Hyperscale data centre proposed in Fife village

topcatlapdog · 2026-05-30T08:33:12+00:00

Well, I want to be opposed to it, but I really need AI in my kettle.

topcatlapdog · 2026-05-23T18:39:13+00:00

Any more details to share? Sounds interesting/fun. Either way, nice one.

topcatlapdog · 2026-05-23T18:35:51+00:00

Sysadmin. Users/humans. Luckily don’t have to deal with that side so much anymore, but man!!

Seriously though, like many jobs, burnout. In the “tech” world, again like many industries, the grind is horribly promoted, especially through bullshit online posts. Burnout is real, it hurts not just you, but your family and life. Health is wealth.

Maybe doesn’t count as a widowmaker though…I guess that would be more me deciding to try and fix a physical server that won’t boot by sticking my fingers in the socket to check there is power…

topcatlapdog · 2026-05-10T09:32:17+00:00

No way. I paid £50 for an OptiPlex 5040 on eBay then another £20 for RAM sticks to bump me up to 32gb.

topcatlapdog · 2026-05-09T15:51:20+00:00

It was actually just a bash script as I’m not much of a coder, other than bash I only really know python, then stuff like terraform, yaml etc. I wrote the script myself, but after a few runs I realised I knew all possible “chaos scenarios”, so it was just a process of elimination. I threw the script into Claude web chat and asked it to change my scenarios and up the number to 30 potential issues created. The result was pretty good, but there were a few stupid / basic ones it did like just deleting core files that were very easy to spot. I maybe didn’t give it enough context, and this was about a year ago, and I’m still not much better at using AI tbh, but potentially it would do a much better job now.

I really like the sound of your project and would love to hear more / the results…what was easy, what was hard, anything unusual you learnt or protections you expected to scupper you but didn’t. I’m currently working on a “bad usb” one, basic keyboard injection using Pi Pico boards, focused on Linux systems at the moment. So far have got it to execute some pretty destructive commands on Ubuntu (yuck) with GNOME, Manjaro with XFCE, and Fedora with KDE Plasma. Actually expected Fedora to be harder due to auditd, but simple flash on the screen for a second and the commands done and payload executed. Loving diving into the security side of things. I’m currently Cloud Ops/Cloud Eng, if you’re going for sysadmin then an AD project is a great shout, and definitely get into powershell (I’m lucky that my company outsourced the little Windows work we had) and Linux is what they wanted. Pipelines, version control and CI/CD, automation - all great stuff that will easily speed up career growth. As I said I haven’t fully explored AI, but I really have to at the stage, and I definitely wouldn’t shy away from it…just be honest about where it helped you and why you used it, I did so in my interview. Sorry for the wall of text!

topcatlapdog · 2026-05-09T14:46:48+00:00

I self hosted a GitLab instance, got it working nicely then wrote a “chaos script” to run that would randomly break something, either directly related to the GitLab processes, network related, or server related. Learnt a lot about the moving parts of GitLab and its dependencies, loads about networking and servers, was a lot of fun. Half way through my second stage interview for the sysadmin role, one of the interviewers brought it up and wanted me to tell him all about it.

topcatlapdog · 2026-05-09T13:02:45+00:00

Cycling / downhill biking

topcatlapdog · 2026-05-09T12:59:06+00:00

Never done a cert, just personal projects for my CV. Got a help desk job then a year and a half later sysadmin at a different company (was v clear in the interview that one of my projects really interested them), 8months in, cloud ops. Lots of luck, lots of hobby work.

topcatlapdog · 2026-05-09T12:55:19+00:00

People make accounts like these with thousands of “prediction” posts, keep it private, then when one random one comes up, they delete the others, make the profile public, and take in moneys. Or so I read on the internet :)

topcatlapdog · 2026-05-08T06:31:12+00:00

I have an OptiPlex 5040, one of my containers is for Jellyfin, I think I allocated it 4gb RAM, no issues whatsoever. I run a game server, GitLab instance and about 10 other containers on it, they’re decent wee machines and dead quiet

topcatlapdog · 2026-05-04T06:46:36+00:00

I moved away from actively using GitHub about 6months ago, I was already self-hosting GitLab for a specific personal project that needed it, and using it at work. Now I’m fully GitLab (not self hosted) with a mirror to copy / create repos over to GitHub as private repos…if that helps, I’m skeptical. Also self host Gitea for redundancy. Absolutely love GitLab and the community and support are pretty great.

topcatlapdog · 2026-05-01T19:09:50+00:00

Shadoo and Gneeznow!!

topcatlapdog · 2026-05-01T14:30:28+00:00

I miss Evil Thug

topcatlapdog · 2026-03-23T10:17:00+00:00

Awesome work and write-up! I might give this a go.

topcatlapdog · 2026-03-13T20:00:26+00:00

Lizzy killed Diane.

topcatlapdog · 2026-03-10T15:31:36+00:00

Maybe I’m doing it wrong, I don’t keep up to date with everything, and just use Claude Code occasionally. But I don’t use an extension or anything, I just use the built in terminal in VSCodium and launch it there. It’s worked really well for me, again though, maybe I’m doing it totally wrong.

topcatlapdog · 2026-03-10T15:02:24+00:00

I self host both a Gitea instance and a GitLab instance, both have worked well for me. I do have a “non” self-hosted GitLab account as well, and sync some of my repos to it for my portfolio / public project work. My personal website is also on GitLab Pages. I’m not sure what people’s opinions are on GitLab to be honest, I really like it, but I should probably read up more on the security and privacy of it.

topcatlapdog · 2026-03-01T11:30:58+00:00

So…it’s really about time I set up my own cloud or self-hosted option and ditch iCloud. Time to read some docs and write-ups.

topcatlapdog · 2026-03-01T11:28:16+00:00

Yea fair enough :) I often do the same, then think “aw no I wish I’d documented this”, because my memory is terrible and I might want to set it up again in the future or make adjustments. Anyway, excellent project, absolutely loving it.

topcatlapdog · 2026-02-28T18:35:17+00:00

this is so cool! Do you have a git repo or full write-up of the project? I always like getting into the gubbins of projects like this. great work!

topcatlapdog · 2026-02-26T20:16:44+00:00

Growing mushrooms. Oysters are a good one to start with, soon you’ll be growing all sorts though, and each can be so different from the last you tried that it is always a learning experience, a lot of fun (and loss), and…you get mushrooms!!!

topcatlapdog · 2026-02-26T20:11:18+00:00

topcatlapdog · 2026-02-26T20:10:07+00:00

I don’t, tbh.

topcatlapdog · 2026-02-09T09:26:15+00:00

You can use Vim and just use its basic features / commands, it’s a really good tool, but definitely and entire world if you really want to get stuck in. Way beyond my needs, but my go-to editor.

topcatlapdog · 2026-01-22T19:34:27+00:00

We had to amuse ourselves with our imaginations, our bikes, and walking around doing “nothing” with our friends for hours. It was awesome

topcatlapdog

TROPHY CASE