.63W: N100 server with 2 HDD & 2 SSD. Cable modem. 5-port POE switch. WAP. Ooma VOIP device.

The POE & WAP are like 10W between them, but I had to add them to get strong enough wifi to one particular client. Authentik somehow consumes 3W. Immich also has a high idle load, so I leave it down most of the time.

Must be a new thing. My 20-year-old BR drive has never complained.

makemkv on linux for DVDs. abcde for CDs. dd of=game.iso for games.

I used to have pretty good luck with mplayer -dumpstream for DVDs, but its success rate started dropping a few years ago and I switched to makemkv.

No magic firmware required.

Yeah, I started with a PCI (no e) card, but had to switch to USB when it got hard to find cheap motherboards with PCI slots. It’s an old setup :) Honestly amazed that they can fit the whole thing into a thumb-sized USB dongle, although I suppose it’s easier without the analog side.

I use a USB tuner like https://hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_dualhd.html and https://mythtv.org/ Has to be plugged into an external antenna, and it really helps for that antenna to be on the 2nd floor, in a window, with clear view unobstructed by aluminum siding.

tvheadend.org or HDhomerun are probably more general solutions.

You might think that ordering cases of canned tomatoes, or a 10-year supply of rubber gloves are poor management decisions, but that’s because this AI is playing seven dimensional chess against your tic-tac-toe. Just wait until it’s cornered the tomato market, and then you’ll see.

My setup is a pile of kludges built on top of each other over the last two decades.

I started with ULAs distributed through DHCP, connected to named, which allows hosts do declare their own name and let me access local services as though I had a real domain.

My ISP eventually started supporting IPV6, but only assigned /128, so the ULAs got NAT-6ed out to the real world.

I eventually learned how to request prefix delegation from the ISP and set up SLAAC.

So now, my PIv6 clients have a) their link-local address, b) the ULA, c) a “privacy” SLAAC, and d) a unique SLAAC. All my internal services still refer to the ULAs.

I don’t think I’d recommend this system for someone setting up from scratch. The easiest thing would be to go with SLAAC, if you can get prefix delegation, and set your DNS/pihole to send the unique-SLAAC address of any servers you run.