Weeknote 41 – Networks and Carnatic notes

State of the network: With better access to the router and some re-wiring in the house, I got around rejigging my server setup. This will change once I get my Odroid shipped over. For now though, here’s my current setup:

1. 1. NexcloudPi installed on a Raspberry pi 3B+ board
   2. Diet-Pi installed on another Raspberry pi 3B+ board running the pi-hole

The SBCs and the modem are now connected to the UPS inverter, so hopefully that gets rid of the hard shutdowns. Might consider getting a stabilizer at some point in time. I am also leaning towards a more robust homelab system. Yet to whet the core setup and will probably explore that a year down the lane.

Fitness: Yet another good week spending time outdoors! A 5k barefoot beach run on Tuesday, 5.5k lap runs at the YMCA on Wednesday, 25mins breaststroke swim at MBC and 30min MAS training at YMCA on Thursday, and a 2k barefoot beach run on Friday.

Music: Spent friday evening listening to a Veena instrumental performance at Narada Gana Sabha. A family friend was playing with 107 other artists and I also ran into a college friend with whom I was out of touch for about 10 years now! The performance was a tribute to his grand-father. Small, small world! Below is a shoddy recording of one of the pieces they performed. One of my favorites.

Interesting tools this week:

• • If you need to find what other devices are connected to the wifi network that your device is connected to, and a whole lot of other details, the Fing app is wonderful place to start. The free app is pretty slick! I use it to identify IP addresses (and use that to update my pi-hole hosts file for a more human-friendly ‘client listing’)

Interesting reads this week:

• • Google’s Sycamore quantum computer apparently achieved quantum supremacy. John Preskill had a good article on this on Quanta Magazine. The next few decades is arguably going to be about computing prowess and the results thereof, and quantum supremacy is a huge move in that direction. Exciting times ahead!
  • Just read this brilliant Nat-Geo piece on Netherland’s sustainable farming practices and how that’s setting them to success as the world’s second largest exporters despite being a really small country!
  • An intriguing post on the Palm oil. A cousin who was visiting us last month mentioned how he’d moved away from all packaged foods since they extensively use Palm oil. While I agree with the sentiment of not using packaged food, I wasn’t quite aware of the influence of Palm-oil and how deeply ingrained it was in the asian food manufacturing ecosystem till I read this piece from the Guardian.