Things in Motion

Learning a lot more these days about technologies such as Qubes, Terraform and setting up a Kickstart file for a minimal CentOS install to throw down an OpenStack-based “homelab” virtual lab that future professors might use to help their students learn…but that will get some work as a capstone project later on.

In my free time I finally got the unRAID server running as a storage provider and scraping host…so I might have more to report on the scraper project soon as I delete my social media more and more, as well as hold onto Youtube media that might be uploaded to a decentralized source now as peoples’ channels get shut down. Also might begin archiving some projects in the #FOSS world.

Also I’ve been doing work on just learning OpenStack since there seem to be quite a few moving parts that I should learn bit by bit before tackling an entire sandbox for it head-on. I’m still moving at the pace I learned while out West and am thankful for what I learned in Silicon Valley- I will return…

Some developments

Recently I've mainly been focusing on some open source projects I've been helping my friends out with, working on dashboarding and on-call automation at a Tesla internship and attempting to finish Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild.

I gotta say, as much as I love Nintendo games, damn that one is a bit more brutal than previous iterations! Previously, you could actually manage to live for a while in Zelda games...now it's as if Nintendo partnered with From Software...Nonetheless, onward with more tech blather.

I've recently been working on more self-hosted things. I'm likely going to host my own Sandstorm instance with Rocket.Chat and some other apps on there when I get back home in August from California. The Factorio Ansible playbooks that I somewhat talked about here on another page are still in development- Ansible can further my understanding of how automation can be used in both personal and professional environments. I'm also looking into Terraform to see how, upon return to the midwest and my homelab, I can map out my infrastructure for future reference.

Outside of homework and open source projects, those playbooks and tools I covered...I haven't done much outside of work at Tesla. I'll update this again when I get time...usually once a month.

Work Work Work!

Hello again all. It's been quite a while since I've updated this space. I've been working on quite a few things for Tesla now that I'm out here working for them. I got an extension on my original contract to work out here and now I'll be out here till August! Woo hoo!

I've worked on lots of things out here so far, from working on Model 3 infrastructure in the factory, to keeping sites up, to learning Ansible for mass provisioning and integrating it with Jenkins for version control, to learning how to setup a dashboard when a team has no clients or anything to plug into other than networking switches at multiple locations. Learning a lot of varied tools that helpdesk, sysadmin and DevOps have all used in the past while here!

Here's to looking forward to the future and the side projects I can work on when I get home!

A New Chapter

While still working- rushing- to get my homelab remotely accessible in time before I fly out to San Francisco to intern at Tesla Motors, I'm struggling with balancing hanging out with friends, playing Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and working on this homelab. So many friends and family want to say hello before I leave for five months.

Sorry for the few updates, I just haven't found time to update this site in a while. The holidays are quite busy. Looking forward to seeing what this new job, albeit temporary, on the West Coast brings. I've needed a break like this for a while. The slow, bureaucracy-filled norm that I'm used to with companies I've worked for in the Midwest will likely have no place out at Tesla if I'm hearing correctly. Here's my chance to work somewhere great and bring back a different mentality to the Midwest.

Happy holidays everyone and I'll see you in the new year! 

Updates on Things - Lakka Box Finishing soon

Hello again!

It's looking like the Lakka Box should be done by Wednesday or so. I have to go grab a small SATA cable for it. Working on that guy has basically been rebuilding an Optiplex 780 bit by bit with parts that work best around an emulation station. I've been quite busy recently with lots of coursework in scripting, attempting to further automate my Factorio game and server, look up a test Soundcloud scraper I can modify for testing and I'll be working part-time soon for LexisNexis until my co-op semester begins in the Spring. It's interesting how I assumed I'd have all my projects done by the end of the year, that I started during my summer co-op semester!

My Spring co-op semester- I believe it's January to April or May- will be the last time I'm available for a co-op position and I'm still in talks with prospective companies...no idea who I'll be working for around then, however I'd really like someone I can stick with in the SysAdmin sector as I grow into new roles. Here's hoping I can find someone who wants to teach a student in I.T./Automation more Linux goodness! I much prefer learning open-source vs paid software, as there is a lot in the open-source sector that people don't realize can help them.

My recently-received Google Home DiY box will be done once I get a proper image for the Pi. I recently- as in maybe two or three months ago- received that MagPi edition that came with a kit to turn your Raspberry Pi 3 into a Do-It-Yourself Google Home which is quite interesting. I'll be playing with that more between entertainment, school and projects.

Still need to figure out how to boot windows on an upcoming project computer....this re-built Dell doesn't seem to like booting from CD, DVD nor USB....all I need to do is update the BIOS with Windows and then I'm immediately slapping Linux on there. That'll be all!