My server is a phone now • Hacker News Board

Re: My server is a phone now

#191

Post by calgoo » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 1:39 PM UTC

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.…

It works in Spanish i think... "Mi servidor es un telefono" - As someone switching back and forth between English and Spanish, it often feels like Spanish sentences are "backwards" to English.

Re: My server is a phone now

#192

Post by PaulDavisThe1st » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 1:41 PM UTC

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 also elides the distinction between "the server" as a piece of hardware and "the server" as a piece of software, which in an HN context is not insignificant.

Re: My server is a phone now

#193

Post by Forgeties79 » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 1:57 PM UTC

hnuser123456 wrote: post #21

Forgeties79 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m also an ammo-case-for-drone-batteries guy but they aren’t running and don’t generate heat. A phone would cook right?

Phones are very low power, likely just a slightly warm spot on the can that radiates, conducts, and convects the heat out. You could also use one of those peltier module phone coolers, to ensure the heat gets out of the phone and into the air faster.

That’s seems like a lot of work when a $200 box will solve it all without the need lol

Re: My server is a phone now

#194

Post by da_chicken » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 2:07 PM UTC

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #192

OJFord wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 also elides the distinction between "the server" as a piece of hardware and "the server" as a piece of software, which in an HN context is not insignificant.

Only in as much as "phone" as telephony hardware, "phone" as telephony software, and "phone" as a shortening of "smartphone" in the same way.

The author should have swapped the title with the subtitle: "rooting a CMF Phone 1 to run my personal infrastructure at home".

Re: My server is a phone now

#195

Post by alightsoul » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 2:13 PM UTC

alightsoul wrote: post #30

FYI you can't do this on phones with locked bootloaders as well as the author did. you could use termux but if termux runs on anything lower than android 8 termux will be significantly limited and you will need postmarketos and maybe fix support for it. with termux, at best things will be slow without root, as the author mentioned rooting resulted in a speed increase. without root, you also can't bind to ports on any…

Postmarket os is required if your device runs android 7 or below due to termux limitations which prevent you from installing packages, or if your android version has missing kernel syscalls that prevent you from running containers without x86 emulation which is slow.

Rooting is required to install postmarketos, and making termux faster and bind to ports on Android. You don't need postmarketos if your android version can run containers on termux with all the required kernel syscalls

To root or install postmarketos you need an unlocked bootloader.

Re: My server is a phone now

#196

Post by psychoslave » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 2:16 PM UTC

coliveira wrote: post #190

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.…

This shows a problem with the English language: the same sentence can be understood in at least two ways: "the server can now work as a phone", or "the phone is now my server". It is to solve this kind of issue that many languages have markers to specify what each noun means in the sentence.

This is nothing specific to English in general. Though English do offer high latitude of introducing ambiguities. For example stacking nominal groups with mere juxtaposition where for example French is more found of prepositions or adjective whose form is distinct from their equivalent noun/verb/adverb.

Re: My server is a phone now

#197

Post by alightsoul » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 2:22 PM UTC

axus wrote: post #165

KetoManx64 wrote: post #155

Earlier 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…

How did they manage to run the phones without the battery? Apparently you need to desolder the BMS from the battery, and connect a power supply to it. And I guess simulate charging via USB and discharging so it doesn't turn off because it thinks it has drawn more than its battery capacity?

Re: My server is a phone now

#198

Post by psychoslave » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 2:24 PM UTC

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #128

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.…

Isn't there a simpler explanation in that "my server" can refer to a role or to a specific machine? The author uses "server" as a role. So "my server is a phone now" translates to "the server role in my setup is now played by a phone". Maybe this is just a rewording of what you said. You clearly know a lot more than me about linguistics.

In Esperanto:

Servilo, the tool that serves something.

Servulo, someone who serves something.

Servanto, some agent (in grammatical sense, so very broadly applicable) which serves something.

Servisto, some professional serving something.

--

That's a big tangential to TFA though, add other noted it suffers from wording ambiguity that don't need any other language to be dispelled. Compare for example "Dæmons dwells on phone now", just as short, far less ambiguity.

Re: My server is a phone now

#199

Post by alightsoul » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 2:24 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #149

It is incredible the amount of gimmicks some folks will go through, even if it was to stay with reuse Android phone story, Java and Kotlin as regular Android app already provide all the juice required to do the job.

You can't bind to ports so you can't run a server without a proxy. Depending on your android version you also can't run containers due to missing kernel syscalls, so you have to use x86 emulation

Re: My server is a phone now

#200

Post by christophilus » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 2:25 PM UTC

seg6 wrote: post #188

In true HN fashion, a surprising amount of the discussion ended up being about the title. Turkish is my native language, and its sentence structure is pretty different from English, so that occasionally sneaks into how I phrase things. I can see why “my server runs on a phone now” is less ambiguous. Anyway, I’ve enjoyed the accidental linguistics thread :)

Great post. I’m impressed with your English skills. Turkish is a very different language, so I can’t imagine it’s easy to pick up English. Anyway, you inspired me to try doing this with one of my old devices. Gonna put that on my September hacking list.