From 294e9345277a4340775974ce33673318a29eed23 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: craisin Date: Thu, 25 Dec 2025 22:51:54 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] add article again --- Notetaking with a Homelab.md | 55 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 55 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Notetaking with a Homelab.md diff --git a/Notetaking with a Homelab.md b/Notetaking with a Homelab.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f6127b --- /dev/null +++ b/Notetaking with a Homelab.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +#Coding #Homelab + +# My First Notetaking Solution +I started heavily focusing on notetaking during the Second Brain productivity trend. At this time, I was spending a good bit of time looking into different types maths and many different fun problems, so I wanted to store + document them and share them with friends (which would eventually become these notes!). Additionally, I wanted a system to store any documents/notes I had on paper for school to consolidate all my resources into a single app. + +## Notion +Of course, the first app I was drawn to was Notion. I was introduced by a friend, and spent a lot of time creating Notion pages to store data and manage time. Some noteworthy ways I used notion were: +- Database + Notion Pages to publish this set of notes +- Database + Zapier for documents + +## Drawbacks +While Notion worked great, it had a few drawbacks. The most critical ones to me were: +- Lack of control over my notes + - Lack of a portable format +- Hard to integrate with scanning documents (still in progress for my current setup) +- Did everything, but nothing well +- Spent more time on config than actually using the system + +# Self-Hosting Notes +As I got into self-hosting, I started to wonder if I could improve my notetaking system by switching out Notion for something I controlled. This led me to start to look as markdown as a way to self host notes, trying to meet the following requirements: +- Control over notes and documents +- Clean interface for writing technical and regular notes + - LaTeX support +- Extensible and tinkerable + - Document scanning support +- Multi Device Support + - Web + mobile + +## Failed Attempt 1 +My first attempt at self hosting notes frankly created a bloated system of jank and pain: +- Notes hosted primarily on a hard drive connected to a Mini PC +- Obsidian + syncthing for notes (inconsistent sync) +- Obsidian in a container for anywhere else (painfully slow for a md editor) +- N8N for getting documents from Google Drive (slow, broke a lot, wasn't very useful) +The notetaking system just wasn't very consistent or convenient, making it a hassle to use + +## Failed Attempt 1.5 - Nextcloud Notes +I tried switching out to Nextcloud Notes for a while, but the lack of LaTeX and lack of polish on it made it difficult to use for much of anything. + +## Failed Attempt 2 - Silverbullet +Silverbullet was a similar story - it looked REALLY promising, but was just hard to work with on mobile and did not feel polished (part of me still wants to love it, but I don't think I'm geeky enough for Silverbullet yet). Additionally, LaTeX was supported through an extension but was just weird. + +# My Current Setup +I still really enjoyed the idea of markdown, especially for technical writing. Obsidian's mobile interface stuck to me as one of the better markdown editors, so I decided to try to find a better setup involving obsidian for Desktop. +The solution came in the form of syncing to git through Obsidian's community plugin. This allowed consistent sync in a manner I understood + easy access on all devices. Additionally, for web access, I could use a self hosted instance of VS Code to edit markdown files anywhere I want. +Lastly, I found out I could publish my notes using Quartz, and created my own container for it! +Here is the full setup: +- Obsidian app + Git plugin on mobile +- Obsidian app on my laptop +- Code Server for web access (self hosted VS Code) +- Sync through self hosted gitea instance (GitHub works fine too, I just already use a self hosted git) +- Publishing through Quartz + +## WIP +I still have not found a good way to scan docs and add them into a MD system. Currently working on building a better way to scan and handle my documents, while messing around with some OpenCV. \ No newline at end of file