Being at a bit of a loss where to go next with my Home Lab I am looking around for inspiration. It struck me that maybe I need other people with which to exchange ideas and skills so that I can up my game and move on to the next level. Having just read a brief article about the popularity of hacker spaces, maker spaces and men’s sheds I though it sounded a promising avenue.
Having resumed my interest in mucking about with computers I have built up quite a nice home lab. There is: one full size PC with Linux Mint which is my main day-to-day workhorse another full size PC which is quite old and slow but a useful box for experimenting with 3 Raspberry Pi 4Bs 4MB which are the headless servers for various software such as Pi-Hole, Dokuwiki, Silverbullet, WireGuard, FireFly3 etc.
After a frustrating day of trying to communicate with several organisations it occurred to me that the power balance in the relationships has become so great the they have absolutely no interest in communication with their customers; email, and to a certain extent telephone calls have become a one way experience. For each organisation I needed to discuss something with them that was not covered by the stupidly labelled FAQs, so I searched high and low on the web site for the contact details.
Unfortunatly my quest to escape the clutches of either Apple or Google is not going very well. One of my current tasks is to examine my mobile use to discover exactly what I need to replace, particularly in the context of apps and services. iCloud – that’s quite easy, there are many cloud based alternatives with better security (I understand that iCloud backups are not encrypted). I have experimented with the free versions of a few; pCloud, Tresorit and Icedrive.
With all the (what I think is misjudged) worry about the existential threat of AI, while in a contemplative mood recently I wondered about how the “brains” that feature in the Ian M Banks Culture series of novels came into being. I don’t think that it was ever explained properly; please correct me if I am wrong. With the untimely death of Ian Banks the history will never be explained.
As AI has become the latest fashionable technological craze (crypto is so last year!), I have been inundated with ‘information’ about it, a lot of it is hysterical and ill-informed. The press is generally having a field day. One side is trying to frighten readers with an existential crisis about how AI will take over the world and destroy the human race, or use us as slaves. The other angle is how AI will create an utopia where it has cured all illness and created prosperity for all.
As expected storm Gerrit hit just as we were leaving. We said our goodbyes, paid the bill and set off. Although the weather was appalling most drivers were being sensibly and we made good progress for the first couple of hours. However, at Dorchester we joined a queue of traffic that lasted nearly all the way home. A journey that normally takes just under 4 hours took five and a half hours.
Overnight the weather has calmed down a bit and it is no longer drizzling so now we can see the other side of the bay. Getting a more substantial walk today seems a real possibility; we’ll see what it’s like after breakfast. The weather here on the Cornish Peninsula can change very quickly. The forecast is looking good until about mid afternoon with light winds and some sunny intervals, then it’s back to grey skies and heavy rain, but lighter winds than we have been having.
Still suffering from the previous night’s overindulgence we struggled to get up and out, but the dog has to be serviced. He is really good and has never let us down; but we don’t want to push it. He is being treated for an illness that makes him always feel hungry and thirsty. Within reason we can control his eating, but not his drinking, so he does drink a lot. As a consequence we need to ensure he can frequently go for a pee.
More relaxing day today. Lovely breakfast followed by a bracing walk along the coast. Not so bad with the wind behind, but walking into the wind was quite unpleasant because of the drizzle — dog enjoyed it though. Skipped lunch as we knew there would be a big evening meal, just had a cup of tea and biscuit. Spent the afternoon snoozing, reading, watching the surf and writing up this blog.