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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 7th, 2023

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  • I love to shit on companies for doing evil shit (like Apple removing Targeted Display Mode from their iMacs), but Apple did the right thing here, but communicated it in the worst way possible.

    I had an old iPhone that would randomly shut down when it drew too much power for the old battery to provide. If they hadn’t done the fix, I would have had to get a new phone; it just wasn’t reliable anymore. With the fix, things were slow, but they worked. Honestly, this is the opposite of planned obsolescence.


  • I’ve got a bunch of notes in Trilium.

    I have a note for each service with the docker compose file, notes on backups, any weirdness with the setup, and when I update each service. I use Trilium as a crappy version control for the compose file.

    I also have a note for the initial setup of my server (mostly setting up docker, setting up mergerfs and snapraid).

    Other than that, I have one note for each device for my setup. (Wifi AP, OPNsense router, switch, etc) That I populate with random crap I might need to know later.





  • Here’s what I did: I bought a $50 Dell Optiplex desktop with a 4th generation Intel CPU on ebay. I stuffed in 3 HDDs from ServerPartDeals and a boot SSD I had laying around. This machine draws 50 to 60 watts continuously.

    I got caddies for the HDDs from my local used computer parts store. I got 5.25 in to 3.5 in adapters from Amazon.

    I added a 10 gig SFP+ card (which isn’t fully utilized since my network is mostly 2.5 Gig). Realistically, the onboard gigabit port is adequate.

    I got a SATA PCIe card so I can add a 4th drive if needed.

    I also bought a Nvidia Quadro P400 graphics card (similar to a GTX 1050, but half the price) for $30 on eBay for Jellyfin transcoding. I couldn’t get the onboard Intel GPU to play nice with Jellyfin.

    Excluding the cost of the drives, this setup cost me about $130.

    Tailscale works pretty well, but I usually use Wireguard to connect to my router remotely. I’ve had issues getting Tailscale to work well with my reverse proxy, but I suspect that’s a me problem rather than a Tailscale problem. I have OPNsense and Adguard running on an ancient Mac Mini that serves as my router. (If you follow this route, make sure you get a Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter, not a USB one.)



  • Fatigue is real and it sneaks up on you. Don’t be afraid to pull off the road and close your eyes for 20 minutes. You don’t even have to sleep, just resting for a few minutes is super helpful.

    Similarly, use your car’s automatic features when possible if they reduce fatigue. In your case, that probably means using cruise control. I’ve found that if I don’t have to actively manage my speed, I get less tired.

    Assuming you’re in a tight hand drive country: Keep right except to pass!








  • I’ve found Linux Mint to be easier to install and use than Windows. (I don’t have to enter the console and allow myself to setup an offline account because no network drivers were working in Linux. Windows 11 did that).

    I’ve never had issues with graphics drivers, despite using Nvidia cards. The only issues with Linux have been because I broke something when I was messing around.

    Get a USB drive, burn a Linux ISO to it, and try it out without installing it.


  • When I build my NAS/server last year, I bought a used Dell Optiplex from 2013 on eBay for $50. I tossed in an old SSD I had laying around, and squeezed in 42 TB worth of HDD drives. I added a PCIE SATA expansion card, and a 10 gig network card for 60 bucks to improve performance.

    The only real downsides of doing it this way are

    • No realistic way of upgrading hardware
    • Limited space for internal drives
    • No hardware transcoding abilities out of the box
    • More power consumption than buying something newer