Weekly Report #83 - Year-End Organization (Rooms, Equipment, Services, Software)

Preface#

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This article is a record and reflection on life from 2025-01-06 to 2025-01-12.

During this week, I organized my room, drawers, NAS, online services, and network environment, achieving a decluttering and optimization of both physical and virtual spaces.

Room Organization#

I am generally a person who is lazy about organizing rooms or storage, but since I usually work, study, or relax in front of the computer, I hardly use much space at home, so it doesn't really count as messy.

However, due to the increasing busyness of work and various matters, as well as the need for independent space with my senior, I started to return most of my living space to my rental unit. I took this opportunity to thoroughly organize everything, spending about six to seven hours, and when I finished tidying up, I could feel the sense of order brought by the cleanliness of my living space.

Network Management#

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The place I rent is a studio apartment of several dozen square meters, which doesn't require much networking. All the internet is provided by a themed Asus RT-AX86U router, and I haven't really messed with the layout of the network cables. Near the router, there is a DIY NAS and a lazy cat device directly connected via Ethernet, while all other devices use Wi-Fi, so I basically don't feel any bottlenecks in internet speed within the room.

The broadband is a gigabit fiber from the telecom company, and I requested an ipv4 public IP from the operator. I installed the ddns-go service on the NAS to dynamically update the public IP resolution, and exposed some necessary network services for use when I'm not at home through port forwarding at the router level. Later, I felt that directly exposing the public IP was somewhat insecure, so I set up a private network through Tailscale and built a Derper on a server I had previously stocked in Shanghai, achieving direct network connectivity for all devices. Currently, this seems to be a better solution (I had also used Surge Ponte before, but it might have been early in its development and wasn't stable, so I switched solutions).

Asus routers are highly customizable, and I flashed the Merlin firmware, installed the Clash application, and wrote rules to take over and divert all network traffic from home devices, so other devices at home no longer need to mess with network proxies.

Storage Management#

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I hadn't really paid much attention to personal storage before, mainly relying on a 1TB Samsung T5 SSD external hard drive to store some important files. Later, I started using OneDrive for cloud backup, but recently, with the NAS and lazy cat device, I reorganized my entire storage plan.

First, since my MacBook has 1TB, I will keep most important files locally. Then, because I purchased 2TB of iCloud space through the Turkish Apple Store, I also have a backup in iCloud. I will sync all videos and photos to the openmediavault NAS (8TB RAID 5), and there will also be a copy on the lazy cat device (8TB RAID 0), so basically, all files have some protection (I also used rsync to automatically sync changes, but it doesn't seem stable for large files, so most of the time it's still manual).

Digital Device Management#

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The Apple TV at home is directly connected to the Jancoo O1S projector, which is a short-throw model, so it can project a good image directly against the wall without worrying about obstructions. It's quite sufficient for home use and is also connected to a HomePod mini, which is nice for playing dynamic wallpapers and music, forming my audio-visual area. The rented room comes with a TV, which is connected to my Nintendo Switch, and there is also a Steam Deck nearby that can be directly connected to the TV via a type-C cable for gaming, creating an independent gaming area (though I play very little now).

Recently, I did a round of decluttering of electronic devices, selling my Mac Studio, Chromebook, and less frequently used monitors, keyboards, power banks, etc., on Xianyu. Now, I only have a 14-inch MacBook Pro for daily work, which connects directly to the portable monitor I bought last year, so I effectively have a 14-inch main screen and two secondary screens. When traveling, I can just unplug the cable, without having to consider the configuration and software uniformity of two devices like before, allowing me to focus more.

Pet Device Management#

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Nian Nian often stays in my room. Most of the pet devices at home are from PetKit, including an automatic litter box, feeder, and water dispenser, which really maximizes the cat-raising experience, all managed by one app. There is also a Xiaomi camera to observe the overall situation at home. Other smart home devices haven't been activated yet, but I'm thinking of tinkering with using Home Assistant + Home Bridge to aggregate everything into the iPhone's Home app for one-click management, which I plan to work on soon.

Camera Organization#

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I currently have three cameras: a Sony A7M3 bought in 2018, a Sony ZV1 Mark II bought the year before last, and a newly purchased Fujifilm X100VI, each serving a good purpose. The A7M3 is connected to a Rode Wireless Go microphone, paired with a Benro tripod, and is stationed behind my workspace to reduce the preparation process for video shooting, allowing for quick recording. For audio recording and tutorials in front of the computer, I directly use the Shure MV7 connected to the computer, hoping to produce more content this year. When going out, I take the ZV1 for video recording, using just the built-in microphone and an official grip, allowing for spontaneous recording, which is sufficient for travel and daily documentation. For street photography, I exclusively use the X100VI.

Service Organization#

Network Proxy#

Currently, the most impactful aspect of my daily life and work experience is the network proxy. For the line, I set up a trojan node in a US data center using CN2GIA DC6, along with a friend's ss node in Singapore, which basically meets my daily needs. I also have two airports as fallbacks and to proxy some streaming media, such as HBO Max, to resolve some regional restrictions.

Since I usually use Surge on my Mac and iPhone, while the router can only use Clash rules, it often becomes inconvenient to manage uniformly. Therefore, I use Surgio, a rule management tool, to maintain and sync remote rules through a GitHub Repo, making management easier. I also continuously fine-tune the diversion rules and some configuration items to better suit my various needs.

Self-hosted Services#

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Most of my static website services are hosted on Cloudflare, Vercel, and Zeabur, while container services are distributed across various VPS, dedicated servers, NAS, and serverless platforms. Recently, during the organization, I also did a significant migration.

It seems that Zeabur has recently changed its billing method, and the costs have noticeably increased. Without adding new services, I exceeded the $5 limit of the Developer Plan this month, so I migrated some resource-intensive or high-traffic services, keeping only those with low consumption but high stability requirements, such as blog traffic statistics systems. I used fly.io for my blog's Remark42 statistics service, migrating it to the cheapest IAD region and mounting a 3GB volume, which I can basically keep under the free limit and will continue to monitor.

Previously, I had a competition prize that included over $10,000 in AWS credits for a year, so I used Coolify to manage it, placing most of my self-hosted services/development environments on an 8c32g machine in a Hong Kong data center. I can deploy using existing Docker Compose files and trigger deployments via Webhook linked to GitHub, which basically meets my needs. The playability and customization level are much higher than Zeabur's k3s solution, and for database applications, it's also convenient to use S3 for backups. After the AWS credits expire, I may migrate to OVH or Hetzner dedicated servers.

Software Applications#

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I am quite picky about software tools, but starting this year, I have begun to reduce the use of various apps on my phone and simplify my workload and distractions on the computer. I have started to experience and support some independent developers' projects more. Other software tools will be updated soon in "GitHub - pseudoyu/yu-tools", but here I will mainly discuss the use of AI work.

Currently, the most frequently used tool is Cursor Pro (annual subscription), which I rely on for completion, CMD+K, and Composer (Agent) mode for work and various projects, depending on the Claude 3.5 Sonnet model, which has been able to assist me in completing most of my work. Another annual subscription is for STRRL's Haye AI project, which I occasionally use with a CMD+E shortcut to optimize my English writing.

GitHub continues to renew my Copilot subscription, and I use the ChatWise project to bind the Claude 3.5 Sonnet model for some small programming-related questions. I also linked my API keys from NekoAPI and burn.hair to use GPT-4o. ChatWise also linked the API key from Tavily to enable Web Search functionality, which can replace Perplexity. Additionally, during my three-month trial of Kagi Search, I didn't have much experiential feedback as a search engine, but it has significantly reduced my reliance on AI-generated content, and the overall quality of information received has improved, although I hardly use features like Kagi Summary.

Interesting Things and Items#

Inputs#

Although most interesting inputs will automatically sync in the "Yu's Life" Telegram channel, I still selected a portion to list here, feeling more like a newsletter. I also built a microblog using Telegram Channel messages as content sources - "daily.pseudoyu.com", which makes browsing more convenient.

Favorites#

Books#

The Sugar Revolution, currently reading.
Camus' Notebooks, finished one, he is really very real and interesting.

Articles#

Videos#

Series#

Go to the Windy Place, I watch it while eating every day. I quite like this kind of show that doesn't have too much drama, just calmly showcasing daily life, and I also want to visit Yunnan.

Games#

It Takes Two, I've played several levels, and I feel the difficulty and gameplay are well balanced, allowing even a clumsy turn-based player like me to have a good experience.