The best "bang for the buck" in your use-case is to use Nextcloud - Nextcloud Talk is your Jitsi replacement, and the files feature can be extended with the Nextcloud Photos plugin (https://github.com/nextcloud/photos).

As for your domain question:

1. You should use any computer you'd like that meets the Nextcloud recommendations, the key is of course isolating this machine on your home network so any "funny business" stays on the server. You can do this with VLANs or an entirely separate LAN connected to a different WAN (ISP).

2. Many places, I like porkbun.com for real custom domains for cheap, but for your use case, you might be able to use a Dynamic DNS provider for free. It just likely won't be an easy to remember URL (or at least, as easy as a root domain only). If you have a newer ASUS or Netgear router/modem they both have Dynamic DNS built in and you can select from a few different providers that have both free and paid tiers. ALSO it might be better to use Google Domains (now squarespace domains) since, IIRC, many DynDNS configs for routers support Google Domains too. Cloudflare can also be a decent registrar, and I'd recommend using them if you use any other cloudflare services (see below).

3. Other things to consider: Your ISP may block port 80, meaning lots of issues. If this is the case, you might want to use a tunnel of some sort. Cloudflare has a great solution here. Even if they don't block port 80, they may aggressively throttle and shape your incoming traffic - causing issues. Again, the tunnel is a good solution here. And, of course, your upload bandwidth matters a lot, you'll need something around 100Mbps upload for a decent experience when accessing your stuff over the internet. The 30Mbps that's typical of DOCSIS modems won't cut it. Outside of these concerns it's all about making sure you isolate your server from your "home stuff" to keep things secure.

I mean, the last time there was a sort of science fiction renaissance (arguably the 40s to 70s) people felt better about their lot in life - well besides the whole cold war thing.

So I'm not sure that tracks as much?

By the same logic one could argue that we should see more fantasy stuff. And, sure, kinda - but not the same level as the post-LOTR fantasy boom. I know Amazon is trying to do their thing with the Tolkien universe, but it doesn't seem to be sticking in the same way as it's sci-fi contemporaries. HBO has their other GOT universe franchise and even that seems to be falling flat on audiences.

Why would Sci-fi be preferable to Fantasy if it's just about escapism? I certainly wouldn't know, but it's definitely a curious thought.

I very much agree. I self-identified as a socialist for a long while before actually getting on the ground and building things. And you know what? I found that online "socialism" or "communism" is absolutely nothing like the folks you meet in real life.

Turns out that the loudest on the left doesn't always correlate with who shows up to their community. It's easy to be loud these days, after all. Not so easy to build.

I find that those I help clean the streets with or building new community spaces with are far more pragmatic than any of the "chronically online" socialists/communists - and that pragmatism is derived from a deep experience of what does and doesn't work. What does and doesn't build power and community solidarity.

See, I fear that the chronically online "socialism" is largely insular, idealistic, and uncompromising - and so that's what many see it as.

Just like the "good Christians" are basically invisible right now compared to the authoritarian bible thumpers - so too are the "pragmatic socialists" because we're being hidden behind the loudest, craziest, and dumbest at the behest of corporate owned media.

So yeah, it doesn't really matter what ideology you subscribe to, the most important thing is getting out there and building with other like-minded people and figuring out the path to power in your area. It requires pragmatism, patience, and lots of really hard and unforgiving work with no assurance of making the change in your lifetime.

It is definitely an under provisioning problem. But that under provisioning problem is caused by the customers usually being very very stingy about what they are willing to spend. Also, to be clear, it isn't buckling. It is doing exactly The thing it was designed to do. Which is to stop writes to the DB since there is no disk space left. And before this time, it's constantly throwing warnings to the end user. Usually these customers tend to ignore those errors until they reach this stop writes state.

In fact, we just had to give an RCA to the c-suite detailing why we had not scaled a customer when we should have, but we have a paper trail of them refusing the pricing and refusing to engage.

We get the same errors, and we usually reach out via email to each of these customers to help project where their data is going and scale appropriately. More frequently though, they are adding data at such a fast clip that them not responding for 2 hours would lead them directly into the stop writes status.

This has led us to guessing what our customers are going to end up at. Oftentimes being completely wrong and eating to scale multiple times.

Workload spikes are the entire reason why our database technology exists. That's the main thing we market ourselves as being able to handle (provided you gave the DB enough disk and the workload isn't sustained for a long enough to fill the discs.)

There is definitely an automation problem. Unfortunately, this particular line of our managed services will not be able to be automated. We work with special customers, with special requirements, usually fortune 100 companies that have extensive change control processes. Custom security implementations. And sometimes even no access to their environment unless they flip a switch.

To me it just seems to all go back to management/c-suite trying to sell a fantasy version of our product and setting us up for failure.

My focus is arguably worth it as a senior developer. I am totally prepared to throw some absurd scratch to solve this problem. Lol.

Sure, I have my Sony WH1000XM4s, but I'm looking for something a bit more discreet. Something for more social contexts like at a loud gastropub where I can't expect everyone to understand that voice focus modes are a thing.

I suppose I could try the Sony WF1000XM5s, but after my poor experience with the prior model I was looking for something new.

As a man who grew up with one foot firmly planted in yeehaw and the other in yuppie, I think this is brilliant!

I agree. I think 1440p+HDR is probably the way to go for now. HDR is FAR more impactful than a 4K resolution and 1440p should provide a stable 45ish FPS on Cyberpunk 2077 completely maxed out on an RTX 3080Ti (DLSS Performance).

And in terms of CPU, the same applies. 16 cores are for the gentoo using, source compiling folks like me. 8 cores on a well binned CPU from the last 3 generations goes plenty fast for gaming. CPU bottlenecking only really show up at 144fps+ in most games anyways.

As somebody with autism. I find this take lacking nuance. You see for me these tools represent a huge leap and accessibility for me. I can turn a wall of stream of consciousness text into something digestible and represents myself.

I find myself constantly exhausted with the societal expectation that I review, edit, and adjust my own speech constantly. And these tools go a long way to helping me actually communicate.

I mean, after all nothing changes for me. People thought of me as a robot before. And I guess they can continue to think I'm still a robot. I've stopped giving a crap about neurotypical expectations.

I was literally coming to post "Carne Asada Fries" and you decided to open with it, gee, thanks! /s

But since you got that covered, I guess I'll throw in my #2 - A Carne Seca Chimichanga

Lived there for 7 years - I think I got it.

Step one, do not be in downtown, inner SE, inner NE, Gateway, or anywhere near a Max line or bus station after dark. Step two, carry mace and a stun gun. Step three, leave Portland for good and only return if I must << We are here.

We got a lot of hate from certain left leaning folks in Portland for leaving "because of the homeless". It's like, "No, dude, I'm leaving because my wife was assaulted by homeless no less than 3 times (twice physically, once was almost a rape), and that's even when she was "safely on TriMet. You can 'but not ALL homeless' all you want. My wife is traumatized and we want nothing to do with this shithole of a city".

Yeah, after the 3rd one we left, and we can say with certainty that we'll never ever come back to live in PDX.

Similarly FPS-Z games like Tribes (Ascend, Vengeance, 2) and Legions Overdrive.

Fortunately MidAir 2 is almost here. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1231210/Midair_2/