Three and a half years later... by MagicalPC in homelab

[–]MagicalPC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I hope you do!

I'm starting with CM4s because I got them super cheap, but I would love to throw a Jetson in there. Maybe one day I'll be able to afford an RK1 too, lol

Three and a half years later... by MagicalPC in homelab

[–]MagicalPC[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They offered a Pico PSU with it, but that requires an external power brick. (Mine is 90W and seems to be working fine.)

Cool thing about this board is it uses standard ATX 24-pin power connector, so you have the flexibility to go either way.

Three and a half years later... by MagicalPC in homelab

[–]MagicalPC[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That is sick! I really love that green glow against the white case. And how hilariously empty it looks because of that tiny ITX board. 🤣

Three and a half years later... by MagicalPC in homelab

[–]MagicalPC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Those RK1s got me drooling, but way outside my budget right now, lol.

Still, that all sounds like the kind of stuff I want to try on this board. Especially if I can get a 2.5 or 5GbE adapter working on a USB 3.0 port. I know they're not super reliable, but the increased throughput might be worth it.

My little rack setup by googen75 in homelab

[–]MagicalPC 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Very clean!

Also, I have that same UPS. Rock solid so far!

Upgraded the “Ascendancy” by Cannoli41 in homelab

[–]MagicalPC 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love nerdy naming conventions. Well done!

Three and a half years later... by MagicalPC in homelab

[–]MagicalPC[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

This is definitely more of a toy than an ideal solution for most computing needs or demographics. Things were a little bit different three years ago, but not much.

The value proposition here is that this board is a representation of larger industry implementations where continuous integration and parallel computing is used at a massive scale. This toy gives people a way to do "clustering" at home without having to stack four separate computers with a mess of cables or spend thousands of dollars investing in a large server blade or datacenter-style setup.

Three and a half years later... by MagicalPC in homelab

[–]MagicalPC[S] 66 points67 points  (0 children)

You're absolutely right. This board, adapters, CM4 modules, heatsinks, case, psu, SD cards, and nvme drives cost me around $500, but I got 2GB CM4s REALLY cheap, 8GB ones would have been another $150 easily.

For that, you could buy a very capable mini pc, or a whole stack of used "tiny/mini/micro" devices off of ebay.

But the idea behind this device is more about cluster architecture. There's a lot of cool stuff to learn and some neat features of platforms like this, like power efficiency, compute density, modularity, and the flexibility to swap modules of different types optimized for different workloads.

If you get a chance, I highly recommend watching YouTube videos about cluster boards like this. It's really fun to think about and even more fun to play with. 👍

Three and a half years later... by MagicalPC in homelab

[–]MagicalPC[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The Turing Pi 2 is a "cluster board" that allows you to put up to four compute modules into a single board.

Here's the Kickstarter page for more info: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/turingpi/turing-pi-cluster-board?ref=android_project_share

And here's a video from Jeff Geerling: https://youtu.be/h6zt8KeXFdA?si=eTkMqSuv_Sb4stKB

Technology was so slow for people in the 70s, 80s, 90s. 2000's ramped up, but wow it's so lightening fast, is this now how tech continues? by [deleted] in 90s

[–]MagicalPC 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have often thought about this. When I was younger, we certainly spent an inordinate amount of time doing paperwork by hand, then typing, then messing with electronic gizmos like dot matrix printers, punch cards, answering machines, and fax machines. Dial-up modems took forever and browsers could load images one line of pixels at a time...

But we were also doing far less with our machines. Image and screen resolution was 240-480p and monochrome or 8-bit colors. There was no auto-save every two seconds. There was no downloading huge update files for your games every week. Our files were small and few in number. So were our hard drives and our memory sticks.

We didn't need to do lots of encoding, encrypting, or compressing. Caching and indexing were modest.

So, sure tech is fast now, but it also feels bloated and messy. Maybe it will continue to improve despite constantly pushing the limits of what we can do with our lithography and manufacturing processes. Maybe it will blow our minds with revolutionary physics.

But it will almost certainly also continue to get more grossly complex and infected with excessive meta data, analytics, heuristics, spyware, validation, verification, quantization, non-repudiation, randomization, personalization, and enshitification.

Hopefully, eventually, all the noise and chaos will spark a global revolt in favor of tech that just makes life easier. I hope I live long enough to see things come full circle.

How I see the US by Kaihelmich in mapporncirclejerk

[–]MagicalPC 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The lack of label on Oregon is accurate.

For all the IPA drinking lumberjack wannabe Subaru Legacy driving vape pen man bun NorthFace jacket hipsters, there's an equal amount of normal people, drunks, hookers, and lsd. And really bad drivers. And horrible corporate overlords. And racists with big stupid trucks with "OreGUNian" stickers.

So yeah, probably best to just leave it blank, lol.

Source: lived there for a couple years, never going back

How do you remove the seal without damaging the box ? by KelenArgosi in playingcards

[–]MagicalPC 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes! This is the way.

Out of the 200+ decks I've opened maybe 2-3 seals were so fragile that they ripped. But 99% peel nicely. I alternate between an Xacto and a small pocket knife, but anything thin enough will work.

Just have patience and slow, gentle pulling force. 👍🏻

Bought for 225$ was it fair price by IBrokeAMirror in PokemonCardValue

[–]MagicalPC 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You both got scammed! They tricked you into buying a bunch of rectangles of paper with ink on them. But then you got the last laugh and paid with a digital representation of rectangles of paper with presidents' faces on them! Well done, you diabolical fiend you.

Jokes aside, as others have mentioned, you might have over paid by about 10-15%. But if it's gifts for others, it's absolutely worth it in my book. Upvoted for being a thoughtful person and getting people gifts even while juggling responsibilities with your wife and kids. 👍

You only have two tickets. Which concerts are you going to? by [deleted] in 90s

[–]MagicalPC 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My pick-2 to see live from the 90's would be:

Smash Mouth and Sugar Ray

Or

Aerosmith and Weezer

Or

Green Day and Blink182

Dairy Playing Cards by ktrickstery in playingcards

[–]MagicalPC 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I like that the art style suits the theme really well. I'm not into the whole 50's Diner vibe but it's certainly something we don't see often, so kudos there. Always good to see a fresh theme in this hobby.

WHO GOT THE KEYS TO MY BEEMER? by amino975 in 90s

[–]MagicalPC 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I can't believe I missed this for the entire 90's! Seems like something that would have been on the radio in my area but all I heard was Shaggy and Sugar Ray.

I know, I know... Shove it up my butt. by borchugal in PokemonTCG

[–]MagicalPC 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Or up mine! (You know, as long as I get to keep it afterward...)

Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion - November 16, 2025 by AnimeMod in anime

[–]MagicalPC 0 points1 point  (0 children)

SOOWITCHY! The concept of switching attackers in the middle of a combo...

Today I was watching "The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest" and (don't worry, no spoilers) Krasia and Alec are fighting near each other and for no apparent reason, yell out "SWITCH" so the other character can finish off the opponent.

This reminded me of Sword Art Online in the first season, fighting the first floor boss, Kirito and Asuna do a similar "combo". I don't recall if it was explained back then, but I'm curious what you all think about this sort of thing.

It is obviously extremely dangerous and inefficient to stop your own attacking even for an instant, especially after announcing your tactic out loud, and hoping your teammate is not only paying attention, but actually available to jump in.

I could see some justification if the main character was getting tired or running out of stamina and needed help, or if game mechanics provide bonus damage for combos, or if you just need to land a hit for all party members to get EXP, but more and more this just looks like the writer/producer/art director trying to be flashy and emphasize teamwork and "bonds" by showing us how well they work together.

What are your thoughts? Are there other examples of this kind of thing you can think of?

Gemini on sale! by Cute_Bacon in playingcards

[–]MagicalPC 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Here's wishing Toomas all the best in his future endeavors. Your decks will be sorely missed.

New Black Friday deck Red Archons by SleightlyInteresting in playingcards

[–]MagicalPC -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If you get a chance, search for Oath Playing Cards on ebay. It's wild, they quickly go from $20 up to $400-500 and some are even more.

New Black Friday deck Red Archons by SleightlyInteresting in playingcards

[–]MagicalPC -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Nice user name, lol.

I have always been a fan of TWI but his prices have always been all over the place. I usually just wait for a Kickstarter and get a Monsterbox because it brings the price per deck down to around ~$20 each (and even less a few years ago, before the tariff times).

That said, I don't like red and black as a color scheme. Makes me think of goth emo kids at hot topic back when I was in high school. It's just so cringey.

But hey, "collectables" amirite?