feat(blog): Status update, March 2024

src/content/blog/status-update-2024-03.md

@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+---
+title: Status update, March 2024
+description: Updates from the previous month.
+pubDate: 2024-04-07
+---
+
+For this status update, I'd like to focus primarily on my personal projects. Unfortunately, there isn't much new to
+share about my job, as most of my tasks have been repetitive over the past few weeks. However, I've continued to learn
+new things during my free time. Given that this year's theme for me has been hosting services for personal use, the
+projects I've been working on during this month revolved around this topic.
+
+To start off, I deployed [Ollama](https://ollama.com/) on [Fly.io](https://fly.io/) after I came across
+[this article](https://fly.io/blog/scaling-llm-ollama/). Previously, I had been running Ollama locally but found that
+even the smaller models were extremely slow due to the limited hardware on my machine. I decided to use Fly because of
+its support for GPUs and the feature that allows machines to be stopped when they’re not being used. With Fly LLMs run
+smoothly and I only get charged for the amount computation I actually use.
+
+On to other things, I'm now hosting most of my services on a Raspberry Pi 3B. Previously, I had been running them on a
+cloud VPS. However, after getting a power supply and case for the Pi, I decided to set it up to work as a mini home
+server. I moved all the data to the Pi and set up a basic backup strategy using [Restic](https://restic.net/). I'm also
+using [Tailscale](https://tailscale.com/) to access the services when I'm not at home.
+
+Finally, the highlight of the last month was the deployment of a messaging service for personal use. I started hosting
+my own services because I wanted to have full control over my data. Given that online communication is such an integral
+part of my digital life, it makes sense for me to host my own private messaging service. To accomplish this, I decided
+to use [ejabberd](https://www.ejabberd.im/), an open-source instant messaging solution based on the
+[XMPP](https://xmpp.org/) protocol.
+
+I was initially reluctant to host a messaging server. Moving to a privacy-focused platform can be hard. Most people are
+content using well-known platforms and may not be interested in privacy-focused alternatives. In most cases, asking them
+to try another platform could result in a negative response. That wasn't my case though. I found that close relatives
+and friends were willing to give the server a try if they know it was something I was running.
+
+I'll continue to explore self-hosted solutions for most of my needs. I'm currently looking for an inventory management
+tool and a fitness tracker. In addition, I'm eager to delve deeper into XMPP. I want to gain deeper understanding of the
+protocol and its potential use cases for real-time applications. Stay tuned for further updates.