Pier-Luc Brault

Computer science teacher and former software developer. Free and open-source software, self-hosting and home automation enthusiast. Nerdy in various other ways.

Public Key

npub1njqh9pswhk9v8styc0pn62kcw7vw5m555hcy6s5a3wwfmwkq5xfsletgqh

NIP-05 Address

plbrault@fosstodon-org.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsfeqtjsc8tmzkrc9jv8sea9tv80x82d622tuzdg2wch8yahtq2rycpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds9s0x2r

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1njqh9pswhk9v8styc0pn62kcw7vw5m555hcy6s5a3wwfmwkq5xfsletgqh

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-10-27 14:43:34 UTC

https://frenck.dev/hacs-is-now-the-home-assistant-marketplace/
#HomeAssistant

2026-10-21 23:26:04 UTC

Considering it took until the end of the day for me to remember that Nextcloud is written in PHP, I sure am glad I made that move a few weeks ago:
https://plbrault.com/blog-posts/i-now-use-tailscale-to-access-my-self-hosted-apps/
#PHP #PHP2shell #Cybersecurity #SelfHosting #Nextcloud #tailscale

2026-10-14 16:58:23 UTC

Anthropic CEO says that we are months away from seeing self-replicating models that will spread on smart home devices just like worms.
Question: if we are so close to models being efficient enough to run on smart fridges, why do we need new data centers?
#AI #LLM #Anthropic

2026-10-14 01:33:13 UTC

I like LibreOffice's stance on AI features. It's not anti-AI. It's only against pushing it down your throat. It's all about choice.
Side note: you don't even need an AI integration in LibreOffice in order to have an LLM interact with a document. OpenCode can do it using LibreOffice's CLI.
https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/09/03/yes-no-ai-is-now-a-feature/
#AI #LLM #LibreOffice #OpenCode

2026-10-12 13:52:37 UTC

New blog post just dropped!
https://plbrault.com/blog-posts/can-programmers-really-vibe-code/
#AI #LLM #VibeCoding #Programming

2026-10-05 00:52:45 UTC

With the rise of software vulnerabilities being found by LLMs, I am no longer comfortable exposing my self-hosted apps to the public internet.
Here is a write-up on how I changed my setup:
https://plbrault.com/blog-posts/i-now-use-tailscale-to-access-my-self-hosted-apps/
#selfhosting #tailscale

2026-08-15 16:54:31 UTC

There are two kinds of computer nerds: those who own a shiny new Framework laptop, and those who own a 14 year-old Lenovo Thinkpad. There is no in-between.

2026-07-06 23:55:25 UTC

We often joke that, in Canada, we use a mix of metric and imperial units depending on what we’re measuring. It just occurred to me that I use both during the same activity: I set the cooking temperature in Fahrenheit, but read my meat thermometer in Celsius. Switching them would absolutely confuse me.

2026-06-18 13:01:13 UTC

New blog post: https://plbrault.com/blog-posts/ai-and-the-small-web/

2026-06-18 01:31:21 UTC

https://plbrault.com/blog-posts/ai-and-the-small-web/

2026-06-16 23:18:01 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…fu2c It's also kinda the LLM approach 😅

2026-06-16 16:41:09 UTC

Hits too close to home. #retrocomputing
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/760/753/996/009/549/original/11773a342b7cbd44.png

2026-06-13 17:01:36 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…zvst I gotta say though, for everything that didn't "just work", I found straightforward documentation on the wiki!

2026-06-13 16:58:06 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…zvst An annoying surprise to me was how my printer didn't "just work" like it does on other distros. It's definitely not an "easy" distro compared to others.

2026-06-13 01:23:31 UTC

I distro-hopped to openSUSE Tumbleweed and I'm liking it so far.
#linux #openSUSE

2026-06-08 00:23:44 UTC

Weekend project: created a self-hosted start page inspired by customizable web portals from the old days
https://github.com/plbrault/salut

2026-06-05 16:41:44 UTC

I'm seeing more sensible takes on LLM-assisted development by the day. It's great to see that we're finally leaving the "Don't bother learning how to code / spend as many tokens as possible" era of AI hype.
https://www.ashbyhq.com/blog/engineering/ai-ashby-engineering-and-the-future

2026-06-01 20:34:32 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…5ft0 It's all client-side JS and CSS animations! Nothing is actually loading when it's pretending to be loading. I will put it on GitHub after I've had time to do some tidying in the code.

2026-06-01 20:12:05 UTC

I decided my website was lacking an elaborate useless feature. So I added a "90s simulator".
Last link on the homepage: https://plbrault.com
#smallweb #retrocomputing

2026-05-29 14:10:04 UTC

TIL RealPlayer still exists.

2026-05-27 13:58:07 UTC

https://evilmartians.com/chronicles/ai-assisted-engineers-are-burning-out-is-this-fine

2026-05-13 13:55:12 UTC

I read this article about how Wix rewrote thousands of error messages, and was impressed that it made no mention of an LLM. And then I noticed it's from 2022. 😅
https://wix-ux.com/when-life-gives-you-lemons-write-better-error-messages-46c5223e1a2f

2026-05-04 22:33:24 UTC

"Despite the countless failed attempts at trying to democratize coding while not understanding coding, we're faced with the reality that you cannot understand code without engaging with it. And it's become clear that if you don't keep engaging and writing it, you can lose touch with that understanding, which will in turn make you a less capable orchestrator in the first place, rendering this phase of AI coding a strange and needlessly stressful interlude."
https://larsfaye.com/articles/agentic-coding-is-a-trap

2026-05-01 22:58:39 UTC

TIL you can use a CompactFlash to IDE adapter to use a CF card as a HDD in a vintage computer. #retrocomputing

2026-04-14 13:54:44 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…ruce I've been using Kimi K2.5 and then GLM-5.1. GLM is better, but slower and more costly (so I ran into a limit faster with my Go subscription). I will probably start switching between both depending on the task.
Before that I had only tried Big Pickle, and didn't have a good experience with it beyond very simple tasks, which inspired me to get a Go subscription. I admit I haven't tried the other free models though.

2026-04-14 02:23:13 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…74z3 Of course. That's not really the point the article is trying to make though. It's a comment on how there are 2 very polarized camps when it comes to AI right now ("AI all bad" vs "AGI will be achieved in 6 months") and then there are people in the middle who *tend* to have tried it, but did not drink the kool-aid. Therefore, the "all bad" camp tends to conflate that position with the other extreme. But you're right, you can also have a more moderate opinion without having tried it.

2026-04-14 02:07:03 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…74z3 The mere fact that you equate "experimenting with AI" with "freebasing crack cocaine" proves the point of the article.

2026-04-13 21:20:00 UTC

Interesting read about attitudes towards AI coding (and polarizing technologies in general)
https://lucumr.pocoo.org/2026/4/11/the-center-has-a-bias/

2026-04-13 20:24:37 UTC

I've been experimenting with OpenCode using open source models through their OpenCode Go subscription (10 USD/month) and I'm pretty happy with it. It's nice to see that there are decent coding assistants and models beside the proprietary ones, and that they are affordable.
#opencode #AIcoding

2026-03-22 18:47:46 UTC

New blog post: The Tale of My Retrocomputing Infrastructure
https://plbrault.com/blog-posts/the-tale-of-my-retrocomputing-infrastructure/
#retrocomputing

2026-03-12 14:11:33 UTC

Great read. It puts words on a feeling I already had that while coding agents can often speed things up, they sometimes actually slow me down.
https://www.williamjbowman.com/blog/2026/03/05/against-vibes-when-is-a-generative-model-useful/
#AI #LLM #vibecoding #softwareengineering

2026-03-09 23:23:33 UTC

This seems like a game-changer!
https://www.howtogeek.com/grapheneos-is-coming-to-non-pixel-phones-thanks-to-motorola/
#Android #GrapheneOS #Motorola #privacy

2026-03-09 21:14:47 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…94p0 Just went on your website and I love that it's made with Netscape Composer! I have great nostalgia for it and I even wrote a blog post about it 2 years ago: https://plbrault.com/blog-posts/i-used-netscape-composer-in-2024/

2026-03-08 15:28:18 UTC

New blog post: I Used NumPy to Plan for My Home Renovations
https://plbrault.com/blog-posts/i-used-numpy-to-plan-for-my-home-renovations/
#python #numpy #matplotlib

2026-03-08 03:02:45 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…3nag Nice! I actually dream of doing the same, but with an RJ11 cable and an actual dial-up modem! I just NEED to hear that good ol' dial-up sound coming out of my retro machine!

2026-03-06 22:42:54 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…jvlj My post was inspired specifically by having to troubleshoot driver issues on Windows 98 😅 but even then "outdated for 25 years" is technically incorrect, as XP hadn't even come out at this time 25 years ago.

2026-03-06 22:40:08 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…kem6 25 years ago was the year Windows XP came out ;)

2026-03-06 18:24:06 UTC

The real joy of retrocomputing is acquiring skills that have been outdated for 25 years.
#retrocomputing

2026-02-22 22:45:34 UTC

Fun little blog post I wrote today about an obscure non-Disney adaptation of "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame": The Mysterious Case of the Off-Brand Cartoon
https://plbrault.com/blog-posts/the-mysterious-case-of-the-off-brand-cartoon/

2026-02-18 00:58:59 UTC

We are much closer in time to the Year 2038 problem than to Y2K.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

2026-02-13 21:04:28 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…q2r0 A poltergeist keeps writing "sudo rm -rf /" on my terminal!

2026-02-13 21:02:15 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…q2r0 Packet-eating ghosts?

2026-02-13 20:56:13 UTC

Hear me out: a mystery show, but instead of a detective solving crimes, it's an IT consultant solving mysterious tech issues.

2026-02-06 00:18:15 UTC

About 6 months ago, I liked to say we had entered the "Trough of Disillusionment" phase of the Gartner hype cycle concerning LLMs.
With the developments that have happened since then with the models themselves, the tools built around them, the workflows that have emerged, and our expectations of what coding agents can and cannot do, I now believe we have entered the "Slope of Enlightenment" phase of the cycle, at least for coding.
Image by user jeremykemp at English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/116/020/796/498/843/399/original/c691fb0a6a4ba46c.png

2026-02-02 20:28:44 UTC

GitHub Actions is having problems right now
https://www.githubstatus.com/
#GitHub

2026-01-27 00:18:29 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…kwn5 I get all that. My point is that it is misleading to promote an AI agent or assistant by saying "This respects your privacy BECAUSE it is self-hosted" if the project is actually using a cloud service as its most important technological component.

2026-01-26 17:49:49 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…m98r You don't need to test it, these projects already tell you they're using Claude and you usually need to provide credentials.

2026-01-26 17:48:05 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…kwn5 You are still sending everything to Anthropic, I don't see how this safeguards the privacy of the data.

2026-01-26 01:38:14 UTC

I keep seeing AI agents that claim to be self-hosted and therefore privacy-friendly, but the model they use is Claude, which, as far as I know, is very much a cloud service. Am I missing something?
#AI #LLM #selfhosted
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/115/958/824/499/873/034/original/d9bd3e797ee41e3d.png

2026-01-22 18:04:32 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…l7rx It's gonna go down to -29 this weekend where I live! 😅

2026-01-13 15:11:32 UTC

Someone's super cool project to build a TV remote using floppy disks for their kid:
https://blog.smartere.dk/2026/01/floppy-disks-the-best-tv-remote-for-kids/

2025-12-28 19:05:54 UTC

Went from Garuda Cinnamon to Garuda Mokka (KDE) for a couple of days, but it was too buggy so I went back to Cinnamon. Not sure if it's KDE Plasma's fault or Garuda's, as I had never tried KDE before. The stability of Cinnamon seems hard to beat though, and I have tried it on 3 distros at this point. #Linux #GarudaLinux #Cinnamon #KDE_plasma

2025-12-18 15:48:34 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…vjvs If it is still an issue at this point, it feels like a design flaw in screen readers more than a design flaw in websites.

2025-12-18 15:43:02 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…vjvs I wonder how relevant that "best practice" even is today. It made more sense 20 years ago when tabs weren't really a thing yet and those links would open a new window. Do people really still get confused by a link opening in a new tab? And is it even still a problem for screen readers?

2025-12-18 15:25:42 UTC

32 GB of DDR5 now costs more than my dryer.

2025-12-15 14:07:52 UTC

It occurred to me that the surge in prices of RAM and now storage is basically gonna take the cost of a PC back to what it was in the 90s.

2025-12-13 02:12:55 UTC

Backtracking is how I would usually solve this kind of problem, but it was impossible with that input because the number of possible combinations for each region is way too high.
I admit I had no idea how to solve it, so I had a peek at the subreddit. Turns out this puzzle is a little bit of a prank: if you eliminate the regions that are trivially solvable or trivially unsolvable, there are... no regions left to solve.
https://github.com/plbrault/advent-of-code-2025/blob/main/12.py
#AdventOfCode

2025-12-13 02:06:54 UTC

I just completed all 12 days of Advent of Code 2025! #AdventOfCode https://adventofcode.com/

2025-12-12 04:15:27 UTC

I solved both parts with a DFS.
I figured part 2 was a matter of cutting the path in steps and combining them (svr_ to_dac * dac_to_fft * fft_to_out + svr_to_fft * fft_to_dac * dac_to_out). It didn't work at first and I ended up going on a whole tangent, crashing my computer in the process, before coming back to that solution. All it was missing was memoization and handling cases where no path exists to the end node.
https://github.com/plbrault/advent-of-code-2025/blob/main/11.py
#AdventOfCode

2025-12-11 05:02:55 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…3jme We all seem to have discovered Z3 today 😅

2025-12-11 04:35:44 UTC

Part 1 was fun, I counted in binary to generate all the possible combinations.
Looking at part 2, I figured it must be an equation system. My linear algebra is quite rusty, so I got some help from AI to figure it out (my rule for myself is that I can use AI to brainstorm as long as it doesn't write the code for me). I used Z3 after reading about it on the subreddit. I added comments to convince myself that I understood what I did.
https://github.com/plbrault/advent-of-code-2025/blob/main/10.py
#AdventOfCode

2025-12-11 00:30:29 UTC

Part 2 really shouldn't have taken me so long, but unfortunately I originally misunderstood the explanations. I was laying in bed last night when I got that the red tiles are the ordered points of a polygon! Finally put together a solution using a Python library called Shapely. Might prove handy for a "Programming for science" class I will be teaching next semester!
https://github.com/plbrault/advent-of-code-2025/blob/main/09.py
#AdventOfCode

2025-12-09 19:56:56 UTC

'Tis season to steal smart plugs from around the house and repurpose them for Christmas lights.

2025-12-09 03:55:28 UTC

That was a fun graph problem! My solution to part 2 is inefficient because I recompute everything from scratch for each added connection. Still, it completed in 94 seconds, which is less than it would have taken me to improve my solution.
https://github.com/plbrault/advent-of-code-2025/blob/main/08.py
#AdventOfCode

2025-12-07 22:41:22 UTC

Part 2 took me many hours, during which I went through multiple solutions that worked fine with the example, but were way too inefficient for the actual output.
The approach that finally worked is something like that:
- For each row:
- For each beam position in the row:
- Sum the number of paths leading to any beam from the previous row that can lead to this beam
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plbrault/advent-of-code-2025/refs/heads/main/07.py
#AdventofCode

2025-12-07 05:14:39 UTC

Bought something on eBay located in my own city, and I swear it's the first time ever the "Local pickup" option wasn't offered!

2025-12-06 19:21:25 UTC

I think I hate cephalopods now.
#AdventofCode

2025-12-06 15:32:25 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…xht4 That puzzle really put the `n` in `O(n)` 😅

2025-12-06 02:02:23 UTC

This one was the most challenging for me so far this year.
I first tried to solve part 1 by generating a set of all possible IDs in the ranges, which worked well with the example... but not with the HUGE ranges of the actual input (which I noticed after). Turns out iterating on ranges for all IDs to check was a more efficient solution!
Part 2 would have been easy if it wasn't for the fact that there are intersections in the ranges!
https://github.com/plbrault/advent-of-code-2025/blob/main/05.py
#AdventOfCode

2025-12-05 01:56:37 UTC

I just completed "Printing Department" - Day 4 - Advent of Code 2025 #AdventOfCode https://adventofcode.com/2025/day/4

2025-12-04 00:47:51 UTC

Didn't make the mistake of working on strings like I did with Day 2.
For part 1, I find the largest number in the bank excluding the last one, and then the largest after that. For part 2, I find the largest number excluding the last 11, then the largest after that excluding the last 10, and so on. I unified both into the same function that takes a parameter for the number of batteries to pick.
https://github.com/plbrault/advent-of-code-2025/blob/main/03.py
#AdventOfCode

2025-12-04 00:27:49 UTC

I just completed "Lobby" - Day 3 - Advent of Code 2025 #AdventOfCode https://adventofcode.com/2025/day/3

2025-12-03 01:49:26 UTC

It's always a humbling experience to solve an #AdventOfCode puzzle with a program that takes a minute to run, only to read everyone on Reddit saying theirs takes milliseconds 😅.

2025-12-03 01:27:57 UTC

That was a classic case of "accidentally solving part 2 while doing part 1" for me.
#AdventOfCode

2025-12-03 01:22:15 UTC

I just completed "Gift Shop" - Day 2 - Advent of Code 2025 #AdventOfCode https://adventofcode.com/2025/day/2

2025-12-02 01:04:04 UTC

I found that first challenge reasonably easy.
Part 1: I realized that offsetting everything by 1 made the math easier, by not having to deal with 0 as a position. I used modulo to handle cases where the dial had to do multiple turns around the lock.
Part 2: I figured the numbers were small enough for a naive approach to work, so I didn't try to figure out the math. I simply made a for loop that rotates step by step and counts the 0s.
https://github.com/plbrault/advent-of-code-2025
#AdventOfCode

2025-11-26 00:47:30 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…metx someone who also wants to keep track of their spending 😅

2025-11-26 00:43:48 UTC

Do normal people also use a spreadsheet to manage their Christmas gift shopping and keep tracked of what has been bought, received and wrapped?

2025-11-10 14:35:24 UTC

Counting the days to #AdventOfCode ! There will be only 12 puzzles this year, finishing December 12th, which sounds perfect for my busy late December schedule!

2025-10-21 13:45:02 UTC

Interesting read on AI and how new technologies don't usually change everything as fast as we tend to think.
https://commoncog.com/letter-to-a-young-person-worrying-about-ai/
#AI #LLM

2025-10-07 14:57:14 UTC

The stew recipe on my stew sauce mix doesn't use an onion and I think that's absurd.

2025-10-07 13:35:25 UTC

Interesting read.
"AI isn’t replacing programmers; it’s creating millions of people who can build simple tools. There’s a significant difference."
https://mrkaran.dev/posts/ai-home-cooked-software
#AI #LLM

2025-06-19 23:52:13 UTC

I asked ChatGPT about an issue concerning a PSU fan. It suggested I sent a video to diagnose the problem.
I did that. It replied almost instantly. So I asked: how am I sure you actually analyzed the video? It assured me it did. I asked: what pet is on the video? It said: a cat. I said: there is no pet on the video, proof you're bullshitting. It admitted to bullshitting, congratulated me for my critical thinking, and asked if I wanted it to actually analyze the video. DUDE!
#ChatGPT #AI

2025-06-19 23:36:06 UTC

Just realized the "kids" from Stranger Things are almost the age I was when season 1 was released.

2025-06-17 02:02:07 UTC

Currently in the process of refurbishing a smoker's old PC, and I have a great idea for an anti-tobacco campaign: "This is your motherboard on nicotine."

2025-06-15 05:19:48 UTC

Retrocomputing experiment of the day: remote-control my modern day Linux PC using a VNC client on Windows 98. It works! #retrocomputing #windows98

2025-06-08 21:06:57 UTC

Connected my retro PC to a new-to-me 23 inch monitor I got from a yard sale, and found out that Windows 98 supports 1080p! #retrocomputing #windows98

2025-03-16 23:23:42 UTC

I heard Copilot for Gaming is going to replace older siblings before the end of this year.
#AI #LLM #Copilot #CopilotForGaming

2025-02-09 19:53:39 UTC

New blog post reminiscing how I set up my first server as a teenager.
https://plbrault.com/blog-posts/how-i-really-started-self-hosting/
#SelfHosting #tech #blog

2025-01-16 05:10:56 UTC

My Linux terminal freaked me out tonight. Apparently that's a Monty Python quote.
#GarudaLinux #MontyPython
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/113/836/293/915/704/537/original/f780a66d77c2f225.jpg

2025-01-14 01:42:30 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…p5pe That is good to know. Thank you.

2025-01-13 23:23:47 UTC

I noticed that a recent update of #HomeAssistant introduced automatic backups.
I will have to consider setting this up. My current backup strategy is to manually create one everytime I make a change to my config, and then downloading it and storing it on my Nextcloud instance. Automatic backups would remove the need to do that, but on the other hand, I would have to periodically check that my backups are still working, which I don't have to worry about with my current strategy.

2025-01-13 22:41:13 UTC

New blog post: On Moving My Home Automations - https://plbrault.com/blog-posts/on-moving-my-home-automations/
#blog #homeautomation #smarthome #HomeAssistant #tech

2024-12-12 04:27:01 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…xlhv just served mine the eggs, so far they look unconvinced. Oh well.

2024-12-12 04:22:51 UTC

It's 11PM, we ran out of cat food, so after a quick Internet research on what is safe to feed the cats in this situation, I am now cooking eggs for their Majesties. What is my life?

2024-06-21 19:20:45 UTC

- reply

@npub12ze…hunm He chose to do his first web page about Zelda and the result is very cute. Brought me back to my first times creating web pages as a kid 😊

2024-06-21 18:23:40 UTC

I, a computer science teacher, spent some time today teaching my stepson basic HTML. Am I doing vacation wrong?

2024-06-09 19:07:57 UTC

- reply

@npub14fs…qegk I wish. I'm forced to use their products because that's what we have at work :(

2024-06-09 19:03:21 UTC

I opened a directory shared by a coworker on OneDrive, and it told me that "my" storage is almost full (94%), suggesting that I free some space and empty the trash bin. My storage is only 28% full though, it's my coworker's storage that's at 94%. Just wow. #microsoft #onedrive

2024-06-07 00:12:31 UTC

Is it just me, or is the term "edge computing" sometimes used to describe things that existed long before being called that?