Overview of Firecracker MicroVM

Posted on July 8, 2026 by admin

Overview of Firecracker MicroVM

Firecracker is an open-source virtualization technology developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It is specifically designed to create and manage lightweight virtual machines, known as microVMs, which are optimized for running serverless workloads and container-based applications.

Key Features

Speed: MicroVMs can boot in less than 125 milliseconds, making them ideal for short-lived tasks.
Memory Efficiency: Each microVM has a memory overhead of less than 5 MiB, allowing for high-density deployment on servers.
Security: Firecracker provides strong isolation through hardware virtualization using KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine), which enhances security compared to traditional VMs.

Architecture

Firecracker’s architecture is streamlined for efficiency and minimalism. Here are its main components:

Component	Description
MicroVMs	Lightweight virtual machines that run isolated applications or processes.
Jailer	Ensures security by managing namespaces, cgroups, and seccomp filters.
VMM (Virtual Machine Monitor)	Manages the lifecycle of microVMs and exposes a RESTful API for configuration.

Use Cases

Firecracker is particularly suited for:

Serverless Computing: Powers services like AWS Lambda and AWS Fargate.
Multi-Tenant Workloads: Provides strong isolation for workloads from different customers.
High-Performance Applications: Ideal for scenarios requiring rapid scaling and resource efficiency.

Firecracker’s design allows it to handle a high volume of microVMs, supporting the creation of up to 150 microVMs per second on a single host. This makes it a compelling choice for modern cloud infrastructure, where speed and security are paramount.

How Does Firecracker Compare with traditional Virtualisation Technologies?

Firecracker microVMs provide enhanced security and isolation similar to traditional virtual machines (VMs) but with significantly faster startup times (as low as 125 milliseconds) and lower memory overhead (less than 5 MiB per microVM). This minimalist design allows for higher density of workloads on a single host compared to traditional VMs, which typically require more resources and longer boot times.

What are the Security Features of Firecracker MicroVM’s for container based applications? (for example Docker).

Firecracker microVMs provide strong isolation mechanisms using KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) for secure virtualization, ensuring that workloads from different customers can run safely on the same machine. Additionally, it has a minimal device model that reduces the attack surface area, enhancing overall security. Considered much less risky in multi-tenant situations than say a priviliged container.

Whatever Happened To Rediffusion?

Posted on July 7, 2026 by admin

Rediffusion. A company that was once everywhere. Shops in the high street, offering rental TV’s. Cable services in almost every large town or City (I remember those rotary wall switches well).

Its famous “adastral” spinning star symbol a major brand. The last I say of it was on the side of Initial vans, after BET acquired the assets of Rediffusion.

Also in the late 80’s I bought large quantities of ex-rental colour sets (Dorics?) especially after Granada bought their rental business. Very well built and modular sets, made in Rochdale if I recall. The Mk 1 (revamp) a colour hybrid chassis, the Mk 3 and Mk4.

Rediffusion ceased trading in the 1980s as new technologies like satellite TV emerged, leading to the sale of its assets and the breakup of the company. By the early 1990s, most of its operations had been sold off or absorbed by other companies

Overview of Rediffusion’s History

Rediffusion was a pioneering company in the broadcasting industry, known for distributing radio and television signals through wired relay networks. Founded in 1928, it became the first ITV franchisee to go on air in the UK in 1955. The company expanded into various sectors, including manufacturing radios and televisions, and even ventured into music with the establishment of a record label.

Decline and Cessation of Operations

Factors Leading to Decline

Technological Changes: The emergence of satellite TV and other new technologies in the 1980s significantly impacted Rediffusion’s business model.
Financial Struggles: The company faced financial difficulties, particularly after losing its ITV franchise in 1968, following the IBA imposed shotgun marriage between it and Associated British (ABC) to form Thames Television out of which ABC became the dominant partner.

Final Years

Asset Sales: By the early 1990s, Rediffusion’s assets were sold off, and the company was effectively broken up. Most of its operations were absorbed by other companies, marking the end of its presence in the broadcasting industry.

Current Status

Today, the Rediffusion brand has been revived in some markets, such as China for consumer electronics and in the UK for LED televisions. However, the original company and its operations have largely faded from the broadcasting landscape.

Kestra Pricing Overview

Posted on July 7, 2026 by admin

Kestra Pricing Overview

Kestra is an open-source platform, which means it is free to use. However, there are additional options available for users who may need more advanced features or support.

Free and Paid Options

Feature	Free Version	Paid Version
Basic Functionality	Yes	Yes
Enterprise Features	No	Yes
Managed Services	No	Yes
Support	Community support	Dedicated support with SLAs
Scalability	Limited to self-hosting	Enhanced for enterprise needs

Key Points

Open-Source: The core platform is free and can be self-hosted.
Enterprise Edition: Offers additional features for mission-critical workloads, including enhanced security and governance.
Kestra Cloud: A fully managed service that simplifies deployment and management, available for a fee.

In summary, while Kestra is free to use, organizations looking for advanced features or managed services will need to consider the paid options.

Laser Printers Cheaper To Run (Obviously)

Posted on July 6, 2026 by admin

Cost Efficiency of Laser Printers

Laser printers are generally more economical to operate over time compared to inkjet printers. This is primarily due to the longevity and efficiency of toner cartridges.

Key Factors

Toner Longevity: Toner cartridges for laser printers can print significantly more pages than ink cartridges used in inkjet printers. This means fewer replacements and lower costs per page.
Cost Per Page: The average running cost per page for laser printers is usually lower, making them a better choice for high-volume printing needs.

Comparison of Running Costs

Printer Type	Initial Cost	Toner/Ink Cost	Pages per Cartridge	Cost per Page
Laser Printer	Higher	Higher	2,000 – 10,000+	Lower
Inkjet Printer	Lower	Lower	200 – 1,000	Higher

Conclusion

For users who print frequently or in large volumes, laser printers are typically the more cost-effective option in the long run. Their ability to produce more prints per cartridge and lower cost per page makes them ideal for both home offices and businesses.

Basic wireless mono laser printers start from about £130. For colour add about £100.

Check How Many Sticks of RAM In Your Computer

Posted on July 6, 2026 by admin

Here is a cute way of checking how many sticks of ram exist in your laptop without having to take it apart. I decided to upgrade this lovely Lenovo Thinkpad L390 to 32GB.

But does it have one slot of 16GB, are two slots of 8GB? Am pretty sure the latter is likely to be the case!

Run this simple command :

sudo dmidecode -t memory

You should get output back like this:

Handle 0x0004, DMI type 17, 40 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x0002
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 8 GB
Form Factor: SODIMM
Set: None
Locator: ChannelB-DIMM0
Bank Locator: BANK 2
Type: DDR4
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: 2667 MT/s
Manufacturer: Samsung
Serial Number: 3324FFE1
Asset Tag: None
Part Number: M471A1K43CB1-CTD
Rank: 1
Configured Memory Speed: 2400 MT/s
Minimum Voltage: Unknown
Maximum Voltage: Unknown
Configured Voltage: 1.2 V

This command dmidecode is usually installed on most major Linux distributions.

Sadly my laptop currently has two sticks 8GB so I’d have to replace both with two lots of 16GB. A cost over £200!

Damn those AI guys!

Access Forbidden Sites!

Posted on July 6, 2026 by admin

Its appears you can go to prison in the EU for showing Russia Today on websites. Thankfully the Brave browser has a workaround.

1. Install the “Brave” web browser and click on the “new private window with Tor” menu option.

2. Wait for a connection.

3. Access forbidden news websites. That simple.

Though Tor can be expected to be pretty slow.

But even Firefox has a VPN option built into it now which I am sure can be accessed from a private window (can’t check just now as using Firefox-ESR for some reason on a stock version of Debian).

I am not condoning what Russia Today broadcasts, but not everything they broadcast can be considered propaganda.

Every day our so called freedoms get taken away from us and this is not a sign of a strong, confident society. In any case for now, these little “inconveniences” are easily defeated with simple workarounds.

Last year on holiday in Gran Canaria (part of the EU obviously) Russia Today was available on the hotel TV service which I thought was weird at the time, but there you go!

Generate New Machine-ID on Linux

Posted on July 6, 2026 by admin

Laugh all you like at idiot “Microsofty lusers” being globally tracked by the NSA because their GUID is hardcoded inside their TPM, but then you suddenly remember Linux also has /etc/machine-id.

And you can be sure Chrome is reading it and sending it to Google as harmless “user telemetry analytics” so you can be tracked.

Now I should just say at this point that not every Linux distro uses Machine-ID. And also this isn’t just a requirement to avoid tracking. If you wish to setup say a Linux virtual machine as a template (in order to use for automation, for say Kestra based workflows) then resetting the machine-id could be considered as “best practice.”

To generate a new machine ID, you can run the following commands: remove the existing machine ID files with:

rm -f /etc/machine-id /var/lib/dbus/machine-id and then use dbus-uuidgen --ensure=/etc/machine-id to create a new one

Steps to Generate a New Machine ID

To create a new machine ID on a Linux system, follow these steps:

1. Remove Existing Machine ID Files

First, you need to delete the current machine ID files. Open your terminal and run the following command:

2. Generate a New Machine ID

Next, generate a new machine ID using the dbus-uuidgen command:

3. Verify the New Machine ID

To confirm that the new machine ID has been created, you can check the contents of the /etc/machine-id file:

Important Notes

Ensure that you have the necessary permissions to execute these commands, typically requiring root access.
After generating a new machine ID, it is advisable to reboot the system to ensure all services recognize the new ID.

There are risks with changing your machine-id on Linux. Mostly software licence (if applicable). Which may require new licencing due to invalidation.

If you feel this is a risk then maybe a disposable Linux VM maybe a solution, preferably a distribution that is free of systemd slop. There are quite a few now (Alpine, Void-Linux, Chimera-Linux). There is also *BSD of course.

Reddit user lost $20 after typing “hey” into Fable 5

Posted on July 5, 2026 by admin

A guy paid dinner-for-two money to say hi to a chatbot.

He was on the $200 Max plan, hit his Fable 5 limit, topped up $250 in credits. Typed “hey” as a test. Screen showed a few tokens.

His balance dropped $20. He pulled up the logs. 847,000 tokens on one message. Claude Code resends your entire session context with every message. System prompt, tools, full chat history.

You pay for all of it as input. “hey” carried 847,000 tokens of baggage with it. His total spend hit $336. Post got 1,400 upvotes on r/ClaudeAI.

Fable 5 moves to credit-only billing Monday. $10 per million input, $50 per million output.

Start fresh sessions often. Keep your context lean. One “hey” in a long session costs you a meal.

Moving Offices?

Posted on July 5, 2026 by admin

If you are considering, or in the process of moving offices, then you’ll be glad to know that helping to make this go smoothly from an IT and Telecoms (Voice and Data) perspective is something that Onega are very good at

At Inception – when you have decided that you need to move – we can help with checking prospective or shortlisted properties at an early stage to ensure that they will be suitable from an IT perspective.

On the shortlist: From location and broadband service availability and options (unfortunately even in cities you can’t assume that good fast and economical broadband is available everywhere), to evaluating layouts and

When you’ve decided:
Landlord negotiations & Wayleaves / permission.
Evaluation of existing cabling & infrastructure.
Strategy on move (what to move).

Move Prep: Comms to the new office.
Cabling and getting things ready to move in.
Site meetings and liaison with architects, project managers etc.
Client advocacy.
Switches and routers in place.

Move Day / Weekend: Moving servers and smooth shut downs
Helping to turn off and pack computers safely.
Helping unpack and setup machines on desks in the new office, servers into racks and everything connected and tested.
Setting up printers in the new office.

Post Move (Day 1 in the new office): Floor walking and de-snagging.

Why Proxmox Is a Great Solution for Homelabs and Self Hosters

Posted on July 5, 2026 by admin

Proxmox VE (Virtual Environment) is widely regarded as one of the best platforms for self-hosting and homelabs because it is a free, open-source Type-1 hypervisor built on Debian that excels at running virtual machines (KVM/QEMU) and lightweight LXC containers on bare metal.

medium.com

It has become the go-to choice for many in the self-hosting and homelab communities, especially after changes in other hypervisors like VMware.

1. Lightweight and Hardware-Friendly

Proxmox has very low overhead — it can run on old or modest hardware (even a 2010-era machine) with as little as 2GB RAM for basic operation. This makes it ideal for repurposing existing gear without wasting resources on the host OS itself.

It supports a wide range of hardware, ZFS for advanced storage (snapshots, RAID-like pools, compression), and easy passthrough for GPUs, USB devices, etc.

2. Excellent Virtualization + Container Support

KVM VMs: Full isolation for running Windows, different Linux distros, pfSense, etc.
LXC Containers: Lightweight and efficient for services (much lower resource use than VMs).
Run Docker inside VMs or LXCs as needed.

This flexibility lets you isolate services (e.g., one VM for media server, another for Home Assistant, containers for Pi-hole/AdGuard) while easily experimenting without breaking everything.

3. Powerful Built-in Management Tools

Web UI: Accessible from any browser on your network — no need for a dedicated monitor/keyboard after initial setup.
Snapshots and Backups: Easy one-click snapshots and scheduled backups (with Proxmox Backup Server for efficient deduplicated storage).
Clustering and Live Migration: Add multiple nodes for high availability (HA), migrate running VMs/containers between hosts with zero downtime.
Updates and Security: Straightforward patching via the UI.

These enterprise-like features are free and work great at home scale.

4. Great for Self-Hosting Workloads.

You can easily run dozens of services (Nextcloud, Plex/Jellyfin, Bitwarden, Home Assistant, Frigate, Immich, etc.) with isolation, resource limits, and backups. Many users run 50+ self-hosted apps this way.

It pairs perfectly with tools like Tailscale for secure remote access.

5. Cost-Effective and Future-Proof

Completely free (no licensing hassles post-Broadcom VMware changes).
Strong community and active development.
Skills transfer well to real-world infra (KVM, ZFS, Linux).
Easy to scale from a single old PC to a multi-node cluster.

6. Easy Backups,

Testing, and RecoverySnapshots and backups make it low-risk to try new software or updates. You can roll back quickly if something breaks — a huge win for homelabs where experimentation is key.7. Compared to Alternatives

vs. Bare Metal Docker/Ubuntu: Better isolation, easier backups/snapshots, and multi-OS support.

reddit.com
vs. TrueNAS Scale: Proxmox is a superior hypervisor; many run TrueNAS inside a Proxmox VM for the best of both (great storage + great virtualization).

xda-developers.com
vs. ESXi: Free, no CPU limits, better container support, and no recent licensing drama.

Potential Drawbacks

Learning curve if you’re new to virtualization (but the web UI helps a lot).
Storage setup (ZFS) requires some planning to avoid pitfalls like RAM usage for ARC.
Not ideal as a daily desktop OS.

Overall, Proxmox strikes an excellent balance of simplicity, power, and flexibility for homelabs and self-hosting. It lets one (or a few) machines act like a mini data center without cloud costs or complexity.

Many people start with a basic install and quickly expand into clusters, advanced networking, and automated backups. If you’re building or expanding a homelab, it’s one of the strongest recommendations in the community right now. Would you like setup tips, hardware recommendations, or a comparison to a specific alternative?