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Show HN: I built a(nother) house optimized for LAN parties

lanparty.house

331–340 of 397 posts

Re: Show HN: I built a(nother) house optimized for LAN parties

#331

I did something like this at my last house but somewhat more covertly, with monitors going into storage but having VESA quick mounts hidden near the Ethernet hubs, a few on articulating arms that could pop out near couches etc. My setup only supported 12, but was designed in a way where you could have 3 teams of 4 or 4 teams of 3 that got their own private area so they could more easily conspire against their opponen…

This sounds interesting! Do you have any photos? From the description this sounds like the most elaborate setup I've heard of aside from my own.

Sadly no. Probably due to embarrassment. I had gone through this effort but didn't manage to ever get more than 4 or 5 people over simultaneously to take advantage of it. Maybe if I had taken pictures and actually shared it around a bit more, I could have gotten more out of the setup!

Re: Show HN: I built a(nother) house optimized for LAN parties

#332
post #330
post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you need terminators for them :-)

... unless you make it into a ring ... IIRC. It's been a while.

The terminator creates a ring I think, so it should be possible to just connect end to end. But then you need to have more cables running around the place.

No, I realy don't miss those times :-)

Re: Show HN: I built a(nother) house optimized for LAN parties

#333
post #319

> but it's still a disturbing amount of energy usage and something I'm trying to debug As someone who is deeply frustrated with their HVAC this stood out to me. A new home should have exterior insulation. Plus the solar panels plus "efficient heat pumps". I would expect it to perform very well. I'm curious to know the square footage and how much power is being used. Did you have a blower door test done when the home…

5200 sqft. There are 5 heat pumps which seem to combine for an average 10kW power usage, with considerably less variation through the day than I would expect. Yes, they did blower door tests.

Wow. Sustained for the full hour? That's 7200kWh monthly. Roughly 2x per sqft compared to my 80's home.

I've spent a lot of time in my attic air sealing, distributing insulation that was poorly installed, installing new insulation, insulating the basement, air sealing the basement. In my experience, it did not lower my power usage but in that time I added a second heat pump so I can't compare apples to apples. I can anecdotally say the upstairs seems to retain its temperature better. I'm hoping this winter I'll know if it helped.

If you end up solving your problem blog about it and I'll read it...

Re: Show HN: I built a(nother) house optimized for LAN parties

#334

This is an extremely clever setup and certainly looks wonderful - but to me LAN parties are only LAN parties when people bring the computers with them (in much the same way that Champaign is only Champaign when from a certain place in France). That being said it looks wonderful and I hope it gives you and your community many years of enjoyment.

I thought that too originally! This is covered in the Q&A: https://lanparty.house/#why-build-in

Ah yah, I think this exactly gets at what I mean.

> I'm a little less nostalgic for the experience of trying to copy game files over the network to get everyone on the same version, or pitying the one friend who inevitably has to reinstall Windows and doesn't manage to get in-game until after midnight.

What you are describing is a cultural coming together in a digital kind of way. People would gather and bring their own computers and you would all work together to try and get those computers to talk to each other. Often someone would get their computer fixed up or made worse, but in any case the home setup of each person was changed a little bit by each LAN party. To me, that's the essential element of a LAN - the communal mixing and sync'ing of setups and programs that flows back out into each individuals' home. You can imagine it as a kind of digital breathing or hugging where folks gather together, commune, and then leave somewhat changed. We would try to have spare boxes for people who didn't have equipment or time to bring theirs, but it wasn't the same. This is exceedingly well constructed and imagined, and to me you've essentially built a private net cafe - complete with the netboot arrangement. It's really impressive but I don't think you should call it a LAN.

Re: Show HN: I built a(nother) house optimized for LAN parties

#335
post #154
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also considering 1400 sq ft (130 sq m) too small to raise a family is peak American... That's bigger than 99.9% of apartments people live in in Europe and raise a family just fine.

In fact, calling 1400 sq ft a bachelor pad and then complaining about housing is unaffordable there is hilarious on many levels.

The most hilarious level is that 99% of bachelors that I know spend 99% of their time in 1 room.

So they don't really need more than a studio anyway. Nor would they clean/maintain it anyway.

Re: Show HN: I built a(nother) house optimized for LAN parties

#336
post #153

> Jade and I needed a bigger house, but we really could not afford to buy (much less build) anything bigger in Palo Alto. I’m really surprised about this, really shows how ludicrous the housing market is in the Bay Area. How high does your income need to be to afford a bigger house?!

One issue with wanting a big house in Palo Alto is that most of the lots there are fairly small. There's not that many lots that can accomodate a larger home, so at best there's not many options, and sometimes there are none.

Not for a reasonable price, anyway. There are some homes that have added basements to get the space, but now we're talking something like $6 million, if not more.

Re: Show HN: I built a(nother) house optimized for LAN parties

#337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. Only 98% of mechanical keyboards are noisy.

Nope, not even close. Mainly just the ones with clicky (e.g. mx-blue, less so mx-brown) switches. It's an option but not a requirement, and honestly not that common for gaming-oriented ones, which typically have linear non-clicky switches, which can be quieter than membrane buttons, even. I like the semi-clicky brown ones for typing but haven't used them for years for noise reasons. My mechanical KBs have generally a…

I've got two keyboards with red switches, some basic foam and o-rings. It's still noisy, especially in a small home office.

Re: Show HN: I built a(nother) house optimized for LAN parties

#338
post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to move, yesterday. Yes, moving sucks. No, ideally you wouldn't have to. But at the end of the day you are just plain shooting yourself in the foot if you continue to live in a place that absurdly expensive. Like dude, you could buy an awesome house in just about any other part of the country if you truly have $1m in liquid wealth. You have options to own a house, you just have to act on them.

Some people value other things than homeownership. Some people value living in their area (regardless of what it costs) for reasons that make moving undesirable.

Well this person is complaining about not being a homeowner so...

Re: Show HN: I built a(nother) house optimized for LAN parties

#339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely embarrassing and a real life demonstration of a famous quote: “I have never understood why it is ‘greed’ to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else’s money.”

To be fair OP's website explains that most of the money isn't earned income. I'm happy for them though

Working for a company that pays you in stock and then selling those stocks is in fact earned.
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