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Joined 3 months ago
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Cake day: March 20th, 2024

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  • Like anything else, it’s good to know how to do it in many different ways, it may help you down the line.

    In production in an oddball environment, I have a python script to ftp transfer to a black box with only ftp exposed as an option.

    Another system rebuilds nightly only if code changes, publishing to a QC location. QC gives it a quick review (we are talking website here, QC is “text looks good and nothing looks weird”), clicks a button to approve, and it gets published the following night.

    I’ve had hardware (again, black box system) where I was able to leverage git because it was the only command exposed. Aka, the command they forgot to lock down and are using to update their device. Their intent was to sneakernet a thumb drive over to it for updates, I believe in sneaker longevity and wanted to work around that.

    So you should know how to navigate your way around in FTP, it’s a good thing! But I’d also recommend learning about all the other ways as well, it can help in the future.

    (This comment brought to you by “I now feel older for having written it”, and “I swear I’m only in my fourties,”)



  • I think you may be misremembering some osx fun with cups in the past, just like with Linux. Honestly most activities for the older folks these days is mobile or web based, the tech support needs for them is about the same regardless of OS imo.

    Back when I did solo IT work (a good 20+ years ago now), the questions were pretty much the same no matter what was being used too, though the Linux desktops at the time were usually focused on specialty hardware (so the dot matrix they were connecting to was about as easy as it could get).

    At the time though, macs were getting popular again, even among folks like me who appreciated Darwin and thought OSX would lean more heavily into open source rather than the outright thievery they ended up doing, but that part is neither here nor there.

    I’d say back then it was maybe 65/25/10 split of windows/osx/linux (usually redhat there, and two machines with slack), but the questions were mostly the same. And no matter what OS it was, it usually became a request for me to just do it for them on my next trip over.

    If anything, aside from specific bits of software that may be unique to an industry and someone actively working, which OS has gotten far, far, far less important than it used to be.




  • If you do find it let me know, I’d love to see it! I really do have about 20 hours of training in networking I give to folks, and since it’s literally 20 hours of information, I like to put in fun stuff.

    Like a picture of a facemask I added during COVID with “stay at 127.0.0.1, don’t 255.255.255.255”. Super cheesy but at least it’s a mental distraction from information overload haha



  • Let’s see…

    My servers (tiny/mini/micros) in total are about… 600W or so. Two NASs, about 15-20W a piece.

    I spend a out $150/mo in electricity, but my hot water/HVAC/etc are the big power draw. I’d say about $40-50/mo is what I’m spending on powering the servers in my office.

    Definitely puts off some heat, but that’s partially because it’s all in one rack, and I’ve got a bunch of other work hardware in there. It’s about 2 degrees warmer in my office than the rest of my home, but I also have air cycling all the time since it’s a single unit HVAC and I need to keep the air moving to keep it all the right temp in the other rooms anyway (AC will come on more often otherwise, even without my rack).



  • Fair enough. Most of my work means building out LXC’s and VMs for testing, and with 2 kids I don’t have much time/energy left for gaming, so my setup works for me.

    But it’s definitely not for everyone, I already have the pieces in place to make it work nicely. I actually had a windows workstation set up for work, but couldn’t deal with the windows nonsense anymore, which is why I went this route.

    It can work on a single machine with an iGPU, but kb/m gets a bit complex. And then there’s streaming over no machine or something, but that has its own drawbacks unfortunately.

    Whatever works for you, works for you and that’s what matters


  • If it works for you, I’ve found running some things as a VM works better than dealing with windows.

    Admittedly I have a lot of hardware due to what I do, but I’ve got (multiple, but just one is relevant in this case) proxmox server set up with an extremely tightened up windows 10 build. I’ve removed pretty much everything humanly possible on the windows side, just installing enough for the applications I need.

    I then have a GPU that’s passed through to it directly (that machine is headless otherwise). So I’m getting all the GPU acceleration, but without using anything else on Windows, it stays slim and trim so it runs pretty well, and it’s pretty light on ram use.

    With the second DP input of my monitor, I come off a video switcher but you can skip that and go right off the GPU. Now you’ve got a lightweight little VM directly connected to your display. Pass through your USB device of choice (I’m assuming a controller here, but you can use a second keyboard/mouse or USB host switch if you want).

    Personally I find this approach easier since I don’t have to deal with all the memory gobbling nonsense on the windows side, I get to do my daily work in Linux, and specialty stuff that I just can’t run in wine stays readily available.


  • BMD bought Resolve maybe 15 years ago now, but the support is not limited to BMD hardware. It was more of a way for them to ensure BMD hardware support in a video editor at the time. Personally I have their web presenter and an older model of their TV studio kit at home (long story), but I also have a variety of other hardware, all of which works just fine with Resolve.

    I’m using Resolve on the regular for my VHS conversions, though some tasks would be easier with the premium instead of the free version, I just fill in with ffmpeg or other tools and move on.

    Just FYI, the download will ask for an email/name/etc, but the download starts right away, so you don’t need to actually give any PII out to get it.



  • I’ve used resolve for quite a few things in the past. It’s an excellent editor, way more than most people will need/use in the free version, and exceeds most corporate editing requirements in the paid version.

    Blackmagic Design bought it to have a video editing suite they could tie to their hardware, which I would call similar in design approach. It’s inexpensive for what it does, works really well, but isn’t the top of the line for broadcast.

    Most corporate broadcast (think like a bank or something having its own small recording studio, rather than the major broadcasting companies) will leverage BMD at some point in their workflow.