Weekly Post #1 - 02/01/2026
It seems fitting that the first post of this blog is being written (if not published) on the first day of a new year. I've toyed with idea the of starting a blog for a long time now but I finally decided it was time just before Christmas.
I find the best way to cement knowledge is to write about it. Writing forces me to fact-check, dig deeper, and organize my thoughts in a way that passive learning just doesn't.
I've also learnt a lot over the years, and there comes a point where I have to write it down. I'm hoping this will become a repository of everything I've learnt as well as new concepts as I come across them.
I have years of experience as a sysadmin, which naturally includes a lot of cyber security experience as well. I'm currently studying for CISSP, which I'm finding interesting and challenging in equal measure. I imagine this blog will be about that for a while, although it will also include network administration projects I'm working on as well.
This blog is made with the open source platform Publii. To be honest, it's been a while since I experimented with website hosting, but Publii seems to tick the boxes of being simple to set up and maintain while generating a website that does what I need. My stack includes Cloudflare, GitHub and Azure Static Web Apps I will write more about the setup, with what works well and what doesn't at some point. I may even change it. We'll see how it goes.
I've also made the decision that this will be anonymous. The internet is a dark and horrible place sometimes, and I can't be bothered with that side of it. This blog isn't about me; it's about technical concepts and other IT topics.
That said, I do intend to write at some point about kids and parental control. I have two kids, and we're starting down the tech rabbit hole, trying to work out the right points to introduce different tech to them and the minefield involved in that. I'm not an expert and I won't pretend to be, but I think it's worth writing about.
I'm not sure anyone in the last year has written a blog list without mentioning artificial intelligence, so here goes. I do use AI extensively, both professionally and personally, and I think it's worth stating upfront how it is used with respect to this site. I am not churning out blog posts using AI and contributing to the mass of AI slop that is now all over the internet. This blog is written by me, and me only.
I use AI as a research assistant, and use it to fact check posts before I put them up. I believe this is where it excels and is at its most useful. I could carry on; AI is worth a post on it's own and I'll get to that but I wanted to be upfront about how it is used here.
In terms of engagement and feedback, there are currently no options. I'm going to concentrate on getting some content up, then work out how much I want to do around comment approval and social media presence. I hate social media, and have come off nearly all of it, so I'm not keen on venturing down that route but appreciate it may be the way to go. All doors are open, so watch this space.
I'm currently not planning on monetising this, as at the moment the only cost has been the domain. GitHub and Azure are both free for my consumption requirements, and I'm not doing this for money. If I ever go above the free tiers and it starts costing me, then that's different and it's something I'll have to look at.
So there we are. I'll be uploading some more content over the next week and aim to do (at least) one post a week, probably on Fridays. See you around.