Tech in the Trenches

Carl T. Holscher fights for the customers.

Author: Carl Page 18 of 152

Cleaner nginx proxy configs

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On July 19, 2021

In Tech Tinkering

I’ve been slowly teaching myself self-hosting things over the past few years. I’ve got a decent variety of things running at home. But I find it frustrating to keep track of their IPs and ports so I setup a reverve proxy which is a fancy term for one little linux container on my network directs you to everything else. Now I can hit plex.domain.tld, or wiki.domain.tld and get to where I want to go.

I had all of these setup with their own individual config files were very short. Most of them were little more than:

# A small thing running on a raspberry pi

server {
listen 80;
server_name pi.domain.tld

location / {
proxy_pass http://192.168.0.99:80;
}
}

I know there’s an easier way. And tonight I found a post that laid it all out and it clicked for me.

Timothy Quinn’s Using Nginx as a Reverse Proxy for Multiple Sites laid it all out and I realized all I needed to do was add all of my little config files to one big file. And I add a comment to the front of  each config to remind myself what it was and anything important to remember. This worked great for my Tiddlywiki, RSS reader, Calibre-web and Bookstack instance I have running.

His example is for sites with SSL enabled which I’m not going to move tonight. But I replicated this for all of my sites not running SSL. My next task is to move the SSL-enabled ones. But I run Nextcloud for myself and my wife so I need to take more time and make sure I do that right since it’s as close to a “production” thing that I self-host. So if it’s down, it affects more than just me.

Dates with people you don’t know discussing books you’ve not read

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On July 18, 2021

In Introspection

Woke up this morning with remnants of a dream in my head. I present it to you now.

You go on dates. But you don’t know the other person. On the date, you read books. Discuss books? Books play a big role. So it’s people you don’t know discussing books you haven’t read. That’s the headline.

And there’s a number. 2 books? 9 dates? Dreams are weird and foggy afterwards. There’s some specific number if books and dates. And some reason both are important.

You are both knowledgeable enough about the book to discuss its merits and the problems it presents. You’re looking for solutions. The books are the way to those solutions. This is about dating and problem solving.

Maybe it’s a way to determine compatibility between people. Can they solve problems? Can they hold a conversation without shouting or bullying? Are they problems solvers at all? Or do they simply talk about or around the problem in front of them?

No idea. It’s a dream. Dreams are weird and I rarely remember mine. And this one was coherent enough to capture what I have. So here it is. Enjoy?

Doom Tree

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On July 16, 2021

In Observations, snapshots

Wasp nest in a tree.

Phone cameras are still magic. Portrait mode plus color pop. Chef’s kiss.

I took this photo of my neighbor’s tree with a terrifying collection of death bees. (They’re white and black and according to my wife’s research can remember faces.)

If I am never seen again, you’ll know why. I keep waiting for one if the servers thunderstorm warnings to turn into… a storm. I want it to huff and puff and blow this monster away.

But until then, I’ll walk across the street from them when I go on my nightly walks.

Night Sight Magic

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On July 15, 2021

In snapshots

The low light ability of my Pixel 4a is still magic. I walked to the grocery store for a few items and stopped to admire the light on the tracks.

I had to stop and prop my phone on the half wall, point the camera between the fencing and let the phone work it’s magic.

Where Would You Move?

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On July 6, 2021

In Introspection

I came to the realization this week, during a visit to Portland, Oregon that every city is the same.

I play the game where I would move often enough and pretend I live in the different places I visit. I try to take note of what would be different about my daily routines. I discount the fanciful daydreams of what I might do or the type of person I could become if only I lived there.

I keep my expectations based in reality. I know moving to a new place won’t turn me into a new, better person overnight, or even over months or years. I am 40 years old and am still the same person I was when I was 20.

I’m a little older, a lot wiser (and wider). I used to think when I turn __ I will ___ and now that I am those ages, I realize, I am the same me I was then. I didn’t become this other Adult Me.

But the same person with the same interests and habits. I am not going to immediately transform into a whole new me by being in a new place. I’m still going to love book stores and movie theaters. I’m going to be drawn to interesting attractions and weird signs. Whether I am outside Washington, DC. or Portland, Oregon, I am going to want to do the same kinds of things.

Each city is a collection of its historical choices that shaped the neighborhoods. Each city has grocery stores and restaurants and recreation and public buildings. There might be more of some than others and one might be a specialty of that city. But overall, it’s a city with city things and city problems.

As I look at what kind of life I want to continue to cultivate and create for myself and my wife, I look at the climate. I look at what kind of life I want to have. What experiences I enjoy most and where can I find a mix of those and other pleasantries.

No place is perfect. There is no perfect city or suburb or place to move. Everywhere is going to have its own problems and irritations.

I want to find a place where I can accept the trade-offs and build a life that pleases me. And we’ve done just that where we are. Sure, it’s not perfect. There is plenty about the DC area I would trade-in if given a crystal ball. But there are so many benefits to the area I’d give up, would it be worth the trade?

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