Am I Overcomplicating This? — The Minimal Homelab That Actually Works

OpenCV 5 Announced — Get Started with Computer Vision in Python for CS Students

Switch from pip to uv — Python's New Package Manager Guide

Cambridge 9618 Paper 1 Theory Fundamentals — AS Computer Science Topic Guide

Debugging Python for A-Level CS — Reading Tracebacks and Finding Bugs

Self-Host Redis 8.8 with Docker Compose — And Why It's Useful for Your Homelab

Switch from pip to uv — Python's Rust-Based Package Manager Guide

Binary, Hexadecimal, and Number Systems — Visual Guide for IGCSE CS

Teaching Python File Handling for IGCSE & A-Level CS — Worked Examples

How to Set Up a Test Pipeline That Actually Catches Bugs

How to Set Up Hermes Agent on a Mini PC Home Server

🔒 IGCSE ICT June 2025 Paper 1 (0417/12) – Security, File Transfer & ATM Processing

📝 IGCSE ICT June 2025 Paper 1 (0417/11) – Testing, Safety & Security

📝 Cambridge AS & A Level Computer Science June 2025 Paper 1 (9618/12) – Databases, Data Structures & Algorithms

📝 Cambridge AS & A Level Computer Science June 2025 Paper 2 (9618/22) – Records, Files & Programming Techniques

📝 Cambridge AS & A Level Computer Science June 2025 Paper 2 (9618/22) – Algorithms, Data Structures & Sorting

📝 Cambridge AS & A Level Computer Science June 2025 Paper 2 (9618/22) – Development Life Cycles, Maintenance & Testing

📝 Cambridge AS & A Level Computer Science June 2025 Paper 1 (9618/12) – Assembly, Logic Circuits & Communication

🖥️ IGCSE ICT June 2025 Paper 1 (0417/12) – System Testing, Safety & Cybersecurity Explained

📝 IGCSE ICT June 2025 Paper 1 (0417/12) – Input Devices, Applications Software & Biometric Systems Explained

📝 Cambridge AS & A Level Computer Science June 2025 Paper 1 (9618/12) – Von Neumann, Number Systems & AI

📝 IGCSE ICT June 2025 Paper 1 (0417/11) – Output Devices, Applications Software & Smartphones

My Experience with Replit Agent: A Promising Start, But a Frustrating Finish

Why use indentation in Python

OSI Reference Model-Networking 101

Techie Mike — Tech Tutorials for Students & Homelab Enthusiasts

Practical tech tutorials for Cambridge CS/ICT students and homelab enthusiasts. I break down complex topics — VirtualBox, Proxmox, ethical hacking, Python, and exam prep — into clear, hands-on guides you can actually follow. No fluff, just real skills.

hardware • 7 min read

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Am I Overcomplicating This? — The Minimal Homelab That Actually Works

# Am I Overcomplicating This? — The Minimal Homelab That Actually Works Scroll through r/homelab for ten minutes and you'll see server racks that look like data center colocations. 42U cabinets. Enterprise switches with SFP+ cages blinking amber. Dual Xeon boxes drawing 400 watts. Kubernetes cluste…

Techie Mike • 17 Jun 2026

Python • 9 min read

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OpenCV 5 Announced — Get Started with Computer Vision in Python for CS Students

You've written Python programs that print to the terminal, read files, and maybe even scraped a website. But have you written code that can _see_? Code that can detect edges in a photograph or find faces in a group picture? That's computer vision.…

Techie Mike • 10 Jun 2026

1-Click GitHub Token Theft via VSCode Bug — A Developer Security Wake-Up Call

Code • 7 min read

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1-Click GitHub Token Theft via VSCode Bug — A Developer Security Wake-Up Call

Just by clicking a link, it's possible for an attacker to steal a GitHub token that can read **and write** to your repos — including private ones. This isn't a hypothetical vulnerability or a "theoretical risk" scenario. Security researcher [Ammar Askar](https://blog.ammaraskar.com/github-token-ste…

Techie Mike • 08 Jun 2026

Python • 8 min read

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Switch from pip to uv — Python's New Package Manager Guide

# Switch from pip to uv — Python's New Package Manager Guide If you've ever sat waiting for `pip install` to finish building wheels in a Docker build, you know the pain. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Sometimes longer, depending on how many native extensions your project pulls in. There's a better way…

Techie Mike • 08 Jun 2026

Computer science • 14 min read

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Cambridge 9618 Paper 1 Theory Fundamentals — AS Computer Science Topic Guide

The June 2026 Cambridge AS/A-Level Computer Science Paper 1 (9618) has just been sat. If you took it, you're probably wondering how you did. If you're preparing for a future sitting, you want to know what topics come up and how to score full marks. I've been teaching Cambridge A-Level CS for over a…

Techie Mike • 08 Jun 2026

Python • 9 min read

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Debugging Python for A-Level CS — Reading Tracebacks and Finding Bugs

Debugging Python for A-Level CS — Reading Tracebacks and Finding Bugs When your Python program crashes, it's not the end of the world. It's the start of a clue. I've seen students freeze when that red error text appears in their IDE. They stare at it, panic, and close the terminal.…

Techie Mike • 07 Jun 2026

developer tools • 9 min read

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Self-Host Redis 8.8 with Docker Compose — And Why It's Useful for Your Homelab

# Self-Host Redis 8.8 with Docker Compose — And Why It's Useful for Your Homelab Most homelabs start with storage. A NAS here, a media server there. But at some point you realize your services need to talk to each other — and that's when you discover you need something faster than your Postgres ins…

Techie Mike • 06 Jun 2026

Writing a Python Program for IGCSE Paper 2 — Full Walkthrough with Mark Scheme

Code • 8 min read

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Writing a Python Program for IGCSE Paper 2 — Full Walkthrough with Mark Scheme

If you're studying for Cambridge IGCSE Computer Science (0478/9618), Paper 2 is where you write actual code. And here's the thing — most students lose marks not because they can't code, but because they don't know what the examiner is looking for. I've been teaching IGCSE CS for over a decade, and…

Techie Mike • 05 Jun 2026

Chuwi Minibook X vs BMAX Pro 8 — Which Budget Homelab Machine?

Computer components • 10 min read

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Chuwi Minibook X vs BMAX Pro 8 — Which Budget Homelab Machine?

# Chuwi Minibook X vs BMAX Pro 8 — Which Budget Homelab Machine? You're building your first homelab on a budget. Maybe you want to run Docker, try Proxmox, or host a few self-hosted services. You've heard about the Chuwi Minibook X — it hit over 400 points on Hacker News. And the BMAX Pro 8 is a pr…

Techie Mike • 03 Jun 2026

Running AI Models on Old Hardware — A 10 Year Old Xeon Is All You Need

hardware • 8 min read

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Running AI Models on Old Hardware — A 10 Year Old Xeon Is All You Need

A post hit the front page of [Hacker News yesterday](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48353348) with a title that made a lot of people stop and stare: *"[A 10 year old Xeon is all you need.](https://point.free/blog/gemma-4-on-a-2016-xeon/)"* It racked up 685 points. The author ran **Gemma 4 (26B…

Techie Mike • 02 Jun 2026

Python • 9 min read

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Switch from pip to uv — Python's Rust-Based Package Manager Guide

# Switch from pip to uv — Python's Rust-Based Package Manager Guide If you've ever sat waiting for `pip install` to finish building wheels in a Docker build, you know the pain. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Sometimes longer, depending on how many native extensions your project pulls in.…

Techie Mike • 02 Jun 2026

Computer science • 8 min read

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Binary, Hexadecimal, and Number Systems — Visual Guide for IGCSE CS

Binary, Hexadecimal, and Number Systems — Visual Guide for IGCSE CS. Number systems are one of those topics that show up in every IGCSE Computer Science exam. Binary to denary. Denary to hex. Binary arithmetic. And I've seen students lose easy marks because they rush the conversions.…

Techie Mike • 31 May 2026

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Techie Mike

Computer Science teacher in Thailand. 10+ years Cambridge IGCSE, 4 years AS/A Level. BSc Computer Science & Engineering. Ex-Intel, Virgin Media. Practical exam prep, past paper walkthroughs and tech tutorials.

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Techie Mike — Tech Tutorials for Students & Homelab Enthusiasts

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