This page covers what electronic devices, equipment and software I’m running right now.

Time since last update: 6 months.

What’s New?

  • I upgraded my ‘always on’ GMKtec box from Debian 12 to 13. I also cross-graded (?) my Archive Server from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS to Debian 13. No huge reason for that latter move, but I wanted to have my two servers on the same OS for simplicity and Debian is a fairly relaxed, slower moving distro.

  • I swapped out my Google Pixel 6a smartphone to a Nothing Phone 3a. Another family member wanted the 6a. I wrote a page about some of my recent Nothing purchases.

  • I upgraded my camera from a Fujifilm X-T200 to a Fujifilm X-T30 iii. I’d had the X-T200 for almost 6 years and wasn’t really sure what my next camera would be and thought I’d be buying used (the market is still a sellers market). However, a few months ago Fujifilm announced a revision of the X-T30 line as an entry level and given how expensive the X-T50 is, I decided to give it a go.

Hardware

Desktop PC

My Frankenstein’s monster of a desktop box is mainly for audio and video editing, encoding, gaming and some work. It generally gets updated piecemeal.

Archive Server

Another self built machine mainly used for file serving and media storage.

Dell XPS 13

This is a 9360 model from mid 2018. Battery replaced in 2024/10.

GMKtec NucBox 5

A small form factor mini PC purchased in 2023/09. This runs my home ‘always on’ services such as Pihole, Syncthing and Tailscale. Almost silent and very small, but much quicker than the old Raspberry Pi’s it replaces, especially on the web UIs.

  • CPU: Intel Celeron N5105 CPU & chipset
  • RAM: 8GB
  • Storage: 256GB M2 SATA SSD.
  • OS: Debian 13.

Software

Backups are handled via iDrive, using a private key for a little more security, since living in a wooden house in an earthquake zone does make me think about off-site backups quite a lot. For folder sync between machines I use Syncthing, and that’s only on LAN.

Most of the things I do are text based, so I try to keep it simple, using editors like Obsidian for most general stuff, as it helps organise things too. Photo management is mainly via digiKam and sometimes DarkTable.

I keep passwords in a Bitwarden vault and sensitive documents in VeraCrypt files.

The Audio and the Visual

I have a FujiFilm X-T30 iii mirrorless camera (2025/12), a 23mm weather sealed prime, a 16-80mm travel zoom and a cheap 60mm Macro lens from 7artisans.

For an action cam, I have a DJI Osmo Action 4 along with the DJI Mic 2. I like to use the action camera on the snowboard, bicycles, motorbikes and at beaches.

In mid-2019 I indulged a long time interest in audio recording, and invested in a Rode NT1 microphone and a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface. I’m still loving them both.

Video editing

BlackMagic DaVinci Resolve 20.x is great for video editing, if a little overpowered for me, and I use both YouTube and Vimeo for video availability when I do put something online, though most is family videos. I use LosslessCut for hacking away unneeded footage from my video excursions.

Audio Editing

Since buying a proper microphone and audio interface, I went for Reaper 7 as a cheap but easy to understand DAW. For the small fee it’s difficult to say how much nicer, fast and easier Reaper is than other options.

Gadgets

  • Nothing Phone 3a smartphone (2025/08).
  • Kindle PaperWhite 2015 (2015/09).
  • Raspberry Pi’s of various generations (1-4) doing various things.
  • Arduino Uno and other electronics kit (2013 onwards).
  • Zoom H1 audio recorder (2012/03).
  • Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones (2020/02).
  • Flexispot EQ5 Pro standing desk (2021/12).
  • Sony Playstation 5 for gaming (2023/02).
  • Meta Quest 3 VR Headset (2024/12)

Hosting

This site and my email is housed on some space at Kualo.com.