grammar and clarifications
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@ -5,29 +5,32 @@ date: 2023-08-27T15:37:00+03:00
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Just before this summer I [laid out my roadmap]({{< ref
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"log/2023/roadmap-summer-2023.md" >}}) for, well, the summer. Here is a quick
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retrospective. Weird order, because it is somewhat chronological.
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retrospective. Weird order, because it is somewhat chronological. This
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post does not offer background for the project, so the previous post is a
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prerequisite reading.
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Project 2: my take on universal headers
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---------------------------------------
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During [SYCL 2023][sycl2023] I was told that [Johny Marler][marler] expressed
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explicit interest in the project. I have much higher hopes in him than myself
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-- at which point I decided there are better things to do and shelved
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universal-headers. Non-ironically, I am no longer working on compiling lots of
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C++ code, so this area has less ROI for the potentially invested time.
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--- at which point I decided to shelve universal-headers. Non-ironically, I am
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no longer working on compiling lots of C++ code, so this area has less ROI than
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it did back in the day at Uber.
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Project 1: city limits
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----------------------
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Showing any spatial result requires a background map. In the spirit of
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protomaps, I looked into how to host the base maps myself. That was quite a
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rabbit hole with twists and turns, designed to misguide the non-initiated.
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Showing any spatial result requires a map in the background (e.g. OpenStreetMap
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tiles). In the spirit of protomaps, I looked into how to host the base layers
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myself. That was quite a rabbit hole, turns out, designed to misguide the
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non-initiated.
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Since maps are simple pictures (PNG squares) with a bit of JavaScript to
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download and display them, I wanted to "keep things simple" and serve the files
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with a plain web server. Which meant pre-generating many tiles from the
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OpenStreetMap data. Turns out, this results in [5 million tiles][calculator]
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for Lithuania:
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Since online maps are PNG squares with a bit of JavaScript for download and
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display, I wanted to "keep things simple" and serve the files with a simple web
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server which also hosts my blog. To do it, I pre-generated many tiles from the
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OpenStreetMap data. Turns out, this results in [5 million files][calculator] to
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cover Lithuania:
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{{<img src="_/2023/tile-calculator.png"
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alt="screenshot from geofabrik.com"
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@ -35,56 +38,47 @@ for Lithuania:
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hint="graph"
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>}}
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Generating 5 million tiles takes at least a day on my small server (I gave up
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after this time having decided to seek for a different approach). To generate
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tiles one still needs the usual suspects — PostGIS and friends. So
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pre-generating Lithuania with a complex process and many dependencies and then
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serving them via a web server does not really save on "simplicity".
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Generating 5 million tiles takes at least a day on my small server. To generate
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tiles one still needs the usual suspects — PostGIS and more dependencies.
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Pre-generating Lithuania does not really save on "simplicity", so I decided to
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look for another approach.
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After I discarded the pre-generated tiles idea, I looked at how to serve them
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on the fly. This is how most of the world does it, so this is the beaten path.
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The usual OpenStreetMap stack consists of:
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How about serving them on the fly? This is how most of the world does it,
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should be straightforward. The usual OpenStreetMap stack consists of:
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1. PostGIS with all the data, and the tools to keep it up to date.
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2. [mapnik][mapnik], a map renderer. A library written in C++.
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3. `renderd`: a daemon that renders map tiles using mapnik.
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2. [mapnik][mapnik], a map renderer library written in C++.
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3. `renderd`: a daemon that renders map tiles. Uses mapnik.
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4. [`mod_tile`][mod_tile]: An Apache module that connects to `renderd` and
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spits the tiles out in HTTP.
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I have no interest in maintaining Apache for just the base maps, so `mod_tile`
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would need to be replaced. [`go_tile`][go_tile] is a good candidate. During my
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earlier pre-generation phases I found that `image/webp` are about half the size
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of PNG. As a result, `mod_tile` [can now render
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`image/webp`](https://github.com/openstreetmap/mod_tile/pull/318) and `go_tile`
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[can use it](https://github.com/nielsole/go_tile/pull/13).
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of PNG. I could not resist looking into `image/webp`, so now `mod_tile` [can
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now render `image/webp`](https://github.com/openstreetmap/mod_tile/pull/318)
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and `go_tile` [can use it](https://github.com/nielsole/go_tile/pull/13).
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During the middle of all this I understood how my personal stack is unfit for
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the purpose of ad-hoc projects like this: if I put out something for the world
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to see, I want it to keep working for years. Serving the base tiles is just
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part of the problem, but already includes many more moving parts than I would
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like to maintain on my crumbling servers. So I decided to shelve this mapping
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project and spend some attention spans to "my infrastructure".
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At this point I realized my personal stack is unfit for this project: if I put
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out something for the world to see, I want it to keep working for years.
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Serving the base tiles is just part of the problem, but already includes many
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more moving parts than I would like to maintain on my crumbling servers. So I
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shelved the "city boundaries" and devoted my attention to "personal
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infrastructure".
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Project 3a: home lab "infrastructure"
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------------------------------------
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As alluded in the previous section, the "home infrastructure" was not in a
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shape I would be happy to maintain long-term. If I start a project that I can
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show off, it needs to work for a long time with no or minimal maintenance.
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At the beginning of Summer I ran two Debian servers that needed to be upgraded.
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They have been configured by two thousand lines of Ansible YAMLs. I felt that
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writing the yamls were a necessary pain, so grinded it. It was so painful to
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configure stuff in Ansible that I wrote my own http server instead of using
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nginx; I wrote my own DNS server instead of using bind or nsd. And I was ready
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to write even more software from scratch, myself, just because it was so hard
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to configure out-of-the-box components with Ansible.
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At the beginning of Summer I had been running two Debian servers waiting for an
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upgrade. They have been configured by two thousand lines of Ansible YAMLs,
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which was painful. Painful enough, so I wrote my own DNS and HTTP servers just
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to avoid configuration with yaml.
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In an unrelated conversation with my ex-colleague and good friend Ken Micklas,
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he suggested taking a more serious look into NixOS. I spent most of the
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summer's "computer time" understanding and dabbing at Nix. Boy it was a great
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decision. Time will tell, of course, for how long it was a maintainable one,
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but it shines pretty bright colors now.
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he suggested taking a more serious look into NixOS. It immediately clicked,
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and, as a result, I spent most of the screen time dabbing at Nix and migrating
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my servers. Time will tell if it was a great long-term decision, but it looks
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pretty good now.
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As of writing, I have the following on a small [Odroid H2+][oh2] computer in my
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closet:
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@ -110,7 +104,7 @@ closet:
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verification][config-nsd-acme].
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* All on an encrypted root file system in ZFS, with nightly backups to
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rsync.net. The encrypted file system allowed me the liberty to add private
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data on the server: family photos, chat histories, later -- host a password
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data on the server: family photos, chat histories, later --- host a password
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manager for my family.
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DNS server is a reason why I run another server. The second server is an
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@ -122,21 +116,16 @@ AArch64 virtual machine in Hetzner for €3.98/month which serves two purposes:
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each other in case either of them reboots (hopefully not both at the same
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time).
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Why encrypted root partition at home? Because I don't want my family photos and
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personal documents unencrypted.
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Project 3b: home and vacation
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-----------------------------
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Originally I planned to take some time off and do all those projects. But after
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a couple of weeks it turned out that I am unfit for such a regime: the full day
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goes by and I do not feel like I have achieved more than I would normally have
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if I were employed.
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a couple of weeks it turned out that I am unfit for such schedule. Day ends and
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I do not feel like I have achieved more than I would normally have if I were
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employed. So at mid-August I started actively interviewing. It is ongoing now;
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I expect to have a job again sooner than I originally thought.
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So at mid-August I started actively interviewing. It is ongoing now; I expect
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to have a job again sooner than I originally thought.
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I will keep you posted! Next -- Matrix.
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I will keep you posted! Next --- Matrix.
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[calculator]: https://tools.geofabrik.de/calc/#type=geofabrik_standard&bbox=20.602031,53.844653,26.82,56.45
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[mod_tile]: https://github.com/openstreetmap/mod_tile
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