https://pikdum.dev/ Recent content in Home on pikdum's blog Hugo en-us Wed, 31 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://pikdum.dev/posts/thistle-tea-2025-update/ Wed, 31 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://pikdum.dev/posts/thistle-tea-2025-update/ This is a follow-up to these posts: Building a World of Warcraft server in Elixir Building a World of Warcraft server in Elixir: 2024 Update Thistle Tea is a World of Warcraft private server project that I’ve been working on for a while now. This is a quick update to highlight what’s been going on in 2025. New Year’s Blues The last big feature I worked on in 2024 was having mobs chase the player they were in combat with. https://pikdum.dev/posts/thistle-tea-2024-update/ Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://pikdum.dev/posts/thistle-tea-2024-update/ Thistle Tea is my World of Warcraft private server project, started in June 2024. I wrote a blog post back then journaling the first month of development and have since been working on the project bit by bit. This is a follow-up to highlight progress since then, so I’d recommend skimming the original post first. Pathfinding I briefly tried to get mobs walking around during the first month, but couldn’t get it working very well. https://pikdum.dev/posts/thistle-tea/ Sun, 14 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://pikdum.dev/posts/thistle-tea/ Updates: 2024-11-28: Should’ve linked earlier, but there’s now a homepage and Discord channel. Thistle Tea is my new World of Warcraft private server project. You can log in, create a character, run around, and cast spells to kill mobs, with everything synchronized between players as expected for an MMO. It was floating around in my head to build this for a while, since I have an incurable nostalgia for early WoW. https://pikdum.dev/posts/my-home-network/ Sun, 05 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://pikdum.dev/posts/my-home-network/ Here’s an overview of my home network setup. Office Closet This is where I keep most of my network equipment in a small rack mounted on the wall. Router Hardware: N5105 Mini PC Software: OPNSense Interfaces: LAN - everything wired + main wifi ssid Guest - for guest wifi ssid IoT - for iot wifi ssid Works really well. Interfaces are set up so that Guest and IoT can’t access things outside them. https://pikdum.dev/posts/blog-migration/ Sun, 28 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://pikdum.dev/posts/blog-migration/ Decided to buy a domain for this blog and host it myself. rewrote with Hugo deployed with Cloudflare Pages now lives at pikdum.dev repo is at https://github.com/pikdum/blog Will write more posts shortly. https://pikdum.dev/posts/rip-my-custom-domain/ Sat, 12 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://pikdum.dev/posts/rip-my-custom-domain/ guess trying to update my favicon to not be truncated also cleared out my custom domain, since that’s somehow now a paid feature set up a redirect for now, but not nearly as nice rip https://pikdum.dev/posts/5600x-vs-5800x3d-on-linux/ Fri, 02 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://pikdum.dev/posts/5600x-vs-5800x3d-on-linux/ Recently bought a 5800X3D to replace my 5600X, and ran some benchmarks to see if it was worth it. Update: It wasn’t worth the 8% performance loss with most regular tasks. Returned it for a full refund. Benchmarks Did three quick ones, two work related and one gaming: starting PostgreSQL and applying a lot of migrations building a Next.js application running Cyberpunk 2077 on all the presets Running Pop!_OS 22.04, on 2022-12-02. https://pikdum.dev/posts/recommended-linux-software/ Fri, 03 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://pikdum.dev/posts/recommended-linux-software/ Here’s a quick list of recommended/neat Linux software: applications Doom Emacs - text editor personal preference, uses vi keybinds Firefox - browser LibreOffice - office suite Ranger - console file viewer Thunderbird - emails Trackma - anime list manager haven’t actually used in a while feh - basic image viewer mpv - videos tools/utilities/cli BorgBackup - deduplicating backup tool borgmatic - wrapper for BorgBackup coreutils - core utilities curl - network requests jq - json processor ncdu - disk usage analyzer restic - more modern deduplicating backup tool would recommend over borg nowadays rsync - fast incremental file transfer scrot - screenshots sed - filter text wget - file download xargs - build + execute commands from stdin xdotool - auto clicking and shit The categories are a bit arbitrary. https://pikdum.dev/posts/recommended-windows-software-2021/ Tue, 09 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://pikdum.dev/posts/recommended-windows-software-2021/ here’s a quick list of “recommended” windows software: 7zip - extract archives AutoVer - easy versioned backups useful for game saves and documents Firefox Developer Edition - browser Flash Player - standalone flash player foobar2000 - music LibreOffice - office suite i don’t really use this unless i need to, would rather use markdown i only really use this on linux for work mpv - videos nbb - booru browser ;) NetTime - make windows time actually sync fixes dual boot time issues for me nomacs - image viewer i haven’t found one that isn’t shit, but this seems ok qBittorrent - torrents RetroArch - emulation for plebs ShareX - screenshots SumatraPDF - pdf/epub/etc reader Taiga - anime list Thunderbird - emails suprisingly decent i also actually only use this on linux for work YACreader - manga reader is ok probably forgot something; let me know if there are any categories i missed https://pikdum.dev/posts/recommended-windows-software-2014/ Thu, 24 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://pikdum.dev/posts/recommended-windows-software-2014/ Here’s a regularly updated list of recommended Windows software. Browser: Firefox > Chromium > Chrome »> Internet Explorer Office Suite: Libre Office > Microsoft Office == Kingsoft Office They’re all pretty bad though. Consider switching to LaTeX. Email Client: They’re all shit. Just use gmail or something that actually works. Mailpile might not be shit, but it’s still in alpha. PDF Reader: pdf.js == SumatraPDF »> Adobe Reader Adobe Reader is nice if you like trojans and malicious scripts in your PDFs. https://pikdum.dev/posts/site-goals-2014/ Wed, 23 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://pikdum.dev/posts/site-goals-2014/ Now that this site is now live and (mostly) working, I’ll outline some goals. Website Topics: Technology Mainly software Computer Science If I feel like it Anime Rarely, if ever Content Goals: Lists of recommended software Guides on how to set up neat software stacks Shill lesser-known software Links to some of my projects Links to interesting websites Technical Goals: Add Disqus to my posts so people can comment Get this site on Google so people can find it Add more information to certain pages Various site tweaks Personal Goals: