The Chronicle

of a ColdFusion Expatriate

Own Your Everything

November 9, 2023

As astute readers are aware, I’ve been on a host my own stuff kick for some time now. I brought my music local with Navidrome, I moved my remaining websites off of that-shape-named-service into static sites that I host myself, and I just moved from Samsung SmartThings to Home Assistant for all my home automation stuff.

A recent household budget discussion wandered into the territory of replacing our Spotify family plan, and my wife’s position on it revealed what I think is one of the crucial points about hosting your own systems: owning your stuff.

I Like Visual Studio Code and That's OK

October 16, 2023

This is absolutely an Emacs apologist blog, and I’m writing this post in Emacs right now. But I started at a new job recently and most of us use Visual Studio Code, and I know that’s considered a slur in many free software circles, but I’m here to tell you, “It’s OK.”

New Focus Sounds on MyNoise

June 10, 2023

Loyal readers of the blog know that I’m a really big fan of MyNoise, the ultimate immersive soundscape tool created and maintained by the one and only Dr. Ir. Stéphane Pigeon. I use it when music gets too “demanding” or is creating a mood that distracts me from what I’m doing.

There have been some changes on MyNoise, and I created a few new unique soundscapes, and I want to share it all with you!

The Joy and Pain of the Enphase API

May 27, 2023

I recently had rooftop solar installed, and my system uses what are called “microinverters” made by the company Enphase. I’m going to make the brash assumption that because you are here, reading this article, titled such as it is, that you have at least a passing knowledge of what the hell I’m talking about. If anything is unclear, feel free to leave a comment!

Anyway, I wanted to get my solar power data into a local system, and was excited to learn that Enphase does have an API! Unfortunately, it has some issues. Allow me to explain them all in tedious detail!

I Am Anti-Obsessive

April 16, 2023

How does anyone sustain interest in a single thing for years at a time?

I recently watched “Free Solo,” the National Geographic documentary about Alex Honnold’s world-record-setting climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

In spite of the knowledge that he succeeds and doesn’t get permanently injured or die, watching it was very emotional for me. I can’t readily describe the mix of feelings I had while watching his solo ascent. Some combination of awe, fear, and confusion.

The awe and the fear are obvious enough; it was an incredible physical feat with the possibility of certain death, my hands were sweating the entire time just watching it.

The confusion comes up when I think about the discipline and devotion to the act that made it possible. What does that feel like? It’s completely foreign to me.