Blog (page 7) • Chris Dzombak

… has too many hobbies.

Featured Posts ★

Getting Good Results from Claude Code

I've been experimenting with LLM programming agents over the past few months. Claude Code has become my favorite. It is not without issues, but it's allowed me to write ~12 programs/projects in relatively little time, and I feel I would not have been able to …

Navigating and Rewriting Legacy Systems

As I'm navigating this job search process, I've been asked several variants of the questions, "how do you work with a legacy or poorly-documented codebase? how would you rewrite one?" I figure this answer might be useful for others.

Quick Devops Tool: gha-secrets-setup

Here's a small script I wrote a few days ago, gha-secrets-setup. This script accepts a GitHub repository URL and checks its GitHub Actions workflows for secrets references. Then, using the gh CLI tool, it checks which secrets haven't yet been configure. It interactively prompts you for …

Use Your Type System

Today I'm discussing a trivially simple technique that I've rarely seen used in production codebases. In programming, we often need to deal with simple values that can be represented by simple, generic types built into our programming language or provided by libraries: types like integer, string, …

Functional Documentation

Without application of force to keep internal technical documentation up to date, that documentation will quickly become inaccurate. Consider internal documentation about a codebase at your company. This commonly takes the form of text files checked into Git, a Notion or Confluence page, comments in the code, system design documents, …

Some TODOs for the new site

As I prepare to make this new version of dzombak.com live, I wanted to make a note of some things that are left for me to do.

Recent Posts

Maintaining a solid WiFi connection on Raspberry Pi

The first issue you're likely to hit with a long-running Pi, particularly with a Raspberry Pi Zero, is the Pi dropping off your WiFi network for no apparent reason after days or just hours of operation.

Keep your software up and running on the Raspberry Pi

This post reviews some of the options for keeping a systemd-managed service running persistently on a Raspberry Pi, or really any other Linux system.

Disable or remove unneeded services and software to help keep your Raspberry Pi online

On long-running, single-purpose Raspberry Pis, I like to disable and/or remove some scheduled tasks, services, and other software. This may help with a few different reliability concerns.

Consider the risks before making any dramatic changes to your Raspberry Pi setup

In my blog posts about making long-running Raspberry Pis more reliable, I've suggested a number of changes. Some of these are pretty large, dramatic changes; others are tiny and unremarkable. With any intervention, it's important to consider the risks involved and weigh them against your personal r…

Choosing the right SD card for your Pi

There are thousands of dirt-cheap, no-name microSD cards available. Don't use them.

Fixing excessive Pi-hole lighttpd access log size when Netdata is installed

Part of the Raspberry Pi Reliability series. Not running out of disk space is an important aspect of keeping tiny Linux machines with limited storage and RAM running reliably for extended time periods. On most Raspberry Pis and similar devices, I keep /var/log in RAM, either with a straightforward …

A complete table of Nikon 1 system battery compatibility

It took me a while to get this data together, so I thought it might be useful for other camera hoarders collectors: Nikon 1 Camera Model Battery Type Compatible Charger V1 EN-EL15 MH-25 J1 EN-EL20 MH-27 J2 EN-EL20 MH-27 S1 EN-EL20 MH-27 V2 EN-EL21 MH-28 J3 EN-EL20 MH-27 S2 EN-EL22 …

RIP: garagedoorctl

I've archived my garagedoorctl GitHub repo; the functionality has been replaced by MyQ garage door openers with attached ratgdo electronics.

From Pinboard to Raindrop

Migrating my personal bookmarking to Raindrop.io from Pinboard.

Photo sequence of Bald Eagles hunting, from Nov. 2022

In November of last year, I was lucky to observe a lot of bald eagle activity around a lake near my home. (In total I observed 5 eagles: 3 adults and 2 juveniles.) Content warning: this post includes photos, from a distance, of a dead bird. One Saturday morning, I …

A simple, reasonably verbose URL shortener.

New IDs resulted in many “new” posts in Ann Arbor FOIA RSS feed

Subscribers to my RSS feed (or JSON feed) of Ann Arbor FOIA requests will have noticed that yesterday their feed readers showed a large number of "new" posts, which were not actually new and dated from weeks ago. RSS feeds require each entry to have a unique ID, …

Thinking about cardboard

I produce a fair amount of cardboard waste, which all goes into the recycling. Can I recycle it myself, into useful material for my hobby projects?

Hacking slightly better sum types without Go generics

Go doesn't have real sum types, but we can at least hack together an exhaustive switch helper, without requiring generics.

3D Printing Recommendation: Plasti-Dip Spray Rubberized Coating

I've now completed several 3D printing projects which need to sit more-or-less still on a desktop or other work surface. I've seen a few different approaches to this, but I wanted to note that I've had good luck so far with clear Plasti-Dip rubberized …