// writing
Notes and write-ups
everything tagged apple
Turning an old 27” iMac into an external monitor
I’ve always admired the design of the older 27” iMacs. Back when they were still current, I couldn’t really afford one, so owning one became one of those small “maybe one day” dreams from my student years.
Upgrading my iPod Classic
Why would anyone buy an iPod in 2025? After all, we already carry smartphones that can stream anything, anytime. But that’s exactly what makes the iPod stand out. It’s a device that focuses on just one thing - playing music. No notifications, no social media feeds, no distractions—just your music library and nothing else.
My EDC collection
Recently, I realized I’ve collected quite a few handy little items that I use almost every day. For a long time, I didn’t even know “Everyday Carry” — or EDC — was a thing. I’ve just always been drawn to cool-looking, compact gear that feels good in the hand.
How I built a custom Homekit thermostat for 40€
I wanted a smart HomeKit thermostat for a long time. The only problem is that it is quite expensive so I never bought one. Last year, Espressif organized an introductory workshop to familiarize people with ESP32. I’ve heard about this board before but didn’t know what exactly it was and never really played with it. So I signed up for the workshop to get hands-on experience with the chip. If you don’t know what ESP32 is, you can think of it as something between Arduino and Raspberry Pi - a microprocessor that you can program in C with GPIO pins, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.
Self signed SSL certificates on iOS
Recently I was working on a project and I needed to add an SSL certificate for the API service. Normally you would use Let’s Encrypt or some other certificate authority after deploying the service. In this case, though, my service will always only run on a local network and thus I have to generate a self-signed certificate.