I’ve been thinking about getting some CCTV cameras for a while, and last summer I purchased two Reolink PoE cameras. The footage is stored on a SD card, and uploaded to a local FTP server.

But I also wanted to record continuously, without getting a dedicated Reolink NVR. I’ve seen some YouTube videos by Tall Paul Tech where he uses FFmpeg to record CCTV footage — so let’s do that! 🙂

I’ve had a recurring thought, following by some intense Googling — using this Hugo powered site to microblog. The idea has been fueled by two desires; owning my own “microblogging” data — and making it quicker, and easier, to post something on my own domain.

Being able to quickly snap a photo with my phone and publish it is not so easy with a static website. So I got the idea of using the Todoist app, and their API to post, build, and publish.

This is the story of how I did it, and why it wasn’t a good idea.

I first got started on the network run from the attic switch to the 2nd floor den — back in October of 2021. I finished it a year later, so it’s about time to get this blog post published 😛

I’ve written before about how I deploy this blog using Drone.io. It works well, and does exactly what you’d expect.

Lately I’ve started looking into reducing complexity in homelab systems that I use — and using “a Continuous Integration platform for busy development teams” felt a bit overkill for this tiny blog.

So I switched to something simple; GNU Make.

I’ve set up a local Arch repository, a dynamic reverse proxy cache using nginx — and a local “build server” for AUR packages, using aurutils.

Here is how, and why 👇