Aaron Czichon - Blog

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Personal website of Aaron Czichon, Software & Web Engineer

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Raspberry Pi as a Github Runner
Apr 12, 2024 · original
Backstory This blog is build using the Astro library and I write my posts using markdown. The sources and content is hosted on Github, so every time I write a new article a workflow is running to deploy it via FTP to my webspace. Yeah I know, FTP is old and lame but I'm old and I'm allowed to use it . My Canada blog is build the same way. Also Astro but in this case MDX for the articles. These articles often contain pictures and I wrote a custom component for handling the different image sizes. Internally in this component I use the Astro Picture component which allows me to generate different image formats and sizes depending on the clients device. As the amount of images are increase the generating of these different formats takes a long time on the Github workflow. Nearly 45min for a build is way to much. So the best option was to move the images and their sizing to my Directus server
Obsidian Location Plugin
Apr 26, 2024 · original
Here we are. More than a year ago, I think it was February 2023, I developed an Obsidian plugin for myself. Since 1,5 years now I'm using Obsidian as my main app for writing down everything. And by everything I mean everything. This goes from work project notes, to blog articles (like this one) to quickly typed notes which I need to "remember" as to writing periodic notes on a daily and weekly basis. The periodic notes and my meeting notes are the thing where the plugin I developed comes into place. I like to track where I have worked on what day. Also I find it useful to define a meeting location, whether it's in the office, remote or at a customers place. So instead of just writing down the place where I worked or had the meeting I want my notes to be more visual. That's where this plugin comes in place. The plugin itself takes a latitude and longitude value as a code block inside Obsi
How I structure my work
May 18, 2024 · original
Intro I often get asked on how I can keep up with my work, manage multiple projects and have some free time left for side and/or open source projects. My answer is simply: Make a plan and prepare accordingly. The next question mostly is on how do I structure my days. So this post gives you some insights on what daily structure helps me to get my tasks and work done. You may find something useful for yourself. Please keep always in mind that what works for me may not work for you. So adjust it to your needs. Batteries included This article follows through a typical workday of myself, divided into 3 sections: Work start, during the work day and ending a work day. I also added a section for an end of the week recap and a bonus section with some tools I use. The tools section is unimportant as this article focuses on the structure and work behaviour and not on tools. As tools you can use any
Obsidian Mapbox Location Image Plugin 1.1 available!
May 29, 2024 · original
Since last week a new version of my Obsidian plugin is available and it brings some new features! The 2 major new features are support for different map styles and custom markers. Different map styles The first version of the plugin only supported the default street style of the static images. Now you have the option to set a default map style via the plugin settings and/or override the default style per code block by using the keyword: style and providing the supported map style. Following map styles are now supported: streets-v12 , outdoors-v12 , light-v11 , dark-v11 , satellite-v9 , satellite-streets-v12 , navigation-day-v1 and navigation-night-v1 . Maki marker and custom marker The second large feature which is now available are Maki icon marker and custom marker support. Maki icons are the Mapbox owned icons which are supported by the Mapbox API and Mapbox SDKs out of the box. Withi
Astro: Automatically translate text during build time using DeepL
Jun 24, 2024 · original
If you're using Astro for one of your projects and creating a multi language website you may want to translate some parts automatically. With DeepL's API you can send text to the API and get the translated text in return. For this scenario I created a simple Astro component which can be used to automatically translate into a given language. Let's call it DeeplTranslate : --- import * as deepl from "deepl-node"; const authKey = import.meta.env.DEEPL_API_KEY; const { render, has } = Astro.slots; const { sourceLang, targetLang } = Astro.props; const translateText = async (text: string) = { const translator = new deepl.Translator(authKey); const result = await translator.translateText(text, sourceLang, targetLang); return result.text; }; let html: string = ""; if (has("default")) { html = await render("default"); html = await translateText(html); } --- Fragment set:html={html} / With this co
June 2024 Recap
Jul 4, 2024 · original
Another month is in the books. June was insane. Right at the start of the month I flew back to Germany because my sister had her wedding. Although I wasn't amused about the timing (it was starting to get nice in Newfoundland) I was glad I did it. I stayed at my parents home for 12 days and it was nice to see the family, friends and some colleagues again. The weather was nice and the wedding was wonderful as I expected it. The good part was, that I travelled only with carry-on baggage and that was super nice and smooth. Back in Newfoundland the weather was mixed. But we could do some really nice hikes, went out with the boat and met new people. The best part of my time in Canada so far is, that I met so many nice people outside the bigger cities. They are open to have a longer chat, taking you on a boat trip or inviting you over to their houses. I really enjoying that part. More about my
Ignore future changes for existing files in Git
Jul 12, 2024 · original
My colleagues often asking me questions about specific Git functionality. One question which pops up quite often is: How can I remove an existing file from tracking changes by using the .gitignore file? Or: How can I ignore future changes to a specific, already existing file in Git? You might have noticed that, if you have an existing file and want to ignore all future changes to it, it doesn't work by simply adding this file to the .gitignore . That's not a bug of Git, it's actually a feature. The .gitignore file only works for new changes which will pushed to the tracking index of Git itself for the first time. If your file is already tracked for changed by Git, all future changes will also be tracked. If a new file is created or a change is made to an untracked file, then Git will take a look at the .gitignore file and check if the path matches with one inside the gitignore file. If n
Quick navigate to a stored location (Apple Maps & Shortcuts)
Aug 1, 2024 · original
Picture the following situation. You're new to a city and you doesn't know your surrounding area very well. You often need to pick up your phone to navigate to a specific location. This, for example, can be the location of your accommodation. So to navigate to a specific location you need to re-enter it every time to into the app and start the directions again. That can be annoying. I find myself currently often in this situation and I want to quickly store a location for later (because that's the point where I want to go later on the day) and then starting the directions with a single tap instead of re-entering the address again. For this situation I build 2 shortcuts using Apple Maps and the app Data Jar . Data Jar is a pretty simple but useful app because it let store key-value pairs on iCloud and write / read them through a shortcut. So I created a first shortcut which can take a loc
Halfway through the year
Aug 6, 2024 · original
The year is halfway through. But the nice thing: another 6 months are still ahead. The last months where a rally for myself. January and February were flying by because I need to pack my life into boxes and to dissolve my flat. Meeting most of the family members and friends one more time before moving was also packed into these two months. Then, on 1st March I started into the adventure of moving to Canada for a year. And what should I say? It was superb since then. Staying two months in Halifax, 2,5 in Newfoundland and now in Montreal. I saw so many things, met a lot of people and had the best scenery’s and landscapes I’ve ever seen in my life. I currently also struggle a bit on how the future could look like. Especially after the time in Canada coming back “home” to Germany next year. I’m not sure where I want to life. Going back to the small village currently feels wrong but I also no
Obsidian Location Plugin 1.3.0
Aug 12, 2024 · original
In April I released my first plugin for Obsidian, the Location Plugin. It's used to render Mapbox static images into your notes using a specific code block syntax. Since the initial release in March I lately got nehnehneh as a contributor. Together we extended the functionality of the plugin and just recently we release version 1.3.0 with some helpful additions. Alternative coordinate syntax First thing is, that you now have an alternative syntax. You can simply provide an array of coordinates [44.64282990208981, -63.57526398409271] instead of separating longitude and latitude. Using search instead of coordinates If you don't want to use coordinates we got you now covered as well! With the new keyword search: you can easily add an address, point of interest or a single word to search on the Mapbox address resolver API and it will automatically renders you the image of the first found loc
The summer 2024 (August)
Sep 5, 2024 · original
August is in the books and it was a fully packed month for myself. Let's get into it. Work August was a hot month in Canada. I was staying in Montréal until the 18th and the temperatures where something between 27 and 34 degrees. During the nights there where nothing lower than 23. This also affected my work routine. Every year in the spring I think about how to challenge hot days in the summer and still be able to work "normally". Mostly I come to the conclusion: Yeah it will work it out. And usually it does. I get up more early (which helped me this year even more with the time difference to my colleagues), take a longer lunch break and do more in the evenings for work. August also was special as I released an new version of my Obsidian plugin and the next version is already in planning. I hope that a version 2 is coming until the end of the year. My dedicated Canada blog was moved to
Deploy your Astro website to Cloudflare Pages with protected preview deployments
Sep 14, 2024 · original
I recently moved one of my projects to Cloudflare Pages and it's awesome. The setup, deployment and configuration are straight forward and you get preview deployments out of the box. In this post I'll walk you through on how you can set it up for your own project using Astro (or whatever static site generator you prefer), Github and Cloudflare Pages. What will be covered? Create a Cloudflare Pages project Setting up a custom domain for the project Protecting preview deployments so that your test environment are not accessible for everyone Cleanup PR preview deployments after PR is merged What do you need? A project on Github (I'm using an Astro project for this) A Cloudflare account A custom domain (access to it's DNS configuration) Preparations For demo purposes we're going to use the Github repository which I have for my articles. You can find that repository here: https://github.com/a
App Defaults - Christmas 2024 Edition
Dec 18, 2024 · original
As many people currently updating their app defaults list, I'll use the time for an update of my list as well. I divided it into 3 sections. First is New / Added which is all that's new since the last version. In Changed is everything where I changed the app or service or removed/added something to the existing ones. Last, but not least, is the Unchanged section. These are the consistent parts which are still the same since the last issue of the App Defaults. Feel free to use the new Reply by email button if you want to share a link to your tools or if you have recommendations! New / Added 📑 Clipboard Manager: Maccy All the years I though that I don't need a clipboard manager. I was wrong. Maccy is super simple but yet powerful. Safes my life multiple times a day. 🔄 Sync: Syncthing Additional to my document sync via iCloud for syncing things I use more and more Syncthing. Open source a
Year in Review 2024
Jan 5, 2025 · original
Another year in the books. And hell, this was a good year. Probably the best year in my entire life. But let's start from the beginning. Goals for 2024 As mentioned in last years review I'm normally set myself some targets for the upcoming year with a friend . My major goal for 2024 was: Having fun in Canada! . As already mentioned last year, 2024 was the year of moving to Canada for 12 months. This journey started in March and is still ongoing. But more to that later. The second goal was Find the best way between work, life and volunteering balance that works for me . And this is a tough one. It's an ongoing process. I learned, that I can't do that much on volunteering for e.g. the local sports club as I used to do the past years. And I now know that this is fine. I was using much of my free time for activities around our volleyball team or the sports club in general. 2024 and the time
Make a local service available with Tailscale and Nginx Proxy Manager
Jan 21, 2025 · original
details summaryUsed abbreviations/summary p Some abbreviations used in this article (only valid for this article unless mentioned otherwise):br / NPM - Nginx Proxy Managerbr / TS - Tailscale /p /details Over the holidays I finally moved from my old webspace, which I had for the past 10 years, to a VPS (virtual private server). The main reason for this was that I want to run some software as containers and also because some of my projects require a backend. Although the webspace allowed to run NodeJS, PHP and Ruby it had it's limitations. I also have a NAS from Synology at a family members home. This NAS is running some containers which I sometimes need. E.g. my finance software is running there (which I don't want to host on a different server on the internet). Until now I had to login to my Tailscale network (where all my devices are part of) to access this web service. The first thing
Working in a Remote-First Team
Mar 31, 2025 · original
Over the last 4,5 years I was working in a team that mostly worked remotely. I always see discussions about whether working fully remotely is good or bad for the working culture. What I learned about this narrative is that the answer is not so simple. As often in life, this is more a question of "it depends." But what are the factors that make a team work remotely? What's the definition of "remote work"? And lastly, can you adopt it for your team? The definition The definition of working remotely depends on whom you ask. In Germany, there is (like for everything) an official government definition of what types of remote work exist. Depending on which way you or your employer choose, this even affects your taxes. Basically, there are two types: home office (mobiler Arbeitsplatz) and remote work (Remote-Arbeitsvertrag). The first one defines that you normally work from an office but someti
Obsidian Location Plugin v2
Apr 30, 2025 · original
It’s been a while since the last version of my Obsidian Location Plugin . I wanted to release the new version 2 during the holiday season but missed this timeline. Nevertheless I published v2 at the end of March! What’s new? Most importantly, I now created a dedicated website and documentation for the plugin which can be found here . This side contains the documentation of v1.x and the current documentation of version 2 as well. We now have support for some commands, so that you don’t have to manually add e.g. location from your clipboard. You can also change various settings via commands instead clicking through the settings panel. The most awaited feature actually is now also available as a preview: Interactive Maps! Interactive Maps Interactive maps is a new feature with a new code block for your notes! By using the keyword interactive-location for a code block you can now force the p
Running Nextcloud behind a proxy
May 12, 2025 · original
As I’m currently move all my data away from US companies one of the major task is to move to a self-hosted file storage and sharing solution. My first and current try is using the Synology Drive as I already have a running Synology NAS. The problem there is, that it no longer gets any updates because it’s too old (10 years) in the view of Synology. It still runs smoothly my main data storage as a RAID and also is upgradable with newer disks. So why should I buy a new one? Therefor I’m look for a better file sharing and storage option like Nextcloud. It’s widely used and runs on nearly every hardware. For such things I have a mini PC with an Intel N150 running at home. It’s part of my Tailscale network and therefore I can make it reachable through my Nginx proxy manager. If you want to give your Nextcloud instance, which I’m running inside a docker container, a real, public domain you nee
Angular Form Cache Library
Nov 4, 2025 · original
Since June this year, I’ve been working with a new customer at PlanB. After developing and evolving a web application for another big customer of the company for 5 years (and 7 years at another company for the same customer), it was finally time for something new. The new project is great because we can define the technological decisions on our side and have started developing the new application from scratch. The main requirement from the customer is: We have this 25-year-old legacy app and want it with the same (but better) functionality as a web application. The new project includes a lot of forms for different entities, and it’s built for users who need to document their day-to-day work in it. We also built a tabbed layout inside the app which enables the users to have multiple entities opened at once. Since our users have no technical background, they expect that if they close, for
App Defaults 2025
Dec 22, 2025 · original
Another year means another round of App Defaults. Below you can find my list of which I use in my daily life. Things marked with ✨ are new or have changed. Everything else is unchanged to my previous version from last year . 🗂️ Clipboard Manager: Maccy 🔄 Sync / Files: Nextcloud ✨ 🔌 APIs: Hoppscotch 🐘 Mastodon: Ice Cubes ✨ 🗓️ Calendar: Nextcloud ✨ (macOS/iOS Calendar App as Frontend) 🌎 Browser: Firefox ✨ 📊 Presentation: iA Presenter 📩 Mail: Apple Mail / Outlook (work) 📃 Notes: Obsidian 📸 Photo Shooting: iPhone 15 Pro Max 🌅 Photo Management: Immich ✨ 📥 RSS: FreshRSS ✨ + NetNewsWire 👥 Contacts: Nextcloud ✨ 🔖 Bookmarks: Karakeep ✨ 🕐 Read it later: Karakeep ✨ 🎶 Music: Apple Music 💻 Code Editor: VS Code 🗃️ Databases: TablePlus 🚀 Launcher: Raycast 💬 Chat: Signal + iMessage 🎙️ Podcast: Apple Podcasts 🔐 Password Management: Strongbox 🗺️ Maps: Apple Maps 🖥️ Terminal: Ghostt

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