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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MetalLB for Bare-Metal LoadBalancer
Give your bare-metal Kubernetes cluster load-balanced services with MetalLB. Layer 2, BGP, IPAddressPools, and when to use each.
10 min read -
Longhorn vs OpenEBS for k3s Storage
Battle of the distributed storage drivers: Longhorn's simplicity vs OpenEBS's flexibility for your 3-node k3s cluster.
19 min read -
ArgoCD for Home Lab GitOps
Install ArgoCD on k3s, manage apps declaratively from Git. Secrets, sync waves, app-of-apps pattern explained.
15 min read -
Helm Without the YAML Soup
Master Helm templating sanity. Values files, smart defaults, when to skip Helm entirely, and why nested variables aren't always the answer.
13 min read -
k3s Cluster on 3 Mini PCs From Zero
Build a three node Kubernetes cluster on mini PCs with k3s: static IPs, firewall ports, local-path storage, and a first deployment that actually answers.
· Updated:14 min read -
DBeaver vs pgAdmin vs DataGrip
Compare DBeaver, pgAdmin, and DataGrip for PostgreSQL and MySQL management. Free vs commercial picks, feature breakdown.
15 min read -
MongoDB Self-Hosted in 2026: SSPL and Alternatives
The SSPL only bites if you offer MongoDB itself as a service. What that means for self-hosters, and when FerretDB on Postgres is the better answer.
14 min read -
PgBouncer for Connection Pooling
Why PgBouncer matters for home lab Postgres, connection pooling modes explained, config examples, and when prepared statements break.
16 min read -
InfluxDB vs TimescaleDB vs VictoriaMetrics
Time-series database showdown. Cardinality limits, query language, retention policies, and which engine fits your monitoring stack.
18 min read -
SQLite Replication: Litestream and rqlite
Compare Litestream's continuous backup with rqlite's Raft replication for distributed SQLite. Learn when each fits your self-hosted setup.
14 min read -
PostGIS for Self-Hosted Mapping
Self-host map tiles with PostGIS. Import OSM data, query spatial data, serve tiles via Martin. No Google Maps tax.
11 min read -
pgvector for Local Embeddings
Run embeddings on Postgres with pgvector. Skip Chroma/Qdrant, tune IVFFlat vs HNSW indexes, build RAG pipelines locally.
14 min read
