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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Leaflet vs MapLibre vs OpenLayers
Three JS map libraries, three decades of philosophy. Leaflet's simple, MapLibre's modern, OpenLayers is the Swiss army knife. Here's how to pick on Christmas Day.
9 min read -
MapLibre GL: Mapbox Replacement
When Mapbox went proprietary in 2020, the community forked it. MapLibre GL is now what you reach for, fully open, fully compatible, fully alive.
10 min read -
Tileserver-GL vs OpenMapTiles vs renderd
Vector vs raster tiles. MBTiles vs PostGIS-on-the-fly. Here's the actual storage and CPU cost of running each tile stack at home, with no marketing fluff.
13 min read -
Nominatim Hardware Sizing
Real RAM, disk, and CPU numbers for self-hosted Nominatim. Planet vs region, mini PC vs server, what survives the import and what doesn't.
10 min read -
BRouter: Cycling Routes That Don't Suck
Strava and Google route cyclists onto highways. BRouter's elevation-aware profiles know what a bike actually wants. Here's the self-hosted setup.
11 min read -
Self-Hosted OSRM in Docker
Run OSRM in Docker with a regional OSM extract, compile a routing profile, and get your own /route endpoint live. Profile compilation gotchas included.
12 min read -
OSRM vs Valhalla vs GraphHopper
Three open-source routing engines, three philosophies. OSRM is fast, Valhalla is flexible, GraphHopper is balanced. Here's how to actually pick one.
13 min read -
Self-Hosted HA Reverse Geocoding
Wire local Nominatim into Home Assistant for reverse geocoding without leaking GPS coords to Google or Mapbox. Privacy-respecting smart home in 30 lines.
9 min read -
Photo Libraries Without Google Lookups
Stop letting Google see where every photo was taken. Immich geocodes locally by default; PhotoPrism sends fuzzed coordinates to its own hosted service.
11 min read -
libpostal: Address Parsing Done Right
Address strings are a mess. libpostal's CRF model parses '123 Main St Apt 4B, NYC' into structured fields without regex hell. Here's how to use it.
12 min read -
Photon Deep Dive: Search That Forgives
Nominatim is great until your users typo. Photon adds OpenSearch-backed fuzzy geocoding on top of OSM data, here's when to deploy both, side by side.
12 min read -
Nominatim vs Photon vs Pelias
Three self-hosted geocoders, very different tradeoffs. Pick Nominatim, Photon, or Pelias for your project without spending a weekend benchmarking.
9 min read
