It’s called a joke.

Yep, that’s why I haven’t messed with Kubernetes either; way overkill for a homelab and especially so since I downsized due to soaring electricity costs here.

The only reason I gave up on Docker Swarm was that it seemed pretty dead-end as far as being useful outside the homelab. At the time, it was still competing with Kubernetes, but Kube seems to have won out. I’m not even sure Docker CE even still has Swarm. It’s been a good while since I messed with it. It might be a “pro” feature nowadays.

Edit: Docker 28.5.2 still has Swarm.

Still, it was nice and a lot easier to use than Kubernetes once you wrapped your head around swarm networking.

I had 15 of the 2013-era 5010 thin clients. Most of them have had their SSDs and RAM upgraded.

They’ve worn many hats since I’ve had them, but some of their uses and proposed uses were:

1. I did a 15 node Docker Swarm setup and used that to both run some of my applications as well as learn how to do horizontal scaling.
2. After I tore down the Docker Swarm cluster, I set them up as diskless workstations to both learn how to do that and used them at a local event as web kiosks (basically just to have a bunch of stations people could use to fill out web based forms).
3. One of them was my router for a good while. Only replaced it in that role when I got symmetric gigabit fiber. Before that, I used VLANs to to run LAN and WAN over its single ethernet port since I had asymmetric 500 Mbps and never saturated the port.
4. Run small/lightweight applications in highly-available pairs/clusters
5. Use them to practice clustered services (Multi-master Galera/MariaDB, multi-master LDAP, CouchDB, etc)
6. Use them as Snapcast clients in each room
7. Add wireless cards, install OpenWRT, and make powerful access points for each room (can combine with the above and also be a Snapcast client)
8. Set them up as VPN tunnel endpoints, give them out to friends, and have a private network

Of the 15, I think I’m only actively using 4 nowadays. One is my MPD+Snapcast server, one is running HomeAssistant, ,the third is my backup LDAP server, and one runs my email server (really). The rest I just spin up as needed for various projects; I downsized my homelab and don’t have a lot of spare capacity for dev/test VMs these days, so these work great in place of that.

Two thoughts:

1. I’m genuinely surprised. What’s the catch? Are they just waiting for a better case like the one in Texas?
2. Eat shit, Kim Davis.

Pictured: Serious Pokemon Go player, 2017

and “crisis actors”

Nice. Yeah, that’s what I’m looking to do. Grid is just there when I’m not generating enough onsite.

The good thing is there seem to be plenty of options these days.

Yeah, that’s a good place to start. Seeing that it costs almost $50/mo just to run my server/network gear was really eye opening. The stack averages about 290 watts (thank the gods I downsized when I did!) which comes out to:

(290/1000) * 24 * 30 * 0.23 = $48.02/mo

Still cheaper than cloud subscriptions, though.

Yeah, I was looking at Anker’s version of that, but it doesn’t have quite as much flexibility as some of dedicated hybrid solar inverters I was looking at. I haven’t read the specs for the EcoFlow version, but Anker’s is positioned more as a UPS/backup power for your house rather than primary power (unless you’re fully off-grid).

The hybrid inverter I was looking at can be configured in “UPS” mode (backup if your power is out) or only to use utility power if there’s not enough PV and the batteries are low as well as some other combinations.

I’m still in the planning phases since I don’t want to be installing on the roof or burying conduit in the winter lol.

Thanks. And yeah, being able to install solar eventually was one of many factors when I decided to buy a house on a whim rather than rent (not so much a whim as “ahead of schedule” due to unforeseen circumstances surrounding the house I was currently renting).

$0.56/kwh power

Jesus. My condolences. I hope anything you feed back is credited at retail rate.

This has been the push I’ve needed to pull the trigger on installing solar. My electric rates have gone from $0.09/KWh to $0.23/KWh in the last 5 years. Just got my bill after reducing as much as I could (my house is all electric sans the furnace). “Surely it’ll be under $100 this month,” I thought. Nope.

I’ve got 800W of PV currently in an ad-hoc setup* but I’m putting together the plan for a 3.2 KW system that can auto switch between battery, PV, and grid without backfeeding. Minus the batteries, the whole setup is going to cost me about $7,000. (Batteries aren’t required and will be added later)

Grid-tie is technically legal in my area, but the hoops you have to jump through are insane and there’s a high likelihood of being denied by the power company over the most bullshit of minutiae (seriously, they treat someone possibly feeding back 400 watts the same as if you were a MW-scale solar farm).

*The ad-hoc setup is just 4x200W panels in a 2S2P config. I charge an Anker PowerStation from that and use it to power random stuff. It’s currently powering my server stack while charging from the panels. :)

Because:

1. I’m not a lazy, smooth-brained rube.
2. I’m not in the business of selling AI to lazy, smooth-brained rubes
3. I have no stake in the supply chain nor do I stand to profit from those selling AI to lazy, smooth-brained rubes.

Furthermore:

1. I don’t trust “AI”. If I’m going to have to fact check it anyway, might as well just do it myself and earn the damn knowledge.
2. AI does not work for me (or you). It works for the companies who are forcing it on you and sucking up your data.
3. The energy costs and water requirements are mindbogglingly staggering
4. I refuse to feed or ride any hype train
5. It’s creating scarcity of things that could be put to better use (energy, water, computer components, land, talent, you name it).
6. It’s not even AI. It’s just a dead-end bullshit generator

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Eh, still better than a dumb, annoying, and/or super political account lol.

In my nearly half century on this planet and having dealt with many a drug dealer in my younger days, absolutely none of them have been this pushy 😆

“Does it piss you off when Google/whatever does [blank]? Yeah, me too. So I run my own versions to not have to deal with that crap. Would you like me to set you up an account on my stuff?”

Best I can offer is https://github.com/searxng/searxng

I run it at home and have configured it as the default search engine in all my browsers.

[Weary sigh]

At best, it’s JARVIS from Iron Man 3 when he went all buggy and crashed Tony in the boondocks. lol