Michael Harley (All content)

🔗 Porkbun vs GoDaddy: Setting the Record Straight

2026-07-21T19:43:51Z

FWIW, I use Porkbun and like them quite a lot. Previously, I've used Hover and GoDaddy. GoDaddy always felt like they're trying to make things as confusing as possible so they can trick you into paying for something you don't want or need.

One of my favorites things about Porkbun is they offer API support to manage your domains which means you can use scripts or other automatons to manage things.

Read on porkbun.com →

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How I self-host my ebooks and audiobooks

2026-07-21T12:00:00Z

This is the companion to I own my books, where I made the case for stripping DRM and actually owning what I buy. This post is the machinery overview: how I store, serve, and read all of it from my own homelab.

My books workflow #

When I find a book I want to buy, I go to eBooks.com and search for it. They have most titles, but occasionally I will have to go to Kobo to find it; regardless, I purchase the book.

Note: This is just an overview of how this works and is not a technical, step-by-step walk-thru.

Calibre #

If the book has DRM, the distributor gives me a file with the .acsm extension. If the book is DRM free, then they hand me the ePUB file directly. Either way, the next step is to import the downloaded file into Calibre. With the right plug-ins, Calibre will automatically download the book, remove the DRM (if any) and add the ePUB file to the Calibre books library.

Syncthing #

Once the book is in Calibre as a DRM-free ePUB, Syncthing syncs it to one of my homelab instances that serves it with Calibre-Web.

Calibre-Web #

I use Calibre-Web to then serve my Calibre books on my local network. Calibre-Web implements the same endpoints the Kobo store exposes: sync, library metadata, cover images, reading state. This is the first piece that allows me to connect my books library to my Kobo device.

DNS and certificates #

Two things have to be in place to allow my Kobo to connect to Calibre-Web. My local DNS has to point an internal hostname at the server running Calibre-Web. And that server needs a real, publicly trusted TLS certificate, because the Kobo thinks it's talking to a commercial store and won't accept a self-signed one. Getting a legitimate certificate for a hostname that only exists inside my homelab is the fiddly part. I may write that up separately.

Kobo #

Now I update the api_endpoint setting in the .kobo/Kobo/Kobo eReader.conf file on the Kobo itself so it points to the internal hostname from the DNS and certificates section above. I plug the Kobo into my computer over USB and it mounts as a drive, which is how I get at the file. There's no way to do this from the device's settings menus.

All together now #

So my workflow looks like this in practice:

Buy and download the book.
Import the book into Calibre.
Open my Kobo device and download the new book to the reader.
Read.

The default software on the Kobo is a first-class reading experience. Connecting it to my Calibre-Web server keeps that experience intact while my whole library syncs down over my local network.

KOReader #

I see many people talking about KOReader, so when I first started on this path, I had every intention of installing and using it. In my own tests, the software just felt a lot rougher and harder to make into a nice reading experience, and I still had to connect my device directly to my laptop to load books. No shade towards KOReader and all the people who seem to love it, but the Kobo reading software works perfectly for me, and I can't think of a feature that KOReader provides that isn't already in the Kobo software.

Audiobooks #

I listen to a fair amount of audiobooks, and my preference is to purchase them from Libro.fm. Their audiobooks are already DRM-free, so I just download the files from the Libro.fm website and boom, I have my backup.

Audible books do have DRM, but I can remove it. In order to make my backups, I use ffmpeg with credentials that audible-cli legitimately pulls from my authenticated account. I'm decrypting content I bought, using a key I'm entitled to, into a universally playable format (.m4b). So I can back up even Audible exclusives like Dungeon Crawler #8.

No matter how I purchased and backed up the audiobooks, I prefer to listen to them in Audiobookshelf, which is a self-hosted solution in my homelab.

Conclusion #

And that's my books workflow and an overview of how I self-host all this. I'm really interested in hearing about others' book workflows too. Drop me a line if you've written something up and want to share.

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Josh returns! (Richmond, VA)

2026-07-20T14:33:16Z

Here's some video footage of ole Josh creeping around.

Richmond, VA

Watch on YouTube

Here's some video footage of ole Josh creeping around at 3am on multiple mornings.

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🔗 AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making — Ludicity

2026-07-18T15:50:27Z

Read on ludic.mataroa.blog →

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🔗 I guess I prefer Possessions, Hauntings, Exorcisms, and Scary Nuns

2026-07-17T11:32:06Z

Yes I agree with this take. It's hard to find horror movies in the spirit of Haunting of Hill House. Just a good ole proper scary movie.

Read on svbck.blog →

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I own my books

2026-07-16T12:00:00Z

I love reading. I caught the bug as a middle-schooler when I got caught skipping school, and as punishment, I had to read The Chronicles of Amber and do a book report about it. Even today, opening a book and fanning the pages to get the paper smell activates very fond memories and emotions.

I remember a time before e-readers came out. I always thought reading on one seemed very futuristic. In military sci-fi books, characters are reading on their data pads, and reading on an e-reader makes me feel like a sci-fi character.

Physically, e-readers are superior in every way to paper books. I can increase the font size. I can increase brightness. I can read in the sun. I can read in the pool. My entire library fits into my pocket. I can look up the definitions of words.

Capitalists really hate when consumers love something, so of course they want to ruin e-readers. They do that by implementing digital rights management (DRM), and making people agree to draconian agreements such that the books they "buy" are in fact just renting. They want to lock you into their device ecosystem and force you to buy their hardware. That makes it very hard for consumers to buy a device from a different manufacturer as they basically have to abandon their digital libraries to do so.

All that to say, I can understand why some people just do not want to deal with fighting with e-reader companies like Amazon so they might prefer paper books. I am up for the challenge though, and here is how I avoid the obstacles and hurdles that these companies put in the path to consumer choice and freedom.

Removing DRM #

The most important thing to ebook freedom is removing the DRM the companies put on the books. I wrote about how I remove DRM for backup purposes so I won't rehash that here, but the main thing is buying your ebooks from a distributor other than Amazon. I buy mine from eBooks.com and Kobo.com as they distribute their books with Adobe DRM, which the right tools can remove.

I do not remove DRM so I can give my books away. I remove DRM so I have a backup of the books I paid for.

This isn't paranoia. In 2019, Microsoft shut down its ebook store, and because the books were DRM'd, every book every customer had ever bought simply stopped opening when the DRM servers went dark. Microsoft refunded everyone, which is a tidy admission that those were never really sales. A decade earlier, Amazon reached into people's Kindles and deleted copies of 1984 that they had already paid for, taking one student's homework notes along with the book. Not great, Bob.

So I backup my books to an open standard, ePUB, with the DRM stripped off. If eBooks.com folds tomorrow, or Kobo decides my account is a problem, or I want to read on hardware nobody has invented yet, my library still works.

I don't care what their fine print says. I bought this book. It's my book. I'll read it where I like, TYVM.

But what about Amazon exclusives? #

I want to support authors. I do not want to support anti-consumer choice cartels by giving them money.

I remember back when Amazon first started, and they allowed smaller authors to self-publish their books. Back then, Amazon was the small guy, and it allowed other small guys to avoid the big book publishers. That was a right and good thing.

But now, Amazon locks its exclusives behind the superior Amazon DRM and I don't know how to create DRM-free backups with the tools I have access to. So in the rare instance that I must purchase a book from Amazon, then I'll hold my nose and give Jeff Bezos my money. What happens after that, and how the book ends up readable on my Kobo, is left as an exercise for the reader.

Audiobooks #

The same fight plays out with audiobooks, except here the landscape is still favorable to the consumer. My preference is Libro.fm, who sells audiobooks DRM-free from the start. And you can strip even Audible's DRM, so nothing I buy is ever really locked inside their app.

Same rule as my books: I paid for it, so I keep a copy I control. The medium changes; the principle doesn't.

I'll sign off this post with a quote.

Any time someone puts a lock on something that belongs to you and won't give you the key, that lock isn't there for your benefit.

Cory Doctorow, Information Doesn't Want to Be Free

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The Others (2001) — ★★★½☆

2026-07-16T00:42:24Z

PG-13 · Movie · 1h 41m · Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Sooner or later they’ll find you.

Grace is a woman who lives in an old house kept dark because her two children, Anne and Nicholas, have a rare sensitivity to light. When the family begins to suspect the house is haunted, Grace fights to protect her children at any cost in the face of strange events and disturbing visions.

Directed by Alejandro Amenábar

View on TMDB

My Rating

Watched: July 15, 2026

Rating: ★★★½☆

Finally, a proper scary movie with ghosts and everything.

—Mike

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Evil in the Family by Michael Wood — ★★★★☆

2026-07-16T00:00:00Z

by Michael Wood

Dr Olivia Winter #3 · Mystery, Thriller & Suspense · 432 pages · One More Chapter · Audiobook

‘Wow. Michael Wood has done it again… I definitely felt my heart rate increase’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Will keep you up at night… I can’t get enough’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Michael Wood is the master of the dark, psychological thriller’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ *** A FAMILY SLAIN When Detective Inspector Foley is called out to a crime scene, nothing could have prepared him for the level of brutality inflicted on the victims. And with terrifying similarities to another recent murder case, he fears there might be a serial killer running loose...

Google Books

My Rating

Read: July 2026

Rating: ★★★★☆

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🔗 How hard is it to build orbital data centers, actually?

2026-07-15T11:46:24Z

Read on arstechnica.com →

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🔗 DRM-Free Ebook Sources

2026-07-14T09:49:03Z

Read on social.emucafe.org →

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