🏠︎ /now

2024/12/10

When I get the chance to focus on learning, researching, writing, etc. I am currently focused on deepening my Rust knowledge, as well as working on a couple of private side projects, primarily using Rust or Python. I'm trying to work on more open source projects.

Things that interest me right now include:

• Terraform, and Infra-as-code in general. In recent years the power of this was revealed to me and I've been quite addicted ever since. Managing cloud infra is something I've found myself doing more and more - the power of automating so much of this work, and indeed track the current state of your environments, cannot be understated. This is very much an "on-the-clock" interest, but I must say I am enjoying it. It pains me that so many of the cloud providers out there are largely unethical in their wider businesses, but I do try to counter this by adjusting my personal usage of such organisations...
• We all know that Rust is likely to take a major role in the future of systems programming (and many other modalities), and that it is incredibly enjoyable - albeit initially challenging - to work with. With that in mind, for the last few years I have been trying to use it wherever I can, and I am continually tinkering with my Rust projects and delving into the docs. One of my current goals is to tackle a major project with Rust - up to now, most have been simple CLI tools or web APIs.
• Which brings me to one of my main personal goals - ditching as much unnecessary tech and usage of apps/services that I deem to be expoitative and unethical in various ways. While social media was no longer a concern for me some 10 years ago, I still occasionally use "big tech" apps, services and operating systems simply for the convenience. I'm moving away from this, and continuously looking for alternatives to roll into my setup. This has been an ongoing process for a number of years, but I still celebrate little wins whenever I'm able to find a substantive low-tech version of my everyday items. For example, I recently went back to running an mp3 player instead of spotify, setting up a NAS to eliminate my need for services like dropbox for files and photos, and ditching the kindle for... well, books.
• Arch has been my primary OS since the early 2010s, yet I have always maintained a WNDWS machine (dual booting in the early days when hardware financing was a challenge!) for gaming. To be honest, I've mostly stopped investing myself in games, but on occasion I do enjoy Factorio, RimWorld, Timberborn and Outer Wilds (to name a few). Looking to get these up and running on linux where possible, and ditch MSs increasing invasive OS.
• Getting out more. When you get into programming as teen, there comes a point fairly early on where it becomes clear that there is so much to learn in fact, that becoming chronically online seems inevitable. Having spent so many years investing time and effort into programming, tech and a range of online pursuits, I now try to find any excuse to step away from my desk and touch grass. It's as much for mental health as physical.