I’ve been keeping an eye on OpenAI’s reasoning models since o1, which launched on 12 September 2024 as the first reasoning model released by OpenAI. It signalled a shift towards models that can spend more time thinking through complex problems, and providing thorough analysis, rather than optimising purely for speed and conversational flow. With o3 and o4-mini, OpenAI is pushing that direction further. These are positioned less as general chat upgrades and more as models designed for deliberate, structured reasoning and tool-aware problem solving.

Managing configuration files across multiple systems can quickly become a mess. From terminal preferences to shell settings, we all have a finely-tuned setup that we rely on day-to-day. But how do you keep those settings consistent across machines? And how do you avoid the chaos of losing them after a reinstall? That’s where a tool like Chezmoi comes in. What is Chezmoi? Chezmoi is a powerful dotfile manager designed to track, version, and securely deploy your configuration files across multiple operating systems. It helps you manage configuration files such as ~/.zshrc, ~/.gitconfig, ~/.config/ and more — all with a simple Git workflow.

Tailscale has transformed the way I manage and access my homelab, providing seamless, secure connectivity between all my devices—wherever I am. In my previous post, “How Tailscale Transformed Secure Access to My Homelab”, I shared how Tailscale has become an essential part of my daily workflow, enabling remote access to servers, VMs, and services without exposing anything to the public internet. Today, I want to highlight another standout feature: Taildrop. What is Taildrop? Taildrop is a built-in feature of Tailscale that allows you to securely send files between any devices connected to your Tailnet. Taildrop transfers files over encrypted peer-to-peer connections, using the fastest available path. This makes it a great solution for sending sensitive or large files without third-party servers in the middle.

Connecting to services in a homelab can be a headache, especially when you want strong security without the hassle of port forwarding, firewall rules, or wrestling with certificates. Last year, I discovered Tailscale and introduced it to my homelab. Tailscale has become my solution for secure, reliable, and zero-fuss access to certain services in my homelab—which I do not want to expose via the public internet. In this post, I’ll walk through what makes Tailscale so effective, how to set it up, and the best practices I’ve picked up along the way.

In my work life, I use a company-issued Windows 11 laptop. I genuinely enjoy working across all the major operating systems, from Linux and macOS to Windows itself—I’ve found that Windows has evolved in some really interesting ways, especially when it comes to Linux and Open Source software. One of the very first things I do when setting up a new Windows system is make sure the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) is installed and configured just the way I like it. I’ve been using WSL on a daily basis for years, and it’s become an essential part of my workflow, allowing me to run all the Linux tools I need in a familiar, integrated environment. Plus, it’s improved massively since I first tried it out on Windows 10 back in 2017.