shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

Replying to myself to add…

This was all while installing this and that dependency and troubleshooting it. Docker was a complication I didn’t want to learn yet.

And then tinytinyrss moved to docker only which forced my hand. I can say installing Docker and Portainer (as someone who prefers a GUI more than command line) has made self hosting so much easier for me, and hugely reduces the need to think about dependencies.

Absolutely. I had a similar journey. I started with Yunohost and DietPi. Then plain Raspbian, then plain Debian. Each time nuking and starting from scratch. You learn quickly when you’ve got to retrace the same steps again on a fresh install after messing something up.

Eventually, I tried and stuck with Proxmox (running a Debian VM) and Proxmox Backup Server. With that, you have your regular backups, and if you mess up, you simply revert to a previous backup version.

Others will recommend Ansible - I haven’t got that far yet.

I use Google Assistant a lot. I tried the Gemini Assistant on my phone and it was an exercise in frustration.

Me: (after pausing the tv) “Resume TV”

Google: (resumes playback on TV)

Gemini: “TV not recognised. Please say the device name” or even worse… “A resume is essential when you’re looking for a job in television. Your resume should blah blah…”

Me: (with phone locked) “set a timer for xxx”

Google: “setting a timer for xxx, starting now”

Gemini: “I’m unable to set timers, please unlock your phone, open xxx and (lengthy step by step instructions)”, or “setting a timer for yyy” (completely wrong time).

The caps lock thing hurts my feelings (ಥ_ʖಥ)

I was tempted by these n100 mini PCs, but worried about the no-name components. I saw many people on reddit/lemmy recommending Dell, Lenovo, HP micro form factor PCs. You can pick them up used from eBay as companies clear out “old” computers. The advantage of the known brands is ongoing firmware support.

Take it from someone who is a Linux noob and Googles for terminal commands every time, and whose most used keys are ctrl c, ctrl v…

1. Go to official docker documentation, copy paste the commands to install docker.
2. go to Portainer documentation, copy paste the commands to install Portainer Community Edition
3. Find a service you want to install, copy the ‘docker compose’ text. (A good first service to install is Watchtower which takes care of updating other containers)
4. go to Portainer’s browser UI, find the ‘stacks’ tab, paste, click ‘deploy’

Don’t do this on your main server. Use some old hardware or a cheap VPS to practise on.

The main skill I need is googling and asking AI. It’s that easy.

“It’s terminal”

I don’t use a hearing aid (…yet), but I do find videos difficult when the audio mix has the ‘background’ music too loud relative to the voice.

_read_me.txt

They made it crap a long time ago. The app takes forever to connect and view the camera. Really feels like abandonware, except for the ads to push you to buy more of their cameras or subscribe to their service. I’ve just cancelled my subscription. Moved to Tapo cameras, where the app connects nearly instantly… for now.

Audiobookshelf also finds, manages, streams podcasts. After Google killed off Google Podcasts, ABS has been an even better replacement in my experience.

Try the ready made options at https://rss-bridge.org/bridge01/ , and if your sites aren’t listed, you can use the “CSS Selector Bridge” option there.

Trying to work out why this is a good idea. Please could you explain why?

Pirate some things, pay for some things. It doesn’t have to be absolute.