kellenoffdagrid

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

They could've so easily solved this by making it just immediately jump to the search bar on tap, or hide that feature behind a long press like some other apps do if they're really wanting to push people towards trending searches. I appreciate that it's within thumb's reach now but this is a pretty lackluster implementation

 

I have a spare SBC (Pine A64 LTS) that I currently have no other use for, and recently I got the idea of turning it into an IP-KVM. However, the software support for this board is a little middling, and the board's been somewhat overlooked by the community. That leaves me with no ready-made solutions for turning this board into a little PiKVM-style device, so I wanted to ask around and see what people more knowledgeable in this realm had to say so that I can approach building this, uh, less stupid-ly. The main issue I've had is just the overwhelming amount of information relating to building a KVM setup like this, so I figured I'd ask what kind of software/packages are necessary or if anyone has any tips on resources I might have missed.

Here's what I'm hoping to accomplish:

  • Connect the SBC to my homelab (a salvaged Optiplex 7050) to make it easier to manage/access BIOS without lugging it onto my desk
  • The board should be accessible on the local network via web browser, sending video with relatively low latency and capturing key/mouse input

Here's some basic info about my setup:

  • The most stable system for this board (in my experience) is Fedora IoT. The other OSes on the Pine64 wiki have given me issues with booting and Ethernet stability, especially the Armbian builds, and Fedora's given me no such
    • Because of this OS constraint, some of the DIY Pi-KVM setup scripts I've seen won't work. This OS is immutable and relies on rpm-ostree, which does affect the logistics somewhat
    • I've considered Alpine Linux, since a lighter base would be nice, but it requires compiling arm-trusted-firmware & u-boot for the board, which were giving me problems earlier. I'm sure I could put more effort into this pathway, but I haven't bet on it yet since I have no reason to believe the Fedora setup wouldn't work
  • The board has two USB 2.0 ports and a single Ethernet port. From what I've seen, this should suffice for the connections needed (one for video-in and another to send key/mouse over USB)

Hopefully this is enough relevant information, let me know if there's anything else I should add. Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 38 points 3 months ago

Yeah but it's not that accurate, and it leaves most normal mobile users out of the picture. I know YouTube knew exactly what they were doing when they removed dislikes, but it still seems absolutely insane to remove such a useful tool for sifting through the bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

They're referring to the quality of integrations with third-party systems, like the built-in CalDAV support basically every OS has. For some people, using just the calendar app is fine, but others want that deeper integration so they don't have to rely entirely on Proton to provide features in their frontends that OS apps might already handle.

For example, on Android I might want to let other apps access information from my calendar (e.g. my launcher so it can show me events from within its built-in schedule widget). Same goes for my Thunderbird client on Linux, it'd be nice to have the calendar events be integrated there too. Unfortunately, they currently only support a mail bridge, but the official Proton account on Reddit has made a few comments stating that they're "looking into" adding CalDAV support to Bridge, but there's no official timeline on when or if that'll actually happen. I'm willing to bet it eventually will, but I'll say I'd definitely appreciate it if they did.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

MS really has always done this, what's the name for this kind of marketing maneuver? Manufactured consent? Manufactured begrudging tolerance?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

EagerEagle posted a good comment under this post going over the client code stuff, pretty enlightening stuff.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Saw someone post that City Journal article on mastodon a couple days ago and I'm amazed that so few people picked up that the City Journal and the article's author are basically puppets of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. I know most people aren't tuned to look out for think tank propaganda but it came off as really obviously FUD-y and unsubstantiated.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

This isn't really a highly direct solution, but you could try increasing the screen zoom of the whole device by a notch or two. Somewhere in Settings > Display > Font Size/Screen Zoom or something like that may size up the UI enough that it's comfortable for you. I think you can mix and match font sizes and screen zooms, so you can keep text from getting too big but size up the UI buttons. This will naturally affect all android UI, not just the music widget, but maybe that's okay in your situation?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

It's wild to me that anyone would say that sentence and not immediately realize they sound like an emotionless robot. Like damn, who would've thought people have a great need for authentic human connections? Not me!

This kinda shit you hear from people so deep in the world of product marketing is sickening and really shows how disconnected from they are from both reality and the point of selling a good product: benefitting people. I guess I'm just glad to see more stories of people ditching dating apps as they continue to become more predatory and less helpful.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Yeah unfortunately I agree, as much as I dread knowing Meta's going to be behind a lot of the VR/AR developments as it gets more common, this isn't really an indication that they screwed up. They're not the first company I'd want to lead the VR market but it looks like they will be regardless.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I second this, my dumb-as-bricks setup for syncing obsidian notes is just running a Syncthing instance on a little Raspberry Pi I keep on all the time, and it works like a charm.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I second this, it's great if you care about a modern interface that feels in line with other Android apps these days. Pretty darn slick app with a lot of nice customization features

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, fair point, I think this thing still has USB 2.0, so maybe a spinner is the way to go. Someone reminded me that USB drive caddies exist, so I think I'll go with that and a hard disk, just to make it more flexible should I ever need to use the drive in another machine or replace it. Thanks for the help!

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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of an external SSD that'd last me a while being plugged into my incredibly simple SBC home server. I've done a bit of research but haven't found much information about USB-connected SSDs and their longevity in terms of 24/7 use.

Some More Specifics What I'm aiming to do is use this drive as NAS that I can access on my home network, it'd mostly be used for syncing backups from devices, but would also probably get use as a general-purpose file storage solution. Basically, it's going to be plugged into my little Raspberry Pi all the time, but will only be used sporadically and generally won't be writing huge amounts of data at a time.

Given the above information, are there any external SSDs you could recommend for this application? Or am I worrying too much and should just buy your average Samsung/Kingston/WD/Seagate etc.?

Edit:

Thanks for the advice everyone, that was quick and helpful! The solution I'm gonna go with is a USB caddy/housing to hold a standard internal HDD, so hopefully this is helpful for anyone else in a similar place with a simple home server like mine.

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