Eh since my laptop is primarily for work and running my business, I have two separate base partitions for just such an occasion that I’ll mirror across once I know nothing went stupid. I just can’t afford to be goofing around procrastinating work, and then bork my system when I need to do invoicing and the like.

Indeed, I think the entire idea that needs focus is distributing away from a handful of large corps, although I don’t see streaming going in that direction largely due to IP rights for content, not necessarily bandwidth and resources. Many streaming platforms as I understand already have their content distributed through CDNs that are geographically dispersed as to ease network load, though they retain control over that hardware. I’m proposing providing more options for your average joe website than on something controlled by the likes of Amazon and Microsoft.

I’ll nominate my neighbor, he’s kind of annoying.

Also virus: This is not my house, this is not my beautiful wife

Better yet, having a (halfway decent) multimeter and knowing how to use it is huge. A good one can test capacitance, but simply tracing voltage isn’t too tricky.

Hope the box you mounted it to was rated for a ceiling fan :D

Working with electricity is actually quite simple in a lot of respects, and I make a lot of money mainly because people are afraid of it (and rightfully so, me too). But many of the small things like changing plugs/switches out and hanging fixtures can be done easily by anyone with a basic knowledge hand tool use and basic rules like a) turn off the main if you don’t know which breaker you’re working with, b) check that it’s off with a meter or hot stick, c) even then, don’t directly touch the shiny parts, and d) match your colors exactly as you found them (take pictures to be safe). Granted I’ve been doing this for 10+ years, but even a layman can save themselves a service call with a couple basics and YouTube is a great resource for such things.

Any time I get a new toy, I do try to keep it a shiny as possible for as long as I can, but yeah eventually the battle scars come through and then it’s a different story.

Crack is whack, or at least that’s what I keep telling myself

Valid points. Also too, the cost associated with a business class data plan that actually allows hosting. If you think about it, it really is an arbitrary restriction put in place by ISPs to goad those who want to leverage the internet’s potential into more expensive plans.

I honestly think the drivers model has some merit to it, and it’d be interesting to see federated data centers. I dunno how well it would work out, but it would be interesting.

Cinderhella

You don’t have join them, but you can also not see a god damned thing. Unless they’re doing something that screws over good, innocent people, especially on a wide scale, I’m minding my own business.

Realistically, more people need to self-host, or at the very least we need more mon-and-pop style datacenters. The foundational protocols of the Internet inherently make the web decentralized, but most would rather offload hardware costs and, more importantly, security, to those more knowledgeable. Not that I blame them, as running one’s own hardware is extremely time intensive, nevermind power and equipment costs, but it’s no wonder that conglomerates have stepped up to fill that role (nevermind economies of scale). Yet, this is how we’ve fallen into the situation we are in now.

Not with that attitude

The memes are the friends we made along the way :)

But only after the morning seagulls have turned it into their version of guano.

In theory that should be prorated then, depending on the contract dates. Anywhere I have ever lived we have bridges two places to live for a couple days while moving and cleaning, and I have never been on the hook for an entire month.

Professional electrician and AV tech here.

Personally, and this may be overkill, but an HDMI/video matrix would do wonders to cut down the number of cables you’re working with. You’d be able to group your cables within that shelving unit, so that you can run a single HDMI to your TV. You analog consoles would need a digital converter between the console and the matrix, but since the TV itself has to do the conversation anyway and will already introduce input lag, you’re up a creek there anyway. I’d cut a plug behind the TV, as well as low volt passthrough. If you’re handy and can patch drywall/paint, I’d run smurf tube from that shelving unit through the wall to behind the TV. And as many others have said, velcro straps, not zipties.

If you don’t want to go bananas with all that, then velcro strap everything as neatly as you can. You’d also be wise to separate power and data/video cables.

Honestly I hate those things. It’s fine if you’re not going to add or remove anything, but velcro is easier than those. Plus the cheaper ones don’t round off the edges and can crease the cable insulation.