Hey, I’m Michael. I’m a Computer Science and Psychology student at the University of Alberta. I love building things, figuring out how stuff works, and finding where my two fields overlap.
Michael Saul · Edmonton, Canada · CS + Psych Student / Homelab Tinkerer · GitHub
One of the things I love about studying both CS and Psychology is finding where they overlap. I'm taking courses in Game AI, cognitive science, and applied cognitive psychology — and I built an accountability AI assistant that uses behaviour modification techniques to help people build habits. Psych research and code make a pretty good combo.
I also build websites for people and host them on my own infrastructure. This site, the comment system, the analytics — all self-hosted on my Proxmox cluster. Full stack, full control.
An AI tool that uses behaviour modification techniques from psychology to help build habits. Psych research meets code.
I build websites for people and host them on my own infrastructure. Full stack, full control.
30+ self-hosted services on Proxmox. Two Dell OptiPlex Micros, a Buffalo TeraStation NAS, MikroTik networking with VLANs.
The homelab runs on a couple of Dell OptiPlex Micro PCs with a Buffalo TeraStation NAS for storage, all connected through MikroTik networking gear with VLAN segmentation. Everything sits on Proxmox, running a mix of LXC containers and VMs.
I've got a whole post planned on the hardware setup and another on the network architecture if you want the details.
When I'm not studying or tinkering with servers, I'm usually reading progression fantasy. Some of my favourites right now are Beware of Chicken, Unintended Immortality by Golden Jasmine Flower, and Beyond the Timescape. I'm also just getting into running, so we'll see how that goes.
Beware of Chicken, Unintended Immortality, Beyond the Timescape
Just getting into it — we'll see how it goes
I got into self-hosting in October 2024 when I set up Home Assistant on a spare Dell OptiPlex. That turned into Pi-hole, which turned into a second server, a NAS, and now I'm running 30+ services. You know how it goes.
30+ self-hosted services, started building websites for others, launched saulutions.ca
Started self-hosting with Home Assistant on a Dell OptiPlex. Added Pi-hole, a second server, NAS, Jellyfin, Immich, and more