The gecko in the house doesn’t bother me at all, quite the opposite. What worries me more is one detail: I’ve known these animals since I was born, as they’ve always been quite common in my native area, but around here, you never used to see them much. Just like other animals, typical of more southern regions, that are starting to adapt here as well.
#ClimateChange
Since yesterday, we have a new roommate at home. He decided to come in, knows exactly how to get out, and doesn’t seem afraid of us. We saw him wandering around last night and again this afternoon, but tonight he hasn’t shown up yet. His name is Jack, and he’s a gecko. Since today is Friday the 13th (even though in Italy it’s not considered a "special" day), a little good luck charm is exactly what we needed :-)
#FridayThe13th #GoodLuck #Gecko
Rust on illumos
#IllumOS #Rust
A small compendium of the Fediverse platforms I use/know well.
In the past few days, I revisited some of my old Fediverse instances since some friends asked me to help them set up a new one. I also took the chance to perform maintenance on some leftover instances. Here's my experience:
Akkoma: My oldest instance still running, opened in 2022. It was offline for a few months (3/4). I updated everything to the latest version and restarted it. I’m not sure why, but it’s extremely slow, with a heavy load on Postgres and many queries just to open the main page. I like Akkoma - I'll investigate further.
GoToSocial: I updated a friend's instance - GoToSocial itself was up-to-date, but the underlying system wasn’t. I noticed that once it exceeds 2000 followings, it becomes a bit slow. The database is PostgreSQL, but that's not the issue. The GoToSocial process becomes somewhat heavy on the VPS. Still, it's very usable and a software with great potential, in my opinion. The Mastodon API is implemented quite well and works with the major software.
Mitra: It seems well-built. The person had around 1000 followers and followings on a Mastodon account, which they moved from a large instance. No speed issues, though sending a message makes the server “heavy” for a bit, but it’s temporary. The Mastodon API is partially implemented, but the software is advancing quickly, and I find its native interface quite pleasant.
Snac2: I've always had a soft spot for Snac2. The lack of a database and some design choices make it an excellent solution for small instances. For example, sending posts to all known instances increases visibility and interaction. Its basic, JavaScript-free interface is very clear, though it might not be the best for those used to Mastodon. But the Mastodon API is improving version by version, and I think the developer is doing an excellent job. It struggles a bit with larger numbers, but that's due to the underlying file system, not the software itself. If "move" support (both in and out) were added, I would recommend it to anyone starting self-hosting for single-user or small community instances because "move" is one of the options that gives the most freedom in Fediverse software.
Mastodon: My “old” personal instance was stuck at version 4.1.x and had been offline for a few months. I updated the FreeBSD Jail and upgraded Mastodon to 4.2.12 and then to 4.3.0-beta1. No issues. I also helped a friend (who had an old Pleroma-based instance they barely used) migrate. This user has around 5000 followers and followings - Mastodon is running on FreeBSD on a VPS (arm64) for just over 3 euros a month, with no significant issues (apart from media storage, but that's not Mastodon’s fault). Mastodon is sometimes said to be heavy, and that's partly true, but its modularity ensures that even in cases of overload, queues may slow down, but navigation and the local timeline remain reasonably fast. I think this is a good thing for any larger-scale use of an instance.
In short, I think things are moving in the right direction, and the software is evolving nicely. Well done, devs!
#Fediverse #Akkoma #GoToSocial #Mitra #Snac2 #Snac #Mastodon #SelfHosting #InstanceManagement #FreeBSD #OpenSource
This morning, I took my wife to the hospital for routine blood tests that had been scheduled for some time. Everything was going smoothly: check-in, number, waiting room. Suddenly, everything came to a halt and shut down. I was connected to the hospital’s public Wi-Fi and noticed that my connection also went down.
Having managed a couple of similar facilities, I immediately understood what had happened. I saw the staff panicking and calling the technicians, but they quickly reorganized within 10 minutes. They managed to process everyone who already had a number and then proceeded with the others in the order of their arrival. Despite the ten-minute delay (even though people started complaining right away), they were extremely efficient.
I later confirmed that the entire booking, check-in, and queue system is “in the cloud.” The hospital experienced a connectivity interruption, and all related services stopped. The staff no longer had access to anything, so a technician sent the lists to a manager via another channel, and everything resumed manually.
For years, I’ve insisted that certain things MUST be local. The healthcare facilities I manage have all the necessary systems for the operation of the facility internally, including patient records. External services like websites, emails, etc., are secondary.
Everything essential must always be accessible locally and, in special cases, it should be possible to physically access the servers and connect directly to them, bypassing any network/switch failures.
There has been only one interruption in the past, due to human error. Today, we have redundant servers (not HA on virtualizers, but two machines running the same software with replicated databases - on separate power lines) so such an issue shouldn’t happen anymore.
Not everything can be anticipated, but history is a great teacher. The Internet connection will eventually be interrupted :-)
When it comes to the health and survival of people, there are no compromises.
#IT #Internet #Networking #Outage #Health #HA #Cloud #CloudComputing #OwnYourData
After successfully installing the Mastodon 4.3 beta on a FreeBSD Jail (I’ve taken notes for some changes I’ll make to my blog post, but that will be when it's officially stable), I tried updating an old instance that started with Mastodon 4.0.x and was currently offline and stuck at 4.1.x. I upgraded to 4.2.12 and now it’s on the 4.3 beta. Everything seems to be running smoothly.
In the coming days, I’ll test replicating the changes from BSD Cafe (default theme, character limit increase, more options for polls), but I don't anticipate any issues.
The BSD Cafe instance will be upgraded when everything will be considered officially stable.
Stay tuned!
#Mastodon #BSDCafe #BSDCafeUpdates #BSDCafeServices
Last night's event took me back in time. For a while, it felt like I was in the '90s again. Strange feeling.
This morning, though, I realized I'm no longer in the '90s. Back then, staying up late would have meant waking up late and still feeling fine. Today, I woke up at the usual time and I'm a wreck 😆