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  • Showing only topics in ~comp with the tag "ask.advice". Back to normal view / Search all groups
    1. What useful tasks are possible with an LLM with only 3B parameters?

      Playing with Llama 7B and 13B, I found that the 13B model was capable of doing a simple task, rewriting titles in sentence case for Tildes submissions. The 7B model doesn't appear capable of the...

      Playing with Llama 7B and 13B, I found that the 13B model was capable of doing a simple task, rewriting titles in sentence case for Tildes submissions. The 7B model doesn't appear capable of the same task, out of the box.

      I heard about Android's new AICore available on a couple of new devices. But it sounds like Gemini Nano, which runs on-device, can only handle 2B or 3B parameters.

      Is this size of model useful for real tasks? Does it only become useful after training on a specific domain? I'm a novice and wanting to learn a little bit about it. On-device AI is an appealing concept to me.

      10 votes
    2. Looking to Llama. Help?

      Hi folks I'm progressing a project but I could use some insights. I need to teach a LLM (preferably an open source and locally host-able) information about TV shows. I plan on using the show name,...

      Hi folks

      I'm progressing a project but I could use some insights.

      I need to teach a LLM (preferably an open source and locally host-able) information about TV shows. I plan on using the show name, title, running time, episode quantity per series/season, and full transcript.

      Where do I even start?

      Pointers to sites to learn to do this would be much appreciated. If anyone can summarise how I need to prep the data then that would be a bonus too.

      Bonus points for a Llama GUI that can be network hosted and allow different people to connect as individuals, a little like ChatGPT interface now.

      Thank you in advance.

      16 votes
    3. Please proofread this AI-generated AutoHotkey script

      For my job I need to copy a person's name out of a field and split it into first and last names. I have a AHK script that can do this but my version only works with simple, one-word,...

      For my job I need to copy a person's name out of a field and split it into first and last names. I have a AHK script that can do this but my version only works with simple, one-word, non-hyphenated names. I tried prompting Gemini as below.

      There is a line of text consisting of one or more words, a comma, then one or more words. write an autohotkey 1.1 script to select everything before the comma, store it to a variable called firstname, then select everything after the comma and store it to a variable called lastname. thanks

      (the firstname and lastname variables should be swapped as the last name would come before the comma, that was my error)

      Here's the AutoHotkey 1.1 script to achieve what you described:

      ; This script splits a text line into first and last name based on a comma
      
      #NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility.
      SendMode Input  ; Simulates keystrokes for reliable input.
      
      ; Function to split the text
      Func SplitText(_text, firstName, lastName) {
        StringSplit, parts, _text, `,`
        if (parts[1]) {
          firstName := parts[1] ; Assign first name
          lastName := SubStr(_text, 1 + StrLen(parts[1])+1) ; Extract last name after comma (including space)
        } else {
          firstName := _text ; Handle cases without a comma
          lastName := ""
        }
      }
      
      ; Hotkey to trigger the script (replace F2 with your desired key)
      F2::
        Send, ^c ; Copy the selected text to clipboard
        clipText := ClipboardAll  ; Read the clipboard content
        SplitText(clipText, firstName, lastName) ; Call the function to split the text
        MsgBox, First Name: %firstName%`nLast Name: %lastName%
      
        ; Optional: Clear clipboard to avoid unintended pasting (comment out if not desired)
        ; Clipboard := 
      Return
      

      Explanation:

      #NoEnv and SendMode Input: These lines are included for performance and reliable input simulation.
      Func SplitText(_text, firstName, lastName): This function takes the text (_text) as input and assigns the split parts to variables firstName and lastName.
      StringSplit, parts, _text, ,:** Splits the text based on the comma (,`) delimiter.
      if (parts[1]):** Checks if there's a second part (i.e., text after the comma).
      If true, the first part is assigned to firstName and the text after the comma (including the space) is extracted using SubStr and assigned to lastName.
      else:** If there's no comma, the entire text is assigned to firstName and lastName is set to an empty string.
      F2::: This line defines a hotkey. When F2 is pressed, the following actions occur:
      Send, ^c:** Copies the selected text to the clipboard.
      clipText := ClipboardAll:** Reads the copied text from the clipboard and stores it in the variable clipText.
      SplitText(clipText, firstName, lastName):** Calls the function to split the copied text into first and last names.
      MsgBox:** Displays a message box showing the extracted first name and last name.
      Optional: Clear Clipboard: The commented line Clipboard := clears the clipboard content after processing. Uncomment this line if you want to avoid accidentally pasting the copied text elsewhere.

      Edit: To answer questions, and provide info I probably should have from the beginning: I'm a medical transcriptionist using AHK with my job's software (Emdat Inscribe) and a word expander (Instant Text). Inscribe seems to be browser-based but functions as a standalone app. I already have dozens of AHK 1.1 macros; my .ahk file has over 2000 lines, although I'm sure it's terribly written code. This is also why I'm disinclined to switch to AHK 2.0 since I have no desire to rewrite everything unless absolutely necessary. The first part of this macro is a bunch of keypresses to jump to the relevant patient info field, then this part would be used to store the names appropriately. I already have hotkeys to use the variables as needed and most macros are limited with #ifwinactive to Inscribe.

      5 votes
    4. Learning new programming languages with limited time: Rust, golang, or otherwise?

      I want to learn a new language that I can use for personal projects. But I want to pick the right one for me, given the fact that learning it will be a time investment and I don't have a ton of...

      I want to learn a new language that I can use for personal projects. But I want to pick the right one for me, given the fact that learning it will be a time investment and I don't have a ton of time for "fun" stuff these days.

      I've spent a decent amount of time tinkering around with Rust and my experience has been decent so far, if I'm trying to filter it through the lens of the current Rust craze. It just seems that the code has a somewhat... ugly(?)... aesthetic to it? I'm not willing to cast it aside yet and I think the "ugliness" just comes from me not really recognizing the syntax very well.

      I started looking at golang and was immediately interested in the marketing message of it being "a better C". Aside from Hello World, I haven't done anything else with it.

      Some random notes/points about my experience and what I'm looking for:

      • I am very accomplished with PHP, quite accomplished with C, somewhat accomplished with C++ and Python. Of those, I find Python to be too "free and easy", PHP (Symfony specifically) and C++ to be so OOP-oriented that I just end up writing a bunch of boilerplate, and C is just... C (I'd rather pull out a tooth than have to work with C strings).
      • Aside from the obvious pains of C, I think it's the most fun of the bunch. I don't know why I think this, because again, I absolutely hate C strings.
      • I appreciate the package management and ecosystem of Rust, from what I've seen. C-with-Cargo would be awesome.
      • The older I get, the more I appreciate strong typing.
      • I like a language that allows me to systematically and logically organize my code into various modules, directories, etc. This is where PHP/Symfony shines in that there's a place for everything, as opposed to a bunch of .c and .h files all dumped into a folder.
      • Ideally, I'd like something that can compile into a binary that doesn't require JVM, etc.

      I'm open to suggestions outside of Rust and Go... those are just the ones I've been seeing mentioned the most over the past decade.

      26 votes
    5. Advice on expanding storage in starter homelab/media server

      I've been slowly fiddling around with setting up a little homelab and media server for the last few months. As a web developer, I've always wanted to learn a bit more of the infrastructure side of...

      I've been slowly fiddling around with setting up a little homelab and media server for the last few months. As a web developer, I've always wanted to learn a bit more of the infrastructure side of things, hence the homelab part. The deteriorating quality of major streaming services finally pushed me to set up a media server as well.

      Right now, my setup is very basic. I've been using an old repurposed office laptop. It's a simple dell latitude 5540 I got ridiculously cheap due to it's barely usable crusty keyboard, but since I mainly SSH into it that's not really an issue. I formatted it, doubled the ram, and installed the latest stable Debian release. (Headless)

      After that, I chose to install yams which was recommended here. Definitely saved a lot of time there! Finally, I added an old unisex raspberry pi I had lying around. The idea is that it's the only part of the setup that is on 24/7, since it has an almost negligible footprint. Whenever I want the main server running, I SSH into the raspberry and use wakeonLAN to start the main server. I'm probably gonna make a tiny web interface for that soon.

      Now on to the part I need advice for. The laptop and attached HD are quickly running out of space. I know just slapping on extra hard drives has a limit, and am vaguely aware of things like unraid existing, but am a bit overwhelmed right now with all the information and options in this space.

      Does anyone have some advice on something I can tackle for a reasonable amount of work/budget? Something basic, but with the possibility of expansion in the future?

      Any other tips on where to go next in general are of course also appreciated. (On that note, I'm right now not opening up the server to ingress from outside. I only interact with it on the home network, as I primarily work from home)

      17 votes
    6. Using work OSX machine while travelling

      I will shortly be travelling for work. I do not have the capacity to bring anything other than my work machine. In addition to working every day I would like to: legally stream movies in the...

      I will shortly be travelling for work. I do not have the capacity to bring anything other than my work machine. In addition to working every day I would like to: legally stream movies in the evening, work on writing, email friends etc. At home of course I use a separate laptop for this but in this case I won't have that option. Any thoughts on how best to achieve a separation of concerns while travelling? How do people on Tildes manage this case?

      p.s I know in a best case scenario it's not ideal, hence my behaviour at home, I just need a working method for this particular case.

      12 votes
    7. Are any of you AI gurus?

      As per subject really. I'm creating a project with the CEO at work and it's going to need some serious AI. I'm happy to speak about it here and take advice and tips for direction and resources....

      As per subject really.

      I'm creating a project with the CEO at work and it's going to need some serious AI. I'm happy to speak about it here and take advice and tips for direction and resources. I'm going to definitely be hiring real human resource to get this going though.

      The project is a masters library of video. Anyone that has seen me post before might know I run a server of roughly 10k of videos, all company IP, of TV shows from over the years. What I'd like to do is point AI at the video library and have it build out a serious database of information, or at least a sidecar JSON of information next to every video. Some things I really don't need AI for and can easy generate, such as video length, type, audio channels, codec, bitrate, etc. All of that can be gleamed with the usual suspect tools such as mediainfo or ffprobe. What I'd like AI to do is scan for faces and identify names of celebs (if possible), sections of video at 5 seconds in length containing railway, trees, cars, etc logged to build out a database of video that we have. It would also need to log time codes of where these clips are and for how long.

      I know it sounds like a crazy project, but it will be fun and possibly the start of a new product which I would open source. Don't tell my boss that but if we're using open source models and free shit to create these awesome beast, I'd want to give back to the community.

      So, ideas on where I would find people interested and talented with this sort of thing? Any thoughts on what else you'd think I should target to capture from a massive video library? I will be grabbing the clock card info too so OCR is a must.

      Soooo much to think about. Project plan coming up.

      21 votes
    8. Syncthing on a VPS questions

      I've been using syncthing for a while now and more recently I've started to use a VPS but I find it to be a mild pain in the ass to setup and I'm wondering if there's a better way or just how are...

      I've been using syncthing for a while now and more recently I've started to use a VPS but I find it to be a mild pain in the ass to setup and I'm wondering if there's a better way or just how are you administering?

      I've been just editing the config.xml file and restarting it. It feels clunky editing it in nano especially when I have to delete a folder or remove a device.

      I'm starting up on a new VPS and doing this initial setup again is mildly frustrating.

      Another question, a friend is also going to be backing up some files onto this server (both of us treating it as untrusted), would it be better practice to set up 2 users each running their own syncthing@user service or just have it all under one?

      9 votes
    9. Just got a Microsoft Surface Pro 9, need help

      It's been years since I've had to use a an actual computer for anything serious and I want to regain my literacy with them. The height of my computer usage was the Windows XP/Vista era. I got it...

      It's been years since I've had to use a an actual computer for anything serious and I want to regain my literacy with them. The height of my computer usage was the Windows XP/Vista era. I got it because I wanted to throw myself into a couple of different programming/coding courses.
      I chose the Surface Pro because of the detachable keyboard/stylus setup and the fact that I don't have a good way to set up a desktop computer. Also I've always fantasized about being able to do work in a coffee shop or in a comfy chair by a lake lol.
      Can anyone share some tips/tricks that might be useful to me? Anything from hotkeys, task management related things, or just general quality of life things I should know about would be super helpful. I'm so used to smartphones being able to do everything and feel like I'm a little in over my head here. Thanks in advance.

      12 votes
    10. Does Linux From Scratch actually teach you anything?

      Two hours ago I randomly thought "hey, why not do LFS?", so I opened my laptop and started following the book. I've heard a lot of people say that LFS is great for learning how a Linux system...

      Two hours ago I randomly thought "hey, why not do LFS?", so I opened my laptop and started following the book. I've heard a lot of people say that LFS is great for learning how a Linux system works. However, so far it's just been a guide on how to compile different software and what autoconfig flags to use. I thought that maybe further chapters will have more information on how things work, but it seems like they all just contain a one-line description of a program and compilation instructions.

      If anyone here has done LFS, did you actually learn anything from it? Is it worth spending more time on?

      19 votes
    11. I want to learn Android (with Kotlin) ... should I focus on Jetpack or the old XML style?

      I am an experienced programmer (mostly M$ stack -- C#, etc). I started learning mobile Android development a few months ago, learning both Kotlin and the larger Android development environment at...

      I am an experienced programmer (mostly M$ stack -- C#, etc).

      I started learning mobile Android development a few months ago, learning both Kotlin and the larger Android development environment at the same time. I got bogged down in tutorials and guides, because half of them teach Jetpack Compose methodology and half teach XML layout ... and, often enough, don't bother to mention which method they're using.

      Which should I learn first? I am initially interested in learning Android dev for my own hobby/fun/side projects, but I would--ultimately--like to be able to put "Android developer" on my resume.

      Jetpack definitely looks better, more modern, more OO, and I expect it will eventually become the new standard ... but that could still be many years down the road. Also, while it might be "better"--especially for larger projects--it also smells more complicated.

      So, ultimately, I guess I should learn both if I actually intend to become an Android dev ... but I should definitely get comfortable with one, first ... so, which one?

      11 votes
    12. File structure difference between NAS and cloud storage

      I have a NAS with a ton of photos and documents that have remained untouched for around 6 years. I uploaded all that stuff to OneDrive. Tidied it up and kept using OneDrive mostly. But I also sent...

      I have a NAS with a ton of photos and documents that have remained untouched for around 6 years. I uploaded all that stuff to OneDrive. Tidied it up and kept using OneDrive mostly. But I also sent stuff to the NAS. They have diverged.

      I'm thinking about ways of restructuring/sorting my NAS to match my OneDrive so that I can then sync the two. I thought about making a python script that would just match on file names and move them to the correct location.

      Figured before I did I'd ask if anyone else had any other suggestions

      12 votes
    13. Is it possible (or normal) to release a Desktop GUI app using PIP/PyPI instead of regular tools like PyInstaller?

      Folks, Firstly, thank you for guiding me with remarkable insights to my queries about Desktop GUI development using PySide in my earlier post. After much thinking, pondering and meditation, I've...

      Folks,

      Firstly, thank you for guiding me with remarkable insights to my queries about Desktop GUI development using PySide in my earlier post.

      After much thinking, pondering and meditation, I've made up my mind with using PySide2 for this side project.

      Since my app is cross-platform and geared towards power users (who must be having python installed in all likelihood), I want to know if it's feasible to release it through PyPI (PIP) instead of bundling a setup or MSI? Or is this going to be a bit odd?

      Are there any such apps already that do this?

      10 votes
    14. PySide vs .NET WinForms for a Desktop GUI App in 2023?

      Hello Folks, For an upcoming side project - a Desktop GUI app, open source, Apache 2.0 licensed, I'm slightly confused regarding what technology to use. Skills wise, C#/WinForms should be my...

      Hello Folks,

      For an upcoming side project - a Desktop GUI app, open source, Apache 2.0 licensed, I'm slightly confused regarding what technology to use.

      Skills wise, C#/WinForms should be my natural choice as that was the primary technology I had worked on before losing employment at my former company few years back and getting into freelancing. But post my freelance experience, I taught myself things like open source and Python as it came with the territory, and now PySide2 is also a running candidate in this race.

      The goal here is to be as much ubiquitous as possible - that my app should be easy to just "download, extract and run" by as many people as possible. A couple decades ago, a .NET GUI library targeting Microsoft Windows platform would have been the clear choice here as most people used Windows OS and targeting that platform meant being ubiquitous.

      But over the last few years, I've observed that Windows OS has been continuously losing its market share to Linux Distros and Mac OSX, mostly due to some incorrect decisions and strategic blunders by the former than some ground breaking or revolutionary innovation on part of the latter. This means .NET or WinForms is no longer the ideal choice today if you want to be cross-platform and ubiquitous.

      This lead my research to some other toolkits like the Java Swing library, for example. It's old but classic, not a bad choice at all in this case, platform independence is Java's biggest selling point. However, the app I'm making is non-trivial and slightly performance intensive, and Swing GUIs are known to be sluggish on PCs unless you ensure a good supply of RAM by tweaking the JVM settings. I'm also not very experienced in Java to be able to handle those situations in case they arise.

      I also considered Lazarus IDE/Object Pascal, it is also not a bad choice. It is open source, used as the primary course language across many Universities in Europe and most importantly, still maintained and developed. But guess I will have to teach myself a whole new paradigm along with a programming language in case I go this route.

      Finally, Python is something I've almost settled on for this project. It's a language that I'm very fond of and it has helped me survive through the tough times in the freelance market. It also has a vibrant ecosystem and rich repository of user contributed packages at PyPI.

      Now, I've worked on the default Tkinter library in past but somehow felt that it's quite limited in terms of making the GUI more flexible and "tweakable", especially a non-trivial one having several container widgets, syntax editors, menus and drop-downs, trees and list views, etc. PySide2 is, from what I understand, a better choice in this regard as it is comprehensive and based on the time-tested Qt interface. It is not only very easy to code and maintain but also very easy to port across various platforms.

      What do you think? In which direction should I go here?

      18 votes
    15. PowersHell and graph - setting SharePoint folder permissions help

      Hello folks Recently we've been playing with Powershell and having to move on to graph to do all the fancy things we want to achieve. MS forced this when they suddenly decided the MSOnline module...

      Hello folks

      Recently we've been playing with Powershell and having to move on to graph to do all the fancy things we want to achieve. MS forced this when they suddenly decided the MSOnline module was retired and things stopped working.

      We've built a great New Team with SharePoint and including folders script. One of the things we used to do with the PNP module is set folder permission on two of the folders in a new team, making them only accessible to Owners. How the devil does one achieve this with Graph?

      Any pointers would be grand.

      8 votes
    16. How would you structure an Open Collective with the objective of teaching programming to raise money for a cause?

      I am asking as I have just created one. I won't advertise it here, as it feels not in good faith and I don't think Tildes is the right audience (I imagine most of the techies here are probably...

      I am asking as I have just created one. I won't advertise it here, as it feels not in good faith and I don't think Tildes is the right audience (I imagine most of the techies here are probably fairly seasoned).

      I want to offer some kind of programming tuition to people at a good rate (read: affordable to those that might be on a low income but wish to learn). I am doing this to raise money for my local cardiology ward, who have just been told there isn't enough in the budget to cover their Christmas party this year. Morale is low there, and I'd like to help cover the deficit.

      How would you structure something like this?

      Initially, I have written that I have no set fee and am happy to offer services on case-by-case basis (words to that effect). But in a discussion with a friend, they suggested I should do something like:

      • Small donation (£1 - £25): Access to a chatroom (Discord?) where someone can ask questions, and I'll strive to answer and help them as fast as possible)
      • Medium donation (£25 - £50): I will arrange a group session where I cover some basic programming concepts and host a Q&A at the end to help bridge any gaps in understanding.
      • Large donation (£50+): I will arrange a one-to-one session (via call, video or instant messaging) where I will help go more in-depth on a topic or help debug a specific problem.

      If anyone has any experience with this type of thing, I'd appreciate any advice. I have only been a professional software developer for three years, so I am reasonably experienced, but not exactly an industry veteran. I want to set realistic expectations for this service.

      I'm happy to share a link to the open collective via private message if anyone wants to have a look over it and offer any advice.

      9 votes
    17. How do you test your home network security?

      As I'm exploring the idea of hosting my data at home (with offsite backups), I would like to better understand how to test my home network for security vulnerabilities. I have run basic Nmap scans...

      As I'm exploring the idea of hosting my data at home (with offsite backups), I would like to better understand how to test my home network for security vulnerabilities.

      I have run basic Nmap scans and confirmed that there are no open ports. I've confirmed that users have access to what they need but nothing else, and that guests using the network for web access don't have any sort of access to data. All data is encrypted so someone stealing the physical hardware shouldn't have access to the contents, either. But that's about as far as I know what to do.

      What else could and should I try? How do you pentest your home network?

      I feel I'm ok with my understanding of how to set things up so that everything is relatively secure. But I have very little idea how to actually test the setup.

      Edit: Added a sentence about encryption.

      25 votes
    18. Is this backup solution fine?

      I decided to set up automatic backup of my files from my phone and laptop to Backblaze B2. I didn't find a good solution to sync photos from my phone directly to Backblaze, so I decided to do the...

      I decided to set up automatic backup of my files from my phone and laptop to Backblaze B2. I didn't find a good solution to sync photos from my phone directly to Backblaze, so I decided to do the following:

      1. Sync photos from my phone to my laptop using Syncthing
      2. Back up those photos as well as other files from the laptop to Backblaze using Restic

      Is this backup solution fine, or are there any issues with it?

      Also, most of the stuff I need to back up, even on my laptop, are photos/videos. Is there a point in using Restic with it's deduplication and incremental backups for this use case, or should I just use Rclone directly? I'd assume deduplication won't save me much storage because photos generally don't have similar byte chunks, although I may be wrong.

      12 votes
    19. Is there a good S3-compatible datastore for a hobbyist?

      I've read nice things about Amazon's S3. There are some compatible implementations from other major vendors like Google and Cloudflare. There are projects that automatically back up and replicate...

      I've read nice things about Amazon's S3. There are some compatible implementations from other major vendors like Google and Cloudflare. There are projects that automatically back up and replicate a sqlite database using S3. Some people have backed up Google Photos to S3.

      But I've never used any of them. What would be a good way to get started? Amazon or another vendor? (And does this make sense at all?)

      22 votes
    20. Any good alternatives to VirtualHere?

      I'll start by saying that there's nothing wrong with how VirtualHere functions. I have used it for a couple years on my nvidia shield while streaming games from my pc and it's perfect for what I...

      I'll start by saying that there's nothing wrong with how VirtualHere functions. I have used it for a couple years on my nvidia shield while streaming games from my pc and it's perfect for what I need. The problem I have encountered is that I'm no longer using the shield and have transitioned my entire setup to use a raspberry pi 4 instead because the shields wifi becoming more unstable with every update nvidia pushes.

      I would love to continue just using VirtualHere, but I've just learned that the developer does not allow a license transfer for any reason so my $50 license is completely useless now that the shield is gone. Knowing that the license is non-transferable makes me unlikely to ever spend money on it again because I cannot guarantee how long these devices will last and $50 is far too steep for a single device private use license on any software. My primary use case is with a moonlight/sunshine setup which can handle the controller inputs just fine after a little bit of input file tinkering.

      The things I absolutely cannot figure out how to make work without VirtualHere is a Dolphin bar that is used for Wii/WiiU games and the gamecube controller to usb adapters. I've seen people mention using usbip, but I haven't been able to find any reasonable explanation or documentation on how to actually use usbip without fully configuring it every time the device reboots.

      I'm not against the idea of a more manual setup. I just need something that once it's configured will allow passthrough of any usb device from a raspberry pi to a windows machine and not charge me a fortune every time I need to swap hardware in the future. I'd be willing to pay for similar software if it was a little more reasonably priced for what I'm doing.

      5 votes
    21. Request: Ideas and tips for creating a portfolio to get a web developer job

      Hi everyone — I am trying to get a job in web development after a decade in a mostly unrelated field. I am looking for ideas and tips to create a portfolio to send with applications. All of the...

      Hi everyone — I am trying to get a job in web development after a decade in a mostly unrelated field.

      I am looking for ideas and tips to create a portfolio to send with applications. All of the websites I worked on ages ago have been taken offline or redesigned by someone else. I do have a website I created for my music, but it’s just vanilla HTML. I also have a personal website which is really the only thing I have to show.

      I know HTML/CSS quite well, but that’s basically it. I’ve worked with WordPress for years but only just recently began learning enough PHP to do anything custom. I don’t really know Javascript much at all.

      I have quite a few paid courses through Udemy for all these different areas but even as I have completed them, I don’t feel confident in knowledge of the different languages. These courses nearly always come with projects that the students create with the instructor. Should I use these as part of my portfolio? For some reason I never felt right doing that, since I didn’t build it myself.

      So I guess I’m curious (if any of you are web developers) if you have suggestions for how to fill out a portfolio without any previous work examples.

      Side note: I wasn’t sure how to word the title or my question particularly well so please edit it more clearly, Those Who Can Edit.

      edit: thank you to everyone who took the time to reply to this. it’s all been very helpful and i appreciate everyone’s input immensely!

      23 votes
    22. 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
    23. 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
    24. 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
    25. Graphics glitch on new install of Ubuntu

      So I have an old MacBook Pro (mid-2014) Core i5 which I've just installed Ubuntu 22.04.2 on. Most things are working fine but the screen randomly flickers and then goes black and then after...

      So I have an old MacBook Pro (mid-2014) Core i5 which I've just installed Ubuntu 22.04.2 on. Most things are working fine but the screen randomly flickers and then goes black and then after varying lengths of time will pop back on again. I've been googling around and found lots of instances of similar graphics glitches but can't quite find a solution.

      Any suggestions?

      7 votes
    26. MATLAB learning resources for software engineers

      I'm starting grad school in neuroscience/biomedical engineering soon, and one of my most dreaded parts of it is inevitably having to develop Matlab code. I understand why people use it -- it's...

      I'm starting grad school in neuroscience/biomedical engineering soon, and one of my most dreaded parts of it is inevitably having to develop Matlab code. I understand why people use it -- it's arguably best in class at a lot of engineering tasks, and the matrix-first approach of the language makes it very fast to prototype things if you think like a mathematician/engineer.

      However, the language also seems to actively discourage good software practices, and many frequently used scientific projects have atrocious code. Think python dependency management is bad? How about NO DEPENDENCY MANAGEMENT? Yes, that's right, the way you share code in matlab is by importing collections of loose files from github/matlab file exchange. The Matlab neuroimaging code that I have worked has also frequently abused the workspace to share state implicitly between scripts, which makes the code virtually incomprehensible. Instead of using packages to create namespaces, common practice is give function names a prefix and import them into the global namespace.

      I know there's multiple large companies that rely on Matlab for their products, so it must be doable; I just haven't seen it for myself yet.

      Do you guys have any experience developing in Matlab, and if so, are there any good resources to learn how to build robust software in it? What are some open source projects that have good Matlab code?

      16 votes
    27. Newbie here looking for advice on how to get into Programming/CS by building a project

      Been lurking for a week on tildes now and I am really glad this place exists. The crow here is exactly what I have been missing on Reddit for a while now. Having said that, the whole Reddit...

      Been lurking for a week on tildes now and I am really glad this place exists. The crow here is exactly what I have been missing on Reddit for a while now.

      Having said that, the whole Reddit situation has some-what motivated me to get the balls rolling on an idea that I have had for a while and I am looking for advice on the same.

      I have often heard this phrase "Learn programming by building" but whenever I dive in to the resources, I fall flat due to the information overload and the general abstractness that the field has (I appreciate abstractness but here it demotivates me) and I have never found a proper resource that I could follow to actually build something instead of just blindly following tutorials and playing with them.

      So, my question is how do I translate "learn by building a project" into a practical framework.

      I know of 100 days of swift and I really like that approach however I don't think I want to start with swift or build an iOS app right now.

      24 votes
    28. Best, favorite, and/or interestingly-different resources to learn (or re-learn) Git?

      Pretty much, the title. I have been coding professionally for over 2 decades, been using Git for almost as long ... and to this day, it still feels alien and uncomfortable to use. I keep feeling...

      Pretty much, the title.

      I have been coding professionally for over 2 decades, been using Git for almost as long ... and to this day, it still feels alien and uncomfortable to use. I keep feeling like I am relearning it all over again. I would really like to find some kind of different resource that helps me to make Git "stick" in my brain, and become more intuitive. Maybe that's just not possible, but I keep hoping.

      Meanwhile, my roommate is just starting her journey into programming, and her class just started teaching Git ... and I'm eavesdropping a bit, and they're teaching it okay, but I'm sure there are better tutorials out there for a newcomer.

      I am aware of -- and currently reading my way through -- both this recent tildes post and the various tutorials mentioned in it. But I am looking for other recommendations, as well ... and I bet I'm not the only one.

      Thanx in advance.

      19 votes
    29. Can someone ELI5 how lemmy instances work?

      Some of the things I'm concerned about are browsing across unconnected instances - will I need twenty accounts to follow all of the groups? What is the likelihoood of an instance dissapearing? How...

      Some of the things I'm concerned about are browsing across unconnected instances - will I need twenty accounts to follow all of the groups? What is the likelihoood of an instance dissapearing? How do you gauge the culture of an instance? Is the https://redditmigration.com/ actually being populated by real admins of those subreddits? Are there any gotchas from joining an instance that I should be aware of? Thanks!

      21 votes
    30. When consuming an API with state rate limits, how should one handle not exceeding them?

      My typical approach is one that I believe is pretty common: Reading the response header for current count and waiting if the limit is reached. However, I am currently working with a couple of APIs...

      My typical approach is one that I believe is pretty common: Reading the response header for current count and waiting if the limit is reached.

      However, I am currently working with a couple of APIs which don't implement that and are currently set up with rate limits on an honesty system.

      Is it a case of throwing sleep statements into you code, or using some kind of "bucket" and "lock" system?

      I'd be interested to see any simple implementation people have used (the simpler the better).

      9 votes
    31. [PC build] - AM4 or AM5 for low-power non-gaming build with lots of storage?

      My main needs are: Not too pricey Very low idle power At least 6 x SATA I don't need a beefy GPU (the iGPU will be more than I need) or lots of CPU performance (I'll probably pick one of the...

      My main needs are:

      • Not too pricey
      • Very low idle power
      • At least 6 x SATA

      I don't need a beefy GPU (the iGPU will be more than I need) or lots of CPU performance (I'll probably pick one of the cheapest compatible CPU).

      AM5 is still pretty expensive and the cheap(-ish) motherboards mostly only have 4 x SATA so I would need an extension card. But I'm considering it because 5nm vs 7nm should improve the power efficiency, right? What kind of improvements should I expect there?

      Are there any other reasons to go for AM5? I might prefer it for emotional reasons (the lastest and greatest always feels better) so I could use some input from kind strangers.

      I could also just wait a bit longer. When should I expect the low-end AM5 comonents to become cheaper?

      13 votes
    32. I'm planning my first PC Build, does anyone have some advice/input on what I've got so far?

      Please help lol Type Item Price CPU Intel Core i7-12700KF 3.6 GHz 12-Core Processor $239.99 @ Newegg CPU Cooler Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler $119.95 @ Amazon Motherboard Asus...

      Please help lol

      Type Item Price
      CPU Intel Core i7-12700KF 3.6 GHz 12-Core Processor $239.99 @ Newegg
      CPU Cooler Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler $119.95 @ Amazon
      Motherboard Asus ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard $299.99 @ Amazon
      Memory \*Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory $94.99 @ Amazon
      Storage Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive $54.99 @ Amazon
      Storage Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive $49.99 @ Amazon
      Video Card MSI RTX 3060 Ventus 3X 12G OC GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card $289.99 @ Amazon
      Power Supply Corsair RM750 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
      Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
      Total $1249.88
      *Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
      Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-06 10:27 EDT-0400
      16 votes
    33. I want to learn programming

      I currently don't know anything about programming so am considering picking this up on the side in case I loose my current job and need a backup plan. Anyone knows any good books or online courses...

      I currently don't know anything about programming so am considering picking this up on the side in case I loose my current job and need a backup plan. Anyone knows any good books or online courses or anything else for self-learning?

      My friends said programming is too broad a subject and what you need to learn depends heavily on what fields you want to go in, which I'm ashamed to admit also know nothing about. So I guess I need some career advice too if possible.

      22 votes
    34. Resources for learning to code

      Tildes is pretty technically minded place, so I figured this would be a good place to get some advice. Programming is something I've taken a class or two on (though it's been long enough that I'd...

      Tildes is pretty technically minded place, so I figured this would be a good place to get some advice. Programming is something I've taken a class or two on (though it's been long enough that I'd like to start from scratch) and I think I have some aptitude for it. The possibility of working from home is also very appealing. However, there are a ton of resources out there, and "learn to code" has been a thing for a while now. Is self-teaching or one of those coding boot camps a viable way to get started in the field? And if so, what are some good resources and practices for getting there? I have some money available, but a degree would be expensive both time and cost wise.

      10 votes
    35. Upgraded to Windows 10, what do I need to do to optimize?

      I finally got around to upgrading my mom’s computer (an Asus laptop from 2015) from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. I’ve already deleted a few apps she won’t use (e.g., Xbox) and disabled/stopped some...

      I finally got around to upgrading my mom’s computer (an Asus laptop from 2015) from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. I’ve already deleted a few apps she won’t use (e.g., Xbox) and disabled/stopped some unneeded services. What else can I do to keep her computer fast? Particularly interesting in more services I can disable and the best browser/ad blocker combo. Thanks y’all!

      10 votes
    36. Synology NAS Recommendations & Questions

      Hey everyone! Sorry if this is a long post, but I've done my research and I would like to make a few questions. I've decided that I would like to buy a NAS mainly to storage all of my documents,...

      Hey everyone!

      Sorry if this is a long post, but I've done my research and I would like to make a few questions.

      I've decided that I would like to buy a NAS mainly to storage all of my documents, photos and videos, so that, I can access them from multiple devices and also use it to upload important documents to Backblaze B2. Then, I've actually discovered that I can install a few Docker containers and I could use it as a media server (Jellyfin) and serve the content to my Apple TV (neat!).

      I considered a QNAP (better hardware for the price) but everyone recommends Synology instead (because of the stronger security and better overall software), but to be honest, I'm not sure what should I get.

      My budget would be to buy a NAS (without counting the disks) below €1000. Ideally, €500-600 but I don't mind stretching to the €700 mark, if it is really worth it.

      Spoiler alert: I think, it should be the DS920+ (4-bay) or the DS1520+ (5-bay). I think a NAS above 4-bay is better for future-proofing.

      Looking here in Germany at price comparators, I could buy the DS920+ for €663 and the DS1520+ for €750. But these prices seem to be at an all-time high :(


      Questions & Assumptions:

      0. I'm not sure if the price difference of about €100 is worth the premium to get the 5-bay model. There are only two differences between these two models: The 5-bay has one extra slot, and it has 4x 1 Gbe LAN ports instead of 2x 1 Gbe. All the rest is the same. What is your opinion?

      1. I've read that if you run a few containers (~10) it consumes quite a bit of RAM (~3 Gb), so it should be ideal to have at least 8 Gb. This is the reason I've said that I think I can only choose the DS920+ or DS1520+. Looking at official Synology resellers, these models, seem to come already with 8 Gb, and they are within my budget. Is my research wrong?

      2. These two models, have an encryption engine. I think this is necessary to encrypt my files before sending them to Backblaze, or?

      3. A lot of people seem to say to simply pick Synology's hybrid RAID setup called SHR-1 or SHR-2. I would go the easy way here and pick one of those two. Would you think that is a bad idea, and it is better to pick a specific (standard) RAID? I've read about the long long long RAID rebuild that could happen in some situations, and picking the "right" RAID could decrease the rebuild in days (or weeks!!!!).

      4. In case, I choose a NAS model with Nvme cache slots, most people say it is not worth it to use if you are not running Virtual Machines and the SSD’s "burn" really fast. I have no interest on VMs.

      5. Most people say to pick an Enterprise (Server) HDD instead of a NAS HDD mainly because price is similar in some cases and Enterprise has longer life and warranty. I should also pick a CMR HDD which is helium filled. 5400 rpm would be preferable to 7200 rpm because of the noise. Sadly, all Enterprise HDD's and most of NAS HDD's are 7200 rpm. Is the noise difference that big? The NAS will be in our living room.

      6. Is 8 TB still the best cost per Terabyte?

      7. I was extremely sad to hear that the Hitachi hard drive division was bought by WD. I've had lots of misfortune with WD drives (and let's not forget the debacle with the SMR and CMR drives) and I would prefer not to give money to them, but, nevertheless, I'm still tempted to buy the Ultrastar drives that belonged to Hitachi. Does anyone know if WD kept the components, manufacturing processes, staff, etc., that made these brilliant disks?

      8. Following the HDD topic, what is your experience with Seagate or Toshiba drives?

      9. These two NAS models have the same Intel Celeron CPU, which supports hardware transcoding. To be honest, I don't know in which cases would that happen. It seems if I use Infuse on the Apple TV it would never transcode (and instead direct play) because Infuse would do the transcoding in software. Should I take in account that hardware transcoding is a must-have or a nice-to-have?

      10. Would you recommend having a CCTV system connected to the NAS? Should I dedicate one entire HDD just for the NVR system? Would a standalone NVR device be better?

      11. My last question is: Should I just wait for the new model of the DS920+ or DS1520+? The 20 means it was launched in 2020 (in Summer specifically) and it seems Synology refreshes the model every two years., that means, a new model would be available in Summer this year. Most people say it is not worth the wait because Synology is very conservative in its model updates/refreshes. People are saying that a better CPU will be of course available (do I even need that for my use cases?) and probably upgrade the 1 Gbe LAN ports to 2.5 Gbe or 10 Gbe (10 Gbe I really doubt it). I've read that a 4K stream does not fill a 1 Gbe bandwidth, and you could theoretically have three 4K streams in a single 1 Gbe connection. If all else fails, I could just do a link aggregation of the two ports to be 2 Gbe, or?

      12. Anything I'm forgetting? Should I be careful with something in particular?


      I know I should buy a UPS too, but I think I'll create a separate post regarding this topic because I would also want a recommendation regarding a UPS for my other devices.

      I know that I could actually build my own NAS and use Unraid for the OS. Furthermore, I'm just at a time in my life with too much on my plate (baby and small child) and having something that just works is preferable. When they are older and more independent, I'll have more time to investigate this option :)

      Again, sorry for the long post. Thank you everyone!

      12 votes
    37. What advice would you give to someone who has coded in jquery for years and now wants to gracefully switch to modern js?

      Title says it all. Bootstrap+jquery has been my default route and path of least resistance when it comes to web development. Perhaps because I'm coding since a long time and belong to the old...

      Title says it all. Bootstrap+jquery has been my default route and path of least resistance when it comes to web development. Perhaps because I'm coding since a long time and belong to the old school when modern libraries like react weren't yet invented yet?

      I had tried to meddle with Angular.js 1.0 back in those days but was soon disillusioned! It was cool and cutting edge but highly opinionated. It tried to do so many things under the hood that I soon quit the effort and the word "Angular" was stigmatized in my mind ever since! I don't know how different today's typescript based Angular is but that stigma or phobia prevents me from even looking at that direction!

      React is another cool technology which everyone is talking about and I'm sure it has some merits. But I'm not sure exactly what React brings to my development workflow which jquery doesn't already do. Can you tell me some specific advantages or pros of react over jquery which can motivate me to learn the former and let go of the latter? What should I do?

      7 votes
    38. Docker rootless and Watchtower and some general questions about Docker

      I finally decided to accepted that my interest in working and playing with computers and servers is worth to spend some money on. So I ditched my old box in the corner and with it all my fights...

      I finally decided to accepted that my interest in working and playing with computers and servers is worth to spend some money on. So I ditched my old box in the corner and with it all my fights with my ISP, their NAT, dynamic DNS and all that and got myself a VPS and 1 TB storage solution for less than I would have paid a static IP with my ISP.
      Best decicion ever :-)

      So I'm getting into Docker a bit, just because it's just so easy to get Nextcloud running. I used native Caddy as a reverse proxy, because if I got this "machine" there I will use it for other things as well, so make it right from the beginning. And I used native b.c I did not yet understand bridge/host mode and installing caddy native seems easier.
      Then I fought for one day with CIFS and the nextcloud gui to get the semantics right to get my storage solution accepted as external storage.
      Then I set up Jellyfin with Docker because why not. As well through caddy.
      Then I fucked something up and was like, fuck it, lets start again this time for real :-P
      I wiped my VPS clean (chose ubuntu again) set up and hardend ssh + sudo installed Docker, and then I found out about docker rootless and in the docker docs it's mentioned that it is/might be more secure, so I set up docker rootless and installed all the rest again.
      And then I was like, hmm, do these Docker Images/Containers update themself? Like snap did?
      It seems not, so I looked for a solution and found watchtower. And now I wasted another day trying to get watchtower to run, and I just can not.

      I tried so many variations of the run command now most recently I tried:

      docker run \
      --name watchtower \
      -v ${DOCKER_SOCKET_PATH}:/var/run/docker.sock \
      containrrr/watchtower
      
      time="2023-01-20T01:17:41Z" level=error msg="Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?"
      time="2023-01-20T01:17:41Z" level=info msg="Waiting for the notification goroutine to finish" notify=no
      

      /run/user/1000/docker.sock exists, I own it, i tried connecting to it through docker -e and containrrr/watchtower --host "unix:///run/user/1000/docker.sock"
      I dont now what to try more and I'm at my end with my ddg-fu as well.

      And now while proofreading this, I read everything again and decided to try something again and it just worked...

      docker run \
      --name watchtower \
      -v /run/user/1000/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
      containrrr/watchtower
      

      seems like the environment variable was not set. But I'm shure I tried that before and it did not work... ghost in a machine :-)

      So thats where I'm at. I have to say it was a lot of fun and doing and learning all that tingled my brain in a funny way :-)

      But now I have some questions for my much more experienced Tildes-friends:

      • Do I even need watchtower? because I'm not actually interested to connect to my server regularly to do the updates/maintenance.
      • Was switching to docker rootless even a good idea? it seemed so reading the docker installation docs, but just now I read the Archwiki and there it seems it has some heavy security implications, so I made the security situation acutally worse by thinking making it better.
      • How do I get this watchtower thing to fucking work? (only if I actually need it)

      I very much appreciate all further/other advise, tricks, recomendations, questions and discussion as well :-)

      4 votes
    39. Are there any android 13 apps that can successfully spoof location (or otherwise thwart stalkerware)

      (apologies if this isn't the correct place to ask, I'm just a bit out of ideas) (content warning for abusive parents) I have a friend who's abusive parents track her location using the stalkerware...

      (apologies if this isn't the correct place to ask, I'm just a bit out of ideas)
      (content warning for abusive parents)

      I have a friend who's abusive parents track her location using the stalkerware app life360.

      she currently runs graphene os (android 13) on a pixel 7 pro.

      in my past android experience there are plenty apps that can spoof your location via developer settings. however they all crash on android 13 (or at least on graphene..)

      see below (none of these work, and they also crash on my android 13 phone, but they have worked for me in the past on like android 9):
      https://github.com/mcastillof/FakeTraveler
      https://github.com/wesaphzt/privatelocation
      https://github.com/warren-bank/Android-Mock-Location
      https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lexa.fakegps&gl=US

      if there are no functioning apps that will do this. do you know any other solutions? on other android roms or with root with magisk / xposed? obviously this is less secure than graphene os but the current problem is her parents more than anything else.

      we r also considering a secondary phone just for the stalkerware which can be opportunistically left in innocent places. or just killing the life360 app on occasion when needed. or just letting the phone die when it needs to. But not sure how obvious this might be to the abusers. any insight is appreciated.

      (suggestions like "leave her parents" are good but far easier said than done and while it will eventually happen its not feasible at the moment. That being said if you can provide detail suggestions are welcome)

      Thanks :)

      5 votes
    40. AdminLTE vs Pure Bootstrap for a new web project?

      I'm primarily a freelance backend dev and for the first time venturing on full-stack development of a non-trivial web app on my own, hence I needed some guidance. I've got all the backend stuff in...

      I'm primarily a freelance backend dev and for the first time venturing on full-stack development of a non-trivial web app on my own, hence I needed some guidance.

      I've got all the backend stuff in php/mysql covered, I just want to know what's the best way to create a dashboard (with left sidebar) considering various aspects like long-term code maintenance and support, robustness, etc. Looks don't matter that much as it's a CRUD app but obviously, better is more appreciated.

      Based on my research until now, AdminLTE seems to be the most popular way of doing it among most devs although a few others like material and coreui also seem to have some street cred.

      But another approach I'm considering apart from AdminLTE is to just use pure bootstrap and fiddle up my own sidebar using something like this. That way, I won't be tied to just one Bootstrap version which is used by AdminLTE (v4.6) and troubleshooting will be much easier through google search and StackOverflow. What do you guys think is the right approach?

      5 votes
    41. Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) recommendations and advice

      Hello everyone, I usually do my own research, and then I try to find multiple matching results and afterwards, read specifically in detail about each recommendation, but, I have to be honest that...

      Hello everyone,

      I usually do my own research, and then I try to find multiple matching results and afterwards, read specifically in detail about each recommendation, but, I have to be honest that for UPS recommendations that I’ve seen, it seems to be a very personal recommendation depending on the wattage and connected devices.

      First of all, most people recommend CyberPower or APC, but I’ve also seen some recommendations for Eaton. Is there any other brand that I should be looking into?

      The devices I would like to connect to a UPS would be: desktop, TV, Apple TV, NAS, router and probably my Nintendo Switch.

      There are some general things I've found out while searching that I think I would like some confirmation:

      • I actually think I should buy two UPS's, or? I think just one for the desktop and another one just for the remaining devices, since the desktop uses a lot more wattage.
      • Pure Sine Wave: It does not matter for smaller stuff (routers, etc) but it seems that anything above 70 W, it should use a UPS with this. So, that would mean I need pure sine wave, since my desktop and TV definitely use more than 70 W of power.
      • Some people said to search for a UPS with line conditioning so that you always get a perfect sine wave. Would you agree?
      • USB connection (not a faux USB!) so that the NAS detects the power failure and shuts down gracefully.
      • It is important that the UPS has removable battery for better longevity.

      How would I choose a UPS? Do I need to see the total wattage of all my devices and then pick the UPS accordingly? Anything I'm missing?

      My budget would be up to €100 or €150 in case it is really worth it.

      Thank you in advance for all replies.

      13 votes
    42. Would this be alright for a NAS?

      Right now I've got a shitty WD EX4100 and everything was sort of running along nicely with docker and all, but today it rebooted and decided that it didn't want to do anything with docker anymore....

      Right now I've got a shitty WD EX4100 and everything was sort of running along nicely with docker and all, but today it rebooted and decided that it didn't want to do anything with docker anymore. I got the thing before I got into Linux and its time to move on.

      Someone locally is selling the following for $250CAD

      • Quad core Celeron @ 2Ghz
      • 8GB RAM
      • Fractal Node 304 case
      • 2x WD 2TB Red 3.5" hard drives
      • 120GB Kingston SSD
      • 700 watt semi-modular power supply

      All I run are the following:

      • nzbget
      • sonarr
      • qbittorrent (but I'll switch to a better one)
      • serve up content to my HTPC (running Kodi, so no transcoding or anything)

      I don't need the drives that come with it. I'll be putting in 4x 4TB WD Reds. Right now the box is running Open Media Vault 6, so I'll give that a swing, otherwise it'll just be Ubuntu server.

      How does this sound? I'm not opposed to spending some money on a new NAS, I just want something simple that I don't have to fuck around with too much.


      I ended up going with the HP Proliant

      OS: Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS x86_64
      Host: ProLiant ML310e Gen8
      Kernel: 5.11.0-43-generic
      CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 (8) @ 3.700GHz
      GPU: 01:00.1 Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd. MGA G200EH
      Memory: 32GB
      

      It's pretty good so far. Thanks everybody!

      8 votes
    43. Spiders

      Is anyone here familiar with crawling the web? I’m interested in broad crawling, rather than focusing on particular sites. I’d appreciate pretty much any information about how this is usually...

      Is anyone here familiar with crawling the web? I’m interested in broad crawling, rather than focusing on particular sites. I’d appreciate pretty much any information about how this is usually done, and things to watch out for if attempting it.

      10 votes
    44. How would you write a GUI? Seeking opinions, recommendations, and what to avoid.

      Hi all. I am asking this open-ended question (bottom of this post) because I am considering making contributions to an open-source project that would directly benefit me and other users. Some...

      Hi all. I am asking this open-ended question (bottom of this post) because I am considering making contributions to an open-source project that would directly benefit me and other users.

      Some background:

      I have worked with an engineering simulation software called Ansys MAPDL basically everyday for the last 4 years, in both an academic and a professional capacity. It's not necessarily relevant whether you are familiar to that program to participate in this discussion. The relevant thing is that the GUI for MAPDL is written in Tcl/Tk and I don’t imagine it is going to be modernized (because of more modern, but distinctly different, replacements). This is a screenshot of the GUI for reference.

      Why do people put up with such an old interface?

      The power of the program is not its GUI, but the scripting language that can be run to setup and solve simulations. The program name is really the scripting language name, Ansys Parametric Design Language (APDL). It's somewhat like Matlab. The program also offers an enormous amount of control when compared to the more modern GUI that's been released, since the modern GUI holds a totally different philosophy.

      The older GUI is really helpful in certain circumstances because it will spit out a file containing commands that were used in the session. This is a great demonstration of how to run a command or use a setting/config command, but a lot of newer features are buried in the documentation and aren't available in the older GUI.

      My coding experience

      I know the MAPDL language very intimately, but my experience beyond it is limited to some Perl scripting, and a bit of Python exposure.

      Motivation

      Open-Source Ansys API

      Recently, Ansys started supporting an open-source Python project called PyAnsys. MAPDL is otherwise fully closed source, and this is really the only public-facing API. PyAnsys has basically converted a lot of MAPDL script commands to a pythonic format, hence Python can now be used to interact with MAPDL. This is great for several reasons, but is limited regarding interactivity. Interacting with MAPDL via Python is basically happening in a fancy console via Jupyter notebook or IDE like Spyder. Certain commands will bring up Python-based graphics displays of solid models and results plots, but there isn't a dedicated GUI open all the time.

      The Question(s)

      My question is whether it is feasible to write a frontend GUI to a bunch of python commands. If you were going to do it, how would you do it? What might you write it with? Would you even do it? Is this a stupid endeavor?

      7 votes
    45. Libera Chat vs. Freenode: Who won?

      Let me start by saying this is a space I am not at all familiar with. I didn't grow up with IRC, my first text editor was Sublime (I'm not from the "EMACS vs. VIM" generation,) so I feel kinda...

      Let me start by saying this is a space I am not at all familiar with. I didn't grow up with IRC, my first text editor was Sublime (I'm not from the "EMACS vs. VIM" generation,) so I feel kinda outta touch with what all is going on.

      Is there a winner? I feel invested in this topic after seeing a whole slew of posts, blogs, and medium articles posted all over Reddit and HN breaking down how these folks have personally been impacted over the past month or so. It seems to have died down which leaves me with the question of what the outcome was. An even 50/50 split? Libera destroying Freenode? Or Freenode able to hold onto users by successfully preventing efforts to organize a transition?

      Without being in the Freenode community, I don't have a feeling for whether Freenode is dead, Libera Chat is "winning" and I don't think there's a good way to get metrics either.

      Anyone in this world who can help the uneducated out on the outcome of all of this?

      15 votes
    46. Continuing My Education with a CS Degree in Canada [A Help Thread]

      My Goal I am applying to Canadian universities for fall admission as a CS major. This will be my second degree, and one of the requirements of getting admitted for a second degree is to show that...

      My Goal

      I am applying to Canadian universities for fall admission as a CS major. This will be my second degree, and one of the requirements of getting admitted for a second degree is to show that you have a significant interest in the subject. My plan is to get online certificates to show that I am actually dedicated to learning CS and getting a job in the field. I am actually dedicated, I just need a way to show it on paper. I have some experience with software development (only the basics), but there aren't any records of it since it was just informal study.

      My Problem

      I can't decide which certificates I should pursue. I am torn between EdX and Udemy. I would Tilderinos' help in choosing between the two. I would also appreciate any general advice you may have.

      Here are the courses I plan to take on EdX (prices in USD):

      UBC's MicroMasters Program in
      Software Development
      - $832

      Harvard CS50's Web Programming with Python and JavaScript - $199

      IBM's Professional Certificate in
      Cloud Application Development Foundations
      - $169

      Here are the courses I plan to take on Udemy:

      The Ultimate 2021 Fullstack Web Development Bootcamp - $15

      The Complete 2021 Web Development Bootcamp - $15

      The Ultimate MySQL Bootcamp: Go from SQL Beginner to Expert - $30

      Angular - The Complete Guide (2021 Edition) - $15

      Comparisons

      To reiterate, I have two goals going into this. One is to actually learn web development, since I would like to become a fullstack developer (but my options are semi-open). The other is to prove to the Canadian universities that I am dedicated to learning and to give myself an edge over applicants.

      If I go with EdX, then I have to pay a much steeper price for the certificates. These courses also take a long time to get through and the projects don't seem as relevant to real word applications. But I will also be learning from established institutions like Harvard and UBC. EdX certificates also come with the distinct advantage that a human is checking the problem sets you submit. This will show the Canadian universities that I have actually spent the time and effort to go through the courses and pass them.

      If I go with Udemy, I will get through the courses in less time and their projects seem more related to real world projects. If I go through the courses faster, I will also have more time to start on some personal projects, and I can show my dedication to learning through those projects. Personal projects and also volunteer work will also help establish a resumé for future work. The courses on Udemy are a lot cheaper too. But they don't have the same level of verification or prestige that EdX does.

      So in summary, EdX has prestige and quality courses, but a steep prices and a huge time commitment. Udemy is cheaper and gives me more opportunities to do personal projects and volunteer work, but it's certificates aren't fully trustworthy from the Canadian universities' perspective.

      Final Words

      What do you think? Which path should I take?

      For those of you wondering, why I am going to university instead of a bootcamp, it's because I plan to immigrate to Canada and becoming a student seems the straightest way of getting PR. I need to leave my third world country as soon as I can, for mental health and economic reasons. I have been mostly unemployed ever since the pandemic started so I can't get work in Canada (or the U.S.) on my first degree (a management degree). I already tried that route. I can't find proper work here either.

      Also, I am sorry if I posted in the wrong group, or if I shouldn't have posted it anywhere at all. I desperately need advice on what to do and I don't have a trustworthy network here that can help me through this. I'm sorry and thank you for your help.

      8 votes
    47. If I'm using Cloudflare for my domains, do I need to bother with LE?

      It is late... and I am pretty much finished with migrating to a new VPS provider. I got rate limited with two domains, but I'm running everything through Cloudflare. Do I need to bother with...

      It is late... and I am pretty much finished with migrating to a new VPS provider. I got rate limited with two domains, but I'm running everything through Cloudflare. Do I need to bother with LetsEncrypt on the VPS itself? When I check the domains, the certs from CF are working nicely.

      This is my first time using CF.

      Quick edit while I pretend I can sleep.

      I’m thinking that CF will cover me for 443 and route all traffic there. I’ve got wildcards set for domains with services that require other ports — which is working. All CF is doing is caching my sites, right?

      7 votes
    48. What unified login to use?

      I'm setting up a server with nextcloud, plex, matrix and some other things I don't yet know, for some friends and family, (about 20 people if I get lucky) and now I heard of a thing called single...

      I'm setting up a server with nextcloud, plex, matrix and some other things I don't yet know, for some friends and family, (about 20 people if I get lucky)
      and now I heard of a thing called single sign on/unified login. (Login to different services with the same user/pw and/or login once, access to all services)

      so far I found out about Keycloak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keycloak

      is this what I'm looking for? does anybody have experience in this? Are there other/better/simpler solutions for this?

      12 votes
    49. Self hosting email at home?

      I recently set up kubernetes to run on an old laptop. The goal was two-fold, 1 learn kubernetes and 2 setup an instance of nextcloud. I've managed to set everything up with cert renewals for my...

      I recently set up kubernetes to run on an old laptop. The goal was two-fold, 1 learn kubernetes and 2 setup an instance of nextcloud. I've managed to set everything up with cert renewals for my domain and enabled dyndns in case my provider changes my ip. All well and good and quite nice learning experience! Now I would like to also start running my own email server and have some questions. Is ther any that have a helm chart that is easy to setup in kubernetes? Since I am running this from home I imagine I'm more likely to be classified as a spammer. What can I do to minimize the likelihood of that? I read somewhere about reverse DNS, but not entirely sure if it is possible to do given I am running it all at home via a regular ISP.

      17 votes