Trying FluxCD

December 2, 2022
valeblog
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When you create a whole FluxCD new setup from zero, it’s really easy: use flux bootstrap. it does “everything” for you. In my case I tried this setup first for last year’s advent calendar. Except back then I had an expedition scheduled for the first half of December, so this took the back seat and was eventually forgotten. Therefore in this year past everything I did back then slowly sank into oblivion, so I again had to start pretty much from zero.

I did set up the repo and a cluster (on Civo) back then, but I quickly tore down the cluster when I realized I wouldn’t be able to test it all out. The repo stayed though, so now i was starting afresh with a k3s cluster spanning three nanodes (that’s a linode referral link with a $100 credit over 60 days) and a repository already set up from last year.

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Prometheus vs Longhorn, fight!

cows on grassy field under blue cloudy sky
December 1, 2022
valeblog
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Last year I had a brief affair with Longhorn. It’s a tool that abstracts the interface to interact with volumes (in my case in Kubernetes) from where the underlying data actually lives. In my case, my cluster consists of three small nodes, and back then most of the data lived in local-path provisioned volumes. Using local-path means that the data is physically on the host machine instead of some virtually mounted filesystem. This also means that once an application has a PVC, it can’t be assigned to any other node (it results in a “conflict”).

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Fuck ads

November 29, 2022
valeblog
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There are ads that I don’t mind. I’ve multiple times clicked on ads on Facebook and ended up actually buying stuff I’m happily using to this day (trousers, shoes, games…). On the other hand I don’t remember ever clicking on any Google ads, mostly because I adblock everywhere by default so I don’t even see them. On my work machine, where I don’t have adblock, Google ads are just plain stupid so it never even occurs to me.

red fire digital wallpaper
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Maybe a new watch

October 30, 2022
valeblog
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I’ve been using a Garmin Instinct since I got back from Aconcagua, both for training in the gym and running or hiking outdoors. I might need to replace it sooner than later.

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Rings of what?

October 22, 2022
valeblog
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I looked forward to the Rings of Power. A show set in the second age of Middle Earth? There is so much potential. Other than the history textbook outline of the Akallabeth, there’s basically nothing set in stone. There are some characters who are described being kings of regions, founding lordships over thousands of years, but for most of it the second age is a blank sheet where you could make any story you’d want. As long as it doesn’t contradict those historical outlines in the Akallabeth.

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So, where do you want to live?

August 23, 2022
valeblog
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I used to answer “meh wherever,” but things are changing. I have more and more grey hairs in my beard, though people are not noticing because of how light in general my hair is. I’m a bit more desperate about swiping right. I even managed to chip my kneecap in the Karakoram (apparently) which made just walking straight tough for a month let alone climbing stairs (or mountains) (it’s better now). I got addicted to watching house design videos on a certain evil website this time, and that got me thinking and planning.

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大子

August 15, 2022
valeblog
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大子行ってきたぞ！大子を知った経緯は、一昨年那須行ったときに温泉むすめの等身大パネル見て帰ってサイトで他のどんなのあるかなと調べたら大子を見つけた。それと完全に別でヤマップで「茨城ジャンダルム」登った人の記録もみた。どうやらジャンダルムの天使に会うなら穂高だけじゃなく、茨城の生瀬富士のジャンダルムでも会える。そしてさらに、あるSNSは俺に向けた広告はビール、服、ワーケーションばっかり。そのワーケーションの広告で同じ茨城県北のOKUKUJI BASE CAMPというキャンプ場を知った。さらにさらに近くに袋田の滝という、日本三名瀑の一つの観光スポットもある。つまり温泉もあっておもしろそうな山もあって、観光地もあって、日中は仕事もできるキャンプ場まである。行くしかない！

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The Baltoro hike

August 12, 2022
valeblog
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The hike to Broad Peak (and with a little more hiking, K2) base camp is not a joyride. There are no teahouses, the trail can be pretty challenging and there’s not much variety. That’s why I was very surprised when on the hike in, we met some people hiking out with very light gear around Concordia. Turns out they were there on base camp treks. I knew about such base camp treks to Everest base camp or the Annapurna circuit, but it didn’t occur to me anyone in their right mind would want to hike up the Baltoro glacier just for fun.

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Migrating from Docker to Podman

July 20, 2022
valeblog
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I’ve been eyeing Podman for a while. Being able to build and run containers without the Docker daemon hanging around in the background as an omnipotent demigod sounds nice. Less stuff running = good. Installing it is trivial on Ubuntu (unlike installing Docker): apt-get install podman and it’s done. As the documentation states, it can even be aliased to docker to make migration even smoother. It has tons of features that I don’t think are there in Docker: generating Kubernetes YAMLs from running containers, using container LABELs to make run commands simpler and so on.

Which is all nice and it’s to stay for sure, but I had to realize that at this point this won’t have much of an effect on me (anymore). I hardly ever build container images locally, instead using some CI (Github Actions) to do it automatically. Not having to remember all the build options (even if just in .bash_history) is nice, and if I have to put it into code anyway, I might as well automate it completely.

As for running containers, podman run will be now my go-to for experimentation (instead of docker run). However, most of the time I use docker-compose to orchestrate a local development environment. It’s possible to use Podman’s system service to use docker-compose, but then is there much of a difference from running that and having the Docker daemon running? It’s also possible to use (simple) Kubernetes Pod/Service YAMLs to achieve something similar, and I’ll be sure to consider that the next time. But I don’t think I’ll make the effort to change these stuff for existing projects on my current computer. Not unless Docker kills free users altogether…

Sweet base camp

July 6, 2022
valeblog
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After the unsuccessful summit push, it was time to return to camp 3. Needless to say without the darkness, distances became much smaller. At the same time, people (especially those of us climbing without oxygen) were getting very tired. For some of my teammates, climbing down the rocky “chimney” back on the snowy slopes took maybe even longer than climbing up did. While I’d have preferred to use a figure-8 to safely descend at that point, the ropes were such a tangled mess that it wasn’t an option. So I just rolled some of the ropes around my arm and climbed down as quickly as the altitude allowed. Personally I found that the easy part.

The long, snowy descent back to camp 3 was really hard for me. It was the soft, unstable snow. Basically every step meant sinking or sliding with the snow, making it a very frustrating challenge to go down in (needless to say it was an extremely exhausting challenge to climb too). Even with my trekking pole set up for snow, it was hard to take a step without losing my balance. This quickly drained the last of my energy reserves, so I was getting slower and slower, and I reached camp last of the team. The first thing I did (after reporting in) was collapsing in a tent to sleep for three hours or so (I think I didn’t even turn off my GPS tracker, making some people worry—sorry!).

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