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    1. What programming/technical projects have you been working on?

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's...

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

      4 votes
    2. How can I prevent my work computers turning my home into an oven?

      [Edit] Details on the plan as it stands are here, potentially using one of these heat pumps. Looking for advice before the weather starts to warm up! I'm running multiple GPUs for dev work in my...

      [Edit] Details on the plan as it stands are here, potentially using one of these heat pumps.


      Looking for advice before the weather starts to warm up! I'm running multiple GPUs for dev work in my small home office, and it's pretty much equivalent to having a fan heater running all day. Right now that's actually a bonus, but it really won't be in a couple of months.

      The big heat generating components are all water cooled - partly just to fit them in a sensible amount of space, and partly because I figured I'd end up with exactly this problem and being able to physically pipe the heat elsewhere (ideally outside) would probably be necessary. The bit I'm trying to figure out now is how to actually make that happen...

      Ideas so far:

      • Stick an air duct on the back of the radiator and hang the duct out of the window: straightforward but messy, may be counterproductive depending how hot it is outside and how well I can rig up some kind of baffle between the open window and the duct.

      • Put the whole radiator outside and drill a couple of small holes in the wall for the pipes: this was my first thought, but PC radiators and fans definitely aren't rated for outdoor use, and I'm not sure where to start looking for something that would be designed for that while still being suitable to hook up to the computer waterblocks. I'm also concerned about condensation on the electronics if the coolant gets below indoor ambient temperature overnight.

      • Set up some kind of actual exterior radiator (or heat pump?) outside, and use a heat exchanger between that and the PC cooling loop: seems more like the "proper" way to be doing this, but it's well outside my area of expertise and feels like there would be a lot of potentially expensive stumbling blocks. Also still has the condensation problem, I think.

      • Just crank up the air conditioning: I'm not actually sure if the unit I've got has enough capacity, and it definitely seems wasteful to heat up the air and then use more energy cooling it again rather than dumping the heat directly outside, but maybe I'm wrong there!

      I'm in a kind of awkward middle ground: I'm running enough hardware that this is getting to be an issue beyond what you'd get with normal end user setups, and I'm willing to put some money into fixing it (it's affecting my job and my home, after all!), but I'm self employed and nowhere close to the industrial or datacenter scale that tends to come up when searching for solutions.

      Has anyone dealt with this themselves, or come across small office/homelab scale solutions that might work?

      20 votes
    3. What programming/technical projects have you been working on?

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's...

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

      13 votes
    4. What programming/technical projects have you been working on?

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's...

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

      14 votes
    5. How hard would it be to learn to code a Discord bot?

      I've got a notion to put some of my extra energy into learning to code. I'm familiar with EXTREME basics - I did some coding in BASIC and Python when I was younger ("Hello world" type stuff, and...

      I've got a notion to put some of my extra energy into learning to code. I'm familiar with EXTREME basics - I did some coding in BASIC and Python when I was younger ("Hello world" type stuff, and some futzing around with my Ti calculators programming capabilities) and while I had a pretty good knack for it I never developed it further.

      I'd like to use this as a chance to create something useful for me - a discord bot for my server. We have a handful of bots doing a few odds and ends, and I'd like to try and work something out to consolidate things. That's getting a bit ahead of myself though - initial scope would be simple: have the bot do a simple task like counting +rep points, or something silly like telling a joke.

      I don't really have any idea of where to start - what resources I need, what language to use, or really anything about how this all works. Any assistance at all would be welcome!


      To be clear - I want to learn to code, and specifically I want to learn in a way where it is immediately applicable and useful in a context I care about.

      20 votes
    6. Question about routers and access points

      Hi all, I've had a Netgear XR300 serve me fairly well for the past 5 or so years, but in the last few months I've had increasingly frustrating levels of failure. Things like sustained 100% CPU...

      Hi all, I've had a Netgear XR300 serve me fairly well for the past 5 or so years, but in the last few months I've had increasingly frustrating levels of failure. Things like sustained 100% CPU utilization, individual machines connected but unable to access internet, being unable to access the router admin page, individual machines suddenly having their ping go to 500-2000ms and bandwidth down to the kB range (I have symmetric 300Mbps up/down).

      As a potential, I've been eying the Firewalla Purple to become my new router for a few reasons (Netgear not getting security updates, Firewalla has Wireguard support, etc.). The Firewalla only has short-range wifi, so my question is this:

      Would using a Firewalla as a router and using the Netgear device as an access point for wireless connectivity be likely to mitigate these kinds of issues?

      I've realized I lack the knowledge on which aspects of connectivity would be handled by two discrete devices, so I'm hoping to suss out if this is a viable solution.

      10 votes
    7. What programming/technical projects have you been working on?

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's...

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

      13 votes
    8. Canadian VPS providers?

      I'm currently using AWS to run a couple of t4g.nano instances for a few little services but I'm wondering if there's a good hosting service in Canada, owned by Canadians, etc. Basically I don't...

      I'm currently using AWS to run a couple of t4g.nano instances for a few little services but I'm wondering if there's a good hosting service in Canada, owned by Canadians, etc.

      Basically I don't really like handing money over to daddy bezos and due to current political tensions I'd rather not support US companies, but I have NO IDEA how to find a reputable VPS provider.

      22 votes
    9. Windows 11 Cleanup/Configuration Script(s)?

      I'm doing a long overdo computer update (new CPU, mobo, and RAM), and am going to be reinstalling windows for the first time in a while. My current system is still on Win10 due to incompatiblity...

      I'm doing a long overdo computer update (new CPU, mobo, and RAM), and am going to be reinstalling windows for the first time in a while. My current system is still on Win10 due to incompatiblity with Win11, however I wouldn't have updated to Win11 until now anyway. I have Win11 on a Surface Pro and with recent updates adding features that match my existing muscle memory better (such as allowing expanded window buttons and putting Start on the left), I'm not as resistant to installing Win11 on my new hardware. I have access to the Education version of Win11 which after some research looks like it's basically Windows Enterprise and that itself seems like a big feature since it shouldn't come with a lot of the bloat apps already.

      With that in mind I have few questions:

      1. Does anyone have a PowerShell script they've put together to run on a fresh Windows 11 install that configures a lot of the settings to make it behave more like Win10 (and it's predecessors), toggles privacy settings on, etc. I am not looking for something that tries to strip anything out, I just want something that will save me time chasing down all the settings I've slowly found and adjusted on my Surface. I have the default folders like Pictures and Documents pointed to a drive on a seperate drive from my Windows drive specifically to make migrating to a new installation easier. I'd love something that prompts me to update where those shortcuts should point as well.
      2. Does anyone have any protips for getting the bulk of programs I need installed? I looked at Winget and Chocolatey a couple years ago, but they didn't quite look as fuss free as I was looking for. I generally avoid installing things from the Microsoft app store (which I understand would make this easier if I was willing to lean more into the Microsoft ecosystem). I'd love something (script based or otherwise) that's going to grab and install the program (rather than app) for a list of things like Firefox, Spotify, Steam, Miniconda, etc. I plan to make a list of programs I have installed that I know I will want to reinstall before doing the fresh install, but I'm making a plan to make installing everything as easy as possible. If there's a reliable script based way to install like 80% of my main programs I'd be thrilled to only have to track down and install more specialized stuff.
      3. Any general advice for transfering my browser data? I use Firefox, am signed in to an account, and think I have everything set to sync. However I'd love to bring over all my browser tabs and windows I'm still working in. I did look up how to transfer the browser data and found a Mozilla article for it, just wasn't sure if anyone had a method they discovered and like better.

      Thanks in advance for tips and advice.

      25 votes
    10. [SOLVED] I filled up my VM with Nextcloud all in one (Docker) to the brim. Help me rescue it.

      RESOLVED /var/lib/docker/volumes/ <-- thats where the data is saved I fucked up colossaly I run a Nextcloud all in one instance on my ubuntu VM with Hetzner. I run a backup of my phone to said...

      RESOLVED
      /var/lib/docker/volumes/ <-- thats where the data is saved

      I fucked up colossaly
      I run a Nextcloud all in one instance on my ubuntu VM with Hetzner.
      I run a backup of my phone to said instance.
      I forgot to set a sensible limit on my Nextcloud.
      I somehow changed to hourly backups....
      My Vm filled up in a very short time.
      My VM has not one byte of free space left.

      What I tried to do:
      open Console inside the Nextcloud Aio Container with docker exec -t -i , to find the space and delete stuff, but no chance, not enough space.

      There is nothing else on the VM i know of that i could delete to make space (nothing else i put)

      has somebody an idea how to fix this gracefully?

      I have some ideas but they involve a lot of work or money...

      • just pay for a bigger VM but i dont need more cores only more space, even that i dont really need (incures a monthly cost, cannot downsize afterwards as more space means you cannot downsize)
      • clone my vm onto a bigger one, delete stuff, clone it back to the original one... (sound like a lot of work, incrues (little) cost, and feels like a lot of risk involved)
      10 votes