Blog

February 7, 2022
in Programming
8 min read

Setup SSH with Certificates on Windows (and a bit of Linux)

The Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) allows one to remotely access a terminal interface on a remote machine. In addition, it allows for capabilities such as port tunneling¹, file transfers and screen forwarding.

The main reasons for setting up SSH access on my machine were to allow me to:

Access the filesystem remotely and transfer files
Develop on VSCode remotely, in Remote-Containers
Tunnel ports to/from the remote machine (e.g., to access local applications only listening on localhost)

February 7, 2022
in Programming
2 min read

VSCode Remote Containers over SSH

When working remotely with a laptop, sometimes we might want access to more CPU power, RAM or a GPU. VSCode supports accessing a remote machine, and if Docker is installed on the remote machine, you can even connect to remote development containers. This approach tremendously saves battery life since computation is done on the remote server.

February 4, 2022
in Philosophy
6 min read

On Deep Work

I believe that useful work, of lasting value to oneself and others, comes from uninterrupted concentration. Intuitively it makes sense - imaging working on a complex task, requiring you to hold many pieces of information in your mind simultaneously in order to produce a result, something common in knowledge fields. When you are interrupted, such as by an instant message or some other notification, your attention on the main task is lost, some new context is loaded into your memory as necessary to deal with processing the distraction, and by the time you resume the main task, it becomes harder to recall the pieces of information you were holding in your memory earlier.

December 30, 2021
in Programming
1 min read

`npm update` does not write updated versions to `package.json`

Update: This issue has been fixed in npm 8.3.2.

Found this out the hard way.

December 25, 2021
in Outdoor
4 min read

Skiing in St Moritz, Switzerland

I went here during December, 2021, on the VTL lane. We stayed at Club Med St. Moritz. It was full-board and inclusive of ski passes, lessons and rental (of the ski, helmet, boots and poles), which made planning convenient. They also had two-way airport pickup.

December 17, 2021
in Programming
1 min read

My Collection of Useful Utilities

Stuff I use, arranged by language/OS. Inspired by this article.

December 4, 2021
in Cooking
1 min read

Crispy Apple Chips

Apple chips are a nice and healthy snack. I made some the other day and it's super easy.

Time required: 3 hours

November 17, 2021
in Programming
4 min read

Developing in WSL Containers (Now with GPU support!)

As a programmer there were a lot of version/environment issues I faced while developing with Python, Node and other tools. Some examples:

Switching between different Python versions on Windows is difficult and requires third-party solutions e.g. Chocolatey
Switching between different Node versions also requires a third-party solution (nvm)
While pipenv, venv and poetry are ways to manage different Python environments, they still depend on the base Python version installed, which is another external dependency
Maintaining other dependencies such as CUDA drivers, ffmpeg etc.

September 16, 2021
in Cooking
1 min read

Crispy Pork Belly

July 25, 2021
in Finance
4 min read

To Endowus, Or Not?

Endowus has been making waves in the robo-advisor market in Singapore, hitting $1 billion in assets under management (AUM) recently.

It offers tailored investment solutions, customized for your risk appetite. Its portfolios are constructed from institutional-level fund classes, so fees are lower. Endowus also rebates trailer fees they receive from funds, so you pay even less. Finally, you can even build your own portfolio, using funds from PIMCO to Dimensional.

With that in mind, should you switch from IBKR to Endowus?