Guides

What is Stringer?If you're like me, I just want to consume my RSS. I don't want to see any adverts, any fancy recommendations or have a subscription fee. I also want an RSS reader that is pleasant to use. I have dabbled with TinyTinyRSS and FreshRSS. But for me, the UI isn't that great. I keep coming back to Stringer, and I think it deserves some more love. Setting up StringerI'm going to talk through how to set up Stringer on either bare metal or Docker. You can choose your own adventure by selecting one of the links below! ...

What is Matrix?"Matrix is an open source project that publishes the Matrix open standard for secure, decentralised, real-time communication, and its Apache licensed reference implementations. Maintained by the non-profit Matrix.org Foundation, we aim to create an open platform which is as independent, vibrant and evolving as the Web itself... but for communication. As of June 2019, Matrix is out of beta, and the protocol is fully suitable for production usage." ~ matrix.org Disclaimer: Although it is entirely possible to host a Synapse server on a Raspberry Pi, Synapse is a huge resource hog and will struggle with connecting to multiple federated servers. If however, you are looking to use Matrix bridging, or running your own self-hosted chat between friends and family, the Raspberry Pi will do just fine! ...

Sponsored PostPapercups.ioPapercups is an opensource self-hosted chat window that you can add to your site to interact with your visitors instantly. Papercups gives you the ability to reply directly from Slack or using their built-in messenger. Papercups gives you the freedom to customise your chat windows to fit your branding, show whether you have representatives online to help your customers. A feature-rich dashboard with all the analytics data you'll need. Papercups even has screen sharing built-in, for when it's just easier to show something that isn't working. It's super easy to install, as you'll see in just a minute. ...

FocalboardFocalboard is a self-hosted open-source alternative to tools such as Notion or Trello which you can run on your own instance. Focalboard helps with tracking and organising your own work, as well as across a team. Focalboard is currently in early-access beta, so this post may change over time. We'll try out best to update our tutorial as the project becomes more mature. You can read more on Focalboard on their site https://www.focalboard.com. In this tutorial, we're going to be setting up the Focalboard Personal Server, which can be installed on a Ubuntu server to be used within a team either locally, or exposed as a public endpoint using Nginx. ...

Sponsored PostDigital OceanWhat is Digital Ocean's App Platform?Digital Ocean has introduced a new product called App Platform which allows developers to quickly and easily build, deploy and scale apps. Digital Ocean will manage the solution for you, which means that the infrastructure, HTTPS, CDN and DNS routing is all done for you. This is awesome as it makes deploying apps simple. With Digital Ocean's App Platform, there is also the offer to host 3 static sites for free using their Starter pricing structure. ...

Sponsored PostWhat is Plausible?Plausible is a lightweight, ethical, open-source and privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative. Google AnalyticsGoogle Analytics collects more data than the average site owner needs to analyse their business, meaning that there is a lot of data being sent to the site owner that is unnecessary and will never be used. Plausible focuses only on the important web analytics data required for a business to get what it needs. ...

“If bridge building were like programming, halfway through we’d find out that the far bank was now 50 meters farther out, that it was actually mud rather than granite, and that rather than building a footbridge we were instead building a road bridge.” - Sam Newman, Building MicroservicesThe way we build software is changing. Instead of following a rigid specification we now build applications in a much more agile way which means we need to apply this mindset into our infrastructure and deployment process. Because of this almost all of the applications I build are containerised and sometimes split into modular parts. I work on most of my projects on my own which means having the ability to throw applications onto a server quickly with minimal set up is a huge plus for me. ...

What is Portainer?Portainer is a lightweight management UI that allows you to easily manage your Docker host or Kubernetes Clusters. Portainer is as simple to deploy as it is to use. It allows anyone to deploy and manage containers without the need to write code. Portainer can be used to set up and manage an environment, deploy applications, monitor application performance, and spot problems easily. Portainer showing Docker container logsPortainer, as a whole, is a self-hostable, open-source, container management system. Giving you complete visual control over your Docker instances. With Image management, restart policies and usage logs. ...

If you haven't heard of Valheim, where have you been! VALHEIMVALHEIM3 million players in a matter of weeks. Over 60,000 ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ reviews. Officially entered the Steam’s Top 250 best-reviewed games of all time.Currently 7th most streamed game on twitch, surpassing CS:GO, Dota 2, Minecraft and RustOver 20 million hours of gameplay already watched.With Valheim rising, people are playing on servers with their friends. The problem is, someone needs to host their world. ...

This article will cover setting up your own self-hosted PiHole instance. Allowing you to run an internal DNS and block internet advertisements from reaching your machine. What is PiHole?PiHole offers Network-wide protection for internet advertisements. PiHole saves you from needing to install an Ad-blocker on each device that you own. PiHole even blocks in-app advertisements, so no longer, are your free-to-play games interrupted by those annoying adverts. Home1. Install a supported operating systemYou can run Pi-hole in a container, or deploy it directly to a supported operating system via our automated installer.DPi-hole logotelekrmorPiHole can also improve your network performance, as advertisements are no longer being downloaded, every time you load up a new website. ...