https://www.hendrik-erz.de/blog My personal research blog https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/truenas-or-how-i-rediscovered-the-joy-of-owning-my-media https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/truenas-or-how-i-rediscovered-the-joy-of-owning-my-media Fri, 15 May 2026 07:00:00 +0000 A few weeks ago I received a free computer, and turned it into a NAS. I subsequently discovered my old music collection, and decided to turn my NAS into a streaming service. Now I am rediscovering the joy of having no perfect choice, and supporting artists I enjoy directly. https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/why-8-gb-memory-might-still-be-enough https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/why-8-gb-memory-might-still-be-enough Fri, 01 May 2026 07:00:00 +0000 Whenever I visit online discussions and someone is about to buy a new computer, one of the first and most fiercely discussed questions is always: "How much memory do I need?" This is typically answered with "More" or "More than you think." But I think that this is silly, especially in times when memory is priced closer to gold than to consumer electronics. In this article, I want to provide some suggestions for you to determine how much memory you might actually need. Spoiler: Depending on what you do, 8 GB might still be sufficient. https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/security-advisories-and-cognitive-overload https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/security-advisories-and-cognitive-overload Fri, 03 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0000 Security advisories are a mechanism by the open source community to distribute potential software vulnerabilities to their developers confidentially. It is a vital mechanism to ensure software remains safe to use. However, in recent years, there has been an increase in low to medium severity reports which tend to drown out critical reports that need much faster response times. A rant on cognitive overload that decreases the security of software. https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/heuristics-and-assumptions https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/heuristics-and-assumptions Sat, 28 Mar 2026 17:00:00 +0000 Heuristics are everywhere. But every heuristic is always also just a good assumption. And assumptions can be violated. In this post, I share a story about when my data suddenly turned foul, and the cause of this was anything but obvious. The lesson? The road to hell is paved with good assumptions. https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/can-we-still-trust-our-software https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/can-we-still-trust-our-software Fri, 13 Mar 2026 11:00:00 +0000 In the past months, the software I use daily has started to get less and less reliable. While mostly anecdotal evidence, I believe this to be a potential canary for deeper problems that plague software. For now, we may still be able to trust our software. But what about in ten years? https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/where-zettlr-failed-how-i-wrote-my-entire-thesis-using-almost-only-one-program https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/where-zettlr-failed-how-i-wrote-my-entire-thesis-using-almost-only-one-program Fri, 06 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000 This is a (late) extension to both my PhD series and my “How I work” series. In this article, I explain the technical setup of my PhD thesis — how I integrated my data analysis pipeline into my writing, and how I enabled exports for the various journals I had to submit my work to. https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/webgl-series-part-8-implementing-multi-sample-antialiasing-msaa https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/webgl-series-part-8-implementing-multi-sample-antialiasing-msaa Fri, 27 Feb 2026 11:00:00 +0000 In this last article in my series on WebGL, I re-implement antialiasing to make the rendered graphic look more crisp. This step concludes the full setup of the iris indicator that you can see on the demo page. https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/webgl-series-part-7-adding-a-bloom-filter https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/webgl-series-part-7-adding-a-bloom-filter Fri, 20 Feb 2026 11:00:00 +0000 In the second-to-last installment of my series on WebGL, I explain how a Bloom filter works and how I added it into the processing-pipeline of the iris indicator. https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/webgl-series-part-6-post-processing https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/webgl-series-part-6-post-processing Fri, 13 Feb 2026 11:00:00 +0000 In part six of this series on WebGL, I introduce the concepts behind post-processing a rendered image, and how to implement that in a WebGL program. https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/webgl-series-part-5-computing-colors https://www.hendrik-erz.de/post/webgl-series-part-5-computing-colors Fri, 06 Feb 2026 11:00:00 +0000 In this fifth article on WebGL, I explain how I procedurally generate colors and animate them to convey changes in the state of the iris indicator.