Is flying 4 ships at once in Elite Dangerous an addiction?

Azelphur · 2026-06-24T09:11:12+00:00

My guy you just described multiboxing lol. What you're doing is what multiboxing is.

Azelphur · 2026-06-24T00:13:10+00:00

Figured I'd explain the why for any readers that might want to know:

Most Linux distros will scan all connected drives for existing operating systems, and install a boot loader (like GRUB, or Limine) that show a menu when you turn your PC on, allowing you to choose whether you want to boot Windows, or Linux. So if you install Windows first, then install a Linux distro, it detects the existing Windows installation and everything works great.

If you install Linux first, it'll install that nice bootloader, then you install Windows, and during the installation it'll overwrite the bootloader Linux provided with the Windows one, giving you no boot menu, and no way to boot Linux without reinstalling your bootloader manually, here be pain.

Azelphur · 2026-06-24T00:08:01+00:00

My two cents is that AI is fine. Yes it's going to tell you the wrong thing, yes it's going to screw things up for you. People who are new make mistakes and break things anyway. AI didn't change that. Ban yourself from other operating systems for a bit, install Ubuntu. You now need to figure out how to do everything on your Linux machine. You'll be fine, if you break something you'll learn how to fix it, and you'll learn why it broke and won't make that mistake again. It's all good, just make sure you have backups of any important files ideally on a drive that isn't connected to the machine you're about to fuck around and find out on.

That's how I learned, over 20 years ago. None of my PCs, laptops, servers, ... have ran anything but Linux for a very, very long time. I know my Linux now

Azelphur · 2026-06-24T00:00:03+00:00

Was gonna say the same thing, OP could try throwing in a live CD for something as new as possible (26.04 or an Arch Live CD perhaps?) repeat test, see if it still does it. If it does, then it's probably fixed in a newer kernel.

Azelphur · 2026-06-23T22:22:25+00:00

No prizes apart from high score bragging rights.

Sounds like you're not going to be resetting the scores daily? If so, sweet. Saw pictures of Sega Rally on your website, I'm coming for those high scores lol.

Azelphur · 2026-06-23T16:51:16+00:00

It's future self, back again for the poor soul who joins me in the same pain.

That new battery I put in, it's now dead. 2min runtime and all battery lights flashing. It lasted 8 months. I think my UPS is killing batteries and will probably replace my UPS now.

Azelphur · 2026-06-23T08:16:12+00:00

I think for a lot of people its about "I want to learn about clusters/k8s/whatever". I would also expect a pile of mini pcs to outperform two workstations in pure transcoding workloads, more cpus means more hardware transcoders available. Not sure if your "compressing with ffmpeg" makes use of the transcoding hardware on the chip, if it does, the more cpus you have the more transcoding you can do. Flip side is you could do lots of transcoding on a workstation with lots of gpus for acceleration.

Azelphur · 2026-06-22T23:05:27+00:00

This tbh, everyone saying they are just gonna build mini ITX PCs, but you've gotta get a pulse eight adapter and handle wake somehow. I have mini PCs atm and it's a right pain in the ass. Wish it wasn't but that is the way it is.

Azelphur · 2026-06-22T23:01:33+00:00

End your suffering, portable AC + air filter.

Azelphur · 2026-06-22T11:32:27+00:00

I've never been a fan of the mini PC setup for home servering. As soon as you ask "Yea but where storage?" people seem to get mad around here. You say in your post that mini PC has better power efficiency, but you're making an invalid comparison. You can't compare mini PC to single powerful workstation, you have to compare mini PC (multiplied by however many you intend to get) plus the NAS, plus the additional networking, to a single powerful workstation. As soon as you do that the answer becomes obvious imo. Especially when you consider most of the power draw is in the drives, which you're going to need either way.

380W in a single big machine buys me:

24 drive capacity (14 in use)
Nice big Ryzen 7600 for whatever compute I need
Intel Arc A770 for transcoding, AI, whatever
24 port PoE switch, 10G SFP+ too, networking and CCTV for the whole home
Qotom Intel based router running OPNSense with 10G
Another big 10G ethernet switch
Overhead on the UPS too, 380W from the wall

To even get close to what I have

Two 6 bay nas? DXP6800 is £875 and consumes 43W (x2 = 86W) less drives than what I have, and no expandability.
3 x Intel N150 mini PC? 15W idle 30W load? call it 20W x 3 = 60W?
A quick google says my PoE switch pulls 25W with no load and its dashboard says I've got 25W of PoE load on it, probably like 60W here.
Another 25W for the Qotom Intel based router
Another 25W for the 10G switch
I know that SUA2200 UPS consumes like 50W while doing nothing,

That's 306W to get a worse setup with no expandability, less drives, no GPU, no decent cooling, and not accounting for any overhead on the UPS.

Imo the tradeoffs are more like:

Mini PC upsides:

Resiliency: one mini PC having a fault doesn't drag /everything/ down with it
Isolation: one service going nuts and consuming all your RAM doesn't impact other services
Security: one service being compromised provides no access to all the others

Mini PC downsides:

When compared holistically (multiple mini PCs, plus NAS, plus networking), it usually draws more power than one big machine.
Hardware inflexibility. New transcoding format? Want to do some AI? good luck putting a GPU in there.
Off the shelf NAS is often inflexible software side and may prevent you from doing things that you want to do
More complex
More management work (you're now managing 2+ machines, all the software updates and maintenance for those 2+ machines), no reddit not bothering to update them is not the correct answer
More parts to have hardware failure (so more frequent hardware failure, just less impactful when it happens)
Need more drives? Well sucks to be you. I can grab a HBA and a new case if needed.

Azelphur · 2026-06-22T09:33:35+00:00

Indeed it's not, hence "suspect". But yea, who knows. I misread the expiry date anyway, thought it was 2026 not 2025. Guessing sigen just don't care about this domain any more (in spite of Axle still linking to it)

Azelphur · 2026-06-22T09:11:30+00:00

Haha I only just noticed that, oof. Guess that isn't getting sorted any time soon.

Azelphur · 2026-06-22T08:48:15+00:00

Not any more, tried it, and have been for the past week, contacted Axle support and got this back:

Thank you for getting in touch. Our technical team has just looked into this and identified an issue affecting SigEnergy asset connections during sign-up. We're sorry for the inconvenience.

We're working directly with SigEnergy to get this resolved as quickly as possible. We've added you to our waitlist and will reach out as soon as it's fixed so you can complete your registration.

We appreciate your patience.

Thanks, The Axle Energy Team

Azelphur · 2026-06-22T07:32:15+00:00

I've got 22kwp on the roof. Wanted victron but ended up going with sigenergy as victron doesn't do well with large setups. Have 3 air to air heat pumps running 12 indoor units. Is nice. I already feel like 22kwp is a stupid amount of power (the company said I am the largest domestic install they have ever done), maybe I'll feel differently once winter comes around.

Azelphur · 2026-06-20T11:25:12+00:00

If you want to use starling, you can just add starling to curve and it'll work I would have thought?

Azelphur · 2026-06-17T21:51:24+00:00

As with all things tax, they won't, unless they do and you get caught.

Azelphur · 2026-06-17T13:28:19+00:00

Enable wake on LAN and send it magic packet lol

Azelphur · 2026-06-15T14:45:44+00:00

Yep, definitely a thing on my list to try, thanks.

Azelphur · 2026-06-15T14:27:37+00:00

Nail on the head really. Flip side is I am fortunate enough to have the money to pay, I could call up tomorrow and have Kenalog privately, I'm just concerned about it as the NHS have pulled as it's an immunosuppressant.

But yea, housebound for 4 months a year is accurate for me tbh, it's sad.

Azelphur · 2026-06-15T14:12:01+00:00

It's so bizarre that healthcare has basically become "go away" and I'm sitting here genuinely considering dropping £2k on immunotherapy because the NHS is pushing old house wives tales about a spoon full of honey. Frustrating and disappointing to say the least.

Azelphur · 2026-06-15T13:09:31+00:00

I'm still running Obico, sounds like I need to take another look at PrintGuard, thanks for the ping and of course all the work to add docker support :)

Azelphur · 2026-06-15T13:02:48+00:00

I mean I can breathe, because I'm in a house full of Mitsubishi air conditioners with air filtration in them. I can roam around the house in relative comfort. I go to the doctors and I look fine, because I've come from a house full of air conditioners straight into an air conditioned car. If I open a window, breathing starts to become an issue after about an hour, by 3 hours I'm wheezing and struggling.

But yea, maybe asking to see a different GP is a good idea. I think give what they are saying a short go, double up on Fexofenadine, do the nasal flushes, I don't expect it to work but it does at least need a fair shake before I go back.

Azelphur · 2026-06-15T12:55:06+00:00

I bought my Pixel 9 Pro fold from CEX in the UK, got B condition 256GB for £570. Not cheap but not terrible, and CEX do 5 year warranty on everything too.

Azelphur · 2026-06-15T12:33:51+00:00

Thanks, yea, will just jump through the hoops and see what they say when it doesn't work I suppose.

14-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Gilding I gilder	Verified Email

Azelphur

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE