I've been using some cheap flash drives for things like installing OSs and the like, but now I've picked up a Dell Wyse 3040 system to play with which only has 8gb of storage. So I'm installing the OS onto a flash drive permanently (don't worry, just for messing with, nothing of value will be lost if/when the drive craps out).

However, the performance of my cheap flash drive is terrible and installing packages & transferring files is so slow. My question is: Would getting a better drive make a meaningful difference here? If so, anyone have some recommendations of drives they like that are fast?

I'm looking for something to replace cloud storage for myself and family. I've tried to use/like NextCloud but honestly I despise it. The UI/UX really bothers me, and administering it is a pain. It also just does way more that I want or need.

What I'm looking for:

• Supports a virtual/sync folder on Mac. Like iCloud does, it needs to create a local folder on a Mac. I personally just use SMB, but for family members that's not as easy (see next point).
• Accessible from the internet. I don't want to put my family members on the VPN, but I do have a central OAuth for other stuff so I want it to be secured with behind that.
• Doesn't need to have a web interface or phone app. If it integrates into the computer, it doesn't really need this. I can just use (FileBrowser)[https://filebrowser.org/]. It's mostly used for documents and the like, so desktop/laptop use is the most important.

Anyone use anything that fits this? Or anyone in general dislike NextCloud and use something else?

Edit: Maybe I can just setup webdav and use something like https://mountainduck.io/? Would be better to find something FOSS though, if possible.

I've been experiencing instability with my system, and I'm beginning to suspect that the PSU is either faulty or under-provisioned. I'll get random crashes (reboots, more specifically), mostly when doing something intensive on the system like starting up a game. Looking at all the crash logs, I can't really find any errors that make sense to me. When the system goes down, all the lights & fans all die at the same time as the screen, then after a couple of seconds it comes back on and reboots.

I have a Corsair SF600 SFX PSU which is only 600W, and I'm powering a Ryzen 3700x, a AMD 5700XT GPU, a 1TB M.2 SSD, 32G ddr4 memory, 2 case fans, and a water-cooling pump. Plugging all of that into a calculator says that 600W is exactly enough, but is that right? Or could power-usage spikes be pushing things over the edge?

Edit: Sorry, CPU is a 3800X not 3700X. Just FYI

I've got a NAS built in a Node 304 mini itx case that works great, but uses a ton of power. In Unraid (the OS for my NAS) there is some kind of issue with the Ryzen 3900x processor that I'm running that means I have to disable all sleep states - so it's always at it's 100W TDP. Power is super expensive where I live so I'd love to find something more power efficient.

Does it make more sense to buy a more recent(ish) 5th gen ryzen in hopes that the sleep states will work, and thus save money by keeping my existing motherboard?

Or I could go with something a bit more interesting. I've seen on Aliexpress motherboards with mobile CPU's soldered which are very power efficient. For example the N100 has an insane 6W TDP and comes on special boards with lots of sata ports and 2.5G networking (link). The worry with the n100 though is that it only officially supports 16G of ram which might not be enough for zfs.

Any thoughts? Is anyone running a power-efficient build who could throw some advice my way? Thanks!

Currently, I run Unraid and have all of my services' setup there as docker containers. While this is nice and easy to setup initially, it has some major downsides:

• It's fragile. Unraid is prone to bugs/crashes with docker that take down my containers. It's also not resilient so when things break I have to log in and fiddle.
• It's mutable. I can't use any infrastructure-as-code tools like terraform, and configuration sort of just exist in the UI. I can't really roll back or recover easily.
• It's single-node. Everything is tied to my one big server that runs the NAS, but I'd rather have the NAS as a separate fairly low-power appliance and then have a separate machine to handle things like VMs and containers.

So I'm looking ahead and thinking about what the next iteration of my homelab will look like. While I like unraid for the storage stuff, I'm a little tired of wrangling it into a container orchestrator and hypervisor, and I think this year I'll split that job out to a dedicated machine. I'm comfortable with, and in fact prefer, IaC over fancy UIs and so would love to be able to use terraform or Pulumi or something like that. I would prefer something multi-node, as I want to be able to tie multiple machines together. And I want something that is fault-tolerant, as I host services for friends and family that currently require a lot of manual intervention to fix when they go down.

So the question is: how do you all do this? Kubernetes, docker-compose, Hashicorp Nomad? Do you run k3s, Harvester, or what? I'd love to get an idea of what people are doing and why, so I can get some ideas as to what I might do.

I recently got a ZSA Moonlander and started learning colemak dh. It's been a really fun journey so far and I'm now able to type consistently at 60 WPM. However, as you can see from the chart I've sort of hit a plateau at 60 and I'm having trouble breaking it.

I think it's time to switch up my training strategy. So far, I've been using keybr.io and typelit which have both been great. Are there any other tools folks have used during this not-quite-beginner but not-yet-fast stage?

I just got a ZSA Moonlander and I've been... on an adventure with it. Turns out my typing technique was total garbage so I've had to essentially start re-learning how to touch type. That, plus the ortho layout, plus the other ways my layout is now changed (special chars) has made the learning curve feel steep.

Going through all this has made me wonder some things about the long-term, and so I was hoping to lean on folks with more experience for some answers.

1. Does learning to touch type on ortho (or a new layout w/ thumb clusters and such) mess with your ability to touch type on normal staggered boards? I still use my laptop when I travel and there is no shot I'll be lugging around an ergo board.

2. Is it worth going crazy with it and trying to learn workman or colemak at the same time? On some level I feel like it might not be that much harder, since it feels like I'm re-learning to touch type anyway.

3. Would it be better to start with a keyboard that's just split, but otherwise the same (Instead of ortho and alternative layout etc)? And maybe later move on to a crazier layout?

For a while now I've wondered how to build the most stable gaming/workstation possible. I'm sick of crashes, stutters, and general un-reliability. However, it's a balancing act between price, performance, and reliability. (for example ECC memory is stable, but more expensive and slower)

Ideas I've had:

• ECC memory
• CSM sku motherboard
• Hugely overkill power supply, or even dual redundant PSUs
• RAID M.2 boot drives
• All air cooled

What do you all think? If you were to spec out a (realistic) ultra-reliable PC what parts would you use and why?

P.S. I'm looking less for specific recommendations as I am for general ideas, which is why I didn't specify the use case or budget. I'm more interested in the concept and if it's feasible.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/6240929

I'm a pretty heavy torrent user, running a media server complete with sonarr/radarr for automatic downloads. I download a lot, and have multiple TBs of upload on various private trackers. I've been torrenting forever, but I've always wondered about usenet. Over and over on this, and other, forums I see people saying that usenet is way better - but why?

I understand what it is overall, but what makes it better than traditional torrenting? In my mind, it's always just seemed like a different means to the same end. I pay for a VPN and torrent for "free", or I pay for usenet access and download directly from there. As someone who's "snobby" around the quality of the stuff I torrent, does usenet provide an advantage there?

Usenet fans, I'd love to hear what makes you love it! I'm always open to trying new things, and if It really is better I'd love to know why! (Plus, maybe what providers/tools etc you recommend).

I'm a pretty heavy torrent user, running a media server complete with sonarr/radarr for automatic downloads. I download a lot, and have multiple TBs of upload on various private trackers. I've been torrenting forever, but I've always wondered about usenet. Over and over on this, and other, forums I see people saying that usenet is way better - but why?

I understand what it is overall, but what makes it better than traditional torrenting? In my mind, it's always just seemed like a different means to the same end. I pay for a VPN and torrent for "free", or I pay for usenet access and download directly from there. As someone who's "snobby" around the quality of the stuff I torrent, does usenet provide an advantage there?

Usenet fans, I'd love to hear what makes you love it! I'm always open to trying new things, and if It really is better I'd love to know why! (Plus, maybe what providers/tools etc you recommend).

Is there an app I can self-host that will let users upload stuff to my server? I need something where I can send a link to someone, and they can upload files & folders to my server (it doesn't matter much to me where, as long as I can transfer them out to wherever I need later).

For example, I'm working to archive my parents' family photos which right now live on a bunch of external HDDs. I need a way for my (non-technical) father to be able to upload a folder with potentially 10k plus files to my server. Because of his poor internet reliability, and the potentially large size, I need something that has resumability (so that if it fails, it can pick up where it left off and not re-start from scratch)

Security-wise, it would be nice to be able to only have uploads work when I send a link. Other than that, I'm not worried about malicious uploads or anything.

Does anyone have any recommendations for this? (Or, if nothing exists, would folks find this useful? I might end up making it if I can't find it)

I have a Jellyfin server, NextCloud instance, etc that I share with friends and family. Currently, I serve them over the open-internet using Cloudflare tunnels. Obviously this has some security implications that I don't love. Also recently one of my domains got flagged as malicious by google and now Chrome browsers won't go to the site - annoying.

I use Tailscale already to access my server infra remotely, but honestly I don't see this as a viable option for my non-technical friends and family. Plus, I need to support all kinds of devices like smart tvs. How do you fine folks deal with this issue?