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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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)

I recently moved apartments and I'm leaving my beloved Google Fiber behind for some Spectrum cable internet that's included with the apartment (and I don't have any other choice). The issue is, it seems like I keep randomly losing connection and because I'm using my own router (but their modem) the Spectrum tech support hasn't been super helpful. For example, this morning I woke up and internet on my phone wasn't working, on my desktop I could ping stuff but it took ~20 seconds for the first packet to go through, but my router could ping things instantly. DNS was working if I got it from my router, but I have two PiHoles that I use for DNS with the router (running Unbound) as upstream. Rebooting the modem actually fixed it in that case, but I'll still have momentary drops here and there.

Anyone have any ideas of things to check? I've thought about going to Lowe's and buying one of those coax cable testers but I'm not really sure if that'd help much.

EDIT: For what it's worth, I live in Texas and there was a massive windstorm yesterday... and I think it's possible that that was the issue 🤦‍♂️ I haven't definitely confirmed that, but it seems to be stable since the wind stopped and the wind did cause at least a couple of outages in the area.

I remember way back in the day when YouTube was still in a Flash Player, you had the ability to dynamically overlay link buttons and clickable areas over videos at specific times/area and it was a lesser used but nice feature. There were a couple of videos that used it to sneak links to unlisted bonus content but it mostly helped when something was highlighted and clicking it would take you to relevant info. Think you could also use it for spesific playback controls.

I'm scoping out a small project and think it'd be cool to have a video with simmilar basic interactions and even fire off some scripts at different parts of the playback.

Since Flash died, I can't think of any web player that let's you create this sort of dynamic overlay/interface or implement logic to the media playback. I know Adobe Encore can be used to make this sort of stuff for DVD menus and I used to make training videos with old software that did similar things. But I don't believe those files are easily web compatible without Flash.

I'm sure a front-end wizard can layer a transparrent canvas and player and script their way to the same functionality and more. Or maybe use a web game engine and build a UI over video playback. But I'm curious if there's any service or library that does it already and saves me from another abandoned side-quest.

Unless I missed something obvisous, the only similiar functionality I've found in the common player libraries are overlaying adverts at set points in the display and you just set the scale and frequency.

My memory kit is G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32GB (2x16GB) 5600 CL36 Black. The CPU is i9-13900KS on Gigabyte Z790 AERO G.

I noticed that memory price has been dropped significantly so I think I might upgrade to 64GB.

Online information seems to be conflicting regarding XMP and dual/quad channels, so I'm asking for advice here:

1. Can I buy one more of the same kit to upgrade to 4x16GB? Will it affect XMP or dual channel?
2. Can I buy other sticks of the same size (2x16GB)? The leftmost slot is obscured by the CPU cooler fan, so I'll need to either move it up or use low profile one.
3. Can I buy 2x32GB sticks so I end up with 2x32GB + 2x16GB?

From what I understand doing any of those options might cause XMP to not work and it'd be the best (but costly) to have 2x32GB as the only sticks in the system.

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?