A Home Lab is a valuable asset for any Developer or Engineer to support their personal development, personal projects, and experimentation. Web security is relentlessly improving, so we need to adapt our ways of working in order to support this. The days of running Production websites over plaintext http are long gone, and therefore we should also reflect this in our Home Labs too. There are many different ways to create a professional looking and secure Home Lab.

Feathercoin is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies and has a thriving community. It is actively being developed with new and modern features that allows it to compete with other coins like Bitcoin. Transactions are quickly confirmed, and it is safe and secure. If you are interested in helping the network through mining, Feathercoin is suited to hobbyist mining with reasonably fast graphics card. The Feathercoin blockchain allows additional data to be stored within transactions, which can be used for things like token and contracts.

Launching your own satellite into Space is becoming a relatively affordable option, but it still involves huge risk and costs. Whilst we won’t be launching our own satellites just yet, we can learn more about amateur satellites through educational and research projects. Participating in an existing project is easier than you may think, with a general understanding of computers, at the cost of a couple of coffees. It’s an impressive achievement when a project launches a satellite into Space, but it is arguably a more challenging achievement to build and maintain a global network of listening stations that make experimentation and observations possible.

For a while now, I’ve been working on an Internet of Things (IoT) project that brings multiple ideas and learning objectives together into one well defined goal. The project consists of programming in Go (GoLang) and Python, writing modules for the production ready Caddy Server v2, using Raspberry Pi computers and other microcontrollers, and wiring up an endless supply of electronics. I have been creating Raspberry Pi stacks and development environments for years, but I always encounter the same problem.

As I knead the dough in front of me, I realise two things. Firstly, I probably haven’t had enough exercise during Lockdown as this dough is beating me. Secondly, the automatic process of kneading allows for a clear mind in order to think. I’m almost finishing the sixteen kilogram bag of bread flour I purchased as lockdown began. This was bought through a local supplier which I knew it would only arrive when it was practical and sustainable.