Notes from the Homelab and Beyond

We have spent years auditing artificial intelligence. We have written white papers, formed safety boards, and convened international summits to debate the existential risks of systems that hallucinate, that repeat patterns without understanding, that cannot be fully explained even by their creators. Nobody is auditing Human Intelligence. This is a catastrophic oversight. If we apply the same standards we use to evaluate AI systems to the biological substrate currently running our hospitals, legal systems, financial markets, and nuclear arsenals, only one conclusion is possible: Human Intelligence (HI) is fundamentally unsafe, and we have been running it in production since the Pleistocene with zero safety reviews. ...

This is the exact stack behind this blog. If you want a super fast, self-deploying tech blog with zero servers, zero monthly bills, and VS Code as your entire CMS — here is how to build it. By the end you will have: A Hugo blog with the PaperMod theme VS Code as your editor, file manager, git client, and terminal — all in one Automatic deploys to Cloudflare Pages on every git push Why this stack Hugo is a static site generator. It turns markdown files into a complete website in milliseconds. No database, no runtime, nothing to keep running. ...

FTP isn’t a workflow. It doesn’t know who changed what. It has no memory of previous versions. It’s blind, manual, and prone to breaking mid-upload. If you’re still dragging files into a folder to “deploy”—or worse, manually creating site-backup-v2-final-actual-FINAL.zip before every change—you’re working harder than you need to. Enter The Solo Developer Workflow. In this guide, we’re building a professional pipeline: Local → Git → Server. No more “ghost files,” no more zip-file hoarding, and no more deployment anxiety. Just a clean, versioned, and automated path to production. ...

The Aruba AP-325 (Model: APIN0325) is an enterprise-grade 802.11ac Wave 2 access point that routinely appears on the secondary market after corporate Wi-Fi refreshes. The hardware is excellent — fast radios, strong range, rock-solid stability — but there’s a catch. Most surplus AP-325 units are “Campus APs”, meaning they require an Aruba Mobility Controller to function. Without one, they’re effectively useless. The good news: the AP-325 (and other similar Aruba models) can be converted to Instant (IAP) mode, allowing it to run standalone or form a controller-less cluster with other Instant APs. Once converted, it behaves exactly like a native Instant AP — no licenses, no subscriptions, no controller. ...

Ever wondered why copying a file to an external hard drive feels slow while your SSD-based machine flies? The answer comes down to data transfer speeds – and understanding the numbers across storage and networking technology helps you make better hardware decisions. Bits vs. Bytes Before looking at the numbers, there’s one conversion to keep in mind: 1 byte = 8 bits Network speeds are almost always quoted in megabits per second (Mbps) or gigabits per second (Gbps) Storage speeds are typically quoted in megabytes per second (MB/s) or gigabytes per second (GB/s) So a 1 Gbps network connection has a maximum throughput of 125 MB/s (1,000 / 8 = 125). This distinction matters when comparing specs across different product categories. ...

rsync is one of the most useful tools in a sysadmin’s kit. It copies and synchronizes files and directories locally or over SSH, and only transfers the parts of files that have changed – making it far more efficient than a plain cp or scp for repeated transfers. These are the commands you’ll reach for most often. Common Flags The -avP combination is a solid default for most operations: -a (archive) – preserves permissions, ownership, symlinks, and timestamps -v (verbose) – shows what’s being transferred in real time -P (progress + partial) – displays a progress bar and resumes interrupted transfers 1. Copy a Single File rsync -avP /path/to/local/file.zip user@remote_server:/path/to/remote/directory/ 2. Copy a Directory The trailing slash matters here: ...

If you use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2), you may have noticed a large file on your system drive: C:\Users\<YourUser>\AppData\Local\Packages\<YourDistroFolder>\LocalState\ext4.vhdx This is a virtual hard disk that stores the entire Linux filesystem. It expands automatically as you install packages and create files, but it does not shrink automatically when files are deleted. Over time, this can leave you with a multi-gigabyte file containing mostly unused space. Here’s how to safely compact it and reclaim that space. ...

Most home networks are still running 1 Gigabit Ethernet (1GbE), which caps out at a theoretical 125 MB/s. That’s a real bottleneck when you’re working with high-resolution video, large game libraries, or a home lab with a NAS. The good news: you don’t need an enterprise budget to fix it. This guide shows how to get a 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) network running for under $300 using a few key pieces of affordable hardware. ...

Search for BCM4332 and Linux and you’ll find years of forum threads with the same discouraging pattern: someone asks for help, someone replies “that chip doesn’t work on Linux anymore,” and the thread dies. That conclusion is wrong, and it’s been wrong every time someone wrote it. The BCM4332 chip works on modern Linux. Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, Linux Mint, Debian 12 — all of them. But it requires steps that the default package manager doesn’t take automatically, and if you skip any of them, you’ll end up with a chip that either doesn’t appear at all, or worse — works right now but vanishes silently after the next reboot. ...

If you’ve been shooting with Sony full-frame cameras for a while, you know the 24-70mm f/2.8 is the workhorse focal range for pros and enthusiasts alike – weddings, portraits, events, landscapes. But while Sony’s 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II is an incredible lens, its $2,300 price tag isn’t for everyone. The Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art promises top-tier sharpness, pro-level build quality, and a significantly lower price. I’ve been testing it on my Sony A7 IV, and here’s what I found. ...