All Computer Stuff
Convert a PhD thesis to markdown
Say, you have your own little website, which you made as a hobby. And say you wrote a PhD thesis in LaTeX. Would it not be nice to also publish it on LaTeX? How hard can it be?
Why you should use an Electronic Lab Notebook, and Why I Chose Obsidian
In the beginning there was the physical book. The first half of my PhD, I wrote what I did in that physical notebooks. But, as the world is moving to more transparent science, Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) are becoming the norm. After some struggling in OneNote, I have now settled for Obsidian.
Obsidian as a Lab Notebook
In a previous post, I discussed why you would want to use Obsidian as an electronic lab notebook (ELN). Just to quickly recap: Obsidian is flexible, (pretty) open, and free to use. In this post, I will guide you through the practical steps of setting up Obsidian for effective use as an ELN. First, I will explain broadly how everything sticks together, followed by a more in-depth exploration of the configuration details at the end of the post.
A Practical Introduction to a Personal Knowledge Base for Scientists (and Other People)
When I first started using Dokuwiki, i just put random notes there, not intending to really use it for much more than a fun hobby project. But it has now grown to a personal knowledge base with random facts, protocols, and information about techniques. I thought it would be useful for myself to write down what I've learned, and thought I could share it with others as well.
Switching from Hugo to Dokuwiki
When I first started to make a little website for myself as a hobby, I made it in Hugo, using the Cupper theme. But I've switched to Dokwiki now, and I feel much more at home.
Formatting a PhD thesis
So, you have finished the sciency bits of you PhD degree, that is great. But now, the really awful part starts - actually compressing all of that into a cohesive document, your thesis. In this little post, the actual rewriting I will not discuss, although this is a real challenge1). Instead I will discuss formatting.
Self-hosting Machines and Networking
Over time, my self-hosting stuff has out-grown my good old Raspberry Pi 3B. At home I have Intel NUC (a mini PC), which is running Proxmox (for heavy stuff), a QNAP NAS (for storing data) and a Raspberry Pi 4 (for fun). The old Raspberry Pi 3 is currently enjoying its retirement. I also have 3 active VPS'es running: one in the US (free tier Google cloud), and two tiny cheap ones in the Netherlands and the UK.
Self-hosting Favorites
By (mildly) popular demand, I will briefly list the self-hosting stuff I use (and don't use) and why. I will not discuss how to set up these things, I think you can find that out elsewhere on the web, but I will rather explain why I use what. I will list my self-hosted services from 1 downward in order of how dependent I am on them, just to give you an idea.