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My server is a phone now

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Re: My server is a phone now

#171

Post by Daedren »

KetoManx64 wrote: post #155
madwolf wrote: post #134

I 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?

Phones won't work without batteries. You need to make some hardware changes for them to keep working, it's not trivial.

Re: My server is a phone now

#172

Post by foobarbecue »

moffkalast wrote: post #164
jarek83 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

Of course it's clear which is more likely in this specific case, but from the semantic structure I read (present tense) it the other way around. It actually struck me as a grammatical error when I first read (past tense) it.

If I said "my water is ice now," one would assume freezing rather than melting.

So in this case one would assume a server became a phone, when actually a phone became a server.

(English is my first language.)

Re: My server is a phone now

#173

Post by MayeulC »

gonzalohm wrote: post #129
lucb1e wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It will probably destroy this battery very quickly. 'Very quickly' seems to be measured in decades from what I see Most people I know have their laptop docked, either near-permanently at home or taking it between home and a desk with dock (so it's nearly always plugged in when in use) The 'servers' I've had were all old laptops - yes, with battery (don't have to buy a separate UPS if one is already included). I've…

I think laptops have a way to circumvent the battery when plugged and fully charged

Some phones do too, it depends on their power management integrated circuit (PMIC) and driver. Though it's always better to physically disconnect the battery when not in use, as there is always a trickle current otherwise (most "spicy pillows" batteries are due to deep discharge, as far as I know). The best practice is to store batteries disconnected, at 60% capacity). In theory you could build a small circuit to sit in between the phone and battery to protect it, maybe I'll have a go at it.

Re: My server is a phone now

#174

Post by carb »

OJFord wrote: post #153
tkgally wrote: post #100

Side 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 actually think it's just a poor title, "my server runs on a phone now" would be better. As it is, I expected the server to now have a modem, to be operating as a phone.

that title might be easier to parse, but it's less poetic and less attention grabbing

Re: My server is a phone now

#175

Post by fidotron »

Nokia went through a phase in around 2006 of seriously believing the future was people liveblogging and serving it over 3G from Symbian based Series 60 devices. This was based on "Apache Raccoon" https://sourceforge.net/projects/raccoon/files/raccoon/PS_1_... which was a port of Apache to Symbian, and a port of Python for scripting, complete with the ability to write multithreaded code (GIL excepted) using Symbian Active Objects.

Re: My server is a phone now

#176

Post by Peanuts99 »

lostlogin wrote: post #68
auspiv wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern dell desktops (like 8th gen+) idle around 10W. Raspberry pi isn’t saving much

I’m impressed with that. I had a Nuc 9 extreme with a 10gb SFP card in it. It averaged 69w. The Mac Mini I replaced it with uses just under 5w. A Mini is possible the worst bang for buck. Also, the horror that that is Desktop Docker can’t be over emphasised. I know there are better ways of using Docker on a Mac, but having got something working I can’t face rebuilding it.

Some of those SFP cards can use quite a bit of energy on their own. They're not designed with energy efficiency in mind.

I've got an Optiplex with an i5 and two hard drives and that idles around 12W when idling.

Re: My server is a phone now

#177

Post by peheje »

I'm using my unrooted stock s23u with damaged screen as a server but only to me thru tailscale.

Termux. Proot ubuntu. Serving OWUI and syncthing. Works fine. Had to remove pw protection so runit starts services at reboot. Therefore encrypted at rest any sensitive data

I Ssh in into it with ai harness to make changes. Made me not want to sell it after all.

Re: My server is a phone now

#179

Post by logicallee »

curtisblaine wrote: post #130

Sigh, I expected some crazy project like hooking a big Xeon rack to batteries, running Graphite or Android on it and sticking it in a backpack to use as a primary phone. That would have been glorious. Instead, I got the same old post of someone serving web pages from a mobile phone :(

(not OP). okay here's something that's not the same old post. I don't walk around with it in a backpack though:

I asked Claude to set up Twilio (a phone API), and after setting everything up for it, now I can give my Claude agent instructions in any format where I have access to it (such as our Jira, by email, or when I'm writing a prompt by hand in Claude Code) to call me if it gets stuck or has any questions or needs anything from me, or to call me when it's finished.

so now I sometimes get to relax at home and get a call where Claude tells me that I have a Jira ticket that needs me to answer a question. so I open up Jira, answer the question, and go about my day.

(I also have it call me to remind me about appointments and requires me to press a key to acknowledge it, so that I definitely don't miss the call and confirm that I got it - I did this because I was constantly missing reminders and calendar appointments.)

So, while my server isn't literally a phone, it does call me when it has a question and to remind me about my appointments.

Re: My server is a phone now

#180

Post by Waterluvian »

jqbd wrote: post #106
Waterluvian wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“My daily driver is a clown car now.”

If you have a clown car already, know how it works, and it's magically cheaper to drive than regular cars and car prices are high then I don't see the issue with this.

Plus I get to use the Harlequin Occupancy Vehicle lane.
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