Category: Tech

Gitlab pages for static sites

I recently discovered gitlab pages when looking to host a static website. Rather than mucking about with hosting, nginx, let’s encrypt, etc. for static content why not try something new? I wanted to create a static page with a background video so I used some footage I captured at sunset with my Mavic Mini drone a couple of years ago. I’ve been sitting on this domain (secondangle.com) for ages, so why not? Some really quick (and dirty) angular, git, and some domain TXT entries and it works without issue. The video is hosted on Backblaze B2 rather cheaply too. Although I probably need to revisit encoding so it loads quicker.

Project Source: https://gitlab.com/mreaston/secondangle-placeholder

Video:

Another host bites the dust

This site used to be hosted on chunkhost.com for the longest time – it was a decent service for the longest time, and cheap, which made it ideal for a random blog. After a couple of years I had one issue trying to reboot a server that was stuck rebooting since November 2022 and I decided to reach out to support — which was non-existent. I tried to reach out to some folks on twitter and the same issue — then I get an e-mail that they’re finally shutting down after all this time. Well that sucks.

Around a couple of months ago I had moved a couple blogs and an old forum (forums.psx-dude.net) off that host and onto another, cheap, dedicated server at dedihost.com. That was going well until August 31st I get an e-mail they’re shutting down immediately and to move stuff off. Welp, there goes another couple of hours trying to move websites and find a new host. I haven’t done it yet — I did grab backups — that’ll be done shortly as I get one set up.

So here we are, another host bites the dust. This post might go to the ether if I forget to grab the backups or transition to a new host in time. Time will tell, stick around if you randomly stumble here. It’ll be not that interesting 🙂

Ideally I could host from home like I did in the late 90s, but I haven’t looked into doing that with port forwarding, dynamic ips and the like. But worth exploring.

Road Trippin’ with a Tesla

I purchased a 2018 Model 3 LR RWD back in June 2018 and have absolutely enjoyed owning an electric car. I appreciate the very minimal maintenance and being able to just charge it up when I need to at home without planning on visiting a gas station ever again. I’ve also enjoyed road tripping with the Tesla as supercharging is very accessible, quick, and easily let’s you take some time from the road to stretch and explore new places. I just completed a nearly 1400 mile road trip through Vegas, Zion National Park, and the Grand Canyon and again it was quite a thrill to explore new places. I drove over 3700 miles last year through Yosemite, Yellowstone, Denver, and Roswell.

The vast majority of what makes a road trip with a Tesla enjoyable is that its a very great car to drive. Its quiet, has quite a lot of pep for passing, and autopilot (adaptive cruise control and lanekeeping) is absolutely the most amazing thing in the world. If you have the opportunity to consider getting a Tesla, take a test drive, you won’t regret it. Don’t worry about range anxiety, this car can handle it. Using the nav you’ll get updates if you need to slow down or need to charge to reach your destination. If you’re road tripping and can stay at a destination charger — do it, waking up with a full charge is amazing. Great job Tesla!

FYI: I own shares in Tesla.