Technology Random Access Thoughts

[ZLoth]

From CNET:

Live in an Old House or Apartment? Your Gaming PC May Be a Fire Hazard
If you haven't had electrical work done in decades, you may need to worry about harmonics when using your gaming PC. Here's what to watch out for.

An electrical fire smells like fish. I learned this the hard way after my gaming PC with an RTX 4090 and Intel Core-i9 processor melted the outlet it was plugged into, along with the plug. The fish smell comes from the plastic and heat-resistant chemicals used in outlets, circuit breakers and wiring insulation overheating.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[ZLoth]

From ZDNet:

Linux drops support for 486 and early Pentium processors - 20 years after Microsoft
I can still remember when the 33MHz 486DX was the fastest chip around

RIP, 486 processor. You've had a long run since Intel released you back in 1989. While Microsoft stopped supporting you with the release of Windows XP in 2001, Linux kept you alive and well for another 20+ years. But all good things must come to an end, and with the forthcoming release of the Linux 6.15 kernel, the 486 and the first Pentium processors will be sunsetted.

Why? Linus Torvalds wrote recently on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML), "I really get the feeling that it's time to leave i486 support behind. There's zero real reason for anybody to waste one second of development effort on this kind of issue."

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[ZLoth]

From ArsTechnica:

Self-hosting is having a moment. Ethan Sholly knows why.
We interview Ethan Sholly of the selfh.st podcast/newsletter/directory

Self-hosting is having a moment, even if it's hard to define exactly what it is.

It's a niche that goes beyond regular computing devices and networks but falls short of a full-on home lab. (Most home labs involve self-hosting, but not all self-hosting makes for a home lab.) It adds privacy, provides DRM-free alternatives, and reduces advertising. It's often touted as a way to get more out of your network-attached storage (NAS), but it's much more than just backup and media streaming.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[GaryV]

Our first home computer was a 386. My reasoning was, "Who would ever need a 486?"

[kkt]

From ZDNet:

Linux drops support for 486 and early Pentium processors - 20 years after Microsoft
I can still remember when the 33MHz 486DX was the fastest chip around

RIP, 486 processor. You've had a long run since Intel released you back in 1989. While Microsoft stopped supporting you with the release of Windows XP in 2001, Linux kept you alive and well for another 20+ years. But all good things must come to an end, and with the forthcoming release of the Linux 6.15 kernel, the 486 and the first Pentium processors will be sunsetted.

Why? Linus Torvalds wrote recently on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML), "I really get the feeling that it's time to leave i486 support behind. There's zero real reason for anybody to waste one second of development effort on this kind of issue."

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Take it easy.  We'll always have NetBSD.

[ZLoth]

From ZDNet:

Linux drops support for 486 and early Pentium processors - 20 years after Microsoft
I can still remember when the 33MHz 486DX was the fastest chip around

Take it easy.  We'll always have NetBSD.

It's Linux. It would not surprise me if it was used some older embedded systems that used a 80486 processor. You can easily strip down a Linux install to it's bare essentials and it works.

[ZLoth]

Just to show there is still a use for old technology... I put in an old nVidia 1080 video card into my TrueNAS server to help with Plex transcoding. After a few tweaks at the command line level, the card was recognized within my Plex instance. Now, I have hardware transcoding and, more importantly, my 4K material plays back smoothly on both my Android phone and tablet.

[ZLoth]

And, a few days later, I picked up a 8GB 5060 card for my secondary computer to replace the one that I pulled out. For gaming, it isn't a good card because it should have more memory, but for transcoding, it's what I needed. Of course, this is when I discover my great error: While Handbrake had the checkbox set in the Preferences → Video → Nvidia NVENC, I never selected it as an encoding option. When I did and saved the preset, my encoding speeds literally tripled.

[ZLoth]

A planned personal server upgrade went... sideways... today. The server motherboard that I received is bigger than my case, necessitating a new case order.

[kkt]

I just ordered a pair of new hard drives, external to provide mass storage for my laptop.  26 terabytes each, and two of them so they can be mirrored.

My first computer hard drive, back in the early 1990s, was huge - about 500 megabytes.

[ZLoth]

My first computer hard drive, back in the early 1990s, was huge - about 500 megabytes.

My first hard drive was a 105MB. I was happy when I replaced it with a 305 MB drive for $300.

A planned personal server upgrade went... sideways... today. The server motherboard that I received is bigger than my case, necessitating a new case order.

The case arrived Tuesday, and I installed the new hardware in it. No drives were installed, as I ran memory tests to stress test the memory. The NVMe boot drive and hard drives were transferred over Wednesday night, and Thursday morning, the system was closed up and transferred to my closet.

One neato feature that I made sure to get on this motherboard is Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI). This is a seperate subsystem on the motherboard, including it's own network port, that allows me console access through a web browser. This including being able to turn on and off the computer as well as perform a reset.