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My server is a phone now

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Re: My server is a phone now

#71

Post by Xirdus »

gerdesj wrote: post #36
thehamkercat wrote: post #2

"My phone is a server now" would've been better -- > built in battery backup Isn't it always recommended to remove battery if you plan to use a phone or a laptop as a server? ( Fire hazard ) or is it fine to just limit the charging to 80%?

"My phone is a server now" - OP's choice is a subtle one. By saying "my server is now ..." implies a change of server platform to a phone but not where it came from. Your offering: "my phone is a server now" implies a change of phone usage but does not indicate where the server came from. The article itself tells all.

To me, "my server is now..." implies there was some server, it used to do server things, but now it has been repurposed to do something else.

When I read the title, I literally thought "wow, I've seen a lot of people make servers out of old unused phones, but this is the first time I've heard someone make a phone out of an old unused server!"

Re: My server is a phone now

#72

Post by lucb1e »

hakunin wrote: post #63
SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #32

I still think the best bang for your buck is an old desktop PC. Something like an i5 with 8GB RAM and an SSD will suit 99% of home server uses with capacity to spare. Even in this environment of inflated hardware prices, you can get one for a reasonable price. Although I do see the appeal in getting unconventional hardware to do what you want, just for the love of the game.

Yep. My 2010 server does everything I need incredibly well, and I see no point in retiring it anytime soon. ASRock H67M-ITX, i3 2.5GHz, 16GB DDR3 1333Mhz, 2TB+4TB SSDs, DVD-RW, in this Mini-ITX Antec case[1]. [1]: https://www.antec.com/product/case/isk300-150

What's the idle draw on that?

Re: My server is a phone now

#73

Post by TacticalCoder »

coffeecoders wrote: post #37
SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #32

I still think the best bang for your buck is an old desktop PC. Something like an i5 with 8GB RAM and an SSD will suit 99% of home server uses with capacity to spare. Even in this environment of inflated hardware prices, you can get one for a reasonable price. Although I do see the appeal in getting unconventional hardware to do what you want, just for the love of the game.

It only makes sense if we are measuring raw capability per dollar. Once you factor in noise, physical size, idle power, battery etc, I think the calculation changes. For a home sever that's mostly idle, it is almost like commuting in a pickup truck.

My server is an extremely quiet Xeon workstation: unlike 1U servers, workstation are typically quiet. The good thing with a Xeon workstation is that it supports ECC RAM only and there are plenty used. For there's no market for used Xeon systems, so you can find stuff like 22-cores / 44-threads CPUs for $25 or something.

Some mod Xeon systems to use regular PC PSU like Be Quiet! ones and Noctua fans, etc. but my HP Z440 workstation is so quiet already I didn't need to.

In my case it's an headless server and is sits between the vacuum cleaner and the cat's food: there are literally only two cables connected to it, the power cable and the ethernet cable.

I can live with the footprint of one tower.

I run many VMs and containers inside those VMs: Git server, pastebin, NAS, containerized/VM-isolated AI agents, etc. but I don't need it to be up 24/7. I basically only need those when I'm working. So electricity usage ain't a big concern to me as it's more like running 8/7.

I don't feel like I'm commuting in a pickup truck: I feel like I have the perfect machine for the task.

Re: My server is a phone now

#74

Post by lucb1e »

collabs wrote: post #27
yoyohello13 wrote: post #14

I 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?

Notice that when someone grabs their phone, they're not just grabbing a web browser but also their personal entertainer. Besides chats, many people also have various apps trying to nudge them into engaging with it. I have never been in a restaurant without menu though, I just imagine that I'd end up on HN while contemplating what to pick out of sheer habit and muscle memory

Besides that, there are people who have no smartphone or an empty battery, can't use a smartphone (one of my grandparents can read a menu with a pocket magnifier, but a touchscreen phone is too cumbersome and so they don't know how to use that; another grandparent has memory issues and never learned how to use a smartphone), don't have signal (you need to provide WiFi), have an allergy and need to ask questions or ensure that some ingredient is really taken out, etc. I'm not against the option to order impersonally but a good kitchen communication system would go a lot deeper than slapping wetware with slopware

Re: My server is a phone now

#75

Post by TacticalCoder »

mikepurvis wrote: post #61
SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #32

I still think the best bang for your buck is an old desktop PC. Something like an i5 with 8GB RAM and an SSD will suit 99% of home server uses with capacity to spare. Even in this environment of inflated hardware prices, you can get one for a reasonable price. Although I do see the appeal in getting unconventional hardware to do what you want, just for the love of the game.

This is my situation exactly. Got an i5-4570 with 16GB, no GPU, running Unraid with a bunch of containers for Jellyfin, qBittorrent, Crafty Controller (minecraft), HomeAssistant, etc. I'm using a PCIe expansion card to get double NVMe drives for the cache disk, and then three (up to five) 3.5" spinning 8TB drives for long term. I tried really hard to get it on 32GB but sadly the motherboard only has two slots and onl…

> I tried really hard to get it on 32GB but sadly the motherboard only has two slots and only supports 8GB DDR3 modules.

Buy a refurbished Xeon workstation with DDR4 RAM. If you're in the US or China they're basically free and if you're in the EU, they aren't too pricey (like you can definitely find ones for less than 200 EUR). Slap your double NVMe expansion card, your two NVMEs and your 3 3.5" spinning rust in it. If the workstation doesn't come with a Xeon with lots of cores, just buy one on eBay for $25.

Re: My server is a phone now

#76

Post by TacticalCoder »

collabs wrote: post #27
yoyohello13 wrote: post #14

I 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?

> ... without having to flag down a server / waiter.

Using QR codes to not having to talk to a human and to "optimize" humans out of the loop in a restaurant sounds like a great scenario for an episode of black mirror.

QR code menus are one the shittiest experience people going to a restaurant to enjoy a meal can have.

> Do you not like this option?

The entire world fucking hates it. It's totally dumbfucktarded.

Sorry to be blunt.

Re: My server is a phone now

#77

Post by joombaga »

seg6 wrote: post #7
thehamkercat wrote: post #2

"My phone is a server now" would've been better -- > built in battery backup Isn't it always recommended to remove battery if you plan to use a phone or a laptop as a server? ( Fire hazard ) or is it fine to just limit the charging to 80%?

Some newer phones support bypass charging, which powers the phone directly instead of continuously cycling the battery. Mine doesn't support that, unfortunately, so I've limited charging to 80% to reduce battery stress.

That's surprising to me. It's been a standard feature on laptops for 20 years.

Edit: Or I should say, it was 20 years ago. Maybe modern stuff is worse, but my M2 MacBook Air and Framework 13 Intel Core both power on without a battery.

Re: My server is a phone now

#78

Post by lucb1e »

hoppp wrote: post #57

I thought about this a few times but the flash storage is a bit sketchy for running a database, I am worried it can die. Tho android does have sqlite built in and works fine.

Just because it's a database doesn't mean it does more write cycles on the flash cells than storing regular files would cause it to. Anytime you change something, it writes either a file, or does an update/insert query which causes a file write. In both cases you've written a few bytes to disk, doesn't really matter what the underlying system is (not majorly anyway, surely one solution will turn out to be some % better than another and cause the average phone's storage chip to last 30 years instead of 40 under some defined typical usage pattern)

You can also just insert an SD card to do the write-heavy operations and swap it out when it wears out (you make backups, right? :D)

Re: My server is a phone now

#79

Post by wraptile »

SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #32

I still think the best bang for your buck is an old desktop PC. Something like an i5 with 8GB RAM and an SSD will suit 99% of home server uses with capacity to spare. Even in this environment of inflated hardware prices, you can get one for a reasonable price. Although I do see the appeal in getting unconventional hardware to do what you want, just for the love of the game.

I just bought a refurbished Lenovo k14 with 32gb of ram and Corei7-1165G7 with 500gb for 350$ which I'll use as my 2nd home server.

My first home server is a 2nd hand gaming PC that I bought for 500$ with 32gb and 7700rx video card that I use for GPU based tasks but it's quite audible when it's working so wife and I agreed it has no place in the living room anymore and is being deported to the corner of my office.

You can still find really good bargains for home servers from refurbished good computers, and given how well solved tech reliability is now, it's really not worth buying new.

Re: My server is a phone now

#80

Post by mintflow »

Nice writeup but use legacy phone is really need to do some tuning and hacks, but that's fun to do if one like it.

For me I have a 24x7 running intel gen 11 nuc, i am lucky to get it installed with 32G memory and two NVME disks years ago and cannot image add those memory and NVME disk with much higher price

Just run some docker and VM on that, use cloudflare tunnel or tailscale funnel if you want to expose some service to the wild internet

I recently even find a pixel 5 and passthrough it to the openclaw VM on that nuc, let it browse the X to find some posts and relax me from doom scrolling, though seems timeline still bad and no much valued post find.

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