The Incredible Totophe™ Universe - Tech Blog & Digital Strategy

✨ Latest Post 25 October 2025

Why We Containerize Our Code But Not Our Tools: Introducing dc-toolbelt

Here's a question that's been bothering me: We religiously containerize our applications with Docker. We preach about reproducibility, isolation, and "it works on my machine" being unacceptable for production code. Yet somehow, we're perfectly fine installing Node.js, Python, PostgreSQL clients, cloud CLIs, and dozens of other tools directly on our host machines.

Why do we containerize our code but not our toolbelt?

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#devcontainer #docker #nodejs +2 more

Why Build a VoIP Lab in 2025?

The goal isn't to replace my mobile phone. It's to have a playground for voice technologies that are increasingly relevant in modern applications: IVR systems, conversational AI, voice assistants, and telephony integrations.

I wanted to experiment with:

IVR systems (Interactive Voice Response) - those "press 1 for sales" menus
Voice AI integration
SIP protocol internals - understanding modern telephony at a deeper level
Conversational interfaces - prototyping voice-driven applications

From Copilot Loops to No-Code Magic: My Journey Building Illico.be

19 September 2025 • Development , AI Tools , No-Code

Sometimes the best lessons come from projects that humble you. Meet Illico.be, my side project for organizing board game nights with friends and family. What started as a simple playground to experiment with AI coding tools became a fascinating journey through the current state of development workflows – complete with unexpected detours and surprising discoveries.

How to Flash an LSI HBA into IT Mode (with UEFI Shell v1 and Other Gotchas)

8 September 2025 • Homelab , Storage , TrueNAS

Flashing an LSI HBA to IT Mode in 2025: the Real-World, Hands-On Guide I Wish I’d Had

TL;DR: If your LSI/Avago/Broadcom SAS2308 (e.g., 9207-8i/9208-8i/9211-8i) card refuses to see drives or shows “0 B” ghosts, you probably need IT mode P20. The gotcha: the classic sas2flash.efi only works from a UEFI Shell v1, not v2—boot a TianoCore UEFI Shell v1 (link below) as \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI and the flasher will finally run. Also, don’t trust passive VGA→HDMI “converters” during setup—use real VGA or an active adapter so you can see the shell.

How I Automated 80% of My VAT Accounting Job with Simple Email Filters and One Script

7 July 2025 • Automation , Business Process , Web Development

From quarterly chaos to seamless automation: How I solved my invoice management nightmare in one weekend The Problem That Was Costing Me Money Every three months, the same dreaded routine would begin. VAT filing time meant hours of tedious work that I'd inevitably procrastinate on: - Hunting through my inbox for invoice attachments - Downloading PDFs one by one -...

22 Years Later: How I Finally Migrated My WordPress Blog to Astro with AI as My Coding Intern

8 June 2025 • Web Development , AI Development , Personal Projects

Last Thursday, my WordPress blog went down again. Nothing unusual—it always comes back by itself—but there I was, staring at another reminder of the aging VPS, the security concerns, and the maintenance overhead I'd been avoiding for years. After 22 years of blogging (starting on BlogSpace back in 2003 before migrating to WordPress), I'd been wanting to switch to a...