I updated the home NAS from DSM 6.2.4 to 7.0.1 this weekend as this version brings many more functions I have expected for very long, like MFA settings and account protections which have existed for quite some time in the corporate IT environment. With these new functions available, some changes are required to the existing environment and configurations which take much time and effort. Fortunately, things are almost done now before the end of the weekend, so I would say it’s a great weekend and a good start for next week.
There are some other updates available to this website framework, WorkPress, and also to the host server as the system updates have been suspended for quite some time. These will be the priorities for the next week(s) and I will need a detailed plan for how to carry out the updates and when. It comes to me that I can take the advantage of how we do these things in the corporate environment, including the CR creation, evaluation of the request whether it’s necessary or will bring some vulnerabilities, details of the change plan and the rollback options, etc. Previously I didn’t even think of following these quite standard procedures which are common in company environment as home infrastructures/platforms or personal projects are more kind of, casual (from what I understood). So I didn’t think it’s worth so much effort and time. It’s probably because I didn’t treat them seriously. For most of the platforms/infrastructure or personal projects I have worked on in the home environment, I mainly did them out of curiosity or learning purpose, and if they didn’t work or broke, it didn’t matter too much to me and I can just clean them up anytime I like and then start working on some thing else. But now things are different as for some of the platforms, I rely on them for for real needs, like backing up my personal computer data regularly, some website/platforms I will work on continuously as a real work and which will take much of my time and efforts (and by the way I like to). And that will need me to treat them more seriously. I need to think about the stability, reliability, automation and convenience the best I can get them to, just like how I do my work.
I think by borrowing the best practices in the work, I can work more smartly on my own projects and home infrastructures/platforms as most of them share similar functions and philosophy with these projects, infrastructures and platforms we use in the company and commercial environments. Let’s see where I can get with this direction.
Another thing that came to my mind is the technical skills. Previously I have worked on many skills, whether it’s for the work or personal interests. I have learnt Powershell scripting, Bash, Python, JS, MySQL, etc. and for most of the learning cases, I would stop at some projects created with what I meant to learn, nothing more. The result is I think I have learnt so many skills but the truth is I might not understand them quite well and I might not be able to get some work done on my own with the limited knowledge I have learnt. I think I need to move on to the next phase – to become more professional on certain fields, instead of knowing something on my fields but not skilled enough on any. To become more professional on certain field, that needs challenges and practices, especially challenges from real world issues. The good things is whether it’s from the work perspective or from the home/personal project perspective, it seems just I am in the right place at the right time. There are so many new things from work which need me to dig deeper on what I might already know but am not familiar enough with, and my attitude towards what I am working on with home infrastructures/platforms and personal projects will help me to think seriously on what can be done and improved, instead of just treating them like nothing and never meaning to drive in seriously. Let’s see where I can get with this change as well.