Software / Writing / Recipes

bytes of thought.

Notes on software engineering, developer platforms, and the occasional recipe — written by Daniel Tucker.

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Tailscale on Synology DSM with ACLs for Homelab Services

Set up Tailscale on a Synology NAS with MagicDNS and ACL policies to control which tailnet devices can reach self-hosted services like RustFS.

rclone S3 Remote for Self-Hosted RustFS

Configure rclone and vivo·keep to use a self-hosted RustFS instance as an S3-compatible remote — a private alternative to Backblaze B2 running on your NAS.

RustFS on Synology NAS with Tailscale Sidecar

Install RustFS on a Synology NAS using Container Manager with a Tailscale sidecar for private, S3-compatible object storage accessible over your tailnet.

vivo·keep: encrypted backups with restic and Backblaze B2

vivo·keep is an encrypted backup orchestrator built on restic, with credentials kept secure using SOPS and age. Here is how to get set up with Backblaze B2.

Claude Code, Part 2: Isolated, Parallel Workers with Subagents

Claude Code subagents run in isolated contexts and return results to your session. How they work, how to spawn them, and patterns for parallel execution.

How the Kobo Clara Colour Got Me Reading Again

The Kobo Clara Colour's font flexibility — especially OpenDyslexic — removed the friction that kept me from reading. Here's what changed.

Project Hail Mary — A Sci-Fi Geek's Honest Take

Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary is both rigorous and genuinely warm. The movie just arrived. Here is how both hold up.

Claude Code, Part 1: Give Claude a Playbook with Skills

Skills are reusable instruction files that tell Claude Code how to handle a class of task — how they work, how to install them, and when to reach for one.

Nix: Configuring git

In this article, we configure git using Nix and Home Manager. Rather than maintaining a hand-crafted .gitconfig, we declare our git identity, aliases, global ignores, and extra settings directly in home.nix — giving us a reproducible, portable git setup managed alongside the rest of our environment.

Nix: Configuring program specific configurations - The basics

In this article, we dive into the process of adding the bat program with custom configurations to your Nix and Home Manager setup. bat is a feature-rich alternative to the traditional cat command, offering syntax highlighting and advanced functionalities for file concatenation and display. By following our step-by-step guide, you'll learn how to integrate bat into your Nix environment and configure it to suit your specific needs.

Nix and Home Manager - Getting setup

By adopting Nix and Home Manager, I hope to simplify the management of my dotfiles and bid farewell to multiple package managers like Homebrew. Through a single application repository, Nix offers the promise of a unified experience across various operating systems. While this article focuses on the initial setup, subsequent updates will delve into the exciting realm of experimental features and customization options that Nix and Home Manager provide. So join me on this journey as we venture into the world of streamlined dotfile management with Nix and Home Manager.

11ty and tailwindcss template, Part II

Time to get tailwindcss added and compiling into our project. Install the tailwindcss and enabling packages...

11ty and tailwindcss template, Part I

Until now I have been trying to write my own CSS and keep it simple. I like simplicity in my designs but also I do like the fun that comes with what you can do these days with CSS. With that thought in mind I want to get a little more creative with my site design and that is what brings us to this point.

Gluten-Free Fried Chicken Strips

Buttermilk-brined chicken strips dredged in a rice flour and cornstarch blend, then fried in a cast iron skillet until golden. Crispy, gluten-free, and worth the wait.

Tiger Juice - A Whiskey Cocktail

Three ingredients, shaken. Whiskey, lemon, and orange juice — easy drinking with none of the spicy bite. Warning: rather addicting.

How to backup a Git repository

Many of us use services such as Github, Gitlab and Bitbucket as our Git source code remotes. It has crossed my mind more than once that there could be a day when any one of those services goes down. We as individuals and companies would loose valuable code if that happened. So just like we do with other files and important assets we backup.

Customize workspace colors in VSCode

VSCode give you a lot of flexibility to override nearly every setting they offer. This come in handing for many reasons which users are finding daily. One of those very reasons I came across today; using title bar and status bar colors to visually differentiate my open VSCode windows.

NestJS: VSCode debugger setup

Debugging is inevitable for all developers and when you get the point that your code is not doing what you would expect...

NestJS: Getting started

This is the next post in a series of articles as I explore NodeJS. If you need to go back one and get Node setup and running check this one out: NodeJS: Getting started.

NodeJS: Getting started

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Functional Programming with JavaScript

This is the first post in a series focused on NodeJS. Node is a asynchronous event-driven JavaScript runtime for building scalable network applications. Just like JavaScript, NodeJS is not actually a functional programming language but is a good place to use functional programming if you so please.

Pass extension: Safe

Pass is becoming my goto for password management. It is a very easy to use manager and has a great list of extensions as well as the ability to create your own extensions. I have found that I need to solve a very specific problem where I need a printed backup of all data that is stored in the password store.

Rclone - rsync for cloud storage

Rclone is a really cool command line tool that can sync files and directories too and from many sources. A full list of sources can be found on their Rclone.

GnuPG and Pass

Setup GnuPG and Pass

Carne Asada

A citrus-soy marinade with garlic, cumin, jalapeño, and cilantro. Grill it hot, and don't skip reducing the leftover marinade into a sauce — it takes it to another level.

Prep: 15 minCook: 16 min

Verizon Pixel and Pixel XL Bootloader Unlock

As all Pixel owners should know by now there is a end of support scheduled for each phone they ship. I like many others have a perfectly functional Pixel device which will soon be vulnerable to security issues and without Google support I am left with little options. I am not one to need the latest and greatest so I have chosen to install LineageOS.

Above 8700ft Red

A blended red salsa with whole peeled tomatoes, fire roasted green chilies, jalapeño, and a kick of habanero. Quick to make, adjustable heat, and better the next day.

Prep: 10 min

Visual Studio Code - Selected Text to Uppercase

In Visual Studio we are all used to being able to use CTRL+SHIFT+U to transform the selected text to uppercase but for Visual Studio Code this key binding was left out. As long as you are using _Version 1.8.1 or above_ you will be able to take advantage of the built in keyboard shortcuts. Do the following to enable the keybindings.

Raspberry Pi: Fixing your Locale

Fixing your Locale on Raspberry Pi