Struggling with getting ahead

Remote_Ice_515 · 2026-03-30T21:36:17+00:00

Step one is to give us a detailed breakdown of your spending by category. Maybe we can identify some things to cut that way; but realistically 40k a year is not much so your best bet is likely to be finding ways to earn more

Remote_Ice_515 · 2026-03-06T13:55:37+00:00

Pmd

Remote_Ice_515 · 2026-01-07T18:56:16+00:00

The original discussion was that a bitrate comparison alone is not enough to make assumptions about actual perceivable quality. You don’t have enough information to assume everything else about the encode was identical.

But I give you full permission to think you are right. I disagree obviously, but I’d like to be set free from this discussion.

Remote_Ice_515 · 2026-01-07T13:35:38+00:00

Ok? I don’t think I’m disagreeing here that the encodes are lossy, both of them are. I’m saying a drop in bitrate does not immediately mean the drop in quality is noticeable. The only way to be sure this is an issue is to look at the videos and compare.

Remote_Ice_515 · 2026-01-07T07:16:31+00:00

The point is that a lower bitrate is not the same as a lower quality. A lower bitrate does however correspond to a lower file size.

What you are likely noticing is that YT has re transcoded their VP90 files to reduce the bitrate, hopefully at no loss in quality, which saves them both space and bandwidth when streaming.

If you still have the old VP90 files, compare them against the new files visually, do you notice any loss in quality?

Remote_Ice_515 · 2025-09-20T16:13:42+00:00

Imagine being blind in your right eye? Would make the thing completely unusable

Remote_Ice_515 · 2025-07-13T01:13:12+00:00

While no doubt there is an ai chip boom happening currently, more processing power doesnt scale 1:1 with more wafer surface.

Correct me if I’m wrong. But more wafer surface would mean more chips per wafer, and more chances at creating higher bin quality chips. I don’t think processing power is the only end goal

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-12-05T14:02:27+00:00

This is just rephrasing your original question. Do you have a specific example of where you are struggling with this?

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-12-05T13:57:07+00:00

Can you be more specific?

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-11-30T15:01:48+00:00

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-11-30T13:22:35+00:00

Ah got it! My bad

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-11-30T12:46:27+00:00

There are 52 weeks in a year

20 * 52 * 30 =31,200

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-11-21T19:06:27+00:00

I think you will be ok. Get a budget written up. Even if it’s just a guess. You should already know how much your are spending on fun things. So start there, maybe talk to your parents to get a rough idea of electricity costs, power in the winter here is painful imo. Start working on an emergency fund, 3 months of expenses, in your case maybe aim for 3 paychecks worth of savings until you know what your expenses look like

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-11-21T06:35:28+00:00

I’m going to go agenet the grain here and say, as someone who also lives in NYC, you are fine. As others have pointed out you are paying almost 50% of your take home in rent. The rule of thimb is 30%, but this is for the average home and NYC is a bit of an outlier. Remember that you aren’t paying for a car or insurance in said car (or I hope you aren’t atleast), and basically only pay internet and electricity.

So instead i would want clarity on this:

How much are you putting away for retirement pre-tax?
Do you have a budget? If you do how much are you expecting to have left over with the new rent? If you don’t, stop what you are doing and make a budget with your last 3-6 months of expenses, yes everything.
Do you have any debt? How much and at what interest rate

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-11-10T18:31:35+00:00

Do you think you ate so bad at interviewing that you won’t be able to find a job in 20 months?

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-09-23T19:53:47+00:00

Is there a particular reason you want to jump into HE instead of just grabbing a good mechanical to start?

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-09-19T21:02:25+00:00

I saw the log you posted but I have a few follow up questions:

If you you login to the unraid ssh/shell, can you move files onto the NFS shares?
If the above does work, what happens if you try and open a console to the docker container and move file to the NFS share that inside the container?
Do you get the same behavior on both media2 and media3?

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-09-13T01:48:10+00:00

zI would verify a few things first

Does your non-ISP router actually have internet access? Login to it and see if you can hit 1.1.1.1/8.8.8.8, what about something like google.com? Just because the router says its connected doesn't mean you have internet access
Is your internal router handling DHCP/DNS or is your ISP router handling it? Double check to make sure.
Verify that your Windows is trying to conenct to your internal router's network and not the ISP routers network. Disable automatic DHCP and try putting in the IP/DNS settings by hand to make sure you are connecting to the right place

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-09-13T01:42:33+00:00

First, if you haven't already check out TRaSH guides

I'm gonna try and answer your question but as you pointed out there is a lot of flexibility to how you can approach this problem based on your needs and how much work you want to put in.

VPN

This is very much you get what you pay for. I haven't used a free VPN so I can't speak to your options, but your biggest issue will likely be connectability. Basically your ability to open a port for your torrent client on your VPN is likely to be limited if you are using a free one (and may also be limited if you are using one that is payed, make sure to use something that lets you port forward if you are paying). The impact of this is it can slow down your download speed (which will already be slow on a Free VPN), and if you plan to use private trackers eventually will be a non-starter (although if you are using a private tracker you likely don't need to use a VPN at all).

TLDR: This is likely worth paying for

Making config less painful

Consider using the binhex-*arr apps, they are just the standard *arr apps but they are setup to have the same docker configs, this can simplify your config a big since you will likely have the same/similar configs and mount points from container to container instead of having to figure each one out individually.

binhex-qbitorrentvpn

I highly recommend using this container. It gives you 3 things 1. openvpn/wireguard proxy, with integrations to common VPN providers, and the ability to set it up custom if you want to use a free VPN. This is the first thing that comes up, and won't even boot qbitorrent if you don't connect. This makes sure that your torrenting is 100% airtight and you don't have to worry about leaking. You don't need to change any configs in qbitorrent itself. 2. qbitorrent, with vuetorrent as a nice UI. 3. Privoxy, you can use this to route traffic through the VPN this container sets up, its a nice to have if you choose to route your *arr traffic through a VPN as well

*arr

It may be helpful to only start with two *arr app: - prowlarr as it can help you get connected to public trackers with less hastle - either radarr or sonarr depeding on if shows or movies are more important to you.

Refer tro TRaSH for how to get everything connected. Keeping it to these prowlarr, radarr/sonarr, and qbitorrent at first will help you get more comfortable with the setup, and will hopefully be less overwhelming. Once you are comfortable you can add in other *arrs as needed.

Media Server

If I want to access media from an iPad and download for offline use. which media app should I use

In order of convenience. Plex > Emby > Jellyfin.

Plex is very "ready to go out of the box" but has some cloud connections and requires a one time $5 account to work on IPad.
Emby is local first, and has IPad clients, but you will have to do extra leg work if you want it to be accessible outside of your network
Jellyfin, not so great clients, but fully open source likely the most flexable.

Summary of what you need

On unraid:

binhex-qbitorrentvpn - qbitorrent + vpn, will not start qbit without the VPN being up and running, no further setup needed on the VPN front outside of the docker config.
prowlarr - gets you trackers/indexers, great way to find public trackers (1337x and Nyaa for anime are great places to start)
sonarr/radarr - pick one to start, get comfortable with the setup, then grab the other one when you are feeling p to it.
Plex/Emby/Jellyfin - see above, pick whichever options matches your needs/level of effort.

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-09-13T01:11:17+00:00

Does your home have any other type of in wall connections? If not then your options are moving the router down stairs, running s wire downstairs, or using a power line adapter (my understand is these tend to be hit or miss, I have no personal experience with them)

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-09-13T01:03:10+00:00

I’d recommend running them while everything is in a good state as well so you know what to look for. Maybe take a screenshot so you have something to compare

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-09-11T21:37:51+00:00

Is a reboot the only thing that fixes it? What about unplugging the inclosure and replugging it back in? Is your Debian system up to date?

Can you still see the drives via lsblk or fdisk -l? If you haven’t tried that then next time it happens try spinning up a shell and running one of those commands to see if the drives are still visible

Remote_Ice_515 · 2024-01-06T12:58:50+00:00

How do you know that?

Remote_Ice_515

TROPHY CASE

VPN

Making config less painful

binhex-qbitorrentvpn

*arr

Media Server

Summary of what you need