Nicolas Ventura
As of 08 January 2026, there have been 75 posts published.
HPCinfra in Barcelona, Spain
19 May 2024 For work, I was able to attend the HPCinfra conference held this year in Barcelona, Spain! This conference/workshop is designed for data center engineers and operators to discuss facility management, sustainability, and future developments in HPC (high performance computing.) Read more
Reader/Writer's Block
13 May 2024 I've been having a bit of a writer's block lately! At this rate, I won't make my New Year's resolution of one written piece per week. It's no different for my reading - I suppose I'm having a bit of a reader's block too. A few days, ago, I picked up a book and read one chapter - my first this year. Read more
New Phone
11 May 2024 For almost 5 years, I used the Samsung Galaxy A10e, one of the first-generation phones from the Galaxy A line. It worked great, and lasted for much longer than I expected, and I have practically no complaints about that phone. Unfortunately, the years started to catch up to it. The touchscreen started to lose its sensitivity, the occasional text or call wouldn't go through, and it generally started to slow down, among other minor issues. However, the final push that caused me to begin my search for a new phone was the fact that the A10e was still running on Android version 9. Which, at the time of writing this, has been out of support for about 2 and a half years. That means that my phone has been more prone to bugs, glitches, viruses, and spyware. So, I did what any true American does after about a year of owning a phone - I got a new one! Read more
Raspberry Pi Gatekeeper
28 April 2024 Advertisements! I hate them, you hate them, we all hate them. What if I told you there was a way to block ad traffic from ever entering your network? Actually, this happened to me a few days ago by a coworker. I learned about a software called Pi-hole specifically designed for Raspberry Pi's that blocks all ad traffic. Sounds good, right? Now, how are you supposed to set it up? Read more
Red Paint
10 April 2024 There was a blood drive at work yesterday! I'd never donated blood before and wanted to do it at least once. Read more
Reminder to the Reader(s)
06 April 2024 If you are reading this, then you should probably read this article. If not, then carry on. Read more
Leg Day
06 April 2024 I walked/ran well over 10 miles today - which is not the most distance I've done in one day by a long shot - but today was certainly a leg day, and I'll feel it tomorrow. Today was filled with what I could say are 3 mini-adventures through Marin and San Francisco, which is more than I bargained for! I also took several pictures today. Read more
Winning at Solitaire
25 March 2024 I've been playing a lot of solitaire (Klondike 3) on my phone recently. My app has a timer, for some reason. It made me come up with some funny ideas like doing a solitaire speedrun. To my delight, it already exists! It's become a mild addiction, but this game has made me come up with an interesting question. How likely are you to win a game of solitaire? What is the maximum possible win rate that the best solitaire player can have? Read more
Attempt the 3x+1 Problem
22 March 2024 I was introduced to the $3x+1$ problem in a few [1] [2] YouTube videos, which made it seem like there was no solution. I am here today to prove them wrong! Or perhaps, right, depending on how you interpret this. As I was writing this, I kind of lost track of what I was doing. Read more
SCALE Conference
13 March 2024 I got to attend yet another conference for work! This time I went to SCALE - the Southern California Annual Linux Expo - in Pasadena. I was able to justify the travel since there were plenty of talks on the observability stack we use at work. It was a great conference and a pretty fun time as well. My old roommate from college was the one who recommended it to me as he was planning to attend several of the Kubernetes talks. Read more