Recently, I ran into a situation many may recognise when cleaning up. Over the years, I’ve owned many different computers. I sold or discarded most to recycling, but in those cases, I did take out the drives as I often had no idea anymore about what was on them, promising myself I’d take care of that “later”.

Last year, I installed solar panels using Hoymiles micro inverters. Typically, these rely on a proprietary cloud platform and a DTU (Data Transfer Unit) for communication. The Hoymiles S-Miles cloud platform is limited in its functionality and using it comes with obvious privacy implications.

Around two years ago, my parents’ internet connection was upgraded, as a new ISP became active in their area. Instead of just cable or DSL, they can now also use a fiber connection.

I like Docker, but I don’t like how it interferes with firewall rules. Moreover, I like to keep the base OS of every server as basic and clean as possible and use unprivileged Incus / LXD containers to run services.

Over the past decades, landline use has been steadily decreasing. However, for business usage, having a landline provides credibility and allows you to separate business from your private cell phone number, especially combined with apps like WhatsApp Business.