Summary of 2024

Even though I travelled less in 2024 than in previous years, 2024 was still a very busy, sometimes even hectic year for me. After all, I set high goals for myself! And now it's time to take stock of 2024, so that I can evaluate how I've performed and then optimally set new plans and goals. So let's recap 2024.

Goals for 2024

• take a catamaran cruise
• buy an apartment
• to go to the warmth of Thailand
next winter
• try Kubernetes on my own VPS, as a programmer (deploy) and as an admin (install, manage)
• promote yourself with short videos, put it on all networks: instagram, FB, tiktok, LinkedIn, YouTube
• comment on current topics and events or shocking topics, ideally in IT
through short videos
• write articles and publish them on a monthly basis on the blog
• personal meetings
• produce training in partnership with Skillmea
• end poor quality collaborations
• take a massage therapy course - I crossed this off because there was no reason to invest time in it that would have to be fixed in my diary
• visit friends within the Czech Republic
• cancel VAT

Health

My health comes first, so I exercise regularly and eat healthy, and if possible I try to have enough quality sleep. In this regard, the biggest problem is the surroundings and women, because nowadays it is common not to sleep at night.
Times are cruel and so anything that is contrary to good health should be rejected. Which realistically means constantly refusing something. Not smoking and not being in a smoking environment is fortunately possible and standard nowadays. In contrast, consuming alcohol regularly and eating poor quality food or not having time to eat is still unfortunately common. However, I put food and sleep first, so you won't find me at late night parties.

Living in Prague

The long-term plan was to stay in a big city. I decided to choose Prague. It's not a very good city, but it's the biggest city in the Czech Republic. I stayed in Prague for a whole year starting in the summer of 2023, including the winter and switching to the following year until the autumn of 2024, when I flew to the warmth for the winter. Admittedly, a friend of mine has been heavily tempting me to go to Asia in the winter of 2023/2024, and I would love to go to the heat myself, but a plan is a plan and I make promises and keep plans. And I'm proud of myself for that, for being able to set a plan and work towards set goals while others hang around.
At the same time, I made it a point that if I spent the winter of 2023/2024 in Prague, I would spend the winter of 2024/2025 abroad in the warmth, and so it happened.

Travel

There was a reunion in May Navolnenose/Freelancing.eu in Dresden. So I took my car, put my bike in it and made a working trip to Germany. I stayed and slept in Germany in the city of Dresden, where I also did a bike tour.

In 2023 a friend announced they are organizing a catamaran cruise in 2024. I didn't know what to expect, but being the brave man I am, I decided to sign up. Details are in the article Visiting Athens and sailing on a catamaran in Greece.

For the second time in my life, I visited Beskydy, where a friend invited me. On the way I stopped at my friend's place in Olomouc, where I stayed overnight. On the way, however, I first made bike trip around Tasov a I biked around the town of Prerov.
Then between Olomouc and Beskydy I went to a very nice break of Vykleky for diving, where I also spent two nights. The weather in the mountains wasn't as nice as in the region and I was tired from diving and cycling and even got wet and then unfortunately cold on the way up. There was neither the desire nor the strength to do any activities. So instead of cycling in the Beskydy Mountains and then following another friend to the Jeseníky Mountains, I turned around after three days in the Beskydy Mountains and went on my way to Prague.

During my travels around the Czech Republic I visited several new cities: Tábor, Olomouc, Týn nad Vltavou, Přerov and other towns.

Outside Prague I discovered a sandstone lake where you can swim freely:

Since this year was full of new activities, there was no time to visit friends in Jablonec nad Nisou, Pilsen, Vysočina.

Here you can see where I traveled in the Czech Republic:

In November of 2024, I went to Thailand. And traditionally, I spent the winter, including Christmas, in warmth. I will write up the details in a subsequent article. If you already know that Thailand interests you, you can write me.

Here are the GPS records of my travels in 2024, GPS records Germany, GPS records Greece.

You can see my travels in pictures on Instagram.

Meeting new people

Now that I have a base in Prague, I'm trying to meet new people. I'm an introvert, so I choose people in my surroundings and don't go to mass events like discos and pubs.
But unfortunately a lot of people are only into going to work and alcohol. Even so, I've managed to meet a few new people who don't survive but are trying to move on somewhere and can work with time.

I ended up meeting quite a few new people, some interesting ones, and I continue to keep in touch with some of them. I am very grateful to have met Martin Koníček, with whom I am in regular contact. And, within the limits of time, we also meet in person, whether for work or non-work discussions sometimes while playing pinpong.

Business

I'm still surprised how few people are entrepreneurs. And most of those who do, do so out of necessity or even on a shoestring. The situation then is that there is no one to discuss business with and share information. Entrepreneurs would like more of them, because they are the ones who move the Czech economy forward.
Fortunately, in recent years I have already found a handful of people with whom I can discuss and together advise each other how to work better. I'm happy for someone to provide me with their unbiased opinion or if I can advise someone.

Ending collaborations

Fortunately, as an independent entrepreneur, I don't have to participate in collaborations that don't work. At the same time, as a responsible entrepreneur, I diversify, so I don't even have to worry about ending collaborations. Whether the customer terminates it or I decide to finish the work and take on new tasks. ...and not to start new ones.
This year I handed over one long-term collaboration with a customer. And I'm glad that the infrastructure that is legacy is no longer my concern :-).

VAT, flat tax

The limit for being a VAT payer has already been raised. Being a VAT payer is more paperwork and it's not a big deal for me or my customers. doesn't give me or my customers any advantages. On the other hand, what I provide short-term shedding, I have to take VAT off the price, so I am more expensive or worse for the end customers competitive ability. So I have decided to abolish the VAT and at the same time switch to a flat rate income tax next year, which will make a lot of a lot easier paperwork. Although due to invoices from booking and AirBnb, I will have to send in paper every month as an identified person.

Employment?

I keep getting job offers. More often than not, it's contracts. Some of those offers are even interesting. Both technologically, operationally and financially experienced. ...or offend a specialist.
But I wonder: "is it worthwhile to deal with such offers anymore?". Although some companies can already offer a good and meaningful project, effective project management, flexibility and work remote. But it's still not like being a freelancer.
As a freelance IT specialist, I'm the master of my own time and determine where I want to work. This offers such personal benefits and optimization, which translates into personal satisfaction and job performance, that the contractor's offerings can't compete with that. Today, I've moved on financially as well, so that financially, I don't mind working full time for one company. Last but not least, I see it as a big risk to have the majority of my money coming from only one company. For example, if someone is an employee,

Video course

I successfully made a video tutorial on Docker in collaboration with Skillmea. I took creating a video course as an interesting experience and investment. In addition, the collaborative implementation will ensure quality video and audio production. Thus, I was willing to invest my time in developing such a course.
You can judge the result for yourself see Docker video course.

Propagation

Video

Current topics and shocking videos is what people are interested in. Personally, I don't follow tabloids so it is also a problem for me to catch such a current topic. But what resonates intensely and for a long time reaches me. So I've done videos and posts on topics like digitizing construction management.

It is very time-consuming to make even a video of ordinary quality. I also have a lot of other work to do and most importantly other priorities, which is why I have not had regularity in posting videos on my YouTube channel in 2024.

In order to make better videos for my YT channel, I bought a new action camera model: the DJI Osmo Action 4. The GoPro cameras are currently troublesome, yet much more expensive. Real users, and friends of mine, report GoPro cameras overheating and then shutting down unexpectedly. So GoPro is a very poor choice. I have never experienced any unexpected shutdowns with the DJI Osmo Action 4. I am very satisfied with the features and usability of the DJI action 4. And it's a big improvement over the Eken H9R, both in video quality, features and ease of use.

Articles

I have successfully published 12 articles in 2024. Articles allow me to summarize information. And subsequently, I myself can refer to such an article as documentation or guidance. In addition, articles allow me to promote information about what I do.
So I take writing an article as one of the basic quality ways of promoting an independent professional.

I saw it as the most interesting opportunity in a situation where VMware changing licensing and so a lot of users had to consider what to do next. The question is why anyone would use VMware when VMware's performance isn't even anything special.
After this event, I was contacted by several entities that would like to VMware to migrate to Proxmox.

What I learned and tried

My favorite activity is to educate myself. Therefore, I have planned what new things I would like to explore and learn. At the same time, I purposefully set aside time to learn a new skill that I happen to stumble upon while working or my life's journey.

Freediving

One possible activity on the catamaran in Greece was to do freediving, which is diving without an air tank, only on a breath. Since I like sports and water, I decided to do a course.

On the course I practically experienced that staying underwater for 3 minutes is easy. I learned and practically verified diving to a depth of 8 meters. And I was able to swim with fins in one breath for 53m.
After successfully completing the course, I signed up for one more practical training session and then gained further experience at sea in Greece.
To dive I needed equipment, I was wondering whether to rent or buy it. In the end I decided to buy it, because freediving can be done in the Czech Republic too. I consider buying equipment as an investment in myself.

After returning from Greece I actively searched for places to dive in the Czech Republic during my travels and I found a few good ones. On my way to the east of the Czech Republic, I stopped outside Olomouc in break of Vykleky, where I spent almost three days diving there. GPS footage of diving in Vykleky quarry.

I filmed a pike there:

I also visited on my way from Prague to České Budějovice break Miličín. Where I also filmed some shots of fish. A walk around the quarry in Miličín. Bike tour near Miličín.
On my way with WarpCamp to the Giant Mountains, I was checking out Break Srní - metal scrap and dived nearby in the Trhová Kamenice quarry. GPS footage of diving in Trhová Kamenice quarry.

I may write a separate article about freediving in the future.

Scubadiving

While researching water activity options in Thailand, I found that there is a possibility of scuba diving with a scuba tank and that they offer courses diving courses. People here didn't know much about freediving. Only then did the divers know that freediving existed. So I bought a scubadiving course and started the practical part. The theory was in the form of e-learning via the web or mobile app. The whole course was within the framework of the international big school PADI, and it was the school that supplied the e-lerning and thanks to that I could do the theory and exams in my mother tongue Czech, which made it very easy for me studying.
With the turn of the year, I then completed the exams and got my license to dive in open water.
Given my experience in the water, including freediving, I passed the course very quickly.

The course cost about 15k THB. Not a small price in the Czech Republic would be about the same. But even so, the course in Thailand has some major advantages:

• the course was in the sea
• drop off from my accommodation was provided
• there was food on the boat, which was included in the price of the course
• the instructor was all about me

So it was full-service.

Technology, experience

The mode of operation that I have chosen, being an independent professional (= freelancer), allows (and maybe even forces) me to to educate myself regularly. Which I'm glad for, because I'd hate to become stagnant in one place, even if it's a warm staff chair.

I have tried and learned with these technologies:

• Openmediavalut - is a Linux distribution built on Debian and ready to provide network services. And all this is possible managed through a graphical web interface.
• Proxmox Backup Server - I got more familiar with setting up access rights. I practically verified restoring the VPS from backups. Verified restoring access to encrypted backups.
• GitLab CI/CD- I am now set to prepare GitLab to automatically run pipelajn including application deploy to the production/test server. I take unit test and phpstan launching for granted.
• the "at" command - I've become familiar in detail with the at command, which is used to to run a program once at a predetermined time.
• Kuberteness - I started trying and learning with kubernetess - I accomplished a big and long term goal. I tried microk8s, k3s, minicube, which is a pre-built kubernetes installation for test and small-scale operations. I've also tried manually installing Kubernetes and building my own kubernetess cluster.
• Multiarch build - I learned how to do a multi-arch build docker image. Which comes in handy since it's now quite common to run Linux and therefore containers on other CPUs architectures other than x86_64. For example, the ARM architecture is very typical today, thanks to Apple.
• Wildcard Let's Encrypt certificate - finally there was an opportunity to generate a wildcard certificate at Let's Encrypt authority. This is possible thanks to authorization against DNS. The setup is very simple, see the tutorial from my friend Veros Kaplan. getting Let's Encrypt certificate using DNS. The same procedure can be used if you need to generate a certificate without a public webserver.
• I have organized a PHP course for beginners.
• I have participated in Czech conversations with Ukrainian women and helped them prepare for job interviews in the Czech Republic.
• I tried flying a quadcopter (drone) with a camera. Model i9 ...
• IPv6 - on my other physical server on the Internet, I configured IPv6 to allow more experiment. But I ran into limitations with the provider ;-(
• Thai - since I was in Thailand I had the need and opportunity to learn Thai.

Buying an apartment

My long-term goals were to acquire my own home so that I would be the sole owner and have 100% clarity and certain of what was going to happen. In order to recce the situation, I started looking at what offers were available.
Eventually one offer came up that met my main specific requirements, it was a good time because the buying frenzy had subsided and I had time to think about it and I got a slightly better price. So there was no reason not to buy and so I had no choice but to buy.

I didn't know what to expect in terms of arranging a mortgage. However, as it turned out arranging the mortgage was relatively straightforward as I like to know my way around I did my own mortgage arranging. Anyway, in the end, looking after everything needed is my responsibility because my money is my responsibility too. Communication from the bank (Fio Bank) and the real estate agent who representing the selling party I must commend. They had the stamina to move the process to a successful conclusion. I feel that the free market already provides a better level of service than that it used to be. At least as far as new entities are concerned. For example, the Blue Pyramid (a subsidiary of Komerční banka), with which I have a building society, couldn't even answer my email.

The buying process was lengthy and the bureaucracy was huge. No one told me exactly the overall process in advance. Each side took itself as the expert and thought the other side (broker, bank, escrow) were the only ones who didn't understand. Each side knew how to arrange what their service was well and then it was up to me to see that it fit together. Fortunately, life and business has taught me the need for good communication and all parties involved communicated and were proactive, so that any ambiguities were cleared up and the parties involved provided what was needed for a successful completion.

Again, I did well to make my own decisions and not take the advice of strangers who only "advise" from their perspective. As a result, I did an excellent job buying the kind of apartment I need and I am happy with. And not something that someone else would want or is currently a trend for average people. My chosen apartment has much more utilitarian value to me.

Marketing-wise, the apartment was after complete. The reality is that there was a renovation in the past that was partial. Even if for a non-engineer or for a woman, it may look like a complete renovation.
I might as well have used such an apartment. And it's almost on the same level as a new apartment because, it was well equipped.. I have for example even a dishwasher.
I only finished things to make the comfort perfect: got the missing door, turned the refrigerator door, threw out the the chandelier.

Short-term accommodation

As I travel a lot and wanted to fly to a warm place for the winter, I thought it would be uneconomical to leave my newly acquired and leave it unused for a long time. I therefore decided to start a short-term accommodation business so that I could then cover at least part of the costs when when I'm gone.

I was inspired to do so by the following experiences:

• A friend has an apartment that he rents out entirely when he's not there. Actually, he rents it out most of the time now because he travels a lot both in abroad and in the Czech Republic.
• When I lived in Spain in the Canary Islands in a town Las Palmas, the Spanish owner of the apartment also rented out his room when he wasn't there.

I have been iteratively (progressively) furnishing and upgrading a room for rent. The first time I had guests, I had to sleep on the floor in my room on a mattress and then on a mattress, because I only had one bed and the guests had that. Only later did I arrange a second bed for myself. I was missing one door to my room, so I put in a wardrobe and got a second hand door later.
Gradually I bought new duvets and bedding for the guests. Got more equipment: a better table, more chairs, etc. And equipped the kitchen for them, so it wouldn't be like when I travel and they don't even have enough plates in the middle of their living space.

It may not look like it, but providing accommodation is very challenging, mainly due to government bureaucracy, In the end, I grew to love providing this service, so I plan to continue doing so.

Here are the reasons why I provide short-term accommodation and how it is more interesting to me than if I rented a room long-term or have it empty.

• To try and learn something new. Now if I see articles somewhere on the merits of AirBnb or how AirBnb is bad, I can now, based on my own experience to draw my own conclusion.
• Income. I make a liability, which is the apartment, at least occasionally a moderate asset. Although if I take my hourly wage, it's actually lost income. But at least I have diversification of income.
• I like doing things.
• It's a way to meet and get to know new people. Often young, travelers, interesting people, I was hoping for a digital nomads and experts, but mostly it's tourists.
• The opportunity to learn something specific about another country without having visited it.
• Foreign language training. There is nothing like practical application. (School lessons are useless.)
• Socializing. Even the people come up to me, so I don't have to waste time driving to social events.
• I get left with food I may not even know so I can try it. Or even some other things.
• Motivation to clean. Personally, I don't have high expectations, but you have to make a good impression on your guests. Even if it leaves them alone a mess.
• I have movement when preparing a room.
• I like to make people happy by providing services that are in demand.

As I am an IT specialist, I also need to set up my own website to provide accommodation and ideally I would like to rent a room in Prague to digital nomads. Digital nomads are an interesting target group for me because they are interested in longer stays and need a superior services and amenities than just a place to sleep. And extra services I can provide.

A lot of information around short term accommodation was a problem to get. There is only general basic information on the internet. Specifically:

• Even the tax advisor didn't know the details of the correct days. Together we looked it up in the code and discussed it.
• The complexity of the booking portal is great and the support only understands the functions used on a daily basis.

Because when I do something, I am interested in it in detail, so I have acquired such experience and information, that I could currently advise on short-term accommodation in both the accounting and administration and processes.
At least for those who will be starting from scratch I can advise step by step. My detailed experience with AirBnB and booking.com as a host and Czech bureaucracy I plan to write in a separate article.

Women

I'm continuing my research project. Some people have dropped out or new guys have joined. Of course many people are passively interested in information or just peppy situations.
It turns out, for example, that it's no problem on a weekday at noon and without alcohol to pick up a lady in the park, do ...go on a date, go on a honeymoon and take the girl home. Of course, these situations are much more challenging because most people are programmed to meet at discos and can't relax without alcohol.

Warpcamp

I attended the Warpcamp 2024 event. It's a sequel to Nette Camp. It's my favorite event because it's several days long, food is provided, and it takes place in the great outdoors. Last but not least, it involves people who are interested in technology. I was particularly interested in: forex trading in PHP and archery.

On the way there, I took a bike tour of Orlik Castle. And on the way back home, I scouted out some quarries to dive.

Internet

With a new apartment comes a rethinking of Internet connectivity.

In my rented apartment in Prague, I didn't want to arrange and deal with installing any connections, so I only used mobile internet and a prepaid SIM with Datamania 100GB/month service.
I subsequently got a 1000GB plan for a year. As this service was more cost effective and more importantly I could easily use significantly less one month with the data left over until the next month when I needed significantly more data again. In fact, with a monthly prepaid package, unused data did not roll over to the next month (for example, Vodafone in Spain rolls over unused data).

I decided to set up an Internet connection in my new flat. It turned out that an optical connection was available. Ugh I was afraid I was going to end up with coax. Plus, I'd have a worse connection in Prague than in the Giant Mountains. A company once ran fiber optics around the house and that company was bought by CETIN. So now O2 offers it. Rightly, other companies like T-mobile, Vodafone and others should be able to offer it, but CETIN and O2 are under one investment group, so it looks like there's some kind of preferential deal. The other companies will probably offer it when O2 feels they can't sell any more. (But how this really is should be checked within those companies. I just have an opinion based on an anomaly I've come across I've encountered)

After the first visit by the engineer, it turned out that first of all I would have to prepare the apartment for the connection. The first visit was also crucial for me in that an expert would come and actually confirm that fibre optic connection. Because, of course, the support people don't understand and just say something based on the data in the computer. It happened to me, for example, that the Vodafone operator claimed that there might be fibre optics in another flat. When I told her that there was coax in the wall, it sounded like there was fibre optic cable on the Vodafone side, so they considered it as fibre optic.
After I made the arrangements, on the second visit they ran optical fibre all the way into the flat. So I have the ability to definitely have 1Gbit speeds. I ordered the 200Mbit plan because that's enough for me. When I measured it, I pulled out 300Mbit. The Internet connection is provided by CETIN, but because the infrastructure was originally installed and configured by another I have PPPoE instead of DHCP directly on the socket. And even a public IPv4 address :).
What router I used and connected my good old Turris router, which has gigabit ports and relatively fast wifi. It's just faster than other newer routers I have. I don't need to buy a brand new router. Besides, CETIN mounts fiber optics on the terminator that the RJ45 leads from, so I don't need a router with fiber optics.
As for Jilemnice, I've had fiber optics there for about two years now and there is a brand new Zyxel router with a fiber port and it works very fast.

In the summer I tried the tariff from O2 and because I currently call more often and thanks to the fixed internet I don't need so much data anymore, I was considering getting a phone plan.
O2 has an interesting offer. With a minimum billing of 600kč per month, it gives 300kč back if you have an AirBank account and from it you pay for O2 services.
So I switched from a prepaid card with T-Mobile to a tariff with O2, which I still got a discount. And since the Internet and phone tariff cost me more than 600kč, then O2 will refund me 300kč. Realistically, the new tariff will then cost me a few tens of crowns. I get a lot of calls and some data on there.

Prague

Does it make sense to live in Prague?
So far Prague has satisfied me the most in the area of meetups. At the same time I see it as the only advantage of Prague over other Czech cities. The second place, of the cities I have experience with, is Wroclaw. The infrastructure of Dresden also impressed me a lot, but I only spent a few days there, so I can't evaluate more.

The advantage I find in Prague is that there are technical meetups. I have my favourite Thai massages at my fingertips. There are people and girls in Prague. You can find some nature there, so a natural person like me won't die of big city anxiety.
However, one has to take into account that the able-bodied have no reason to stay in Prague. On the contrary, it is inefficient to stay in Prague. So those the most capable people won't be found there. The main advantage of Jilemnice or any other town or small town is nature and everything is within walking distance. Yes, if you are not a fan of living in a shopping mall, then for example in Jilemnice you have all the services under your nose in around the square. For specialized services even in Prague you have to go a long way somewhere far away. And for example, I personally don't enjoy the constant travelling even in a car around a big city. I prefer to take public transport, which in Prague is lengthy. I find good infrastructure for cars, pedestrians or bicycles only in Hradec Kralove.

Then life and resources can be better optimized in a small town. Especially time and money. Of course, if you don't work remote, your decision-making options are quite different.

If it's a place to live even with a combination of work, then I advise young men this ideal approach:

1. Study in a big city.
2. Hiring a job in a big city and building a career in a big city. Ideally build your own business.
3. Finding a suitable candidate for a partner.
4. Making a partner's child.
5. Move to a small town.

Projects

I not only provide services by selling my professional time, but I also build my own projects because there are great benefits in the long run...

Fitness portal

The Fitness portal, which I have big plans for and has great potential, is has grown by two members. It's a great achievement considering I'm basically not dedicated to it.

Snapbackuper

Backup is an area I like to point out the need to address. And I'm happy to address this area, because wise companies are interested in backup services.

Having your own quality, versatile service ready to go is advantageous. I'd like to roll out my backup service on a larger scale. It's currently the easiest thing to sell to my current customers. However, I need to create some marketing strategy and reach out to new potential customers.

Summary

The winter of 2023/2024 has been a busy one for me . I have been working a lot, arranging a lot of things, not being warm for the winter and worrying about the paperwork around getting of getting an apartment. I have met my goals and I have done so ahead of schedule and over the top. And that's why I'm very proud of myself as I successfully worked towards my goals!