Uses page

blog/content/posts/uses-page.md

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+---
+title: "Uses Page"
+date: 2024-09-14T15:14:35-07:00
+tags:
+  - homelab
+  - meta
+
+---
+I've fallen out of the habit of blogging, recently, due to some personal/family stuff going down. In an effort to kickstart that process again, I'm taking on a smaller task that requires significantly less effortful thought - a rudimentary ["Uses" page](/uses), inspired by [the general practice](https://uses.tech/) of listing the stuff™️ used.
+<!--more-->
+(Tagging this page was taxonomically amusing - technically it could have hit a ton more tags like `python`, `real-life`, `CI/CD`, `vault`, etc., because the `/uses` page _lists_ them - but I elected to go more focused)
+
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blog/content/uses/_index.md

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+---
+title: "Uses"
+extraHeadContent:
+  - <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/uses-page.css">
+---
+
+This is a ["Uses" page](https://uses.tech/), detailing some of the tools and other things I use.
+
+# Technical
+
+## Daily Drive
+
+### Hardware
+
+* **Laptop:** MacBook Pro 15-inch (2018), MacOS Monterey 12.7.1. A gift from my partner (when she in turn was gifted a laptop by her sister) when I quit my job in 2022. I'd like to experiment with a Linux-based daily driver (especially a [Framework](https://frame.work/), or I've heard good things about Linux on Thinkpads), but you can't beat free!
+* **Keyboard:** [Kinesis Advantage 2](https://kinesis-ergo.com/shop/advantage2/). It took me about a month to get back up to my usual typing speed after buying this, but the benefits in terms of (lack of) wrist pain are incalculable. And I don't even use the super-leet foot-pedal to switch configuration layouts!
+* **Mouse:** Some kind of Razer something that I was gifted by an old housemate.
+* **Screens:** Dell 34" Superwide Curved Monitor, plus a LG 32" rotated 90 degrees. I use the latter solely for Slack, Music, and Calendar, whereas the former (in central view) rotates between browser, IDE, terminal, and whatever else (using [Rectangle](https://rectangleapp.com/)).
+* [AV Access KVM](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CP4PD3SM). I only acquired this recently. It's...fine. Unfortunately Macs don't seem to support two external monitors on a single USB-C, so I have to have one of my external monitors directly wired to my work laptop - but that's ok, personal work rarely needs more than my main screen anyway.
+
+### Software
+
+* **IDE:** Visual Studio Code. I used to be a devotee of IntelliJ, but VS Code is the norm at work and it's been easier just to switch than to deal with differing configuration standards, and I don't want to have different IDEs for personal and professional work. I will say that it seems to have lower memory consumption so I can still have it open in the background when I play Factorio!
+* **Browser:** Firefox. Continuing to use Chrome in 2024 is just plain baffling. I've yet to hear a compelling case for Edge or IE, or any of the smaller browsers.
+* **Terminal:** [Kitty](https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/). I ditched [iTerm 2](https://iterm2.com/) on principle when they started introducing AI[^ai-optin]. So far they have seemed pretty much equivalent tbh.
+  * Honourable mention to [Warp](https://www.warp.dev/), which I would definitely pick as a terminal if I was starting out _today_ (if they took out the AI nonsense). It provides out-of-the-box a lot of the customization and usability that I've spent years building up in my own dotfiles.
+* [Bitwarden](https://vault.bitwarden.com/) for password management. I'd be interested in moving to self-hosted, but I'd want my backups to be _way_ better-tested before doing so - this is a real central point of failure for life!
+* [Rectangle](https://rectangleapp.com) is a super-useful tool to rearrange windows on Mac.
+* [fzf](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/fzf-a-command-line-fuzzy-finder-missing-demo-a7de312403ff/) ([direct GitHub link](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf), but that article does a better job of explaining the value) for Fuzzy Find in the terminal.
+* [Tailscale](https://tailscale.com/) for VPN. Believe the hype - it's magical.
+
+## Homelab
+
+### Hardware
+
+* Three Raspberries Pi, and a PowerEdge R430 that I got cheap and refurbished thanks to a tip from a friend.
+* [iX Systems](https://www.ixsystems.com/) [TrueNAS R-Series](https://www.truenas.com/r-series/), 64GB RAM, 1x1.9TB SSD, 7x6TB HDD, 4xEmpty for expansion. Probably overkill, but I'd rather give myself some room to grow than have to deal with data migrationd and repooling regularly!
+* [Sysracks 12U 35" Rack](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09KK678CN).
+* [Quotom Mini PC](https://qotom.net/) w/ 8GB RAM, 64GB SSD, running [OPNSense](https://opnsense.org/) as Firewall and Router
+* [Ubiquiti UniFi AP AC Pro](https://store.ui.com/us/en/products/uap-ac-pro). I set this up about 4 years ago, and I remember it being a real arse to get working with multiple false starts, but since then it's been pretty much flawless. I briefly experimented with an Eero mesh but that dropped out and needed a restart about every couple of weeks.
+
+### Software
+
+More detail to follow! TL;DR - k3s, Helm, Gitea, Argo, Vault, Drone CI (would love to drop that), Grafana, OpenProject, Jellyfin, Crossplane, [democratic-csi](https://github.com/democratic-csi/democratic-csi), KeyCloak, HomeAssistant.
+
+[^ai-optin]: Yes, I know it was opt-in. It still indicates decision-making that I don't want to support.

blog/static/css/uses-page.css

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+section.measure-wide {
+    max-width: none;
+    width: 95%;
+    text-align: left;
+}