Episode 160: Back It Up
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Amalith shares a personal journey of rebuilding his backup infrastructure after a failed NAS setup, revealing how a combination of hardware limitations, software incompatibility, and security concerns forced him to abandon his old system. Faced with the loss of his Nextcloud server due to unsupported PHP versions and missing kernel drivers, he turned to Restic—a modern, chunk-based backup tool that offers deduplication, encryption, and data integrity verification. Despite its powerful features, he criticizes Restic’s lack of a config file, prompting him to build a custom CLI wrapper with an interactive menu system. Meanwhile, host Shane discusses his ambitious open-source game development project: a 3D RPG roguelike space sim built entirely with free tools. Driven by a desire to showcase the creative and technical potential of open source, he emphasizes process over product, using the Godot engine and drawing inspiration from 'The Expanse' for realistic physics. He’s now focusing on design patterns via the free book *Game Programming Patterns*, applying principles like DRY and YAGNI to avoid reinventing the wheel. He’s also balancing handcrafted narrative zones with procedurally generated filler content to manage scope. Both guests highlight the importance of practical, maintainable systems—whether for data or code—over chasing perfection. The episode closes with a strong call to attend NogCamp 2026 in Manchester, where Shane will present his journey.
Use Restic for efficient, encrypted, deduplicated backups with built-in data integrity checks—especially when ZFS isn't an option.
Implement healthchecks.io to monitor backup jobs via scheduled pings; a failed ping means your backup didn’t run.
Avoid 'premature optimization' with YAGNI (You Aren't Gonna Need It) but apply PAGNY (Probably Are Gonna Need It) for essential security defaults like auth and CSRF protection.
Apply design patterns from *Game Programming Patterns* to avoid reinventing the wheel in game development, especially in systems like save/load and procedural generation.
Balance handcrafted narrative zones with procedurally generated filler content to manage scope in large open-world games.
…and 3 more takeaways available in PodZeus
Intro and Missing Co-Hosts
Shane welcomes listeners to Episode 160, explaining that Mike and Connor are absent—Mike is unaccounted for, and Connor couldn’t join due to severe internet issues on a phone hotspot.
Amalith’s NAS Failure and Backup Crisis
“I either stay where I am and probably have an insecure Nextcloud installation, which is that's just a lovely prospect. Or I have no NAS anymore.”
Choosing Restic for Backup
Amalith evaluates backup tools like Borg and Duplicity, ultimately choosing Restic for its chunking, deduplication, encryption, and data verification. He praises its efficiency but criticizes the lack of a config file.
The Importance of Backup Monitoring
Shane shares his own backup failings and introduces healthchecks.io—a service that pings when a backup runs successfully. If no ping arrives, it alerts the user, ensuring failures aren’t ignored.
Shane’s Open-Source Game Dev Journey
“The point of the project is not to complete it and put it on Steam and make lots of money. The point is to show that this kind of thing is possible using entirely open source software.”
“You thrust in a certain direction, you stop thrusting, but you keep moving unless you turn the ship the other way and then you fire the engines and you slow down. You know, you're going to keep moving. It's space. There's no gravity.”
“I either stay where I am and probably have an insecure Nextcloud installation, which is that's just a lovely prospect. Or I have no NAS anymore.”
“I will be putting together some slides about this whole process and presenting it at NogCamp. And I'm terrified, obviously, but it will be a great experience and I'm sure I will get some great feedback.”
Host
Guest
Shane
person
Amalith
person
Restic
product
Godot
product
Game Programming Patterns
book
ZFS
product
Nextcloud
product
NogCamp
other
Timeshift
product
healthchecks.io
other
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