Forem: Thomas Bnt

My summary of 2025 as an IAM consultant and non-web developer

Thomas Bnt — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:10:05 +0000

This year marks a big change in my life.

I originally taught myself web development and many other aspects of the field. At the beginning of the year, I stopped working as a freelance web developer at my web agency, Concept'Web.

I then started a new job as an IAM consultant in cybersecurity. When I began, I didn't feel I had enough knowledge to fully make it my full‑time job, and I struggled for several months. But things are now going much better: I feel more confident, I'm learning a lot every day, and I genuinely love what I do. It's a big shift from web development, which I hardly practice anymore. I contribute much less to open source and side projects (which is a bit sad, but mostly a matter of time), though I still maintain a few of them, including my personal website and a Discord bot that helps eliminate cyberbullying.

If you're curious about what I wish for this new year, you can read it here:

Thomas Bnt

Jan 7 '25

2025, me voilà ! 🥳

#devchallenge #newyearchallenge #career #opensource

Comments 8

2 min read

Outside of work, I also had a lot of fun shipping several updates to my biggest Discord bot project. I notably improved my filter against insults and other offensive language, including homophobia, transphobia, conflicts, sexual content, and degrading comments. I'm very happy with how it's evolving, and I'm proud of the impact it can have on online communities.

My DEV Wrapped

Share us your project for Hacktoberfest 2025! 🎃

Thomas Bnt — Sun, 05 Oct 2025 13:00:44 +0000

Last year:

Hacktoberfest: Maintainer Spotlight

Thomas Bnt

Oct 2 '24

Share us your project for Hacktoberfest 2024! 🎃

#discuss #hacktoberfest #opensource #webdev

Comments 59

1 min read

📅 When is it happening?

From October 1st to October 31st.

👥 Who can join?

Contributors, maintainers, companies, and event organizers!

🚀 How to participate?

Throughout October, take part by contributing to Open Source and submitting 6 Pull or Merge Requests on GitHub or GitLab.

You can keep track of your progress on the Hacktoberfest dashboard.

✨ New this year: After 6 valid Pull Requests (previously 4), you will earn an exclusive Hacktoberfest T-shirt!

More details are available on the participation page.

✨ This year, I also want to know what projects you’re running that need contributors!

Feel free to share your repositories in the comments using the embed format below:

{% embed https://github.com/thomasbnt/devtoprofile %}

💚 Open Source

For more posts, check out the Hacktoberfest tag

#hacktoberfest Follow

Happy hacking! 🎃

Best tips to learn music?

Thomas Bnt — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 16:05:41 +0000

Hello, I have the Minilab 3 from Arturia

And I would learn more with Ableton Live 12 Lite, what is your best tips?

Installing Pi-hole with an LCD screen

Thomas Bnt — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 16:02:03 +0000

I had already made an article on Pi-hole a few years ago, this one adds the fact that there is an LCD screen.

Thomas Bnt

Aug 14 '18

Setup your Pi-hole

#opensource #raspberrypi #pihole #privacy

Comments 6

2 min read

In this article, we will discover how to install Pi-hole with an LCD screen.
The reference of the screen is XPT2046 Touch 3.5" RPI Display 480x320 16bit.

Introduction

We will install Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi 3B.

pi-hole.net

Pi-hole is used to block unwanted requests and URLs that you don't want to load on the network.
It protects you from trackers and optimizes your network traffic.

Installation

1. Prepare Raspbian

First, flash your SD drive from Etcher or another application.

Wait a few minutes until the disk is ready.

2. Update the dependencies

Connect to your Raspberry Pi and update the dependencies.

sudo apt-get update -y && sudo apt-get upgrade -y

Wait a good few minutes... in the meantime, drink a good cappuccino. ☕

Install curl and git if this is not available on your small machine:

sudo apt-get install curl -y && sudo apt-get install git -y

3. Install Pi-hole

Then, when everything is good, you can start installing Pi-hole.

You can clone from the Pi-hole repository or directly curl with this command:

curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

When asked if you want to install on your Raspberry and put in static IP, check yes, and remember the IP.

Then choose your preferred DNS. You can put more than one if you want. This is editable after installation.

You can select block lists:

✨ I actually have a huge list with over 1,000,000 blocked domains/IPs. The repository of this list on GitHub. Feel free to add your own domains/IPs.

It will also ask you if you want a web panel.
I strongly recommend that you leave it enabled so that you can connect to the Raspberry Pi with a password and manage your DNS/blacklist and view your statistics.

4. Configuring the web panel

As soon as you have finished installing Pi-hole, it will give you the local host address and the generated password.

To change the password :

sudo pihole -a -p

This is a preview of the panel when you are logged in 🎉

Setting up the LCD screen

The most complicated part is here!
There may be some things I've written that don't work for you, or that aren't essential to do.

1. Install the LCD screen on the Raspberry Pi

Simple part to do, just put the Display on the branches of the RPI.
I found a YouTube video that shows you how to position it.

2. Install PADD

PADD is a software that allows you to see the data transmitted by Pi-hole on your screen.

The project has been taken over by Pi-hole, and even if there are some errors, it is still usable.

To install it and make it executable :

cd ~
wget -N https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pi-hole/PADD/master/padd.sh
sudo chmod +x padd.sh

Make PADD run when the RPI is launched:

# Run PADD
# If we're on the PiTFT screen (ssh is xterm)
if [ "$TERM" == "linux" ] ; then
  while :
  do
    ./padd.sh
    sleep 1
  done
fi

If you wish, you can test the script and view it from your terminal:

./padd.sh

This gives:

After you have done everything, you need to reboot your machine.

3. Make the screen turn off at night.

On the PADD wiki, they show you how to make the screen turn off at night. The script works with cron, to modify it, do sudo crontab -e :

# PiTFT+ SLEEPY TIME
# Turn off the PiTFT+ at midnight
00 00 * * * sh -c 'echo "0" > /sys/class/backlight/soc\:backlight/brightness'
# Turn on the PiTFT+ at 8:00 am
00 08 * * * sh -c 'echo "1" > /sys/class/backlight/soc\:backlight/brightness'

Possible mistakes

During my installation, I had a few errors, including one where the screen would not turn on.
So I forced him to do it with Adafruit.

A. Installation of Adafruit

Let's already install the prerequisites:

sudo apt-get install python3-pip -y

Then Adafruit from the GitHub repository :

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/adafruit/Raspberry-Pi-Installer-Scripts.git

And finally, we will install Adafruit :

cd Raspberry-Pi-Installer-Scripts
sudo python3 adafruit-pitft.py --display=35r --rotation=90 --install-type=console

This script will modify /boot/config.txt to make adafruit-pitft run when the RPI is launched.

See how to do it manually

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Insert at the end:

[all]
hdmi_force_hotplug=0
dtparam=spi=on
dtparam=i2c1=on
dtparam=i2c_arm=on
dtoverlay=pitft35-resistive,rotate=90,speed=20000000,fps=20
dtoverlay=piscreen,speed=16000000,rotate=90

B. Invalid number" errors

If you get this kind of error on your screen:

/home/pi/padd.sh: line 900: printf: 0,3: invalid number
/home/pi/padd.sh: line 244: printf: 42,236: invalid number
/home/pi/padd.sh: line 873: printf: 9,1: invalid number
/home/pi/padd.sh: line 900: printf: 0,91: invalid number

Leave the local of the Raspberry Pi on en_GB.UTF-8,
an issue is in progress and therefore displays errors on the Display. (View issue on GitHub)

Sources:

☕	Check my Twitter account. You can see many projects and updates. You can also support me on Buy Me a Coffee, Stripe or GitHub Sponsors. Thanks for read my post ! 🤩

Why choose DuckDuckGo as a search engine?

Thomas Bnt — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 20:26:52 +0000

Introduction

For years, I've been testing all kinds of search engines: Google, Bing, Qwant... but nothing really convinced me in the long run. Between data collection, targeted ads, and the feeling of being constantly watched, I eventually got tired of it. So I decided to switch to DuckDuckGo, and frankly, I don't regret it.

My experience with DuckDuckGo

The first thing that struck me was the simplicity of the interface. No frills, no useless widgets, just a search bar and you're good to go. I like this minimalist approach: it gets straight to the point and loads quickly, even on an old PC or with a weak 4G connection.

But the real selling point is privacy. DuckDuckGo doesn't track me, doesn't store my history, and doesn't bombard me with personalized ads all the time. I can search for whatever I want without feeling like the entire web knows my interests. It feels good, seriously.

Another nice thing: the results are the same for everyone. No “filter bubble” where you're only shown what you want to hear. Here, there's no excessive personalization, everyone starts on an equal footing. It makes a difference, and sometimes allows me to come across sites that I would never have seen with Google.

!bang commands: a real game changer

Honestly, I didn't expect to use the !bang commands so much, but it's clearly become a reflex. For those who don't know, just type an exclamation point followed by a shortcut to search directly on a specific site, without going through the site's home page.

Here are a few examples that I use all the time:

!w to search directly on Wikipedia (example: !w Toulouse)
!yt for YouTube (!yt powershell tutorial)
!gh for GitHub (!gh automation script)
!g for Google (!g baguette)
!dpl for Deepl (!dpl how to fix a bug)

There are hundreds of them, for almost all known sites. It's super handy, saves a ton of time, and frankly, once you get used to it, you can't do without it.

Of course, it's not perfect. Sometimes the results are a little less accurate than on Google, especially for very local or highly specific searches. But honestly, for 95% of my needs, it does the job. And I'd rather sacrifice a little convenience for peace of mind.

Conclusion

In short:

Privacy respected, no data collection
Simple and fast interface, without overload
Neutral results, identical for everyone
Fewer intrusive ads
Practical features such as !bang, which are truly indispensable

I'm not saying that DuckDuckGo is perfect, but for me, it's the best compromise between efficiency and privacy. If you're tired of being tracked everywhere on the web, it's definitely worth a try.

What search engine do you use? Have you tried DuckDuckGo yet? Let me know what you think on Discord or social media!

WeCoded is back!

Thomas Bnt — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 15:20:51 +0000

Join Our First-Ever WeCoded Challenge – Celebrating Underrepresented Voices in Tech Through Stories & Code!

Jess Lee for The DEV Team ・ Mar 5 '25

#devchallenge #wecoded #dei #career

Have you tested Arc Browser?

Thomas Bnt — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:44:07 +0000

I tested Arc Browser

Thomas Bnt ・ Feb 6 '25

#productivity #discuss

I tested Arc Browser

Thomas Bnt — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 14:39:52 +0000

Introduction

Yes, it's worth a full post on its use and what I think of it. Because for years now, between Chrome and its privacy, Firefox which has become a bit awkward and which doesn't interest me all that much in terms of web tools, I find it hard to find what I'm looking for, always switching between different browsers.

Let's just say I'm a bit picky when it comes to web browsers. I've tested Vivaldi, Opera, Brave, Edge and so on. But none of them really convinced me. So I decided to give Arc Browser a try. I like the fact that everything's synchronized, that the style isn't overly complicated, that navigation is fluid and that my privacy is preserved. In short, let's see what it's worth.

Approximate testing time: 6 months.
Distro: Windows 11.

Installation

Arc Browser is available on Windows, macOS ~~and Linux~~ (no, negative point). It's based on Chromium, so if you've already used Chrome, you won't feel out of place.
Installing it couldn't be easier: go to the official website and download the version corresponding to your operating system.

Arc from The Browser Company

Experience a calmer, more personal internet in this browser designed for you. Let go of the clicks, the clutter, the distractions.

arc.net

My impressions

👍 Positive points

Design: I really like the minimalist, modern design. It's simple but effective.
Practical: Quick to get to grips with, you quickly find your feet. I had a bit of trouble at first with the bookmarks and sorting out the ones I wanted to highlight.

👎 Negative points

No Linux version: This is a big negative for me.
At times, it crashes: I don't know what it's due to, it's totally random, at times I can't interact with the content of a page, obliged to restart Arc, or even kill the process.
Catastrophic synchronization: I get synchronization errors between devices. I'm told it's because I'm on Windows. I don't mind, but if your product is distributed on Windows, you make sure it works properly. When you go to synchronize your Arc account on a new device, you won't have all your bookmarks and extensions. A waste of time.
Abandoned project: I saw that the project hadn't been updated for a few months. It's a shame, because it had potential. And yes, you read that right, it was announced by the company behind it all called The Browser Company, the project is abandoned for their brand new toy called Dia (AI won't exist as an app. Or a button. We believe it'll be an entirely new environment - built on top of a web browser.)

Conclusion

I'm migrating to another browser, which one? I don't know at the moment, or else I've already found it, it all depends on when you read this article! 😀
I've tested it enough to give myself an opinion, I like it a lot, but the synchronization side and the abandoned project are holding me back. It's a shame, because it had potential.

What about you? Have you tested Arc Browser? What did you think of it? What browser are you using? Tell me on Discord, in comments or on social networks!

Go further

How to clean your virtual server (VPS)

Thomas Bnt — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 13:21:44 +0000

Introduction

Are you in the same situation as me, running out of space on your Virtual Server? Here are some tips on how to clean it up!
My server is running Debian 11, but these tips should work on other Linux distributions.

Yes, I had 0 free bytes on my server, that's why I wrote this article 😅

Simple method

Clean up temporary files and unnecessary packages:

sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get autoremove

If you're already in root mode, you can remove the sudo in front of the commands of course.

Delete files in `/usr/local/share/.cache/`

Is it risky?

No problem! You can delete files in cache folders such as /usr/local/share/.cache/yarn or /usr/local/share/.cache without any problem. These folders just contain temporary files used to improve performance, and they will be recreated automatically if a program needs them.

For more details on system caches and their management, see the official Debian documentation.

Cleaning procedure

1. Check the amount of space occupied by the cache Before deleting anything, make sure it's all there.

Before deleting anything, check how much space these files take up:

sudo du -sh /usr/local/share/.cache

2. Delete the contents of the cache

To delete the Yarn cache only :

  sudo rm -rf /usr/local/share/.cache/yarn

To delete the entire contents of the /usr/local/share/.cache folder:

  sudo rm -rf /usr/local/share/.cache/*

3. Check permissions

If you're working on a shared or multi-user server, make sure these folders aren't being used by other services or users before you empty them.

To understand permissions on Debian, consult the Linux permissions documentation.

Specifically clean Yarn

If you just want to take care of Yarn's cache, use the built-in command :

yarn cache clean

This will clean only what's unnecessary in the Yarn cache, leaving the rest untouched.

For more information, please consult the official Yarn documentation.

Important points to remember

Deleted files will be recreated automatically if a program needs them, but this may slightly slow down the first use after cleaning.
Always back up critical data before performing operations of this type, especially if you're on a large server.
To monitor and better understand where your disk space is being used, you can use :

  sudo du -ah /usr/local/share/.cache | sort -rh | head -n 20

This will give you a clear view of the largest files/folders.

For an even more detailed analysis, take a look at tools such as ncdu, a disk usage viewer in terminal mode.

Additional tip

If you want to automate cleaning, you can create a script or cron job that regularly empties these caches. For example, to clear the cache once a week:

Open the cron editor: bash crontab -e`
Add this line: bash 0 3 * * 0 sudo rm -rf /usr/local/share/.cache/* This will run the cleanup every Sunday at 3am.

To learn more about automation with cron, check out this guide to cron.

2025, me voilà ! 🥳

Thomas Bnt — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 13:33:33 +0000

This is a submission for the 2025 New Year Writing challenge: Retro’ing and Debugging 2024.

Professional Goals

This year, it was very complicated to be completely transparent. Time went by very quickly, which didn't help. To put it in context, I've been freelancing since April 2023, and it's always difficult to find assignments at the start of a business. But I never thought it would take me so long. I have a lot of trouble doing certain things, but I know I have the skills to carry out a project for a client, whether it's a website, accessibility or SEO. In short, I have the skills. But I quickly realized, and I already knew, that if I'm not recognized, I won't get any assignments. It's the same everywhere, you might say.

So I'd like this year to be more procreative than the last, and for me to rediscover the joy of having missions and fulfilling myself in my work. I love what I do, but it's discouraging when nothing's there.

If you'd like to help me, please share my LinkedIn profile, both personal and professional. And also the website!

Agence Web à ALBI - Création de site internet

Agence Web, création de sites vitrines pour entreprises et associations. Optimisation du référencement naturel et de votre image en ligne.

conceptweb.agency

Personal Goals

There's a bit of everything in there that I'd like to improve. But I'll write some of it here. Already compared to my previous post, I wanted to do more Twitch stream during 2024. I didn't, I had to do 5 at the MAXIMUM.

2024, me voilà ! 🤩

Thomas Bnt ・ Jan 6 '24

#devresolutions2024 #opensource #career

Then continue development of some of my projects like Mr. Robot app (a Discord bot). And contribute more to the Open Source world, especially to Astro!

DEV Community Contributions

Having had things happen in my life over the last few months, I spend less time on my computer, and therefore less time moderating on DEV. (I'm curious about my stats).

Recap!

🧐 Having a job that works
🚀 Contribute again this year to Open Source projects like Astro docs
🔨 Continue some projects like Mr. Robot app

Happy new year! 🥳✨

Thomas Bnt — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 13:33:08 +0000

A simple HTML/CSS edition for the Frontend Challenge

Thomas Bnt — Sun, 22 Dec 2024 22:39:13 +0000

This is a submission for Frontend Challenge - December Edition, CSS Art: December.

Inspiration

A simple edition with HTML/CSS. I missed a lot of times, not finished but I publish that.

Demo

Available on the GitHub repository !

thomasbnt / devto-challenge-december-2024

See https://dev.to/challenges/frontend-2024-12-04

Winter Solstice Celebrations

This is a simple website that displays the winter solstice celebrations around the world.

Note

This is a work in progress, I'm still working on it. This repository participates in the Frontend Challenge: December Edition 2024 on DEV

How to run ?

Just open the index.html file in your browser.

View on GitHub

Preview :

htmlpreview.github.io

Preview of my creation with HTML/CSS (not finished)

Journey

Owh, not a big process to edit the page with CSS. I would love to have more times to do that, like edit with JS and adding moooore colouuurs.

Why I publish if isn't finished? To show for people's, whatever if your project isn't finished, you can create something ✨

Forem: Thomas Bnt

My summary of 2025 as an IAM consultant and non-web developer

2025, me voilà ! 🥳

My DEV Wrapped

Share us your project for Hacktoberfest 2025! 🎃

Share us your project for Hacktoberfest 2024! 🎃

📅 When is it happening?

👥 Who can join?

🚀 How to participate?

💚 Open Source

#hacktoberfest Follow

Best tips to learn music?

Installing Pi-hole with an LCD screen

Setup your Pi-hole

Introduction

Installation

1. Prepare Raspbian

2. Update the dependencies

3. Install Pi-hole

4. Configuring the web panel

Setting up the LCD screen

1. Install the LCD screen on the Raspberry Pi

2. Install PADD

3. Make the screen turn off at night.

Possible mistakes

A. Installation of Adafruit

B. Invalid number" errors

Why choose DuckDuckGo as a search engine?

Introduction

My experience with DuckDuckGo

!bang commands: a real game changer

Conclusion

WeCoded is back!

Join Our First-Ever WeCoded Challenge – Celebrating Underrepresented Voices in Tech Through Stories & Code!

Jess Lee for The DEV Team ・ Mar 5 '25

Have you tested Arc Browser?

I tested Arc Browser

Thomas Bnt ・ Feb 6 '25

I tested Arc Browser

Introduction

Installation

Arc from The Browser Company

My impressions

👍 Positive points

👎 Negative points

Conclusion

Go further

How to clean your virtual server (VPS)

Introduction

Simple method

Delete files in /usr/local/share/.cache/

Is it risky?

Cleaning procedure

1. Check the amount of space occupied by the cache Before deleting anything, make sure it's all there.

2. Delete the contents of the cache

3. Check permissions

Specifically clean Yarn

Important points to remember

Additional tip

2025, me voilà ! 🥳

Professional Goals

Agence Web à ALBI - Création de site internet

Personal Goals

2024, me voilà ! 🤩

Thomas Bnt ・ Jan 6 '24

DEV Community Contributions

Recap!

Happy new year! 🥳✨

A simple HTML/CSS edition for the Frontend Challenge

Inspiration

Demo

thomasbnt / devto-challenge-december-2024

See https://dev.to/challenges/frontend-2024-12-04

Winter Solstice Celebrations

How to run ?

Journey

Delete files in `/usr/local/share/.cache/`

2024, me voilà ! 🤩