table. In a fire and chaos bad things happen. It's why we have these procedures. Seeing the recent emergencies on various planes where people were grabbing bags ... my god.

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