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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?

      28 votes
    2. Moving to PhotoPrism for photo self-hosting

      Yesterday I recorded myself setting up PhotoPrism on an old laptop to document the journey. Everything went pretty smoothly which was great. In the past, I've used several different mainstream...

      Yesterday I recorded myself setting up PhotoPrism on an old laptop to document the journey. Everything went pretty smoothly which was great. In the past, I've used several different mainstream providers which ended up not working for me:

      • Google Photos (been trying to move away from Google products for a while)
      • One Drive (I'm not sure if this is widespread but my connection to One Drive servers are so slow. This is super evident right now as I'm trying to pull all my photos from it and it's taking forever)
      • iCloud (This works pretty well but it doesn't feel great when I'm on my non-Apple devices)

      I'm pretty excited to have local hardware running flexible software to host my things. I still need to figure out how I want to expose the computer so I have access to it away from home (I'm thinking of using Cloudflare Tunnel?).

      Next up is finding software to stream videos to my TV so I can start getting rid of some streaming services.

      26 votes
    3. Fortnightly Programming Q&A Thread

      General Programming Q&A thread! Ask any questions about programming, answer the questions of other users, or post suggestions for future threads. Don't forget to format your code using the triple...

      General Programming Q&A thread! Ask any questions about programming, answer the questions of other users, or post suggestions for future threads.

      Don't forget to format your code using the triple backticks or tildes:

      Here is my schema:
      
      ```sql
      CREATE TABLE article_to_warehouse (
        article_id   INTEGER
      , warehouse_id INTEGER
      )
      ;
      ```
      
      How do I add a `UNIQUE` constraint?
      
      16 votes
    4. Cloud Servers for the Broke

      Just wanted to put this out there as a little PSA in case it's helpful: if you want a cloud server but don't wanna pay anything, Oracle's Free Tier is a life saver. Discovered it a year ago and...

      Just wanted to put this out there as a little PSA in case it's helpful: if you want a cloud server but don't wanna pay anything, Oracle's Free Tier is a life saver. Discovered it a year ago and couldn't be happier I did, since I'd never pay for cloud computing otherwise 😭.

      Quick Specs:

      For free you get:

      • 24/7 uptime
      • 200gb of storage space
      • 24GB of RAM
      • 4 OCPUs
      • 4 Gbps Bandwidth

      That's been more than enough for me and honestly feels too good to be true. Some things I've done with this:

      If anyone has any other ideas for cool projects I could self host, please do tell I'm curious what else I could do :)

      48 votes
    5. Which computational notebooks do you like?

      Here's a nice website for comparing between a lot of different computational notebooks, such as Jupyter, Google Colab, and Observable. (And popularized by Mathematica, though spreadsheets sort of...

      Here's a nice website for comparing between a lot of different computational notebooks, such as Jupyter, Google Colab, and Observable. (And popularized by Mathematica, though spreadsheets sort of count.)

      I'm wondering what computational notebook software other people have used and how you like it? I will make top-level posts for some that I used.

      20 votes
    6. Rip and replace Macbook Air?

      I have two Macbook Airs that don't work. One is a A1932 (bad motherboard) and the other is a A2337 (I think a bad screen - it's cracked). Is it possible to take the motherboard from the 2337 and...

      I have two Macbook Airs that don't work. One is a A1932 (bad motherboard) and the other is a A2337 (I think a bad screen - it's cracked). Is it possible to take the motherboard from the 2337 and use it in the case of the 1932 (connected to that screen)? I understand the 1932 is an Intel Chipset and the 2337 is an M1 chipset, but would that really matter for what I'd like to do?

      3 votes
    7. When did VPS hosting get so expensive?

      I recently looked around at VPS pricing on DigitialOcean, Linode and Vultr. Everything seems much higher than I'd expect - way over the inflation rate. It looks like a 2 core 8GB VPS is being...

      I recently looked around at VPS pricing on DigitialOcean, Linode and Vultr. Everything seems much higher than I'd expect - way over the inflation rate. It looks like a 2 core 8GB VPS is being priced between $45 and $60 per month. Maybe I don't remember correctly but I recall being able to get 2 core VMs around $20 a few years ago!

      31 votes
    8. Programming Challenge: Implementing bitwise operators.

      Background: Bitwise operators are operators that perform conditional operations at the binary level. These operators are bitwise AND &, bitwise OR |, bitwise XOR ^, and bitwise NOT ~, not to be...

      Background: Bitwise operators are operators that perform conditional operations at the binary level. These operators are bitwise AND &, bitwise OR |, bitwise XOR ^, and bitwise NOT ~, not to be confused with their logical operator counterparts, i.e. &&, ||, !=, and ! respectively.

      Specifically, these operations take the binary values of the left- and right-hand terms and perform the conditional operation on each matching bit position between both values.

      For instance, 3 | 4 takes the binary value 010 from 2 and 100 from 4. From left to right, we compare 0 || 1, 1 || 0, and 0 || 0 to get 110 as the resulting binary. This produces the integer value 6.

      Goal: Your challenge is to implement one or more of these bitwise operators without using the native operators provided to you by your language of choice. Logical operators are allowed, however. These operators should work on integer values. These operators will likely take on the form of a function or method that accepts two arguments.

      Bonus challenges:

      • Implement all of the operators.
      • Don't use any native binary conversion utilities.
      • Whether or not you implement all operators, write your code in such a way that allows for good code reusability.
      • For statically typed languages, handle integers of different types (e.g. int vs. uint).

      Edit: Minor correction for the sake of accuracy, courtesy of @teaearlgraycold.

      12 votes
    9. Is OpenBSD worth investing in?

      From what I can tell, this is a pretty hot debate in the open-source world. I've spent the last ~5 years or so investing into learning UNIX systems, particularly Linux. I just came across an...

      From what I can tell, this is a pretty hot debate in the open-source world. I've spent the last ~5 years or so investing into learning UNIX systems, particularly Linux. I just came across an article expounding the glories of OpenBSD as a system, and it made some valid points. Generally though, I don't want to dive deeper than I have to into learning new platforms for the sake of it. I do want to arrive at the simplest possible configuration for a digital system, and that involves choosing the best possible foundation. It should be noted that I am looking for a system that is effective as a personal computer / internet browser as well as a general purpose server.


      For users of OpenBSD - What's your usecase? why did you switch? What did you miss? What did you appreciate?

      For users of Linux who have tried other kernels - what was your experience? Was it worth trying? Why did you switch back?

      28 votes
    10. What is Usenet?

      I tried to use Gnus to set up some rss feeds about a year ago, and I became more than frustrated: I was actually confused. So here are a couple questions I don't even understand where to ask or...

      I tried to use Gnus to set up some rss feeds about a year ago, and I became more than frustrated: I was actually confused.

      So here are a couple questions I don't even understand where to ask or whether they're relevant or being asked in the right way:

      Are most newsgroups mirrored? And along those lines, is there one particular newsgroup server that would be sufficient for most users?

      Can I post to a newsgroup in the same way I would post to a mailing list: send an email somewhere? Where do I send that?

      What even is NNTP? Someone literally sent me the spec for the protocol, but I don't think they actually wanted to be helpful: I felt like they were putting me down and intentionally not answering while giving the appearance of being helpful. Is it actually something I need to understand to use Gnus effectively?

      If you're familiar with newsgroups, I would surely appreciate your knowledge.

      14 votes
    11. AI, Stable Diffusion, Models and Prompts

      Howdy Tildes wizards. I decided to have a looksy at Stable Diffusion on my local computer (Manjaro, AMD 7500x CPU, 32GB) using Easy Diffusion. I've gotten my head around the basics and grabbed...

      Howdy Tildes wizards.

      I decided to have a looksy at Stable Diffusion on my local computer (Manjaro, AMD 7500x CPU, 32GB) using Easy Diffusion. I've gotten my head around the basics and grabbed MidJourney V4 LLM, and now I'm learning how to prompt.

      So far I've generated some cool cyberpunk cyborg things, landscapes, etc. One of the things I wanted to use Stable Diffusion for is generating silhouettes. Sounds weird, I know, but they're great to use with decal and vinyl printing for my wife's business.

      Any ideas on ways to do silhouette generation?

      Next is, what's good to read to learn about model types and what all of the settings really do?

      I'm ordering a GPU (3060) to improve the horrendous render times, so don't worry about the under powered rig, I'm still in toy mode.

      13 votes
    12. 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?

      20 votes
    13. 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?

      12 votes
    14. How do I get started in self hosting?

      I'm curious on how to get started in self hosting. I have computer experience, being an Android Developer, but I hardly have experience in Linux and backend/networking work. I've been wanting to...

      I'm curious on how to get started in self hosting. I have computer experience, being an Android Developer, but I hardly have experience in Linux and backend/networking work.

      I've been wanting to start up a Plex/Jellyfin server for a while, and I have an old system sitting around with a Ryzen 1700 with a graphics card in there as well that's been begging for attention, and maybe I can throw on a Minecraft server in there as well. Since I travel a bunch, it would be nice too to be able to access my media for when I'm traveling, or to let my parents or friends access some shows if they so desire!

      What I'm worried about is exposing my network to the internet basically. I used to run a Minecraft server with port forwarding and such on a personal computer but now I'm realizing that that's probably a bit unsafe lol.

      Basically, are there any guides that I can look at, or any of your own experiences that could potentially help me or anyone who's interested?

      28 votes
    15. First time building a PC, need some advice

      I'm looking at starting to do a PC build and I'm a bit lost on which way to go CPU wise. Proposed use case: linux, some gaming (usually older games), possibly trying to learn home lab/self hosting...

      I'm looking at starting to do a PC build and I'm a bit lost on which way to go CPU wise.

      Proposed use case: linux, some gaming (usually older games), possibly trying to learn home lab/self hosting types of things probably in a VM but nothing really heavy. I do want to run Starfield when it comes out and maybe be able to try VR some time in the future.

      I'd like to have a bit of a future proof system while getting value for my money, as in I'd like to spend less but I will spend more if it matters. This is where I'm sort of getting lost.

      I tend to lean towards Intel because VM's and multitasking should work better (I think) but people seem to believe that AMD is better bang for the buck?

      I feel like I'm likely not going to swap CPU's, but RAM, GPU, and storage are easy to swap so I'm not to worried.

      25 votes
    16. How to get full-text RSS feed from medium.com ?

      I know medium has an RSS feed that can be accessed by adding /feed/ before the username/publication name but it's truncated if the publication has a paywall. I've been looking for a way to get the...

      I know medium has an RSS feed that can be accessed by adding /feed/ before the username/publication name but it's truncated if the publication has a paywall. I've been looking for a way to get the full-text feed but could not find a solution, it looks like it adds a parameter to the link in the rss feed, similar to ?source=rss-d00bc5bb7954------2 but I can't figure out how to remove it. any ideas ?

      7 votes
    17. How safe am I? (self hosting)

      I have a server running Unraid at home. I have ~20 docker containers running at the moment with almost all of them only available within my local network. I just stood up an instance of Seafile on...

      I have a server running Unraid at home. I have ~20 docker containers running at the moment with almost all of them only available within my local network. I just stood up an instance of Seafile on the server to act as a google drive replacement. Still in the early test phase before I commit to throwing important stuff on there. I have my domain proxied through Cloudflare so none of my local ports are exposed to the internet. Seafille has complicated passwords set for admin and user accounts (generated with Bitwarden, hot damn I love that app). I also enabled 2FA on each account. I know that I can further clamp it down using some of Cloudflare's extra access controls but in my admittedly limited experience, those all cause issues getting an app to authenticate with the service. Web apps don't have this issue of course.

      So am I ok with this setup? I can encrypt the data before uploading easily as it's a built in feature of Seafile. Or would it be better to just run with local only and run a VPN to access when I'm outside?

      I figure just about any effort along these lines I trust more than Google with my data. But I may be overconfident in that perhaps. I'm still learning the ropes with Linux and self-hosting in general.

      17 votes
    18. What's the easiest way to queue downloads to my PC?

      I mean this in the sense of "I find a file on a website that I want to have download directly to my laptop without having to download to my phone and then transfer from my phone to my laptop?"...

      I mean this in the sense of "I find a file on a website that I want to have download directly to my laptop without having to download to my phone and then transfer from my phone to my laptop?"

      Something I can use in the case "ope that's an interesting file that I'll forget about before I'm at my laptop"

      14 votes
    19. Fortnightly Programming Q&A Thread

      General Programming Q&A thread! Ask any questions about programming, answer the questions of other users, or post suggestions for future threads. Don't forget to format your code using the triple...

      General Programming Q&A thread! Ask any questions about programming, answer the questions of other users, or post suggestions for future threads.

      Don't forget to format your code using the triple backticks or tildes:

      Here is my schema:
      
      ```sql
      CREATE TABLE article_to_warehouse (
        article_id   INTEGER
      , warehouse_id INTEGER
      )
      ;
      ```
      
      How do I add a `UNIQUE` constraint?
      
      4 votes
    20. 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?

      12 votes