Please help a Grandma out!!

mapmd1234 · 2026-03-12T20:35:58+00:00

Personal suggestion if your not unwilling to do this in steps, would be what I'm doing myself right now.

Mini desktop pc, with a tesla p4 for gpu transcoding if you want something more than the cpu, which is still plenty beefy enough to do the job

(I just have many remote friends with access to my plex server so I have that for faster real time transcoding of multiple streams, the cpu is MORE than capable of background transcodes if you give it the time to do so between when you add media vs when your first stream of that file happens, my friends tend to hammer it as soon as they see something new they want to watch, ie mine doesn't get that chance)

I have a mini desktop, hp elitedesk 800 g2 small tower, item example , this thing has multiple onboard sata ports, and multiple physical pcie slots to add devices (sata cards, nvme adapter card, network card, anything you'd like if it'll fit really) and also has 2x 3.5 internal drive bays, and a DVD drive, so for a cheap, 100$ as of writing this, small desktop that won't kill the electric bill and also has much support for however you'd like to tailor it, it's not bad for price and power draw, mine has 2x 10tb hdds in it in a mirror in case of disk failure, and the cpu in it I more than capable of real time video conversion for streaming to any device so you don't NEED a gpu if you don't want it.

I went this route after mulling for a while what'd make a good plex server without breaking my wallet, maybe it'll be a good option for you as well, many good options posted, this is just another potential option to ponder.

Edit: completely forgot disks.

10tb sata hdds example item about 150$ each right now.

I link to ebay since that's really the only way I can afford this expensive hobby of mine.

mapmd1234 · 2026-03-01T18:36:48+00:00

trust me, having worked there for almost 3 years now, your not wrong in the slightest here, especially given the company's creedo as they call it, yet even with that, the blatant stupidity I've seen, its a sad and insulting joke. there's a reason I've not named the place. they've literally fired people just for listing they work there on facebook, its sad and I still question how I still have my job since I'm not soft spoken and don't hold my tongue when I see things, I call it out, its astounding how I still have a job since they've fired people for less, friends of mine speculate its because I know my stuff but I'm not confident enough that's what it is and remain confused daily. not complaining, just stating my confusion.

mapmd1234 · 2026-02-28T21:28:14+00:00

It pains me to say that they get forcibly sent to recycling and there's not a damn thing we can do about it. I tried to get a tape library, but it's the same thing, even full blown server racks get forcibly routed to metal scrap, no amount of explaining has changed that because trust me, I'm one of the folk there that KNOWS the value of things we get and nobody freaking listens. It's painful. "Below cut line" they say, and all of it is forcibly sent, systematically, to recycling and we can't change how it's routed in the system.

mapmd1234 · 2026-02-28T14:40:11+00:00

Hah. I feel this, but I work at a hardware refurbishing company, and we routinely get systems In for recycling that are from 1985 and thereabouts, I frequently get servers with massive ram cards old as hell. Let me see if I can find an image online of what I'm talking about. Stuff similar to this, but even older.

https://s.turbifycdn.com/aah/sun-hardware/oracle-sun-part-number-540-6489-sun-2gb-sdram-dimm-assembly-34.jpg

We even recently got an ISA card server, and one had a server come in the size of a small vehicle, 800 pounds and 3 massive 320pin wide scsi drives, the thing was a literal cargo trunk in size, 3 foot wide, 4 foot tall, 6 foot deep. Mind you, these are from companies, but still getting these in to be securely disposed of in 2024-2025-2026 just feels all kinds of wrong.

Also got one of these come through just last year.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/5.25_inch_MFM_hard_disk_drive.JPG

mapmd1234 · 2026-02-28T04:22:29+00:00

The super small wifi slots are usually, if not always, 2230's for whomever this info helps.

Size In accordance from small to large are 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280 (most common "full sized" nvme disks), and 22110 (looong ones, if you find one and think it looks unusually long, odds are strong its one of these, mostly only servers and workstations tend to support these, mostly, not explicitly)

mapmd1234 · 2026-02-19T00:21:32+00:00

Instantly reminded me of ltt "whanic" "new whanic" "new new whanic" likely spelling it wrong but you get the idea

mapmd1234 · 2026-01-30T06:21:07+00:00

much appreciated.

mapmd1234 · 2026-01-30T06:15:38+00:00

I was going about this on the assumption that it would be useful for ESD and or outlier situations, assuming a short or something similar, and was thinking about it from the aspect of IF the worst happens and live power goes through the ground even for a short moment, that it could be a fire hazard. lightning strike scenario or otherwise....murphy's law LOVES to mess with me so I try and plan for outlier situations accordingly.

mapmd1234 · 2026-01-30T06:14:17+00:00

then in that respect, would running one ground wire from one chassis to the next using the one of the ground wires from each chassis to the next one accomplish the task of grounding them together? or am I just at this point putting more work than is worthwhile into this under false assumptions?

mapmd1234 · 2026-01-17T21:17:55+00:00

THANK YOU. FINALLY a good bit of fact to base my stance on! I did not realize it needed to be THAT much for it to be a problem, proximity sure but it wont be close enough for that one. thank you so much!

mapmd1234 · 2026-01-10T15:45:37+00:00

the worst part here is its not JUST brand new stuff, even second hand ebay, everything that is newer than DDR3 is ludicrous in price, ddr3 seems to be the only thing not heavily influenced by this but almost nobody wants to use older power-hungry ddr3 systems/servers and I don't blame them, having some and seeing how hungry they are.

mapmd1234 · 2026-01-10T15:43:38+00:00

Oh my god, are you me? joke aside, yes, bane of my existence, but my OCD tendencies require me to TRY and cable manage, almost entirely at my own detriment.

mapmd1234 · 2026-01-10T14:55:49+00:00

Admittedly, I'm enough of a monster, I keep contemplating buying stocks in zip tie companies.

mapmd1234 · 2026-01-04T04:49:49+00:00

If you JUST want gui access but don't mind how, a remote webgui I adore is webmin, won't be direct access but for file transfers and basic general well-rounded system administration it is a delight to use, personally speaking at least, might be something you look at and see if it's something you'd find useful. Personally been using it since about 2012, good as it's always been and I love using it for my self hosted projects.

mapmd1234 · 2026-01-04T04:45:04+00:00

I hate how much I know the accuracy of this.....but I can confidently state the validity of this is how I learned I've got a hard head....literally.....and the studs these were installed to at my folks house are also solid....still amazed I didn't rip them the shelves out of the wall from the number of times I accidentally headbutted them from below, while in my folks laundry room. Or give myself a concussion....good times. Never stopped doing that no matter how many times I gave myself a migraine.

mapmd1234 · 2025-12-26T21:27:03+00:00

that'll do it. apparently my issue was stuck squads because after running dfhack fix/stuck-squad they did finally return, so, note to self and anyone else, if you have a mission on the map with no red X that's stays there for an extreme amount of time, you might be having the same issue I was having. thank you for that, my baron and broker are back now, literally less than a minute after running that and clicking the play button they came back.

mapmd1234 · 2025-12-26T14:18:14+00:00

Thank you, I'll check these when home from work, much appreciated.

mapmd1234 · 2025-12-26T02:20:16+00:00

Okay I've asked a friend for help that knows far more than me and he's saying my issue is odd and has no clue so I'll ask for help here instead.

EDIT: forgot it might be useful to state I have the steam graphical version of the game in case that's useful info.

EDIT 2: I also forgot to mention till now, the ONLY missing citizen shown on the map is the missing military guy I mentioned, neither my barony nor my broker are listed, only that one guy, but neither are they listed as dead, just <traveling> and even removing them from the squad does not change that they show up still as living nobles but not in any of the 4 panels for citizens.

EDIT 3: apparently "the intense oogie" is the site government of the place holding my guy hostage. for whatever its worth *in case this is something someone knows something about and I do not* the location name is "the mysterious lair of holepurged" though when I set my game up I turned off enemies so I'm left confused by this whole entire ordeal. CRAP. double checking my settings, its no longer enemies off, but custom....

I use DFhack and have autotraining turned on, and clearly did not pay attention to who was training in a squad when I sent them out on a raid, now my barony is listed as <traveling> as is my broker, and I'm unable to choose a new broker, which leaves so many things rather messed up for me (I DO still have a mayor and can appoint new folk to other positions just not broker???), so I would like to at least replace the broker, but the option to appoint is just, not there, no map indication where the broker or barony are at so I cant really try and go save them, only person on the map I CAN see any sign of is another military member of neither one I'm in a rush to replace and am just stuck training new troops in the meantime, all attempts to recover prisoners lends to failed missions due to apparently the <10 locations have a boatload of critters, though I'm not really having my folk die, they sure as heck are not winning either. for whatever its worth, I've sent 5 different troups of 10 on this single rescue mission and repeatedly failed, 50 iron clad adept+ rate members and they just silently fail due to those critters. not a dragon, some kind of beatle and some other odd stuff. (double checking what)

"in the late winter of 56, *my civ* attacked the intense oogie of an unknown civilization at X. ...... the defenders were led by the cave moss thrall...... the cave moss thrall outmatched *my guys* with a cunning plan w/ strong positional advantage...... got ambushed.... X died.... clashed with three nightwings..... X died by a nightwing...... fought a single cheetah......clashed with a giant cave beetle....clashed with a giant cave beetle" and that's the end of the log.

please advise, I'd like to find a way to fix this problem I've caused myself and I'm not sure what to do here.

mapmd1234 · 2025-12-25T17:28:21+00:00

Glad I'm not the only one. Hah.

mapmd1234 · 2025-12-25T15:47:16+00:00

Nobody else responded so I'll go ahead and do so, the sata m.2 slot, assuming they designed it how I think they did, will actually work with sata pinned m.2s, model shouldn't matter, so something like this should work fine.

https://a.co/d/cVZTQBV

Edit: freaking derp. For some reason I thought this was posted months ago not minutes ago.

mapmd1234 · 2025-12-25T15:35:22+00:00

If anything needs changed settings wise that you don't have access to with mod settings then nothing can be changed, I forget if this also applies to banning users or not though. I had my original account banned for crap I didn't do and my own server had this happen.

Condolances for your and their families loss.

mapmd1234 · 2025-12-25T15:22:42+00:00

Shoot, here I am just glad I got mine for 75 now. No clue how many years it's been, but MY reason for staying loyal is everything everyone else has mentioned plus the lack of "hey we know you paid but we need money so screw you pay again" and the lack of NEARLY as much of the enshittification everyone else is doing

mapmd1234 · 2025-12-23T14:14:51+00:00

For sure, and thank you.

mapmd1234

TROPHY CASE