I guess the end of the month is close enough that I can call this a monthly update. It’s certainly been an eventful one, so I want to get it behind me as soon as possible and start planning for a holiday break.
Development
I have decided to throw away some of the AI-enhanced code I’ve been writing and focus on different things, so my AI news summary generator was put on hold until I finish migrating to an Azure ARM instance.
I am also trying to make an effort to write less Python and go back to Go or even C, since I think I need to challenge myself a bit more and avoid relying on AI.
Homelab
After the impromptu rebuild I had to do last weekend, I have been tidying up and reorganizing things. Among other things, I decided to design and print out some holders for the mini-PCs so that they could be stood on their side and thus have better ventilation:
This hasn’t done wonders, but has indeed lowered their idle temperature a bit.
I have also been planning for a few more changes around the house. I decided to get into the 10-inch rack craze with a twist–2U braces designed for mounting equipment vertically in narrow closets:
These will allow me to hang (at least) two pieces of equipment in some of the utility closets and are likely to be a simpler (and much better ventilated) solution than a full rack.
Depending on the available height, I might have multiple “shelves” with more gear, and even mount these on existing shelves.
Books & Media
I seem to have picked mostly long novels to read over the summer, and as a result I’ve been plodding through Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed – it is by no means a bad book, but it does feel slow (even if it manages to hold my interest throughout). I intend to pick something shorter and snappier for the next one, although I still have quite a few similarly-sized books in my queue…
And speaking about long books, Apple TV’s Foundation is back, and I am quite enjoying it, although purists will find the new Hober Mallow… different. But the plot so far is at least self-consistent and has enough new twists to be entertaining.