Last update: 11th May 2025
About me
Zak's the name. I like the outdoors - running's my jam - trails and hills are my fav. I can keep a trot all day, more if I'm on a mish. I like to garden too, grow my own food, save a few bob. I do a bit of mountain biking, skiing and paragliding when time, money and nerves permit.
I grew up in Australia, but now reside in the Queenstown Lakes District in New Zealand. Traded the beaches for the mountains. I'm much more at home here. Recently became a NZ citizen and passport holder.
My career has predominantly been in geographic information systems (GIS), surveying, and asset management. In late 2024 I made a significant career shift into installation and upgrades of integrated home smart systems - audio, visual, security, heating/cooling, access etc. It's a new field for me, and I'm enjoying the journey.
I like computery things too - data vis, web building, coding, systematic trading, PKM, linux, de-googling, FOSS, permacomputing. I'm not great at any of them, but they're interesting and I enjoy learning about them.
About the site
I'm fairly new to this web building thing. This is a bit of a testing ground while I learn the ropes. At the moment I am using the zola static site generator and the neocities CLI utility to publish to Neocities. I am simultaneously learning about Linux and the command line on my old laptop, so most of this is built from there.
I don't write many deep things. It's more of a log than anything. And a place to tinker. It's varied, which I guess is a good reflection of who I am. It's nice to have a place to let rip anything I want. I don't expect everything to resonate with any one reader. That's ok. Maybe there's one or two things. I'm always keen to hear from folk via email. Reach out if you want a yarn.
Quick-posts
2025-06-27 20:43
Been going around in circles trying to host a CalDAV server tool. PHP is causing issues I think. I know nothing about PHP. I will retreat from this on…
2025-06-21 17:11
Not sure of best process practices for coding. I can't help but copying files over and over until I've got the code I want, then I come up with some n…
2025-06-21 10:10
Some things I want to self-host on my Raspberry Pi:
FreshRSS
Gitea
Some things I am already hosting:
gmi.zkbro.com Gemini capsule
notes.zkbro.com N…
2025-06-21 10:02
Currently working through the MOTIVATE 21 Day Challenge to get some more movement and strengthening exercises into my routine to fast track some niggl…
2025-06-20 11:17
Trying some coding in public. Found a pub with wifi, decent coffee breaky rolls, and ah a nice dark beer. Also found the library carpark has free park…
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Blog
🗓️ Weeknote 2025-W26
2025-06-29 20:07
This week whizzed past. Was at a number of sites for work. Doing all sorts:
Regular H&S meet
Set up a Raspberry Pi in workshop and installed UniF…
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💡 Self-host something new day 7 - ntopng
2025-06-29 16:55
Before I go on, I kind of feel like I've strayed off the "self-hosting software" path. Originally I would think that anything replacing what I would t…
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💡 Self-host something new day 6 - Glances
2025-06-28 15:13
Given I'm going a bit gung-ho this week on installing and exposing a bunch of server software on my wee fragile little Raspberry Pi, I thought today I…
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💡 Self-host something new day 5 - Radicale
2025-06-28 00:19
I said I was giving up on this one but after a small break, I had a second puff of energy and got stuck in again. I missed the cutoff by 19 minutes, b…
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💡 Self-host something new day 4 - FreshRSS
2025-06-26 21:11
This nearly broke me. The default installation guide uses the Apache2 web server, but I am already running a Caddy web server, so rather than run 2, I…
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