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LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

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Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#131
post #122
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’ve already got a bucket ready to roll for this sort of thing, S3 is cheap, straightforward, with a stable interface and API, ownership over your assets, and a much lower chance your content will end up placed on-page and strongly associated with stuff that isn’t yours.

I truly don’t understand downvotes here. Imgur’s fine; S3’s fine; different people have different use cases. How is that contentious?

It becomes a discussion of engineering decisions

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#132

can somebody with more server/home server experience explain to me the benefit of going with a rackmount setup vs let's say, just building a second PC to use as a home server? I recently bought a house and am excited to get into home networking/home server work, but don't know anything about rack mount. Is rackmount equipment cheaper than regular consumer PC hardware?

Most rackmount servers have some sort of remote management interface, which makes it a lot easier to work with them on a headless basis. Pitfalls: Server-class hardware can take a very long time to POST, as they're intended to run 24x7, and (especially 1U and 2U boxes) tend to have extremely loud fans. If you want a quiet server, your best bet is to build it up from a server motherboard and a 4U case, and use quiet f…

this!

If you are concerned about noise, do not buy a 1U unit. Small fans still need to move air. Since they are small the way to make up for this is to have a lot of them and make them spin very fast. The faster they spin the more noise they make.

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#133

Given how many Lack tables I've seen fall apart without any sort of load, I would be very reluctant to try this, no matter how many people report it works for them. It's IKEA's cheapest table for a reason.

They don't hold up well to repeated side impacts or horizontal shearing. So kids jumping on it, shin kicks, or moving locations. They do well with the vertical forces if they're rarely moved.

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#134
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With regard to recipes, I sometimes wonder if "round numbers" are causing us to miss out on more optimal recipes. Maybe that dish really would turn out better cooked at 176F, or with 1 and 7/16 cups of flour instead of 1.5.

When it comes to flour, I don't understand why the USA insists on measuring it by volume when the rest of the world does it by mass. The density of flour can vary widely depending on if it's packed at all, and scooping it often leads to voids in the bottom of the measuring cup that you likely won't see unless you're using a clear measuring cup. When using flour or baking mixes, I convert to grams (1 cup all-purpose f…

Every American kitchen has measuring cups, few have scales. And people learn that method and continue to use it (most people don't even know about zeroing a scale after you add each ingredient).

It may also be that US measuring cups are "more convenient" sizes than the equivalent metric ones would be.

For flour, they often specify "sifted" which removes some of the variability.

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#135
post #113
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’ve already got a bucket ready to roll for this sort of thing, S3 is cheap, straightforward, with a stable interface and API, ownership over your assets, and a much lower chance your content will end up placed on-page and strongly associated with stuff that isn’t yours.

Free beats cheap. Imgur and its comeptitors are also straightforward. You don't really need an API for a single upload. The ownership and control argument is great in theory, but this is now an image on the internet. Anyone can link to it which will cost you money. Anyone can download it and upload to somewhere else. That means all appearances of control are artificial. I don't see much benefit here.

[deleted]

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They somewhat do - this is the "skill" in being a chef, knowing what ingredients to add/reduce to get the result you want.

Why the quotes around skill?

Grocer's quotes for emphasis.

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#137
post #122
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’ve already got a bucket ready to roll for this sort of thing, S3 is cheap, straightforward, with a stable interface and API, ownership over your assets, and a much lower chance your content will end up placed on-page and strongly associated with stuff that isn’t yours.

I truly don’t understand downvotes here. Imgur’s fine; S3’s fine; different people have different use cases. How is that contentious?

No post body was provided.

Re: LackRack: IKEA's cheapest table is perfectly sized to rackmount computers (2020)

#139

I naively put an old LaCie 1U server under a Lack table 13 years ago, thinking it would be a great media server in my living room. I had no idea how loud rackmount fans were. It was obviously unusable for watching any kind of media.

For all the effort (and money) put into making a media server as quiet as possible (which is still not silent), I think you're way further ahead to just not put the server in your living room. Instead, put it in the basement/closet/garage/utility room -- somewhere you won't hear it. Then, broadly speaking, you have three options:

A commercial box, like NVidia shield, Chromecast, Roku, Amazon Fire stick or AppleTV. This is by far the easiest as you get a remote, a "10 foot user interface" and they work with online services like Youtube, Netflix, etc. If you care about everything being open source software this obviously isn't a good option.

You can also DIY your own box on a Raspberry Pi. Be prepared to do lots of tinkering, though.

The other option is to get the media server's UI remotely. Long HDMI cable, HDMI-over-cat5 or wireless HDMI gets audio/video; some of those also do USB, or you can do wireless control if it's close enough. Almost as much tinkering as a Raspberry Pi, but could be cheaper if it's not far.

Another big benefit of the first two options is it scales to multiple clients, if you have more than one TV.

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