Solve: Raspberry Pi Desktop Bug—Can’t Change the Wallpaper? Here’s How to Fix It

Thu May 1 2025

Something strange has crept into recent versions of Raspberry Pi OS. For some users, trying to change the desktop background just… doesn’t work. You pick a new image from the Appearance Settings, click "Set Wallpaper," and nothing happens. No error. No change. No clue.   More

Insight:  The Cloud's Command Line—What the AWS CLI Actually Does

Wed Apr 30 2025

If you’ve spent time at a Linux terminal, you already understand the basic pattern: type a command, press Enter, and your computer obeys. Whether you’re listing files, installing packages, or checking system status, you’re giving direct instructions to your operating system. It’s fast, powerful, and deeply connected to the machine beneath your fingertips.   More

The LocalStack Stack: Why Python Devs Should Love Layered Sandboxes

Wed Apr 30 2025

Modern Python development—especially when it touches cloud services—isn't just about code. It's about control. Control over environments, dependencies, and the endless churn of cloud APIs. And when you’re using LocalStack to emulate AWS locally, that control gets layered. You don’t just have one sandbox. You have a stack of them.  More

Insight: Using the LocalStack AWS Emulator in Cloud Development

Tue Apr 29 2025

LocalStack is a local AWS emulator. It runs on your machine and mimics the behavior of real AWS services—like S3, Lambda, DynamoDB, and API Gateway—so you can build and test cloud-native apps without logging into the actual cloud. It uses the same commands, the same SDKs, and the same tools. You don’t learn a new platform—you just reroute your AWS workflow through a local sandbox.  More

Build: Installing LocalStack on Debian Linux

Tue Apr 29 2025

Imagine spinning up S3, Lambda, and DynamoDB on your laptop without touching AWS or paying a dime. That's the promise of LocalStack—a self-contained emulator for AWS services that runs inside Docker. In this guide, we'll walk through installing LocalStack on a Debian-based system (like Ubuntu or Chromebook Linux) and successfully creating your first S3 bucket, all from the command line.  More

Build: PocketAWS—Build S3 URLs from Anywhere, Instantly

Tue Apr 29 2025

PocketAWS is a tiny command-line tool with a simple mission: let you build S3 URLs in seconds — public or presigned — no matter where you're working. You can run it from an EC2 bastion inside AWS. Or you can run it from a Chromebook on your couch. If you have Python 3 and boto3, you're good to go.  More

New Article on Medium: Someday, DDoS Attacks Will Be History

Mon Apr 28 2025

The internet today faces constant siege from DDoS attacks — floods of traffic five times bigger and far more frequent than the ones that once stunned the world.  More

Insight: Exploring Network Connections with the Linux ss Command

Mon Apr 28 2025

Let's continue our exploration into the world of Linux networking. Today we'll talk about a handy little tool you'll find yourself using quite a bit on your Ubuntu system: the ss command. Think of it as a more modern and often faster replacement for the older netstat command. Don't worry if that sounds like jargon – we'll break it down step by step.  More

Insight: Diving into Network Connections with the Linux netstat Command

Sun Apr 27 2025

Welcome, Ubuntu explorers! As you venture deeper into the world of Linux, you'll discover powerful tools that give you incredible insight into your system. Today, we're going to explore one of these essential utilities: the netstat command. Think of it as your window into the network activity happening on your Ubuntu machine.  More

Insight: A Beginner's Guide to the Linux traceroute Command on Ubuntu

Sun Apr 27 2025

Welcome, fellow Ubuntu explorers! Ever wondered about the invisible pathways your internet traffic takes to reach its destination? Or perhaps you've encountered a frustrating "website not loading" message and wished you could peek behind the curtain to see where things went wrong? Well, you're in the right place! Today, we're diving into a powerful yet surprisingly simple command-line tool that can help you unravel these network mysteries: the traceroute command.  More

New Article on LinkedIn: Ghosting in Business

Sun Apr 27 2025

Ghosting isn’t just a dating term anymore — it’s now part of doing business in 2025. But what if we could approach it without frustration? Without blame? Without letting it slow us down?  More

Build: PocketAWS—A Simple, Friendly Way to Parse AWS ARNs

Sat Apr 26 2025

If you've worked in AWS for any length of time, you've run across ARNs (Amazon Resource Names). They seem to be everywhere—popping up in logs, templates, resource screens, and permissions policies. But even though ARNs are essential, they aren't always easy to understand at a glance.  More

Solve: How a Toothbrush and Alcohol Saved a Raspberry Pi 4

Sat Apr 26 2025

Phil had been battling a stubborn case of Raspberry Pi OS corruption. No matter how carefully he installed, updated, or rebooted, his used Pi 4 would eventually crash and burn. It was maddening. Swapping cables, upgrading the power supply, even re-flashing the SD card—it didn’t matter. Every fix was temporary. Every reboot felt like playing roulette with his file system.  More

Build: PocketAWS—Instantly Check If an IP Belongs to AWS (and Why It Matters)

Sat Apr 26 2025

You’re knee-deep in log analysis. You spot an unfamiliar IP address. Is it from AWS? Some random bot? Something worse? You need an answer — fast — but the last thing you want is to download a 600MB SDK or trudge through documentation. That’s why we built the PocketAWS IP Checker, a lightweight Python tool that does one thing and does it well.  More

Solve: The Raspberry Pi, the SSD, and the Splash Screen of Doom

Fri Apr 25 2025

There’s a special kind of heartbreak in the Raspberry Pi world: the kind that boots once, teases you with success, then leaves you staring at a frozen Kodi logo while your coffee goes cold. Our friend Phil ran into this exact trap when he upgraded from a trusty 16GB USB 2.0 stick to a 120GB SSD on a shiny USB 3.0 adapter. First boot went great. Kodi launched. No resize. He rebooted. It never came back.  More

Insight: The Raspberry Pi's Fatal Flaw—Still No Power Button in 2025

Fri Apr 25 2025

You can build a weather station. A media server. A retro arcade cabinet. A security cam, drone brain, or Kubernetes cluster. But you still can’t turn the thing off.  More

Insight: The Quiet Comeback of Tape Storage for Backups

Thu Apr 24 2025

Let’s get this out of the way: tape storage is not sexy. Nobody’s bragging about it at hackathons. It doesn’t light up with RGB. But in 2025, if you're serious about keeping petabytes of data safe without burning through budgets—or blood pressure—tape might be your smartest move.  More

New Article on Medium: Avoid Redshift Scheduled Task Failures

Thu Apr 24 2025

Redshift Serverless has a strange quirk: it enters a “modifying” state during snapshots. If a scheduled task happens to hit that moment, it quietly fails—no log, no retry, just a ghost of a job that never ran.  More

Deep Dive: Understanding "sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y" in Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm

Fri Feb 21 2025

If you're using Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm, you've likely encountered the command "sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y". It's the key to keeping your system up-to-date. But what's really happening behind the scenes? Let's break it down.  More

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