I just discovered pdfly (pronounced PDF-ly), the Swiss army knife for working with PDFs from the command line (CLI). It’s an application written purely in Python, designed to extract (meta)data and manipulate PDF files. It’s based on the fpdf2 and pypdf libraries, is a free and open-source project with no commercial affiliation, and is licensed under BSD-3-Clause. …

Kubernetes (K8s) is an open-source platform for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It was built to work with Docker and depending on who you talk to, they’ll either say it’s hell or a piece of cake. The truth? If you’ve struggled with infrastructure (servers, networks), logged many hours with Linux, Docker and containers, it might not be that hellish and it’ll depend on how many hours you put in. Like most of my posts, this is based on documenting my Home Lab, with hours of testing, things that stop working when you least expect it. But the good thing is you learn a ton and, if you’re a bit of a geek, you even have fun. Here’s my experience, with tricks, mistakes and everything I wish I’d known before starting. …

Proxmox VE is a powerful and easy-to-use open-source virtualization platform that enables the deployment and management of virtual machines (VMs with KVM/QEMU) and containers (CTs based on LXC). If you have little experience it might be a bit daunting, which is why I recommend this wonderful project: Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts, where you’ll find hundreds of scripts to make your life easier installing CTs or VMs on top of your Proxmox. …

Install, configure, and access a Windows 11 Pro VM on top of Proxmox VE. Proxmox lets you deploy Windows VMs using KVM/QEMU, with integration via the QEMU Guest Agent and VirtIO drivers, including UEFI + emulated TPM 2.0 (required for Win11). …

According to the Spanish RAE dictionary, Deshinchar: v. To deflate or reduce something swollen. That’s what this post is about: stripping Windows 11 of the apps, services, and options that simply get in the way — bloatware — that eat resources and clutter the experience. Works on a fresh Windows install as well as on one already in use. …

Having a battery backup system (UPS) is essential for home servers hosting multiple services. But it’s not enough for the UPS to supply power for a few minutes: the critical part is that, in case of a prolonged outage, the entire system shuts down in a controlled and orderly manner. In this article I document how I deployed a solution based on NUT on Proxmox to achieve this. …