Us nerds don’t buy laptops?

I don’t either, but there are many in my family and friends I will gladly support.

Time to order a few SanDisk cards

I use Xpenology on an HP Gen 8 microswrver, a pretty nifty piece of kit. Works great, but setting up and upgrading versions can be a rather involved process.

Gamer desktops tend to be power hogs. Running them 24/7 can rack up some hefty power bills, plus noise, plus space, plus other tradeoffs.

Better a used thin client.

If you have a 3d printer, or access, o know someone willing to print for you, there are many free models out there

Definitely an option, but for the price of a Pi with all the extras, case, power supply, etc, you can get a used thin client that is way more capable.

There is a guy on YouTube that often reviews these things, and discovers some models that are surprisingly capable.

Synology publishes a list of certified non-synology drives, and warns you that drives outside the list are not recommended, but, at least in non enterprise models, allows them to be used. I believe there is some rather easy way (some config file change or the like) to circumvent the limitation, but yeah, dick move.

Bargaining chip. Hehe, I see what you did there.

Tesla sells itself as a technology innovation company, but it sells hype.

Oh, I understand that perfectly well. The question is: that thing is a tethered balloon. If they expect to have it float 10 Km up, it has to be tethered with a cable at least 10Km long, which should be able to withstand the forces created by wind resistance, plus its own weight, and be conductive, so some lightweight cable won’t cut it, metal will have to be involved, and not some lightweight signal cable, but hefty metal. Will that thing be buoyant enough to lift that cable?

Is that thing going to be able to float itself and support the weight of the cables at the altitudes they talk about?

Brother, brother.

Why would you use third party inks in an ecotank? Genuine epson inks in bottles for the ecotank are super cheap. I follow the opposite route. Refillable epson compatible cartridges with ecotank inks. Epson quality with third party costs.

I’m a fight simmer, and have used Flight gear. The main top options now are MS flight simulator, with incredible vusuals, and Laminar’s Xplane, better flight model, so good in fact, that Laminar has a version which is FAA approved for simulator hours for pilots certification, and still great graphics. Both are way, way better than Flight gear (which is truly amazing for a FOSS flight Sim.)

If flight Sims are key to your decision making, I would pay for X Plane, a pay once model, that runs natively in Linux, Windows, and Mac, then spec around that. Next decision for me would be the GPU. In Linux most people seem to recommend AMD. I haven’t delved into the issue, since I’ve had AMD for a while.

My usual decision process is:

1- analyze needs (programs and stuff that are important).

2- budget.

3- decide general specs.

4- get the best power supply I can afford within budget, gold, active PFC, modular, etc. Spec for at least 20% more wattage than maximum projected consumption Do a bit of research, googling etc. Be wary of ranked lists from established publications, as they are often influenced by manufacturers. So many people don’t understand that the PS is the single most important component to ensure that everything else works correctly. Forum/reddit threads are better.

5- a good case. Fractal is my current go to.

6- GPU

7- processor.

8- board, Ram, memory, SSD, cooling

9- yoke, joystick (hotas), and pedals. 10 - everything else.

Old timer IT guy here. I have built all my computers since the early 90s. My process has always started with a top notch power supply, then a top notch case. My current one is a Fractal. It’s beautiful, and the quality is incredible.

Linux and all its flavors?

What’s wrong with libreoffice or anyoffice? For a large percentage of users, Linux is fine, especially as many applications have an online option. For the stuff I do, in Linux, online Office is more than sufficient.

An org I work with provides me with a 365 license, but I I’m more comfortable in Libreoffice.

Office is used bythe majority, but majority doesn’t mean they are right, they are simply more.

Arrrr

Humidifiers are simple and cheap. Maybe the cost of a 2 in 1 wouldn’t make commercial sense.

Also, it would probably need two water tanks, as I imagine you wouldn’t want to use the drain tank as a clean water source.

Just guessing here.

I have 2 4K tvs, one used as a monitor. I’m now rewatching some 70’s - 80’s shows. When the intro starts, I’m acutely aware of the low res, but as soon as the show starts, I get into the content, and I really don’t notice the resolution.

If you focus on the resolution instead of the content, maybe the content is not that engaging.