Author: Jason Burns

  • Measuring AT&T Internet Bandwidth with Python, InfluxDB, and Grafana

    Measuring AT&T Internet Bandwidth with Python, InfluxDB, and Grafana

    Any technical system you build inevitably slides into decay as the ecosystem you’ve borrowed from upgrades slowly over time while you’re off doing other things. The parts you custom tailored now no longer fit. Some of the suppliers go out of business. Some changed businesses altogether. That’s where I find myself with my home network…

  • A Deepness in the Sky

    A Deepness in the Sky

    Here’s my review of A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. I’m not leaving reviews on Goodreads anymore, but it felt like this deserved a mention somewhere publicly. Five stars. Highly recommended. Would read again. I picked up A Deepness in the Sky on a rainy day Oak Island friends beach trip after looking…

  • Cascais, PT

    Cascais, PT

    I tried surfing at Guincho Beach in Cascais, Portugal. I feel like I did a pretty terrible job, but Kat and Elly were awesome. The scenery and waves could not be beat!

  • Bernd das Brot

    Bernd das Brot

    One of my favorite parts of visiting Germany is Bernd das Brot. Whenever you turn on the kids cartoon channel at night you can find Bernd hanging out grumbling about his situation. On this trip, he’s become AstroBrot, floating through space looking for peace and quiet, but constantly interrupted by satellites blaring phone calls and…

  • Halle, DE

    Halle, DE

    After quite a travel ordeal we made it to Leipzig, Germany and then over to Halle. Here’s a picture of us in front of the Handel statue in Halle to prove it. In Halle they’re very proud of Handel. In Leipzig they go nuts over Bach and Goethe. Every city has their famous person. I…

  • Just Because

    Just Because

  • NOC Runnaversary

    NOC Runnaversary

    Kat and I met at the Fullsteam Run Club in Durham on June 3rd. That makes this our runnaversary. We try to do something outdoorsy in spirit of this tradition. The most recent trip was the Nanthahala Outdoor Center for rafting and mountain biking. We had an excellent time as you can see from the…

  • Becoming Anti-social

    Becoming Anti-social

    This isn’t about becoming anti-social in the traditional sense, but more anti-social media. Asocial would be a more accurate term. A few years back I made a decision to disconnect from most social media platforms. If you wanted to get in touch with me or know what I was doing, you would have to see…

  • Random Playlist Selector with Sonos and Home Assistant

    Random Playlist Selector with Sonos and Home Assistant

    Here’s something different for the blog. I’ve taken some inspiration from the HashiCorp RFC and am tracking my personal project that way. I find it useful. Problem Statement I get tired of listening to the same playlist too often. I also want to reduce the number of choices I need to make in the day.…

  • Converting from Goodreads to Obsidian

    Converting from Goodreads to Obsidian

    Last month I got an idea that I’d like to do book reviews in my Obsidian note taking vault. This would satisfy a few problems I’ve had: There were GREAT plugins available like the Obsidian Book Search plugin. However, there wasn’t anything that would take my 400+ books with review text, rating, date read, and…