SumGuy's Ramblings
The art of wasting time.
Docker, self-hosting, AI/LLM, Linux, and DevOps — explained by someone who learned the hard way. No fluff, no enterprise jargon, just practical stuff that actually works on real hardware.
Recent Posts
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Matrix: Synapse vs Dendrite vs Conduit
Three Matrix server implementations — Python's Synapse, Go's Dendrite, Rust's Conduit. Which one runs your federated chat without eating your homelab alive?
12 min read -
Mini PCs With 2.5GbE: Picking the Right Box
A 2026 home lab guide to mini PCs with built-in 2.5GbE: NIC chipsets, idle power consumption, thermals, and which small form-factor box fits your use case.
13 min read -
Minisforum vs Beelink vs Trigkey Homelab
Three mini PC brands dominate homelab 2026: Minisforum, Beelink, Trigkey. Here's how to pick the right Ryzen or N100 box for your cluster.
15 min read -
OPA & Gatekeeper: Policy as Code
Open Policy Agent and Gatekeeper enforce rules across Kubernetes — block privileged pods, require labels, restrict images. Rego basics and real homelab constraints.
11 min read -
SigNoz vs Uptrace Self-Hosted Observability
Two OpenTelemetry-first observability platforms backed by ClickHouse. Here's how SigNoz and Uptrace compare for self-hosted homelab and small-team use.
13 min read -
Used GPU Buying Guide for Home Lab LLMs
Your no-BS guide to buying a used GPU for local LLM inference in 2026. Budget tiers from $200 to $1500 plus, real VRAM math, and tips to dodge the scams.
12 min read -
Longhorn vs Rook-Ceph
Two ways to give your K8s cluster persistent block storage — Longhorn for simplicity, Rook-Ceph for scale. Real homelab tradeoffs, not vendor marketing slides.
11 min read -
Gateway API vs Ingress in 2026
Ingress is the annotation-soup classic. Gateway API is the role-oriented future with proper L4/L7 separation. Here's when to migrate and when to wait.
11 min read -
Rock 5B vs Orange Pi 5 vs Pi 5
Rock 5B, Orange Pi 5, and Raspberry Pi 5 compared for home lab use — NVMe, 2.5GbE, NPU, Frigate, k3s performance, and which one you should actually buy.
12 min read -
Velero: K8s Backup and DR
Your cluster will fail. Velero captures everything — manifests, CRDs, persistent volumes — and lets you replay it on a fresh cluster. Setup, gotchas, real DR plans.
11 min read -
BIOS/UEFI Tweaks for Headless Servers
Before you rack that server and walk away forever, these BIOS and UEFI settings will save you from a 3 AM drive to the datacenter or your dusty basement.
12 min read -
Claude Code in a Homelab Workflow
Claude Code brings an agentic AI coding assistant into your terminal for real homelab work — compose files, bash scripts, Ansible, systemd. The honest take.
12 min read
