Dev, Travel, Blogging

Over a decade of progressive professional software development experience in conjunction with more than two decades as a hobbyist developer has pushed me to reduce the burden of support and cost of delivery by writing highly-maintainable software of the highest caliber.

This blog is intended to be a personal collection of experiences/rants, journaling to tech related, things and other things that may be appropriate to share in a blog.

• Best Of 2025

  Part 1 of 3: Technical and Things I bought

  Posted on January 2, 2026

  

  

  I haven’t done a “best of” list on my blog, but I’ve seen a lot of interesting posts from other bloggers. This is my review of 2025 and what I personally enjoyed or things that stuck out to me. This will be a highly focused, but not a comprehensive, list.... [Read More]

  Tags:

  • best-of-2025
  • year-in-review
  • personal-tech
  • developer-life
  • self-hosting
  • homelab
  • home-automation
  • zigbee
  • opnsense
  • networking
  • privacy
  • open-source
  • gRPC
  • ci-cd
  • gitlab
  • llms
  • artificial-intelligence
  • productivity
  • earbuds
  • smart-home

• Beyond Single Commands: SDKMan's Hidden Environment File Feature

  The automated way of switching to virtual environments in the JDK

  Posted on September 25, 2025

  

  

  SDKMan is a tool designed to help developers manage JDK versions within their development environment. Born from the GVM (Groovy Version Manager), it has evolved into a comprehensive SDK versioning system supporting many languages within the Java ecosystem. [Read More]

  Tags:

  • SDKMan
  • Java
  • SDK
  • Development
  • Version Management
  • Environment Management
  • Virtual Environments
  • Project Management
  • Tooling
  • Developer Tools
  • Command Line Interface (CLI)
  • Automation
  • Productivity
  • Groovy
  • SBT
  • Corretto
  • OpenJDK
  • Configuration Management

• Finding The Owner of An Open Port

  lsof doesn't always give you what you're looking for

  Posted on September 18, 2025

  

  

  Under Linux, and BSD systems, in order to find out the owner of a port, the first advice usually given is to use: [Read More]

  Tags:

  • linux
  • networking
  • troubleshooting
  • lsof
  • ports
  • port-ownership
  • k3s
  • firewall
  • iptables
  • port-forwarding
  • system-administration
  • server-management
  • command-line
  • diagnostics
  • security
  • nmap
  • process-id
  • unix
  • bsd

• Web Serial: The Only Reason I’ll Admit JavaScript Isn’t All Bad

  But most of it is.

  Posted on July 22, 2025

  

  

  My relationship with Javascript hasn’t been a great one. I like JavaScript in the context of what it was created for: a client language for web pages. It beats the idea of mixing and matching Javascript and VBScript. I’ve had quite a lot of issues with JavaScript, its weird frameworks,... [Read More]

  Tags:

  • javascript
  • webserial
  • firmware
  • flashing
  • esphome
  • esp32
  • zigbee
  • home-assistant
  • embedded
  • usb
  • serial
  • chrome
  • web-development
  • package-management
  • python
  • iot
  • hardware
  • developer-tools

• 6 Features You Should Enable On A New OPNsense Installation

  Just installed OPNSense? Start here.

  Posted on July 15, 2025

  

  

  Recently, I replaced my consumer router with a custom OPNSense build to handle routing for my home network. It’s been quite an adventure in learning about DNS, routing, aggressive firewall rules, and more details about networking. As a software engineer, this hasn’t been one of the stronger sets of my... [Read More]

  Tags:

  • opnsense
  • home networking
  • network security
  • dns
  • wireguard
  • crowdsec
  • zenarmor
  • vnstat
  • firewall
  • certificate authority
  • local dns
  • vpn
  • self-hosting
  • linux
  • router replacement
  • privacy
  • telemetry blocking
  • custom network
  • network monitoring
  • open-source

• How to Ask Questions About YouTube Videos Using Open-WebUI & Ollama (All locally)

  Posted on July 3, 2025

  Ever wanted to ask a question on a Youtube video and didn’t want to watch the whole 1hr video? Same here. With Open-WebUI and Ollama - you can. Even better: It can be done locally and fairly efficiently. [Read More]

  Tags:

  • open-webui
  • ollama
  • youtube
  • youtube summarization
  • ai summarization
  • rag pipeline
  • hybrid search
  • local llm
  • gemma3
  • ai video analysis
  • rag
  • youtube questions
  • document retrieval
  • llm applications
  • chat with videos
  • open source ai
  • prompt engineering
  • ai tools
  • selfhosting
  • tech tutorial

• Remotely Accessing Your Local AI Services with Wake-on-LAN & a Web Proxy

  Posted on July 1, 2025

  After a decade of relying on laptops, I recently built a desktop PC and transformed it into a dedicated AI server. While equipped with powerful components, including a high-end Nvidia graphics card, I prioritized energy efficiency through power management. I configured the system to suspend when idle and utilize hybrid... [Read More]

  Tags:

  • AI
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Wake-on-LAN
  • WoL
  • Home Server
  • Linux
  • Docker
  • Networking
  • Raspberry Pi
  • AI PC
  • Remote Access
  • System Administration
  • Ollama
  • Low Power
  • Serverless
  • Automation
  • Network Configuration
  • Wireless
  • Intel
  • Self-hosting
  • Mediatek

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