Posts

After I published my guide to backing up an iPhone to a NAS over Wi-Fi last year, quite a few people got in touch with bug reports, feature requests, and requests to open-source the project. My main commitments kept taking priority, so progress on this side project has been slow. But I’ve kept using it and making changes along the way. Wi-Fi backups, encrypted backups, and notifications have been fairly reliable in my own setup. I’ve also added backup inspection and restore features, though restoring and extracting backups are still experimental and need more work. Over China’s National Day holiday, I finally found some time to release the updated version and the source code. If you’d like to tinker with it too, you’re welcome to join in. Here’s a look at what’s changed over the past year, what you’ll need for a new installation, and what to watch out for when upgrading. Project: iOS Backup on GitHub ...

Recently, Let’s Encrypt officially announced its all-new Gen Y Root Certificate Hierarchy (Generation Y Hierarchy). This update introduces two new root certificates (ISRG Root YR and ISRG Root YE) as well as a series of new intermediate certificates. Without a deeper look, this might seem like just a routine key rotation. But in reality, this architectural adjustment profoundly reflects the dramatic changes occurring in the Web PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) industry. By analyzing this update, we can summarize five core trends for the future of HTTPS and certificate management. ...

A new version is here! iOS Backup has been updated and is now open source. For new features, setup instructions, and upgrade notes, see Automatic iPhone Backups to a NAS: Now Open Source. Mobile phones have become our very important companions, and their data is crucial to us. I have always regularly backed up my entire phone to my computer. Although this process is not troublesome, it requires manual operation every time, and occasionally I forget. Is there a more convenient way to complete this process? This blog shares a tool I recently tinkered with friends, which can automatically backup iPhone data to NAS or other Linux servers via Wi-Fi. ...

There’s a saying: “A soldier who doesn’t want to become a general is not a good soldier.” As someone who has spent many years in technology, I also aspire to management roles. Recently, the company organized a management training session from which I gained a lot. To better digest and absorb what I learned—“output exercises input”—I’m recording my reflections here. This is both personal consolidation and, I hope, inspiration for friends who are also walking the path from engineer to manager. ...

Recently, my home experienced a power outage. My Synology NAS shut down gracefully since it was connected to a UPS, but my Linux server, which wasn’t connected to the UPS, suffered a hard power loss. This can easily lead to data loss or, in severe cases, disk damage! That’s why I finally got around to configuring NUT, which I had been putting off for a while. This article shares how to use NUT to protect multiple devices with a single UPS. ...

Recently, I saw a fellow V-site user share their experience of deploying 50 services on a Mac mini, which was quite inspiring. Looking back at my own Homelab journey, I thought this would be a good opportunity to organize and summarize the various services I’m actually running at home. ...

The foundation of trust on the internet is quietly evolving. You may have noticed that the little padlock in your browser’s address bar is becoming more common, indicating that a website uses HTTPS encryption—something that relies on SSL certificates. Today, a significant industry development may have a profound impact on all website operators: the CA/Browser Forum (CABF) has passed a proposal called SC-081, which plans to gradually reduce the maximum validity of publicly trusted SSL certificates to just 47 days! What does this change mean, and how will it affect us? Let’s dive in. ...

I’ve been following the Running Page project for a long time, and today I finally deployed it on my blog. Running Page is an open-source project that visualizes workout data, supports summarizing running records, generates heatmaps, and integrates with MapBox to display routes. This post will share how to automate the build and deployment of static pages using GitLab CI/CD and integrate Apple Shortcuts for one-click deployment. ...

It’s been a year since I got the Model Y, and I’ve driven 16,000 kilometers, spending a total of 4 weeks in the car. Overall, I’m very satisfied, despite some minor issues. This article will discuss my experiences and cost analysis over the past year. ...

Recently, I received an email from Disqus about placing ads in the comment section. At first, I didn’t mind since I’ve been using it for free for so long. However, after seeing the bizarre ad content and lengthy ads, I decided to switch! After comparing several comment systems, I finally chose Waline. ...