put an old computer in your closet. ssh through your phone (need a proper ssh client tho; I use a custom ssh client and keyboard, both not in the playstore but It's best for what I do). install GNU Screen. install Claude Code CLI. tell claude about your environment and what you are trying to do. enjoy.
My server is a phone now
161–170 of 277 posts
Re: My server is a phone now
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
This cliche of "only on hackernews people say interesting stuff" must die.
You meant, "people say interesting stuff only on hackernews". Theme vs rheme.
Yes but no. What I did is called Fronting.
> Sometimes, particularly in speaking, when we want to focus on something important, we bring it to the front of the clause. This is called ‘fronting’.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/fro...
Re: My server is a phone now
#163When I read about the browser 'surf', I first thought of the browser from suckless: https://surf.suckless.org/
Re: My server is a phone now
#164Side comment about the difference between “My server is a phone now” and “My phone is a server now.” In linguistics, the terms “theme” and “rheme” refer to the status of information in a sentence [1]. The theme of a sentence is something that is known or can be assumed from the context (that is, old information), while the rheme is information that is newly introduced in the sentence, often as a comment on the theme.…
I wonder if this is a native/non-native English reader situation. I'm the latter and for me the title promised that I will read about a server that now is capable of letting a person call to order a pizza. That was immediate thought. It would be very interesting to see a poll results on how many of us thought that the article is about a server doing phone stuff and not a phone doing server stuff.
I don't think it is, I'm also the latter and happened to assume the opposite. The article was exactly what I expected from the title.
I mean, turning a server rack into a phone just isn't something that makes any sense, so it didn't seem like a valid option to consider. I've thrown it at a few LLMs now to see what happens and they also make the same assumption with no extra info, that it's a server now being hosted on a phone. That's the statistics talking. It's very unlikely to be the opposite.
Re: My server is a phone now
#165I work in a place where we have about 100 phones in a server room that we use for automated testing of mobile apps. A few phones get chucked out every year due to bloated batteries. We’ve even had one or two explosions. We have them well cooled now and in fireproof containers. We try to do some power management like automatically discharging them every once in a while etc…
Is it not worth the effort to take them apart and take the batteries out before you put them into the rack?
This reminded me about the recent Google blog post where they made a server farm out of a bunch of old phones:
"Prior to deployment, smartphones must be processed to remove all but the motherboard, which contains the core compute functionality. Note that the motherboard is responsible for the largest fraction of embodied carbon (approximately 50% based on internal carbon footprinting assessments), so this effort targets the most impactful components."
And they accomplished the author's first goal to run real GNU/Linux on the phones.
https://research.google/blog/a-low-carbon-computing-platform...
The new AGI goalpost will be "able to deploy Linux on everyone's old phone with drivers for all the hardware ".
Re: My server is a phone now
#166I thought this was going to be a rant about QR code menus.
Can you please tell me more? I'm trying to build a self hosted application (with Claude) so people can scan a QR code and place orders / send messages to the kitchen without having to flag down a server / waiter. It is supposed to save time and money for the restaurant and for the patrons and customers it is supposed to be more convenient. Do you not like this option?
As a strictly opt-in system, with a corresponding default tip amount reduction of 50% (7.5%/9%/10%), I don’t see any issues :)
Re: My server is a phone now
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some phones bypass the battery when plugged in, but not all do. I know it's advertised as a feature of some gaming phones because graphics-intensive gaming is one use case where you'd want to use the phone heavily while plugged in.
Steamdeck lets you set your preferred % and the dock does pass through charging/power, which I love because that combo guarantees the longest possible life for the battery. I turn it back to 100% for flights, otherwise leave it as 80% at all times. Mine is almost 4 years old now but I don’t feel even a hint of battery degredation yet.
I do the same with mine, except that I haven't been on a flight since I got it :)
Re: My server is a phone now
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing I've heard with people who do this "at scale" is to expect the phones to burn out. They're made for pretty bursty activity so if you try to do too much on em continuously they start acting weird real quick
What does "burn out" mean? Doesn't the CPU throttle if the phone gets too hot? Or maybe some parts like the eMMC aren't spec'd for things like constant logging?
like legit CPUs etc start failing. There's throttling but ultimately even that....
things might have gotten better though, I last had convos with people who did this maybe 6 years ago at this point.
Re: My server is a phone now
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it not worth the effort to take them apart and take the batteries out before you put them into the rack?
This reminded me about the recent Google blog post where they made a server farm out of a bunch of old phones: "Prior to deployment, smartphones must be processed to remove all but the motherboard, which contains the core compute functionality. Note that the motherboard is responsible for the largest fraction of embodied carbon (approximately 50% based on internal carbon footprinting assessments), so this effort targ…
All Android phones run "Linux" - the hard part is running mainline linux
Re: My server is a phone now
#170Side comment about the difference between “My server is a phone now” and “My phone is a server now.” In linguistics, the terms “theme” and “rheme” refer to the status of information in a sentence [1]. The theme of a sentence is something that is known or can be assumed from the context (that is, old information), while the rheme is information that is newly introduced in the sentence, often as a comment on the theme.…
I wonder if this is a native/non-native English reader situation. I'm the latter and for me the title promised that I will read about a server that now is capable of letting a person call to order a pizza. That was immediate thought. It would be very interesting to see a poll results on how many of us thought that the article is about a server doing phone stuff and not a phone doing server stuff.
I don't think so either, as a native English speaker, I originally read this as my server now has phone capabilities, not my phone is now being used as a server.