Captain’s log // Field journal
I'm Andrew, and this is where I write up the projects, reviews and rabbit holes that might be useful—or at least interesting—to someone else. Expect AI adventures, homelab and IoT builds, astronomy, and the occasional hard-won lesson.
LATEST ENTRY
I used a self-hosted OpenMAIC classroom alongside Stéphane Maarek’s Udemy course and practice exams to prepare for AWS Certified AI Practitioner. On Sunday, I sat the proctored exam at home—and passed.
Continue reading →05 Sept 2026 · homelab
I turned the monitor attached to one Proxmox host into a full-screen fleet wallboard, while keeping the normal console one key away.
27 Aug 2026 · projects
I built Kitchen Companion to turn saved recipes into a practical cooking workflow, then had to solve the decidedly less glamorous problems of imports, privacy, background work and safe releases.
27 Aug 2026 · projects
I replaced the old Pinnacle Hill Observatory WordPress site with a faster, self-contained field journal that gives the images and the observatory build room to breathe.
11 Feb 2026 · AI, Projects
I built an iPad app today. From zero to App Store submission in about 12 hours. Not a side project that’ll sit in a repo somewhere – an actual submission… Read more »
07 Feb 2026 · AI, Homelab
I’ve been running The Captains Log on WordPress for a while now, but recently decided to give it a proper home on my homelab server rather than relying on shared… Read more »
12 Sept 2023 · Projects
The Car… Audi A7 Quattro TFSI 3L Supercharged This is my car. I took the picture above on a tour of the South Island not long after it was purchased… Read more »
Focused briefings on technology developments worth understanding, researched beyond the launch-day noise.
22 Sept 2026 · tech-news
OpenAI's new mid-tier and low-cost GPT-6 models halve token prices and improve prompt caching, changing the economics of long-running agents more than the raw capability frontier.
10 Sept 2026 · tech-news
GitHub's new managed permissions let enterprises centrally block, approve or allow Copilot agent operations across shells, files and network domains.
28 Aug 2026 · tech-news
OpenAI has added event triggers for Gmail, Slack and GitHub, moving ChatGPT tasks from clock-driven jobs towards reactive automations with useful limits.
21 Mar 2026 · news
This morning I woke up to discover that none of my devices could reach the internet. My OpenWrt router could ping external IPs just fine, DNS resolved from the router… Read more »
06 Mar 2026 · news
A solutions architect’s perspective on the two leading AI subscriptions in 2026 — and yes, I’m aware of the irony of asking Claude to write this. Let me get the… Read more »