Recent posts

Backend engineer writing about Linux, networking, storage and the occasional hardware rabbit hole.

This notebook lives at www.5457090.xyz — one of several services on the 5457090.xyz network.

2026-11-12A minimal open platform for self-hosted services
The services on this network needed one API entry point: notes on auth, error-code conventions and the smallest workable gateway.
2026-10-06Dotfiles, with discipline
Fifteen years of dotfiles taught me that the repo matters less than the rules for what never enters it.
2026-07-22Fan curves and PWM: the non-linear parts nobody mentions
Tuning NAS fans: PWM duty vs actual RPM is not what the datasheet implies, and hysteresis matters more than the curve.
2026-05-02Server initialization checklist (2026 edition)
The checklist every new box goes through, updated this year in the SSH and kernel-parameter sections.
2026-03-14SQLite notes from the trenches
WAL mode, busy timeouts and the pragmatics of using SQLite for services people assume need Postgres.
2026-01-08Rewriting this blog: from Hexo to 300 lines of Python
After three years on Hexo, the blog moved to a hand-written generator. The migration notes and the trade-offs.
2025-12-282025 in review: the measurement year
Governors, DNS samples, power fingerprints: most posts this year were experiments. What they changed in practice.
2025-10-05Appliance fingerprints: teaching software to read a power meter
Fourteen months of plug-level power samples turned into a tiny classifier that flags the kettle pretending to be the AC.