Summary of 2025

Not necessarily for the world, but for me it was a really good year. That’s why, while it’s still January 2026, I’m writing a short and personal summary of the previous year. I’ve divided it into two categories, although of course many more good things happened.

Tech summary

Server

I learned a lot in terms of technology, for example by setting up a home server that acts as a NAS and hosts several useful services:

• Navidrome - which is like Spotify, but only with my files. Not only is it convenient for listening to music on different devices, but I also learned a lot about tags in music files.
• PigeonPod - simple tool that converts YouTube channels into podcasts, very convenient for channels that only upload podcasts in video form (or for some reason, upload videos to YouTube a few days before uploading the episode as a podcast).
• Radio2Podcast - Of course, I continue to record radio using my own script :-). Version 0.06, released this year, has built-in logic that removes ads from recordings.
• nginx - and the web server that hosts this blog. ;-)

But of course, the biggest benefit is what I learned from it. I already know how to use Cloudflare Tunnel and containers (LXC) on Proxmox. Admittedly, Docker is not yet second nature to me, but I’m managing somehow. Previously, my experience was limited to simple RaspberryPi administration, so this is quite a leap forward.

Github

It had been my guilty conscience for many years – I would start working on it and never have the strength to finish. Finally, I learned the basics of GitHub. Along with that, I created several private repositories, but I also published a template somestyleplease for the Hugo static site generator. As with the Radio2Podcast script, I have some plans related to GitHub. ;-) But yes, I am very happy, and I hope that 2026 will also be a year of catching up.

Hardware

Not much has changed here. My primary device is still a Macbook Pro M1 (2020), which is already several years old. It continues to work perfectly, and I have no need to upgrade it. The performance of ARM-based devices is so high that it’s really hard for me to imagine anything else (although ideologically, I’m closer to the old Thinkpads).

I also replaced my iPhone XS Max with the basic version of the iPhone 16, and it’s a huge change, mainly in terms of battery life and camera (it lasts two days, which is brilliant).

As far as hardware failures go, I have to admit that the iPod Shuffle was a bad idea. Not because of the quality of the device (the build and music quality are fine), but because I have a big problem with charging it and transferring music. Something stopped working, maybe the jack socket got damaged or the cable is faulty. It ended up on the shelf and is just lying there.

Book summary

There has been a decline in books - I read significantly less than in 2024 (a drop from 19 to 10).

I have read: Nim nadejdzie lato, Straszydła na codzień, Na zachodzie bez zmian, Jak pokochać centra handlowe, Anatomia siły, Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną, Grona gniewu, Szklany klosz, Fatalne jaja

I’m a bit torn about whether to join a book club. But we’ll see how it goes.