[{"content":"Local AI is Hitting the Sweet Spot Local LLMs are finally starting to feel effective as a daily driver.\nSix months ago my engagement with language models was split 10% local, 90% cloud for chat \u0026amp; coding, and that local use was mostly a quick check of \u0026ldquo;are we there yet.\u0026rdquo;\nNow, with Qwen3.5 and Gemma 4, I\u0026rsquo;m spending more than half of my chat-time in a local web UI.\nBetween the data privacy, model diversity, and evading advertisements, it\u0026rsquo;s become my default for most tasks.\nThe cloud still wins on huge reasoning models, fast inference speed, and massive context, but most of my day-to-day tasks don\u0026rsquo;t need these feats.\nPlus, GPU hardware continues to see supply scarcity and obscene prices. I got lucky with a used RTX 3090 for $600usd in Fall 2025, but for most people, a new local rig isn\u0026rsquo;t feasible in 2026.\nThe main purpose of this post is to highlight a few QOL improvements in local LLMs that have hyped me up for the future of local compute. We\u0026rsquo;re rapidly moving away from a simple chat-bot interface to a much more complex personal assistant toolkit.\nHardware \u0026amp; Engine As mentioned, my hardware is nothing complicated - a single dedicated RTX 3090 with 24GB VRAM. This is a five year old card, and it\u0026rsquo;s still plenty fast for my needs (Gemma 4 35 t/s).\nI have recently simplified my software setup from OpenWebUI to llama-server\u0026rsquo;s latest WebUI, and I\u0026rsquo;m loving it.\nThe interface is so lightweight, it allows dynamic model loading/unloading, and they\u0026rsquo;ve recently added MCP server support which brings me to the first two major QOL improvement: get_current_datetime and Searxng.\nBridging Small Models with Live Search Data I run a simple MCP server in Python that exposes two primary tools:\nA lightweight \u0026ldquo;get_current_time\u0026rdquo; tool, and, A self-hosted search engine called Searxng with Ihor-sokoliuk\u0026rsquo;s Searxng_mcp bridge These two tools, paired with a basic system prompt like \u0026ldquo;Always check the current time and use Search tool when relevant\u0026rdquo; have been a game changer for me.\nMy normal questions of \u0026ldquo;what\u0026rsquo;s up with [news event]\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;how is the new open source model XYZ compared to the previous generation\u0026rdquo; used to yield obnoxious responses like \u0026ldquo;Those things aren\u0026rsquo;t real.\u0026rdquo;\nWith the addition of search, I\u0026rsquo;m now using local models easily five times as often.\nAnd once I realized how easy it was to add, I was reminded that MCP (and Skills) provide an extremely powerful connection between models and code.\nExperimenting with MCP and Skills One downside to the integration of MCP servers with a local platform like llama-server is you have to iteratively set up each MCP connection.\nAlso, the MCP docstring that tells the model how every tool is supposed to be used is loaded into context during each conversation.\nFor some folks like me with limited VRAM, that context can be be unnecessarily restrictive.\nSome community members recommend enabling/disabling MCP servers on the fly, which most of the local web UI tools support, but this too is an extra step that requires the user to pay careful attention to which tools are loaded or unloaded. Even knowing which tools you need in a conversation ahead of time can be a challenge.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve chosen to break the normal MCP implementation by giving my local models access to an MCP \u0026ldquo;hub\u0026rdquo; that uses a traditional \u0026ldquo;list\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;help \u0026rdquo; tool.\nThis \u0026ldquo;router\u0026rdquo; style for MCP isn\u0026rsquo;t a unique idea, but the reason I\u0026rsquo;m writing about it is because it highlights just how diverse the MCP interface can be.\nHere are two other projects doing the same thing:\nhttps://github.com/mapyr/mcp-hangar https://github.com/samteezy/mcp-context-proxy/ As an educational exercise, I\u0026rsquo;ve created a similar project for myself with a registry of commands. This has been a huge QOL improvement for me because it allows the model to choose when to hot-swap MCP tools without taking up as much context.\nSandboxing for Safety For agentic coding, the Docker team has been working diligently on the Docker Sandbox toolkit and I can\u0026rsquo;t recommend it enough: https://www.docker.com/products/docker-sandboxes/\nFor other LLM-code interfaces like MCP servers, I highly recommend containerizing them as well. You can see an extremely brief example setup I run here: https://github.com/twwhite/twio-cairn/\nLooking Forward A huge shout-out goes out to the llama.cpp devs, the /r/localllama community, the Unsloth team, the Qwen team, MLX team, the community members that contribute day-one quants on huggingface, build verification, jailbreaking, and all other vital contributions to this wonderful ecosystem.\nThere are so many fascinating areas where local LLMs are being continuously developed and improved.\nSome specific projects I\u0026rsquo;m keeping my eye on:\nGoogle\u0026rsquo;s recent TurboQuant paper and how polar relations may enable smaller lossless quants Better RAM/Disk offloading strategies for MoE models Improvements to the Home Assistant local LLM integration Better Omni-supported local models (shame about Gemma native voice being bound to the E2B and E4B models Power efficiency trends for unified memory systems What do you think is going to be the next big breakthrough?\n","permalink":"https://sudotim.com/posts/local-ai-journey-04-2026/","summary":"Local AI is Hitting the Sweet Spot Local LLMs are finally starting to feel effective as a daily driver.\nSix months ago my engagement with language models was split 10% local, 90% cloud for chat \u0026amp; coding, and that local use was mostly a quick check of \u0026ldquo;are we there yet.\u0026rdquo;\nNow, with Qwen3.5 and Gemma 4, I\u0026rsquo;m spending more than half of my chat-time in a local web UI.","title":"Local AI Summary - April 2026"},{"content":"Which mobile ecosystem are you a part of, Google or Apple?\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been a member of the Google ecosystem for over a decade now, but recently I\u0026rsquo;ve dramatically reduced my reliance on their closed-source cloud software services.\nThe ongoing battle over ever-increasing subscription fees, the lack of immediate control over my cloud-hosted data, and generally my disinterest in supporting the monopolization of technology have all motivated me to employ a variety of community-developed free and open-source software equivalents to the services Google offers at home.\nIn this post, we\u0026rsquo;ll take a look at the hardware and software I rely on on a day-to-day basis, the comforts I enjoy, and the limitations I steer around.\nLets start with a diagram A picture is worth a thousand words. Here is a diagram showcasing the high-level hardware and software attributes of my self-hosted ecosystem:\nHardware In order to reliably serve these services, I\u0026rsquo;ve invested in an assortment of hardware:\nInternal Servers (1x) Minisforum MS-A1 operating as a NAS for local data storage \u0026amp; backup and running a few docker applications (1x) Beelink SER6 as a media client and day-to-day front-end computer External Server (1x) Minisforum UM690S runs this website and other publicly accessibly services. Network Hardware (1x) Protectli VP2420 router+firewall running PfSense, connected to my ISP\u0026rsquo;s fiber link. (1x) Ubiquiti Switch Flex Mini, 5-port 2.5G switch. (1x) Ubiquiti U6 Pro WiFi 6 Access Point. (1x) Asus RT-A68u IoT Access Point (running Merlin firmware) Server Rack Here\u0026rsquo;s what it all looks like installed in a rack:\nRemote Access I primarily use Wireguard as a VPN to connect to my local network. No services are exposed to the public except for web applications on traditional web ports. I\u0026rsquo;m able to protect my IP address publicly leaking by using Cloudflare\u0026rsquo;s Reverse DNS service (free) Software I Self-Host I replaced Google Drive with a combination of an NFS file share service (for sharing files internally) and SeaFile (for sharing files externally) I replaced Google Photos with Immich, and I love it! StandardNotes is my preferred Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) and note-taking software Frigate (NVR) for security cameras (I only really use these for watching our pets and looking at our garden) I use LibreOffice locally instead of Google Docs I run a Mattermost chat platform as an alternative to Discord/Slack GoToSocial acts as an ActivityPub server (I\u0026rsquo;m my only follower!) DokuWiki lets me document important information for my loved ones and I A combination of either Ollama, llama.cpp, and OpenWebUI have replaced ChatGPT for local LLM This website is compiled using Hugo NginxProxyManager acts as a reverse proxy so I can access all of these web services by reverse-proxy. Jellyfin is my Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/etc. of choice, and I obtain content from many sources including my local library and Kanopy Calibre + Calibre Web acts as my Kindle books/Audible I run HomeAssistant for home automation tasks, paired with their recently released HomeAssistant Voice Edition as a local voice assistant. I use LinkStack as a LinkTree alternative Homer organizes all of these services into a wonderful cloud dashboard Uptime Kuma, ntfy, and Dockerge are all tools for control and monitoring the services for outages BorgBackup is my backup client of choice Wireguard is my VPN of choice I have a JetKVM that lets me bare-metal remote into my servers in the event of hardware issues I subscribe to Kagi for my internet search provider and highly recommend their services.\nI still rely on cloud-hosted SaaS for email because running email locally is a nightmare even in 2025. I pay for a monthly subscription to ProtonMail. I like them very much so far and would recommend them!\nFeel free to reach out if you have any questions about how any of this works!\n","permalink":"https://sudotim.com/posts/self-hosting-summary-snapshot-2025/","summary":"Which mobile ecosystem are you a part of, Google or Apple?\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been a member of the Google ecosystem for over a decade now, but recently I\u0026rsquo;ve dramatically reduced my reliance on their closed-source cloud software services.\nThe ongoing battle over ever-increasing subscription fees, the lack of immediate control over my cloud-hosted data, and generally my disinterest in supporting the monopolization of technology have all motivated me to employ a variety of community-developed free and open-source software equivalents to the services Google offers at home.","title":"Self-Hosting Summary Snapshot 2025"},{"content":"This weekend we took a trip out to Northeast Oregon along the Snake River. Our specific destination of choice was Hell\u0026rsquo;s Canyon, the deepest canyon in North America!\nFriday night we camped at Emigrant Springs State Heritage Area just past Pendleton on I-84. The view of the forest made up for the road noise.\nDinner was camp-stove pizza! It was a fun experiment, but our technique needs work to say the least. But hey, look out for our upcoming recipe book \u0026ldquo;Outdoor Cooking Disasters with Susie \u0026amp; Tim!\u0026rdquo;\nSaturday morning, we stopped into Baker City for the farmer\u0026rsquo;s market, but it was closed. Luckily, BELLA Main Street Market was open where the owner shared her wonderful story of Baker City\u0026rsquo;s steady population over a hundred years, twenty-five of which she spent in that very store. Her positive outlook on the local community and the tourists that pass through it was contagious. She invited us to a wine release that night, offered us samples, and told us how her favorite colorful wax seals on the release bottles were the ones she messed up. If you\u0026rsquo;re ever in the area, buy a bottle to support her fantastic business.\nAfter that we headed toward the Snake River via Hwy 86. We wanted to explore the high-walls of the canyon, so we drove up and up and up N. Pine Rd (NF-39) to the Hell\u0026rsquo;s Canyon Overlook.\nWe drove as far as we could through the forest roads, up to a half-mile shy of McGraw Lookout where we couldn\u0026rsquo;t pass the roads. We hiked the rest of the way to the decommissioned fire tower, then extended up NF-110 until it dead-ended. A few steps further, and we made it to an overlook where we could finally enjoy a beer and snacks in the expansive view of our surroundings.\nAfter the hike, we found a wonderful mountain-top dispersed campsite with a panoramic sunset view.\nIt was veggie hot dogs with wild onions for dinner. Chilly night, but wonderfully clear dark-sky stars.\nSunday morning we tortured the Honda Accord on the way back down the mountain on a very rocky and technical road, but we made it!\nWe started the canyon drive on the Idaho side through Oxbow. The canyon walls were skyscrapers from the base, and the climate was dry, arid, and hot. It reached the nineties by mid-day, and the sun cut through the air like a knife. The drive from entrance to end took us about an hour and we stopped to grab a dispersed camp site at Big Bar Camping area. At the end of the canyon was the visitor\u0026rsquo;s center, but it was closed. Luckily for us, the attendant, a cinnamon black bear cub, was around to keep us occupied.\nWe hiked a short trail into a portion of the canyon where roads couldn\u0026rsquo;t be laid and we decided to go for a cool-down dip in the Snake River. The water was frigid and refreshing. We ate our sandwiches and watched the rafters brave the rapids one by one.\nAfter that we explored the Hell\u0026rsquo;s Canyon Dam. We gained perspective on how anglers treat the local environment with respect to litter. We also observed initials welded into the metal on the staircase.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s fun to see the impressive engineering monument of the dam in front of us relative to the especially small token some of the laborers devoted to themselves. An osprey nested atop an emergency flood siren, ironically sirening to its companion for fish.\nThose were the main agenda items for Sunday. We headed back to set up camp, enjoy some refreshments and wait ever-so-patiently for the sun to crest the top of the canyon to cool us down.\nIt was then that I realized I was intensely allergic to whatever grass was overgrowing the perimeter of our camp site. Not much sleep was had!\nMonday morning we left the canyon for the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest! We spent the day exploring the local towns, houses, farms, and doing small hikes here and there. We ran into snow, ate our sandwiches and snacks, and found another spectacular and isolated dispersed campground next to a small creek. I got the hatchet stuck in a log, we made a fire, and we relaxed into that comfortable feeling that we could do this forever.\nTuesday was the big drive back! We stopped into Walla Walla for the first time where we learned they have lots and lots of wineries! More wineries than I\u0026rsquo;ve ever seen. Also, shout out to Andy\u0026rsquo;s Market for being the cutest local grocery store I\u0026rsquo;ve ever seen. Go there for yourself!\nOn the way out of Walla Walla we stumbled upon the old Umatilla Chemical Depot, an Oregon State Guard facility that we learned used to be a munitions storage facility during WWII. Turns out they stored and destroyed massive amounts of armaments there including chemical weaponry like VX nerve agents. Interesting to learn about!\nNo Susie and Tim road trip would be complete without stopping in at at least one new craft microbrewery, which for us was Burnt Field Brewing in Boardman, OR.\nThanks for reading!\n","permalink":"https://sudotim.com/posts/hells-canyon-may-25/","summary":"This weekend we took a trip out to Northeast Oregon along the Snake River. Our specific destination of choice was Hell\u0026rsquo;s Canyon, the deepest canyon in North America!\nFriday night we camped at Emigrant Springs State Heritage Area just past Pendleton on I-84. The view of the forest made up for the road noise.\nDinner was camp-stove pizza! It was a fun experiment, but our technique needs work to say the least.","title":"Hell's Canyon, the deepest canyon in North America"},{"content":"This is an article that I wrote to talk about something I love with anybody who wants to read it.\nCoffee Can Taste Great, No Really it Can! I drink coffee every day, and I\u0026rsquo;ve been doing so for fifteen years. I\u0026rsquo;ll probably drink it for the rest of my life.\nAs one of my two drinks of passion, craft beer being the other, I\u0026rsquo;m drawn to its taste more than anything.\nOf course, I\u0026rsquo;m not talking about Starbucks, Folgers, Chock full o\u0026rsquo; Nuts, Nescafe, etc..\nI try my best to find a light-roasted coffee, usually a variety that showcases sweet fruit flavors, bright acidity, and heavy mouthfeel.\nThis type of cup usually comes from raw coffee processing methods that promote fermentation, \u0026ldquo;anaerobic natural\u0026rdquo; for example, and typically from an Arabica variety. Ethiopian is my favorite, but I\u0026rsquo;ve had many great cups from Colombia, Kenya, Peru, India, Guatemala, Nicaragua, you name it.\nThere is a huge, ever-growing variety. There are so many origins, blends, and processing methods that every batch of beans is unique.\nOne of the best cups I\u0026rsquo;ve ever had was at Slow by Slow Coffee in Boise, Idaho. The beans were hilariously named \u0026ldquo;Watermelon Drops\u0026rdquo; by DAK Coffee Roasters in Amsterdam. They were an Arabica variety from the Huila region of Colombia that were anaerobically fermented. The flavor absolutely blew me away! The best single word to describe it is \u0026ldquo;juicy.\u0026rdquo;\nToday on How It\u0026rsquo;s Made with Susie and Tim My wife and I are always trying new brewing methods at home. We started out in high school with a counter-top drip machine, then moved on to an Aeropress, then picked up a V60 pour-over, were gifted a Chemex, stumbled upon a Bialetti Moka pot, replaced the gasket in our Aeropress, bought another Aeropress, broke our Chemex, and now we are finally settling into our Gaggia Classic Pro espresso machine. We use a Bonavita 1.5L gooseneck kettle and my favorite thrift-store find to date: a Baratza Virtuoso burr grinder. The V60 is our favorite for camping!\nTo reduce our coffee costs and continue to enjoy other parts of the arts of the procedure, we have acquired over the years through gifting and thrifting multiple Whirley Pop stove-top popcorn makers to roast green coffee beans at home. Being such a mechanical process and us being such amateur roasters, we usually end up with different levels of roast for the same beans, so we get to try even more variations!\nObviously, that\u0026rsquo;s a lot of gear, but let\u0026rsquo;s talk about\u0026hellip;\nThe Routine Making coffee in the morning is the easiest way to wake up your brain. It\u0026rsquo;s a simple procedure that requires basic hand-eye coordination. It stimulates our sense of hearing when we first engage the grinder, which immediately wakes up our sense of smell. The tiny whisk that distributes the coffee evenly in the heavy weighted portafilter wakes up the fine pitch muscles in our hands. Then, if it all goes according to plan, the extraction fills one of our pottery mugs with my favorite drink in the world.\nBut more important than all of that - drinking that cup with a loved one from start to finish every morning is an experience I wish everyone had the privilege to enjoy. There are no bad cups had in this manner.\nThat being said, there are drawbacks to coffee consumption.\nThe Downsides Coffee is ultimately a consumable and it costs a not-insignificant amount of money.\nAs a commodity, there are also climate implications and other ethical consequences associated. Deforestation, pesticides and fertilizers, wastewater handling, plastic use like single-use coffee cups (and non-recyclable paper replacements), single use shipping materials, etc., and the energy required in the transportation, roasting, and brewing (appx. 60% of total energy used in the process) to name a few.\nCoffee is also only able to be grown in specific regions of the world that have appropriate climate, soil, and altitude (rather, the daytime warmth and cold nights associated). This means that each local farmer who grows it has market needs that are unique.\nAs with all things, it\u0026rsquo;s best to directly support individual or cooperative farms instead of secondary trade exchanges that give a higher percentage of coffee profits to importers and exporters. Since coffee is typically packaged at the farm-level in 50-70kg bags, it does make sense for the average consumer to buy from a local roaster who can buy in bulk and repackage it for you.\nAnother downside that comes up for me often is that sometimes my relationship with coffee feels like it is an addiction.\nI really do drink it every day, and when I don\u0026rsquo;t, I can end up with caffeine withdrawal headaches. Like all things in life, I\u0026rsquo;m working on maintaining a healthy relationship with it by moderation.\nThe good news is that regularly drinking coffee in moderation is probably not a short-term or long-term health hazard.\nAll of the equipment I described earlier is also both an upside and a downside. Ideally, I would have one method that works, and stick with it forever, but sometimes I want to try that new brewing method!\nAfter this many years, though, I do feel like my consumption of new brewing methods has greatly gone down. Plus, I have been able to pass along some of our brewing equipment to others to use secondhand!\nLike all consumables (and everything, really), Coffee has an impact on climate change. The amount of greenhouse gas emissions consumed by boiling water to brew a cup can vary dramatically depending on how your region generates power, but the general idea of reducing consumption applies here.\nAlso, there is a reciprocal impact of climate change on growing coffee that may have long term implications for the sustainability of the crop.\nLow Hanging Fruit I\u0026rsquo;m going to make a focused attempt to minimize the effect my consumption of coffee has on the world by doing the following:\nIn terms of energy consumption, the first step was to start monitoring the power consumption of our counter-top espresso machine. I use HomeAssistant for this (somewhere between 0.2 and 0.3 kWh per day for 2-4 cups). Drinking less of it in general - one cup a day is a good target when I have free access to it (so hard to say no!) Hard stance on not consuming single-use plastic coffee pods and not using plastic lids No reheating coffee - no sense wasting energy here, the coffee is already brewed and is still tasty when cold! No dairy milk in my coffee - a constant battle to reduce my dairy consumption continues with coffee. Buy from farmers as directly as possible! Some importers, like Sweet Maria\u0026rsquo;s, include a significant amount of traceability for the coffee they import. Try to buy coffee shipped by sea rather than plane Compost our waste coffee grounds - We vermicompost them, but you can also add them to your compost pile or straight to your garden. As always, vocally advocate for these changes to friends and family to amplify the sustainable practices. If you like coffee, I hope your cup is fantastic today. If not, I hope you find a cup you like someday.\nCheers!\n","permalink":"https://sudotim.com/posts/on-coffee/","summary":"This is an article that I wrote to talk about something I love with anybody who wants to read it.\nCoffee Can Taste Great, No Really it Can! I drink coffee every day, and I\u0026rsquo;ve been doing so for fifteen years. I\u0026rsquo;ll probably drink it for the rest of my life.\nAs one of my two drinks of passion, craft beer being the other, I\u0026rsquo;m drawn to its taste more than anything.","title":"Coffee: a love, love relationship"},{"content":"Downgrading from Google Workspace to Google while maintaining your account purchases (2024) Tl;dr: I successfully severed my subscription ties with Google by:\ncreating a new free Google account, and requesting that the Google Play Store support team transfer my play store purchases from my old Workspace Account to the new account (with success) Introduction: In early 2017 I began my paid subscription journey with Google as a G Suite Basic user. The going rate was $5 per month, and the subscription allotted me 30GB cloud storage for Google Drive and the ability to use a custom domain for my email address.\nIn 2019, Google increased the subscription price to $6 per month. Then, during the re-branding of G Suite to Google Workspace in 2022, I was automatically transitioned to a Business Standard plan with Google Workspace, and the price was raised to $7.20 per month. Another price increase took effect in in 2023 to a significantly higher $12 per month, and my final price increase was to $14.40 per month in 2024.\nWithout paying much attention to these price increases, I decided separately to upgrade my Google Drive storage to 100GB for $1.99 extra per month.\nAnd so it continued. Over nearly eight years, I spent a little over $700 USD on cloud services with Google.\nNow sure, over those years I did feel a[n] (arguably false) sense of data security, and I was able to use my custom domain name for my email address, which is something I find both personally and professionally valuable; but, I just can\u0026rsquo;t shake the feeling that the pricing of subscription cloud services are getting dramatically out of hand.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s why I have written this post: to share my experience and hopefully help others cut the cord of their bloated cloud service subscriptions.\nLearing The Hard Way: Step 1: Use the Google Takeout tool to export your Documents, Photos, Emails, and any other relevant data from your Google Workspace Account.\nIf you want to skip straight to the successful Google app transfer, go to Step 6. Otherwise, enjoy the funny back-and-forth!\nStep 2: Reach out to the support team of Google Workspace to ask for their assistance in downgrading:\n! Spoiler: Largely Ineffective\nSubject: I can no longer afford my subscription. Can you help me downgrade to a normal google account without losing all of my data? Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: Hello , How are you doing today? Tim White: Hi [GOOGLE REP NAME], it\u0026#39;s nice to connect. I\u0026#39;m doing great and hope the same for you. As you probably have included in the original chat question, I was hoping you could help me understand my options for downgrading to non-workspace account Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: https://admin.google.com/ac/billing/catalog?journey=74\u0026amp;ac_jt=28\u0026amp;ac_jv=50731839\u0026amp;ac_st=AHQsIyxvlfc2i-UrU5pUCYLdNxUROICuDlIiyPb7nBEI8GiloH5xn2hKZkVONyFIxhVyHnSB_GXH8jLGqtxr2D7AMgdC6IkdKzHIBlqZ8j4IHN28QLzJtN-K1TGrPCwA9GU1eITOcqZNrDndFC4tmnUd5WI8RX6WQQJpIM2lzeKyVbj4WZX3LEHiCJJ46dAoOt3UAT0nMTP74rR70rTs9DbxOV2QXVbs2kw-EKkf7QcmNr_A45WhXY14ui-00OyZ1yYU3JnlMknTVdG5wkH2apoSksz-zFPDdV3COiV61SWtfIbwEZLm1jmbv4u0DiwFmMCihPRYRa62HM4P4G5Y8DgklzLH-Qbu--U3soB6599yvGjx7lGWV9lBElszJJFyqOUKC8-1RrPoHqYrUnMx2sCB83eoAI1T2n1WHB-NRQuhgPL7NOc18gHTohCpeSgg-5g\u0026amp;cid=014y9vl0 Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: Please click on the above link to downgrade the plan. Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: But in the starter plan you can get 30 gb of storage and however either you need add users for additional storage. Tim White: Thank you - I see in the link you sent that these are all paid options. Tim White: Unfortunately due to some unforeseen circumstances I can\u0026#39;t continue on a paid plan at all. Is there a way to move my data to a non-paid account? Tim White: In other words I was wondering what my options are for moving my account data to a Free Google account Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: I understand however Google is no longer offering the non paid services and also if you still need non paid services then you need to switch to essentials. Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: However if you take that plan email services are not available. Tim White: Thank you for that information. Tim White: Can you further explain these two things: \u0026#34;if you still need non paid services then you need to switch to essentials.\u0026#34; and \u0026#34;However if you take that plan email services are not available.\u0026#34; Tim White: Are you saying that the essentials plan will be non-paid? Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: Yes essentials would be the plan where in email services would not be available. Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: https://support.google.com/a/answer/7681288?hl=en\u0026amp;sjid=386941476964139495-AP Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: Please check the article where in you can able to get the complete information. Tim White: So I now understand thanks to your guidance that Google Workspace no longer offers a non-paid plan. That\u0026#39;s OK. I\u0026#39;m going to use a regular Gmail account. Gmail accounts not in the Google Workspace ecosystem are free, correct? Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: We offer free services only with @gmail.com and if you need to use with custom domain then you need to have a Google Workspace account. Tim White: Perfect, I\u0026#39;ll accept a free service with @gmail.com - I don\u0026#39;t mind not using my custom domain anymore. How can I proceed with this? Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: @gmail.com is a free service using which you can use emails, docs, sheets etc with 15 GB of storage. It is a personal account which is not related to the workspace. Tim White: That works for me. My goal is to simply get my data from my current workspace into that. And by data I just mean photos, app purchases, etc. Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: Oh, I see but you have used around 57 GB of drive data (photos etc) on your workspace drive and with personal gmail account, you only get 15 GB drive data. Tim White: I can fix that - I\u0026#39;ll simply download all of my photos locally and delete them on the workspace account. Tim White: Then, I\u0026#39;ll have less than the required 15 GB drive data. Tim White: After I do that, can you help me transfer the rest of the data? Tim White: mainly, the app purchases Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: And if you want to move the photos from Workspace drive to personal drive data, we do not have any tools to transfer directly. You manually need to download the photos and move them to a personal drive. Tim White: That\u0026#39;s perfectly acceptable, thank you Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: You can do one thing, you can use Google Take Out tool to back up all the workspace drive data. Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: Once you backup all the workspace drive data using takeout, you will get an email with a link where all the data will be saved for 50 days. Tim White: Great! Does that also include app purchases? Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: From that link, you can manually download the required data. Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: May I know the app purchases that you are referring to? Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: Are you referring to the app purchased from Google Play? Tim White: Yes Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: Oh, for that, you need to contact the Google Play Support team. Using Google Take out tool, you can only back up the drive data saved on your workspace drive. For Google Play app purchases, you need to contact the Google Play Support team as it is a different platform which we do not have access to help you with. Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: And this is the link to back up all the workspace data that includes Google photos, emails and files (excluding Google Play app purchase) : https://takeout.google.com/ Tim White: Can you connect me with the google play support team? Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: Unfortunately, we do not have an option to connect from our end as it is a different platform. But I have checked with my resources and using this link, you can submit a ticket with the Google Play Support team : : https://support.google.com/googleplay/gethelp Tim White: OK thank you Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: Aside from this issue, would there be anything else while you have me here? Tim White: No thank you, thanks for your help! Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: It was great to get to know you, thank you for being an awesome one with me today. Please do take care and don\u0026#39;t let that smile fade away from you. One last thing before I let you go.There’s a short survey coming up and we’d love to hear your valuable feedback about our interaction with the Google Workspace Support today. Thanks for chatting with us! Have a great day! Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: Bye:) Google Workspace Support, [GOOGLE REP NAME]: Take care:) Best Regards, Google Workspace Support Step 3: Reach out to the Play Store team (timestamped for detail)\n! Spoiler: Largely Ineffective\nThanks for contacting support. You can find a copy of the conversation you requested below. Chat transcript for case: [CASE_ID] [NOTE: INITIAL CONTACT WITH PLAY SUPPORT TEAM] 7:07:42 PM Tom: Thank you for contacting Google Play Support. My name is Tom, am I speaking with Tim? 7:07:46 PM Tim White: Yes! 7:07:51 PM Tim White: Nice to speak with you Tom 7:08:01 PM Tom: I see you contacted us about your Google Workspace account, Tim. 7:08:09 PM Tom: Nice to speak with you too, Tim. 7:08:28 PM Tim White: That\u0026#39;s correct - I was forwarded here by the Workspace support team 7:08:42 PM Tom: It\u0026#39;s a good thing that you contacted us about the issue. Rest assured that I will definitely help you on this. 7:08:53 PM Tim White: Fantastic thank you! 7:09:30 PM Tom: Before we proceed, just to confirm that we are working on this email address [email@example.com]? 7:09:59 PM Tim White: Yes 7:10:09 PM Tom: Thank you for confirming your email address. 7:10:28 PM Tim White: 👍 7:11:36 PM Tom: We do have a dedicated team for this product, Tim. Let me go ahead and transfer the chat over them. [NOTE: TRANSFERRED TO A DEDICATED TEAM] 7:12:14 PM Tim White: Great thank you! 7:12:21 PM Tom: Tom added participant(s): Kris 7:12:21 PM Kris: Kris joined the conversation 7:12:26 PM Tom: Tom left the conversation 7:12:33 PM Kris: Thanks for contacting Google One support! I\u0026#39;m Kris and I\u0026#39;ll be chatting with you today! In case you need to refer to this chat interaction in the future, please take note of the following ID [ANOTHER_CASE_ID] 7:12:41 PM Kris: May I please confirm the email address we\u0026#39;re working on? and am I chatting with Tim? 7:12:53 PM Tim White: Howdy Kris, great to connect. You sure are speaking with Tim and the email address is tim@sudotim.com. 7:16:29 PM Kris: Thank you 7:17:48 PM Kris: I do understand that you need assistance with Workspace.I know how important it is for you. I\u0026#39;ll do my best to help you. If we can’t find a solution, I’ll collect feedback from our developers and give you an external resource that might help. 7:18:29 PM Tim White: OK. Do you need any other information from me while you\u0026#39;re looking into this? 7:21:07 PM Kris: That\u0026#39;s alright 7:23:50 PM Tim White: 👍 7:26:32 PM Kris: Are the admin of this workspace account? 7:26:40 PM Tim White: I am the admin of the account, yes. 7:26:58 PM Kris: Thank you for confirming 7:27:03 PM Kris: I understand your concern, and I appreciate your desire for an accurate solution. While my area of expertise lies in Google One, the issue you\u0026#39;re facing falls outside that scope. To ensure you receive the best possible support, I recommend you visit the following resource: Help Center: https://support.google.com/a Contact link: https://support.google.com/a/answer/1047213#contact=1 Phone: https://support.google.com/a/table/3247295 7:28:15 PM Tim White: Can you repeat back to me the issue at hand so I\u0026#39;m sure we\u0026#39;re all on the same page? 7:30:47 PM Kris: I see that you need help in downgrading your plan to just a regular storage plan and let go of the Google Workspace account, am I correct? 7:31:42 PM Tim White: Not quite. My chat with Tom above was regarding transferring my purchased apps to a different account 7:32:52 PM Kris: I\u0026#39;m sorry for that 7:33:09 PM Kris: Can you tell me more about your concern? 7:34:44 PM Tim White: No worries! Sure thing: I am in the process of downgrading a workspace account, and in order to do so I was hoping you could help me transfer my Play Store purchases to my new account. I was sent to your attention by the Workspace team. 7:38:25 PM Kris: May I ask for the email address of the new account? 7:40:33 PM Tim White: Yes, just one moment please 7:44:49 PM Tim White: [new_account@gmail.com] 7:45:26 PM Kris: Thank you for confirming 7:47:53 PM Kris: To verify that I\u0026#39;m talking to an authorized person for this account, please go to this website: g.co/verify using Incognito from Google Chrome and login to it using this email. It should ask you if you contacted Google Support simply hit Yes to verify 7:48:23 PM Tim White: Done 7:49:03 PM Kris: Thank you for verifying 7:51:09 PM Kris: What is the name of the apps that you would like to transfer to this email? 7:51:30 PM Tim White: I would like to transfer them all please. ** 12 minute pause ** 8:03:27 PM Tim White: Just wanted to check that we\u0026#39;re still connected (I may have signed out while in the chat window here, sorry if I did!) 8:04:12 PM Kris: Yes, we are. 8:04:25 PM Tim White: thank you! 8:04:35 PM Kris: I tried to review your concern, sorry on that 8:06:16 PM Kris: Technically we have no tool to transfer application subscriptions from one account to another. What I do recommend is to just resubscribed to them manually ** 1-hour chat mark ** 8:09:32 PM Tim White: Oh, I\u0026#39;m sorry Kris I thought you were already transferring the apps. Remember you had me confirm the transfer destination account, had me log into the new account to verify I was the owner of the account, then asked me which specific apps to transfer? 8:11:15 PM Tim White: And since we\u0026#39;re almost an hour into the chat I thought for sure we\u0026#39;d be almost done 8:11:27 PM Kris: The reason behind it is, all application subscriptions has their own terms and conditions to agree on. For privacy and security we are not allowed to subscribed your account to it on your behalf 8:13:01 PM Kris: I\u0026#39;m really sorry for the delay and long wait 8:13:14 PM Tim White: Okay, thank you for that new information. So what steps do I need to take to resubscribe without having to re-purchase the apps? 8:13:26 PM Tim White: And no worries about the wait, I know you\u0026#39;re working hard. 8:13:35 PM Tim White: I just want to make sure I do this right so I don\u0026#39;t make mess it up! 8:14:42 PM Kris: Honestly when I say resubscribing to it, means you need to repurchase them one by one, its like restarting an account 8:15:13 PM Tim White: Wait, but we\u0026#39;ve been chatting for almost an hour. That can\u0026#39;t be the solution here 8:15:19 PM Tim White: There must be another way 8:15:41 PM Tim White: Is it possible to provide a promotional coupon to re-subscribe? 8:16:44 PM Tim White: Please remember that the reason I need to downgrade from the paid workspace accounts is because the monthly subscription price of the account became too expensive. To add repurchasing all of my apps on top of that? 8:18:38 PM Kris: You may try to check it in playstore for any coupons or promotions. Just to set proper expectation, you will really need to repurchase them.. 8:20:23 PM Tim White: Quite frankly Kris, I find the change of pace after almost a full hour to be unacceptably misleading here. At no point throughout this process until just now did you even hint that transferring the apps wouldn\u0026#39;t be possible. I insist you request assistance in working with me here. 8:22:13 PM Tim White: Again just for total clarification here, I didn\u0026#39;t want to create a new account today, but I had no other choice because I can no longer afford the subscription. 8:34:39 PM Kris: I really am sorry for the inconvenience. Upon checking, you may opt in your new email address to Google One by the following steps: 1.Go to one.google.com(login using the new email) 2.Click Settings Settings. 3.Click Manage email preferences. 4.Turn on Benefits and offers. This will give you access to notification for any offers to Google One storage. To set proper expectations, I can only give this for the Google One storage alone. 8:35:58 PM Tim White: \u0026#34;I can only give this for the Google One storage alone.\u0026#34; Can you explain what you\u0026#39;re offering me in more detail? 8:38:40 PM Tim White: Also can you tell me that you understand where I\u0026#39;m coming from with my concerns? 8:42:18 PM Tim White: Do you have a method of escalating this chat? I would like to talk to your superior if you have one available. 8:44:53 PM Kris: The steps I gave you is for getting notifications for benefits and offers available for Google one storage 8:45:22 PM Tim White: Please escalate this chat to a supervisor if that is possible. 8:45:33 PM Kris: Let me check 8:45:44 PM Kris: One moment please 8:51:56 PM Kris: I was able to endorsed this case to a supervisor, please expect an email from our supervisor anytime within 24 hours. 8:54:05 PM Tim White: OK. And can you tell me that you understand where I\u0026#39;m coming from with my concerns? 8:56:16 PM Tim White: Also please help me understand: Why did you have me provide the name of the new account, have me log into it to verify ownership, and ask me what apps I would like to transfer? 9:01:44 PM Tim White: Are you still with me? 9:05:35 PM Kris: Yes, I\u0026#39;m still here 9:06:10 PM Kris: I know how you feel and why you need help on this 9:07:12 PM Tim White: Do you feel like your assistance was misleading? 9:09:08 PM Kris: The reason why I ask for the name on the account and have you login to a website to authenticate the new email and for me to view that account. Please note that the visibility I have earlier is only for the workspace account. We will need visibility on both so that we can check everything 9:09:37 PM Tim White: If you knew from the beginning that transferring paid apps wasn\u0026#39;t possible, what were you checking? 9:12:52 PM Kris: I\u0026#39;m checking for alternative options you can do, but upon exhausting everything. That is the last resort for the issue, to repurchased all of them to the new account 9:16:10 PM Kris: Is there anything else that I can help you with? 9:18:01 PM Tim White: No, Kris. 9:19:31 PM Kris: Please expect an email from our supervisor anytime within 24 hours. Thank you for contacting Google One and have a blessed day 9:19:37 PM Kris: Kris left the conversation 9:19:37 PM Kris: Thank you for contacting Google One chat support. Your chat session is now complete. 9:19:37 PM Kris: Kris ended the conversation Step 4: Ironically, subscribe to Google\u0026rsquo;s GoogleOne Basic plan to initiate a chat with the Google One customer support team to get an update on the case.\nStep 5: Wait another 24-hours for the following comical email response from a supervisor (note: sent from \u0026ldquo;googleone-support@google.com\u0026rdquo;):\n! Spoiler: Largely Ineffective; Wrong team, wrong team, wrong team.\nHi Tim, I hope you\u0026#39;re doing well today! This is Norbert, one of the supervisors here at Google One. I\u0026#39;ve carefully reviewed your case and upon checking here, you could be best assisted by our Google Play team regarding this matter. Since you\u0026#39;re trying to transfer your play purchases to your personal account. The team who can answer that question accurately is our Google Play team. We highly appreciate you taking the time to contact us for your concern. I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. However, since we are specialized in providing support for Google One, I will now transfer your case to my colleague who is more experienced with Google Play and rest assured that they will return to you within 24 hours. Thank you for contacting Google One.Have a wonderful day, Tim! Thanks, Norbert The Google One team Step 6: Follow-up with the Google Play support team? Or actually just wait another 24-hours for a different email from a different supervisor, this time of the Google Play team (note: also sent from \u0026ldquo;googleone-support@google.com\u0026rdquo;)\n! Spoiler: BINGO!\nHi Tim, Thank you for contacting Google Support. I am [SUPERVISOR NAME], a supervisor for Google Play. Based on the information from your chat interaction and the notes added by previous representatives and the supervisor that handled your case, I gather that you are requesting for the transfer of your apps and subscriptions from your Workspace account, which you are unable to continue using, to a new Google account. I apologize for the multiple transfers you had to go through for your request. I\u0026#39;ll do my best to provide you with additional help. I would like to set proper expectations for our content transfer process. You can only transfer all of your content. There are no partial transfers. In other words, everything in Account A will be transferred and merged with Account B. You won’t lose any content in Account B. You won’t be able to see the purchase history for transferred content on the new account. Your Play Balance can’t be transferred from Account A to Account B. Use your remaining Play Balance on Account A before you request the transfer to Account B. Content can only be transferred once. You can’t transfer your content back to Account A or to another account in future. Currently, these are the items/content that we are able to transfer from one account to another: Directly purchased books (audiobooks included) Directly purchased apps Directly purchased games Directly purchased movies (eCopy included) If you have movies from your Movies Anywhere account, they won’t be transferred to your new account. To find your movies on your new account, connect your new account to your Movies Anywhere account. What can\u0026#39;t be transferred? Apps, games, books, and movies that are permanently available at no charge In-app purchases (including licenses or access purchased from within the app and not in the Play Store) Books in a Google Workspace account that were purchased by the company or school Play Books samples Google Play subscriptions Play Book subscriptions Paid books can still be transferred. However, auto-purchase subscriptions won\u0026#39;t transfer. If a user doesn\u0026#39;t cancel a book subscription on their original account, the original account continues to auto-purchase new book releases. The target account won\u0026#39;t have any subscription. YouTube purchases Movies Anywhere entitlements Users must disconnect or change the Google Account connected to their Movies Anywhere account. Users can only connect one Google Account at a time and switch accounts once every 6 months. They can also disconnect the Google Account entirely. You can disconnect your Digital Retailer accounts anytime. However, you can\u0026#39;t connect your Movies Anywhere account to a different account with that same Digital Retailer for 180 days. Currently, all entitlements from Movie Anywhere remain on the Google Account even after a user switches or disconnects the Google Account. No new entitlements can enter, but existing entitlements remain. Movie rentals With this information at hand, would you like to proceed so we can review what can be transferred from your account? Awaiting your response. Thank you for your patience and cooperation. Stay safe and healthy. Within 48 hours of our last interaction, you may receive a short survey through email. We’d love to hear your feedback about our interaction today and your overall experience with Google support. Thanks! [SUPERVISOR NAME] The Google Support Team Conclusion At the end of the day(s), Google successfully transfered my account purchases between the accounts. I hope that someone can benefit from this story in a similar fashion.\n","permalink":"https://sudotim.com/posts/on-google-workspace/","summary":"Downgrading from Google Workspace to Google while maintaining your account purchases (2024) Tl;dr: I successfully severed my subscription ties with Google by:\ncreating a new free Google account, and requesting that the Google Play Store support team transfer my play store purchases from my old Workspace Account to the new account (with success) Introduction: In early 2017 I began my paid subscription journey with Google as a G Suite Basic user.","title":"Google Workspace Downgrade: A reflection on cloud computing costs and disjointed customer service for large corporations"},{"content":"This month\u0026rsquo;s focuses The list of hobbies, events, media, and more that I’ve been focused on this month:\nGeneral Welcome to the second of an infinite series of my life updates! I\u0026rsquo;m sure you\u0026rsquo;re incredibly excited to hear what major changes have happened in the past thirty days, give or take. In a way, I\u0026rsquo;m kind of excited about writing these posts. On paper, writing a hip, bloggy post once a month is a short task with a far-out \u0026ldquo;deadline;\u0026rdquo; but, it also highlights how quickly a month can go by with seemingly low significance. That\u0026rsquo;s what this is about: finding real, overlooked significance in the apparently mundane, and building my creative writing skills as I go.\nMovie of the Month Let\u0026rsquo;s start this off with a bang: my favorite new movie (to me) of the month. I guess it doesn\u0026rsquo;t have to be new, but my record these days is probably twenty-to-one new movies to old. November\u0026rsquo;s movie of the month goes to \u0026hellip; Aftersun (2022) - ( JustWatch - RT - IMDB ) This movie was fantastic. It pulls out all the stops for a two-person play. The writer, Charlotte Wells, highlights the struggles of single-parenting, reflects on the complexities of mental health disorders with respect to inheritance, childhood wonder \u0026amp; independence, and she accentuates this great story through creative camerawork. 9/10, would recommend.\nNovember\u0026rsquo;s Events We celebrated Thanksgiving in Astoria, OR. We rented a waterside cottage and cooked a traditional (to my Southeastern US family) Thanksgiving feast with one of our close friends (who infused fantastic Puerto Rican dishes into the event). It was great! We walked around town and bounced between a few breweries (Fort George and Reach Break tie for best beer in town), caught the sunset on the water, and woke up to wonderful birding and a sea lion sighting from the front porch of the shack. Cheers to you friends and family.\nBooks Let\u0026rsquo;s not make this any more painful than it has to be: I started one new book, and I\u0026rsquo;m forty pages in. The book is God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. Eventually, I will finish Naked by David Sedaris. I only have a few dozen pages left, but I\u0026rsquo;ve left it sitting out and it\u0026rsquo;s starting to look stale and unappetizing. It still would feel great to finish it up before end of year.\nHobbies Microgreens These posts are meant to keep me honest; the same batch of microgreens that I planted last month are stil under the grow lights today. Those poor things are pre-teens by now: tall, skinny, terrible posture, and bitter. Maybe this batch will be a good outdoor transplant as a cover crop for the garden over the winter. Bring back the nitrogen!\nKombucha Another few batches brewed! Kombucha has to be the most forgiving hobby I have. My horribly unsteady hands can pour -25% to +25% off target for any of the core ingredients and it will still be Kombucha. Leave it in the pantry for a month? No problem! Stronger flavor. It also scales extremely easily. Grab a new jar, split off some excess SCOBY, and boom. Speaking of SCOBY, I\u0026rsquo;m also very happy with the way mine developed after having been started from scratch. Hey, let me know if you ever want a slice to start your own batch!\nOverall Wrap-up This month was great: lots of good food, lots of good company, and a whole lot to be thankful for. I hope you\u0026rsquo;re willing to stick with me for another month; I hear the next one will be wild. 🤙\n","permalink":"https://sudotim.com/posts/ditlo-nov-23/","summary":"This month\u0026rsquo;s focuses The list of hobbies, events, media, and more that I’ve been focused on this month:\nGeneral Welcome to the second of an infinite series of my life updates! I\u0026rsquo;m sure you\u0026rsquo;re incredibly excited to hear what major changes have happened in the past thirty days, give or take. In a way, I\u0026rsquo;m kind of excited about writing these posts. On paper, writing a hip, bloggy post once a month is a short task with a far-out \u0026ldquo;deadline;\u0026rdquo; but, it also highlights how quickly a month can go by with seemingly low significance.","title":"Day in the Life of Tim - November 2023"},{"content":"This month\u0026rsquo;s focuses The list of hobbies, events, media, and more that I\u0026rsquo;ve been focused on this month:\nGeneral New website who dis! Happy first post, future me. 🎉\nRight now, as I\u0026rsquo;m typing these words, I\u0026rsquo;ve decided to make this \u0026ldquo;Day in the Life of\u0026rdquo; thing regular! I\u0026rsquo;ll try to write at least one a month, that way I can better reflect on my personal growth.\nI have found it easier and easier these days to fall into the typical work/eat/sleep routine, and I\u0026rsquo;m hopeful that this will be an opportunity to set goals and yell at myself later for not making progress toward them.\nAs with everything on this website, my main audience is me. My secondary audience is my closest family and friends (no idea if anyone actually stumbles their way here). My final audience is anyone else who feels they gain something out of reading what I write.\nThis particular series of posts is going to be directed at myself, so feel free to puruse other content accordingly!\nHabits Bicycle Commuting I installed a new trunk bag on the bike. It was well overdue, as my main weatherproofing technique so far has been to wrap my gear in an assortment of wildly tattered and grease-covered plastic bags. I\u0026rsquo;m looking forward to breaking it in!\nI recently achieved a milestone of my first 1,000 miles on my commute, hooray!\nDespite the rain, I\u0026rsquo;ve maintained a pretty regular ride streak, only missing the occasional day or two. I will continue praciticing my willpower as it gets darker, rainier, and colder transitioning into winter.\nHobbies Microgreens After a month-or-so long hiatus, I planted a new batch of micros last week: three 1020 trays. Two are my favorites: field peas and sunflowers, and the third is a first crack at watercress.\nThe temperature in the greenhouse is starting to drop with the outside temperature. The heat generated by the LED light strips and the one incandescent bulb I run seems to keep the temperature between the low 50s and mid 60s. I will probably need to look into active heat and better insulation if I want keep my yields high and, looking forward, avoid freezing.\nThat being said, the sunflowers are doing great, the field peas pretty well, and I get an F for the watercress.\nKombucha I\u0026rsquo;m still really enjoying my home brew! The quality of the finished product still seems to be improving with each batch. The last batch was green grapes and cucumbers.\nMy main goal is to improve the natural carbonation during the second stage ferment, but I\u0026rsquo;m rapidly approaching the time that I give up on that and force-carb with our soda stream. It seems to take more added sugar than I would like in the final beverage.\nSelf-hosted Software This month was a big month for my self-hosted web applications. Some of the major changes include:\nNew hardware additions:\nDedicated pfsense box LAN compute machine that runs my personal self-hosted apps Cloudflare proxying\nImplementing Wireguard VPN access\nSwitched to using Hugo for this public-facing website\nNew goals to focus on for next month include:\nBackups, backups, backups Implementing a DNS ad-blocker like Adguard or PiHole Improving my NAS (straw house to brick house) Continue building up information on this site! Upcoming Events Wedding Planning Things are picking up! Some updates:\nFAQ website is live We camped at the venue (lovely) We picked out our wine and food Photographer and musician are locked down She found her dress! ","permalink":"https://sudotim.com/posts/ditlo-oct-23/","summary":"This month\u0026rsquo;s focuses The list of hobbies, events, media, and more that I\u0026rsquo;ve been focused on this month:\nGeneral New website who dis! Happy first post, future me. 🎉\nRight now, as I\u0026rsquo;m typing these words, I\u0026rsquo;ve decided to make this \u0026ldquo;Day in the Life of\u0026rdquo; thing regular! I\u0026rsquo;ll try to write at least one a month, that way I can better reflect on my personal growth.\nI have found it easier and easier these days to fall into the typical work/eat/sleep routine, and I\u0026rsquo;m hopeful that this will be an opportunity to set goals and yell at myself later for not making progress toward them.","title":"Day in the Life of Tim - October 2023"},{"content":"My name is Tim White. Thanks for checking out my digital zen garden.\nAs a professional, I am an Electrical Engineer based in Vancouver, Washington with over a decade of experience and ever-growing interest in all things printed circuit board.\nOver the years, I\u0026rsquo;ve worked in test engineering, industrial controls, electronics safety testing, and environmental monitoring.\nI am currently designing automated functional and in-circuit test electronics for the wind and solar industry. I\u0026rsquo;m very proud of my job and love sharing it with others.\nPersonally, my interests involve a combination of finding joy and humor in the mundane, building, breaking, and mending things with my hands, learning, traveling with a focus on nature and culture, and maintaining a positive outlook on life. I spend a large portion of my day on computers, so this is me in my most normal form.\nI try to write about things I\u0026rsquo;m familiar with, and the more I write, the more I\u0026rsquo;m forced to revise, research and branch out. My favorite tone of personal writing for a website like this is the kind I would use when we speak in person.\nSustainable living, empathy, and continuous personal growth and professional development are my mission statements in life.\nI hope we can connect! I\u0026rsquo;m best reached by email at tim@sudotim.com\n","permalink":"https://sudotim.com/about/","summary":"about Tim White","title":"About Me"}]