About Ricardo Gil

Full-stack developer, homelab enthusiast, and the person who actually writes everything on this blog.

👨‍💻

Hi, I'm Ricardo

I'm a full-stack developer (.NET/Angular) with 6+ years of professional experience, based in Dania Beach, Florida. I work across healthcare, e-commerce, and enterprise environments — and I run a personal homelab on the side that's become the backbone of everything I write about here.

Everything on this blog comes from things I've actually built, run, or broken on my own hardware. When I write about installing something on Proxmox, it's because I installed it on my Proxmox. When I compare AI tools, it's because I use them in my real development workflow. No sponsored reviews, no filler.

I also speak English and Spanish fluently, and I'm currently pursuing the ISC2 CC and Claude AI Developer certifications.

About This Blog

I started this blog because I kept solving the same problems over and over — setting up services on Proxmox, picking the right mini PC for self-hosting, wiring AI tools into real workflows — and I couldn't find good first-person accounts from developers who had actually done it.

So that's what I write. Every post is based on real setup experience: the configs I use, the mistakes I made, and the specific versions that actually worked. I focus on three areas:

  • 🖥️Homelab & Self-Hosting — Proxmox LXC setups, self-hosted app tutorials, and NAS/network configs from my actual homelab.
  • 🤖AI Tools for Developers — Claude Code, n8n + Claude API automations, local LLMs with Ollama, and real productivity workflows I use daily.
  • Mini PC & Hardware for Homelabs — Mini PC reviews and comparisons specifically for self-hosting and Proxmox workloads, not gaming.

My Homelab Setup

This is the hardware and software stack I actually run. When I reference "my homelab" in a post, this is what it is.

🖥️

Primary Server

Beelink Mini PC running Proxmox VE with multiple LXC containers. 32GB RAM, WD Black 2TB NVMe.

🤖

Local AI Stack

Ollama + Open WebUI running locally for LLM inference. I run Qwen, Llama, and Mistral models depending on the task.

🔄

Automation

n8n self-hosted for automation workflows, wired into Claude API for AI-powered pipelines.

📺

Media & Storage

Jellyfin for media, Immich replacing Google Photos, Paperless-ngx for documents.

🔐

Security & Networking

Vaultwarden for passwords, Headscale (self-hosted Tailscale) for remote access, Traefik as reverse proxy.

☁️

This Site

Angular SSR + Node.js on AWS Lightsail, blog content on S3 + CloudFront. The whole stack is something I built and maintain.

Professional Background

⚙️

Backend

C#, .NET Core, ASP.NET MVC, REST APIs, Entity Framework Core. Healthcare and enterprise background.

🎨

Frontend

Angular, TypeScript, RxJS, Tailwind CSS. This entire site is Angular SSR.

🗄️

Databases

SQL Server, Oracle, MongoDB, Firebase, SQLite. Hands-on with query optimization and migrations.

☁️

Cloud & DevOps

AWS (Lightsail, S3, CloudFront), Firebase, Docker, Proxmox, CI/CD pipelines.

Quick Facts

Location
Dania Beach, FL
Experience
6+ Years
Languages
English, Spanish
Certs in Progress
ISC2 CC, Claude AI Dev

Got a project, a question, or just want to talk homelab? Reach out.