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1 <!DOCTYPE html> 2 3 <html lang="en"> 4 5 <head> 6 <meta charset="utf-8"> 7 <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> 8 9 <link rel="start" href="https://vincent.demeester.fr" /> 10 11 <title>Vincent Demeester</title> 12 <link rel="canonical" href="https://vincent.demeester.fr/posts/2019-01-20-2018-year-review/"> 13 <link href="https://vincent.demeester.fr/index.xml" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Vincent Demeester" /> 14 15 <link rel="openid.server" href="https://indieauth.com/openid" /> 16 <link rel="openid.delegate" href="http://vincent.demeester.fr/" /> 17 <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" href="favicon.ico"> 18 19 <link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/screen.css" type="text/css" /> 20 <link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/sbrain.css" type="text/css" /> 21 <link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/syntax.css" type="text/css" /> 22 23 </head> 24 25 <body lang=""/> 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 <div id="main-container"> 33 <div id="page"> 34 <article class="post"> 35 <header> 36 <h1 class="emphnext">2018 year review</h1><a href='https://vincent.demeester.fr/posts/2019-01-20-2018-year-review/'></a> 37 <address class="signature"> 38 <span class="date">Sun, 20 January, 2019</span> 39 <span class="words">(1500 Words)</span> 40 </address> 41 <ul class="tag_box inline"> 42 43 44 45 46 47 <li class="tag tag-review"><a href="/tags/#review">review<span>1</span></a></li> 48 49 <br/> 50 51 </ul> 52 </header> 53 54 55 56 57 58 <p>Here is my review of 2018, the first of its kind, hopefully not the last 👼. I saw 59 some<sup class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:fn-1"><a href="#fn:fn-1">1</a></sup> <em>2018<sup class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:fn-2"><a href="#fn:fn-2">2</a></sup> reviews</em><sup class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:fn-3"><a href="#fn:fn-3">3</a></sup> articles<sup class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:fn-4"><a href="#fn:fn-4">4</a></sup> in my Feedly feed and I thought it 60 would be a good idea to write my own too.</p> 61 62 <p>I’ll try in the next year — maybe month if I ever want to do monthly reviews — to automate 63 some of it ; using the beloved <code>org-mode</code>.</p> 64 65 <h2 id="work">Work</h2> 66 67 <p>The big change this year is : I changed job 👼. I went from Docker Inc. to Red Hat. I 68 needed a change and 5 month in, I think it was the <strong>best choice I made in my life</strong> so far 69 💃. I’m doing open-source for a living and best part, I am working remotely (more on that 70 later).</p> 71 72 <p>Before that, at Docker Inc., I continued the work I started years before, 73 a.k.a. maintaining the Moby project and the docker engine, among other Docker project 74 (both open-source and closed-source). I also helped the work on the compose side, from the 75 root of <code>docker/compose-on-kubernetes</code> (before it got open-sourced), to the <code>docker/app</code> 76 experiments.</p> 77 78 <p>At Red Hat, I started to work upstream in the Kubernetes community, mainly on the Knative 79 projects. I also work on the Openshift Cloud Function project (and thus team), and those 80 fellows are awesome ! Digging more into Openshift, and other part of the Red Hat portfolio 81 is a really good learning experience, and it’s just the start !</p> 82 83 <p>As stated above, I am now working home, full-time. I could work from home from time to 84 time when I was at Docker inc, but working home full-time is another kind of beast. So far 85 it is really good, some adjustments were needed but it’s for the best. Here is a small 86 take on “working from home”:</p> 87 88 <ul> 89 <li>It’s easy to have <strong>no distraction</strong>, thus having <strong>really productive</strong> piece of time</li> 90 <li>It’s also <strong>really easy to work long day or really long period of time</strong>. It’s especially 91 true if, like me, you work on a distributed team (across multiple timezones). 92 93 <ul> 94 <li>I ended up using the Pomodoro technique to make sure I move at least few times a day</li> 95 <li>I try to make sure I don’t make an habits of checking out work code, email and other 96 material after a certain hour in the evening. It’s ok to do it sometimes, but for your 97 sanity, you need some rest time.</li> 98 </ul></li> 99 <li>It’s easy to adapt your day to circumstance. If you got to run errands in the middle of 100 the day, it’s no big deal. You can take the time back later on.</li> 101 <li>It’s so good to have <strong>no</strong> commmute time. That said I end up <em>walking or taking the bike</em> 102 early morning to clear my head before work 😝.</li> 103 </ul> 104 105 <h2 id="personal">Personal</h2> 106 107 <p>Health wise, it’s a mix of good and bad year. The first half was really good, the second 108 way less. End of august, I felt something weird in the right knee, and well, turns out my 109 internal meniscus is in a real bad shape. Just as before joining Docker, I’m gonna need a 110 surgery, on the right knee that time. It’s gonna affect 2019 (the first half, I’m not 111 gonna be able to move around much but.. meh, it’s life).</p> 112 113 <p>Now that I work from home, I’m really glad I got a standing desk at the end of 2017. I 114 tend to work standing most of the time – except when my knee hurts (and most likely for 115 few months after the surgery 😅). I invested on a ultrawide screen, to get the same 116 experience I had at Docker. And oh boy those screens are good !</p> 117 118 <p>I also try to clean my desk and it’s “neighboorhood”. As I get older, I want less messy 119 stuuf (desk, flat, …). I’m leaning towards having less stuff, being commputer related or 120 not. It’s not minimalism, but it feel good to have less stuff, but stuff that you actually 121 use. I still have trouble throwing old computer away, mainly because I fell they can be 122 useful in some way.</p> 123 124 <figure> 125 <img src="/images/2019/01/desk1.jpg"/> 126 </figure> 127 128 129 <p>This year I migrate all of my “infrastructure” computer to NixOS. I learned a lot of Nix, 130 reworked my configuration multiple time to end up with a <a href="https://github.com/vdemeester/nixos-configuration.git">system configuration repository</a> 131 that uses modules, and a <a href="https://github.com/vdemeester/home.git"><em>home configuration repository</em></a> (for user configuration). The 132 <a href="https://github.com/vdemeester/home.git">home</a> repository uses <a href="https://github.com/rycee/home-manager.git"><code>home-manager</code></a> and thus doesn’t make any assumption of running on top 133 of NixOS. This allows me to have an <em>easy to get</em> setup on any system that <code>nixpkgs</code> 134 supports (any Linux distribution, Mac OSX, Windows Subsystem Linux). The current 135 configuration is not yet optimal but I’m pretty happy about what I got :</p> 136 137 <ul> 138 <li>Custom DNS server @home to make it easier to target local hosts.</li> 139 <li>Local proxies and mirrors for docker images, nixpkgs binary package and go modules to 140 eat less bandwidth.</li> 141 <li>Easy to setup VPN using <a href="https://www.wireguard.com/">WireGuard</a>.</li> 142 <li>File replication using <code>syncthing</code> and automatic backup on my local NAS.</li> 143 <li>Automatic system upgrade, thanks to NixOS. I’ll probably write an article about that 144 later on this year.</li> 145 </ul> 146 147 <p>I started to use <code>todoist</code> in 2017, and boy, oh boy, it helped me quite a lot ! I’m using 148 it daily to organize my work and quickly get idea, and <em>todos</em> out of my head. The main 149 problem with it is it’s not integrated with another tool I’m using daily : Emacs and 150 <code>org-mode</code>. <code>org-mode</code> is a fantastic piece of software and is, on its own, the main 151 reason for me to invest time in Emacs. I’m taking note in <code>org-mode</code>, I write my daily 152 standup notes in there too. I end up going back and forth between <code>org-mode</code> and <code>todoist</code> 153 for those daily standup. I am lazy, I want to automate that. And the best way to do it, is 154 to also use <code>org-mode</code> for task management. I’m in a <em>transition</em> mode right now, but my 155 goal for 2019 is to use todoist to take quick note/todo(s) on the move (aka on the phone) 156 and use <code>org-mode</code> for the rest.</p> 157 158 <h2 id="reading-and-writing">Reading & Writing</h2> 159 160 <p>I used to like reading, but the past years, I didn’t really read that much, except some 161 technical books. 2018 in, that respect, is not an exception, I didn’t read too much. Worse 162 than that, I started some book and stopped at some point, for no apparent reason ; and 163 now, I need to start back from the beginning, which, well, is not helping me want to read 164 them again.</p> 165 166 <p>I’m trying two thing to counter that and consume more books for the years to come.</p> 167 168 <ol> 169 <li>I now have a reading list on my <code>org-mode</code> files, where I track which one I read and 170 when I read them ; and maybe notes too. I have a lot of book on my kindle, that only 171 wait for one thing, being read..</li> 172 <li>I subscribed to <a href="https://www.audible.fr">Audible</a> 👼. Working from home, I tend to take a long break after lunch, 173 where I’m going for a walk, for around an hour. I can’t read while walking but I 174 definitely can listen - that make audio books perfect for these moments. I also 175 alternate between audio books and non-musical podcasts.</li> 176 </ol> 177 178 <p>On the writing side, 2017 was a slow year in terms of writing (only 2 posts), 2018 was a 179 bit better, 6 posts – it’s a bit cheating, as it was mainly between changing jobs, and 180 on a series I still need to finish. I’m hoping to write more this year, hence the goals 181 I’ve set to myself below.</p> 182 183 <h2 id="2019-goals">2019 Goals</h2> 184 185 <ul> 186 <li><strong>Get back on my feet after knee surgery (exercices, …)</strong> 🏃</li> 187 <li><strong>Read at least one book per month (be audible, ebook or paper)</strong> 📖</li> 188 189 <li><p><strong>Giving at least a talk (on Knative, containers, nixos, ..)</strong> 🙊</p> 190 191 <p>I didn’t give too much talk in 2018 (at least less than 2017). I’m gonna try to get back 192 at it this year. The surgery won’t help but it’s just few months.</p></li> 193 194 <li><p><strong>At least 1 video per month</strong> 📹</p> 195 196 <p>I want to start recording some video, as I feel it’s an easier medium than writing and, 197 well, I wanna try !</p></li> 198 199 <li><p><strong>At least 1 post per month</strong> ✍️</p></li> 200 201 <li><p><strong>Enhance my emacs skills (aka don’t be afraid of the lisp)</strong> ⌨️</p> 202 203 <p>I’m using Emacs for almost anything that doesn’t happen in a web browser. But I still 204 feel like a newbie. I want to learn more, to write more lisp that help me being even 205 more lazier (aka achieve more doing less 😝)</p></li> 206 207 <li><p><strong>Enhance my Nix(OS) skills</strong> 🐧</p></li> 208 209 <li><p><strong>Learn / master a new language</strong> 🎽</p> 210 211 <p>I’m working with Go 90% of my time. I want to master and learn more language. On my list 212 are Emacs Lisp, Rust, Typescript and Haskell.</p></li> 213 </ul> 214 <div class="footnotes"> 215 216 <hr /> 217 218 <ol> 219 <li id="fn:fn-1"><a href="https://punchagan.muse-amuse.in/blog/2018-in-review/">2018 in Review - Noetic Nought</a> 220 <a class="footnote-return" href="#fnref:fn-1"><sup>[return]</sup></a></li> 221 <li id="fn:fn-2"><a href="https://medium.com/@buster/42-dig-deeper-e2278d1fe015">42 — Dig deeper – Buster Benson – Medium</a> 222 <a class="footnote-return" href="#fnref:fn-2"><sup>[return]</sup></a></li> 223 <li id="fn:fn-3"><a href="https://jvns.ca/blog/2018/12/23/2018--year-in-review/">2018: Year in review - Julia Evans</a> 224 <a class="footnote-return" href="#fnref:fn-3"><sup>[return]</sup></a></li> 225 <li id="fn:fn-4"><a href="https://writing.natwelch.com/post/685">Nat? Nat. Nat! | #685 2018 Year in Review</a> 226 <a class="footnote-return" href="#fnref:fn-4"><sup>[return]</sup></a></li> 227 </ol> 228 </div> 229 230 231 </article> 232 <hr /> 233 <div class="prev-next"> 234 235 <a class="paging-link prev" href="/posts/2019-01-26-nix-run-alias/" title="nix run aliases">← Previous post</a> 236 237 238 239 <a class="paging-link next" href="/posts/2019-01-10-link/" title="log.Fatal vs log.Panic · Iskander Sharipov technical blog">Next post →</a> 240 241 </div> 242 243 </div> 244 </div> 245 246 <footer> 247 <nav> 248 249 <a href="/">home</a> 250 <span class="text-muted"> | </span> 251 252 <a href="/about">about</a> 253 <span class="text-muted"> | </span> 254 255 <a href="/archive">archive</a> 256 <span class="text-muted"> | </span> 257 258 <a href="/categories">categories</a> 259 <span class="text-muted"> | </span> 260 261 <a href="/tags">tags</a> 262 <span class="text-muted"> | </span> 263 264 <a href="https://twitter.com/vdemeest">twitter</a> 265 <span class="text-muted"> | </span> 266 267 <a href="https://github.com/vdemeester">github</a> 268 <span class="text-muted"> | </span> 269 270 <a href="https://vincent.demeester.fr/index.xml">rss</a> 271 </nav> 272 <br/> 273 <address> 274 <span class="copyright"> 275 Content and design by Vincent Demeester 276 (<a rel="licence" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">Some rights reserved</a>) 277 </span><br /> 278 <span class="engine"> 279 Powered by <a href="https://gohugo.io/">Hugo</a> and <a href="https://github.com/kaushalmodi/ox-hugo/">ox-hugo</a> 280 </span> 281 </address> 282 </footer> 283 </body> 284