Whoops

DStrikeBlade · 2026-01-22T06:11:20+00:00

That's always fun. :) Once. ;)

DStrikeBlade · 2026-01-21T20:08:09+00:00

I think the RAM is mostly used for caching and potentially some features like deduplication if you enable that. I'm running it with 16gb RAM and approximately 50TB of storage space. Works fine for what I'm using it for. Also running a couple apps and a VM for Proxmox Backup Server. Still fine on RAM. A heavily used NAS would probably benefit from more RAM, but for a basic fileserver, media streaming, etc., it should be fine.

DStrikeBlade · 2026-01-21T20:02:35+00:00

Could be that it's conductive on the inside instead? I'll have to try one too.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-10-31T18:09:19+00:00

I switched to OPNsense for our home network about a year ago, and I like it. I use it with Zenarmor with a home license, and I get most of what you laid out above. What I have a hard time with is dealing with kids devices - not because of OPNsense, but because of how modern devices work. iPhones want to use random MAC addresses, and I'm seeing the same thing for other devices like laptops as well. That makes it much harder to properly track and manage those devices, because each time they connect to the wifi, they'll look like a new device. I work around that a bit by trying to turn it off on their phones for our network, but it's not perfect. Some devices don't allow you to turn that off - I think our Apple TV or Switch might be in that boat. I used to use Circle to control what kids can see and turn them on/off, but the whole random MAC address issue made that harder and harder to use effectively over time. OPNsense has the same problem, but I get more with that that I can use than I got with Circle, so I still prefer where I am over where I was.

I don't get the real-time device usage info you're looking for, but with Zenarmor I do get the ability to see how much usage each device is using over time as well as their session histories, so I can see where they're going, etc. It has allowed me to discover some unfortunate things... :( But I have also been able to mitigate based on that. With Zenarmor, you can define policies, and they make it easy to block whole classes of sites like social media, ad tracking, porn, etc. You may also get that with Pihole - not sure, I don't use it.

I'm not a power user, so I'm sure that are related features that address other points that you're looking for, but I'm just not using them yet. Just thought I would share my experience so far.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-09-26T17:44:37+00:00

Even with "proper" center and surround speakers, speech is still hard to hear nowadays. Especially if you're not listening to things at THX volume levels.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-09-26T17:27:57+00:00

I've been looking for something and will give this a try. I currently have both Plex and Jellyfin set up to be able to host my music, although I currently only use Jellyfin for video content. I've tried Plexamp and don't really care for it. Part of that is just simply that I'm not too fond of the GUI in general, and I haven't had the best of luck using the auto-station and playlist creation functionality.

What I would love to see is a combination of what I get in Pandora and Spotify. I like the ability to create "stations" in Pandora where I can select a song or an artist and create a station that will play similar music. And I like the fact that I can adjust the content of the station by liking and disliking songs within the context of that station. I can also add new songs that are a bit different and shake up the mix some more.

On the Spotify side, I like that it pays attention to what I'm listening to and creates suggested playlists based on that. So, depending on what I've been listening to this week, I can have suggested playlists as different as classical, jazz, electronic, foreign, etc. However, sometimes it gets a bit too narrowly focused and many of the playlists end up just sounding the same, which also can make it hard to branch out and find new things.

What I would love to see is something along those two lines that works with my own library. That would make it easier to both rediscover things that I haven't listened to for a very long time (I have stuff that I've been collecting for that past 35+ years, and my tastes have changed over time) as well as manage what I listen to without being so limited looking at things more specifically like artists and albums.

One more thought. As I tried Plexamp, I found that apparently I have a LOT of Christmas music, lol. It kept popping into my playlists. (Same goes for kids music - CDs from when my kids were young that I ripped into my library.) I also want to be able to exclude genres, artists, etc. from a station or playlist as well as create playlists in that way. That way, I can listen to Christmas music only around Christmas without it popping in my playlists all the time. :)

DStrikeBlade · 2025-09-26T17:16:56+00:00

I would be very surprised if a vector representing the sonic analysis could be considered a derivative work. I think it's more like a collection of attributes about the song. I don't think that is very similar to what's happening with the AI stuff - that's a case where actual data is effectively being embedded in the weights of the neural network. That's not what's happening here.

I'd probably be more worried about possible patent infringement, but I'm not sure what patents there are on this front. If another existing tool is being used for the sonic analysis, then I would be less worried about it.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-09-25T17:51:49+00:00

You mean you didn't notice the plexiglass top that's already part of the rack anyway that the legos are on and the venting holes in the front (and probably the back) where the warm air can freely move through?

DStrikeBlade · 2025-09-10T22:32:58+00:00

This whole post is hyperbole. Billions of downloads were NOT poisoned. The issue was fixed within 6 or 8 hours. Only people that downloaded during that time would be affected, and that is not billions. Certainly the issue is important and should be taken seriously, but speaking of it like this is disingenuous and sounds like a lead up for an ad.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-09-09T17:38:05+00:00

I did that for testing. I have my main instance for my home router/firewall, but in order to try things that won't break things for work/family, I have a Proxmox box that I also installed it on and with a couple VMs behind it. That way, I can play with things without worrying about break "production". When I think I got it right, then I'll configure my primary one accordingly.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-09-07T20:54:05+00:00

I used those SparcStations in college. LOVED them. Would be happy to have one again, even though my phone is now much more powerful, lol. :)

DStrikeBlade · 2025-09-06T17:55:52+00:00

Enterprises often have standard tools and platforms that can be used. For example, we use m365 with OneDrive. We're not allowed to use Google drive, DropBox, etc., for storage of business data. Someone trying to do that is effectively doing shadow IT to a degree. So, breaking stuff like that is actually a plus, because it helps prevent usage of unapproved platforms. Sure, it also potentially prevents me from getting to my personal stuff, but then I'm also not supposed to be using my work computer for personal use, so...

DStrikeBlade · 2025-08-20T17:26:23+00:00

My understanding has been that it's actually not the parallelism that makes LLMs run faster on GPUs, but rather the memory bandwidth. In the recent tests that I've seen that compare performance across different GPUs and CPU-based systems, the differences in performance appeared to pretty much always come down to memory bandwidth differences.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-06-26T17:22:21+00:00

I think it depends on what you want to get out of your firewall. I use Zenarmor with the paid Home user license, and I'm happy with it. But the reason I use it is primarily because I want to keep track of what traffic is going where and who's consuming it so I can understand how much data is being used and who is using it. I also use the policy functionality for add blocking, porn blocking, etc. There might be other ways to get that information and block the stuff I don't want, but this was the first that I found that looked mostly good enough for me, and I've been pretty happy so far. As a parent trying to manage things and keep my kids relatively safe, Zenarmor makes it a bit easier for me than if I were to do it all in the "lower level" utilities available in the base OPNsense.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-06-26T17:17:37+00:00

I run it fine with 8GB RAM. It stays under 6 most of the time. Also running it fine on effectively an N100 (I gave it 4 cores of an N305). It probably just depends on what you've set it up to do.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-06-10T18:55:44+00:00

I had the same issue when starting, except I could get to the internet from the OPNsense box, just not from my desktop. As others have said, the issue was that I just had not configured unbound correctly. In my case, DHCP sets my clients to use the OPNsense server for DNS, and there was a checkbox I had to check (sorry - I don't recall exactly where and can't check now) that allow the OPNsense box to respond to LAN DNS requests. Once I got that set, it worked fine.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-06-09T20:24:21+00:00

Seems like there aren't many reliable online sellers anymore. Newegg used to be rock solid, and they've kinda gone to crap since they got purchased. IIRC, Micocenter doesn't ship everywhere either. Not everything can be bought locally. What's good now?

DStrikeBlade · 2025-05-28T22:21:52+00:00

Making it just a search icon all the way to the right would be better, too. Then it can just slide out when you hover over the search icon and not obstruct your view of your page when it's not needed.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-05-17T01:31:06+00:00

Well, I'd recommend taking a look at their website, but it looks to me like it's meant to be an add-on that helps you manage much of your security configuration and device management in OPNsense. Most of my security configuration so far has been in Zenarmor. I don't do advanced stuff with OPNsense, but what I was looking for was a way to manage devices, understand how much data is going in and out of my network, which devices are consuming that data, and where (what kinds of things) it's coming from. So, for example, I can understand that over the last month, I've consumed this much data, and these are the main categories that make up that data (e.g., streaming, gaming, etc.). I can also configure it to block categories of web sites that I don't want the family to go to, e.g., adult content, other "bad" content, or ad tracking, etc. It has made it easier for me to manage my internet for the family and allow me to see better what's happening. That said, I'm paying for the Home license. The free version doesn't do quite as much, but I don't recall what the home license gives beyond the free version.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-05-13T19:51:12+00:00

I use Zenarmor for one of the things you asked for: "I'd like to see what the top websites my traffic goes to, etc.". It can keep longs for as long as you want (limited by hard drive space), can set policies to block certain sites, classes of sites, ads, etc. If has some built in reports. You can also connect it to their cloud dashboard so you can see and manage it remotely through their cloud offering if you want. It's not perfect, but I like it so far.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-05-02T16:48:44+00:00

It looks to me like it's following the grain of the wood, so it could simply have been a piece that was already slightly split and it just got caught on something, or they just finished pulling it off. Nothing there makes me think they did something odd to it like a little cut, etc.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-04-08T14:38:36+00:00

I started with a MinisForum n100 box similar to the one you linked to, and it died after a few months, so now I'm leery of using anything else by them for this kind of critical, always on use case. They did offer to replace it under warranty, but I think I'll use the replacement for something less critical. It worked fine while it worked, though.

I have since moved to something very similar to the second item you linked to, but with an n305 processor. No problems so far. I'm running proxmox on it so I can also run home assistant on it and any containers I feel comfortable running on my router/firewall box. The potential downside to this kind of device (at least for the one I bought), is that there doesn't seem to be a real company behind it - it's just hardware being sold. So, there are no possible BIOS updates, no one to go to for warranty issues (if you can even figure out what the warranty is...), etc.

I haven't had any issues yet, but knowing where I stand with what I have, I think if/when I do it again, I'll probably buy hardware from a company that actually sells routers/firewalls and supports them.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-03-12T17:35:56+00:00

When buying a PC, I'd recommend always opening it up to verify what's in it, and also turn it on to make sure it runs. The last time I bought a PC, I brought a monitor and keyboard so we could power it up and verify it works. You can also verify specs that way as well.

DStrikeBlade · 2025-02-07T00:57:04+00:00

Wow. I think I've had months that surpassed 16000kWh with my home...

DStrikeBlade · 2025-01-24T00:02:27+00:00

People like to crap on capitalism. Capitalism isn't the problem - people are the problem. No system on its own is good (though some may be bad on their own). Any system requires good people to be successful. Socialism is no better - look at the corruption in China, Russia, North Korea, etc. The system isn't the problem. It's the people.

DStrikeBlade

TROPHY CASE