May 22, 2026 • 4 min read
KikiGaki, an old homelab domain and a Japanese dictation website
KikiGaki started from an old homelab domain, then became a Japanese dictation, shadowing, and flashcard website that we are building.
HOMELAB & SELF-HOSTED
The Unemployed Dev's Homelab
When there's no job, build a homelab. Sharing the journey from zero to self-hosted everything — turning a bedroom into a data center.
What is a Homelab?
A homelab is a personal laboratory at home where you build and manage your own servers, network infrastructure, and self-hosted services. Instead of paying for cloud services, you host everything on your own hardware.
For an unemployed developer like me, a homelab isn't just a hobby — it's where I practice DevOps, networking, and system administration. Every service I deploy is a new line on my resume.
Homelab Setup
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Infrastructure
- • Proxmox VE — Virtualization platform
- • Docker & Docker Compose — Container orchestration
- • Tailscale — Secure mesh VPN
- • Cloudflare Tunnel — Secure access
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Self-hosted Services
- • Nginx Proxy Manager — Reverse proxy
- • WordPress — CMS for this blog
- • Uptime Kuma — Monitoring
- • And many more...
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Networking
- • VLAN segmentation
- • DNS — Pi-hole / AdGuard Home
- • SSL certificates — Let's Encrypt
- • Firewall rules & security
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Currently Learning
- • Kubernetes — Container orchestration
- • Ansible — Infrastructure as Code
- • Monitoring stack — Grafana, Prometheus
- • Backup strategies — 3-2-1 rule
Why Build a Homelab?
- Hands-on learning: Nothing beats deploying and maintaining services yourself. This experience is worth more than any certificate.
- Cost savings: Self-host instead of paying monthly subscriptions for cloud services.
- Privacy: Your data, on your server. No third-party dependencies.
- Living portfolio: Your homelab IS your portfolio — proof you know DevOps, networking, and Linux.
- Community: The homelab community is thriving. People share knowledge and help each other.
Latest Posts
Articles about homelab, self-hosting, vibe coding, and the journey of an unemployed developer.
Mar 16, 2026 • 6 min read
From Prompt Engineer to Unemployed
From prompt engineer to unemployed in 4 years. The meme that seemed like a joke but is terrifyingly accurate — and I’m on line three. 9 months left.
Mar 14, 2026 • 4 min read
Claude’s 1M Context Window Is Now Unlocked for Everyone — Good News or Bad?
Anthropic just opened up the 1M context window to all Claude users. No extra fees, no beta headers. But as context windows grow larger, so does the pressure on developers.
Mar 12, 2026 • 7 min read
Xôi Lạc TV — When Technical Talent Sells Its Soul for Money, and the Bitter Ending After 10 Years
A dev’s analysis of the technical infrastructure behind Xôi Lạc TV — bandwidth, infrastructure, streaming costs, and lessons for homelab enthusiasts.
Mar 5, 2026 • 2 min read
Homelab #23 Vercel for the Blog to Create a Failover
Deploy a Hexo blog to Vercel for failover, fix the Root Directory mistake, and hit the CNAME/A record conflict on Cloudflare DNS setup today.
Mar 5, 2026 • 1 min read
Homelab #24 VGA Issues on Proxmox
Fix Proxmox dying after removing a VGA: PCIe index changes break NICs, so pin interfaces with network-interface-pinning and reboot safely now too.
Ready to Start?
Read homelab articles on the blog or check out my homelab dashboard.
See more projects or learn about Thất Nghiệp Dev.