Posts

When it comes to flexibility and declarative configurations, NixOS has been my go-to system for development. Over time, I’ve crafted a setup that balances stability, innovation, and minimal maintenance, all powered by a few key components: ZFS on root, impermanence, flakes, and Home Manager. ZFS on Root One of the standout features of my NixOS configuration is ZFS on root. ZFS offers features like snapshots, compression, and data integrity, making it ideal for a system that demands reliability....

Recently, I decided to dive into the retro gaming world with PICO-8, a fantasy console for making, sharing, and playing tiny games. I picked it up for $15, and although there’s no official BSD version (unfortunately), there are versions for Linux, Raspberry Pi, Windows, and macOS—which works just fine for me since I’m running macOS. Exploring the Quirky Games of PICO-8 One of the first games that caught my eye was Harold’s Really Bad Day....

Recently, I took a step toward building my own online presence by purchasing the domain quantumcircuit.biz from Namecheap. The cost? A mere $6 for the entire year. Not a bad deal for something that will serve as the digital hub for my tech and business endeavors. The Email Setup: Zoho Over ProtonMail With the domain in hand, my next task was setting up a professional email address: salman@quantumcircuit.biz. I originally considered using ProtonMail, but I ended up subscribing to Zoho instead....

It was a crisp spring day on March 25, 2024, when I decided to take a detour from my usual BSD and Linux haunts. My destination? OmniOS, a distribution of the Illumos operating system. Little did I know I was about to embark on a journey that would challenge my assumptions and expand my Unix horizons. The Land of pfexec The first surprise came when I tried to elevate my privileges....

Welcome to Quantum Circuit, where we dive deep into the weird and wonderful world of technology, one sleep-deprived adventure at a time. I’m your host, a curious tech enthusiast with a penchant for turning simple tasks into Herculean challenges. By day, I’m a data scientist and developer, wrangling unruly datasets with Rust, Docker, and Apache Arrow. By night (and often into the wee hours of the morning), I transform into a self-proclaimed sysadmin, turning innocent home servers into routers and engaging in cage matches with firewalls....

In November 2023, I embarked on a deep dive into the world of data science using Rust, Docker, and Apache Arrow. Over the course of sixteen days, I faced challenges ranging from containerization woes to the intricacies of error handling in Rust, all while gaining valuable insights into how these tools can be effectively used for real-world data science projects. Day 1: Rust, APIs, and Containerization I began by setting up my project with Cargo....

Back in the summer of 2019, with two weeks to spare before the academic year began, I took my first tentative steps into the world of Linux. My starting point? Zorin OS. It was an experience defined by both excitement and a lot of confusion. The Tarball Debacle One of my first big mistakes was trying to install everything manually from the web. Freshly minted with my new Zorin installation, I somehow thought the correct way to install Firefox was through a tarball, using tar commands....

FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Me: A Tragicomedy in Three Acts Ladies, gentlemen, and Unix enthusiasts of all stripes, gather ‘round for a tale of network woe, BSD brilliance, and the kind of sleep deprivation usually reserved for new parents and cryptocurrency day traders. I present to you my 72-hour descent into the wonderful, maddening world of BSD. Act I: The Blinking Light of Doom Our story begins with a blinking light. Not just any light, mind you, but the PON light on my ISP’s router....