8 ms·

I look at that and all I want to do is raise my eyebrow. That's like water cooling Celerons or heavy tweaking of Honda Civics - you're not doing all that for re

I look at that and all I want to do is raise my eyebrow. That's like water cooling Celerons or heavy tweaking of Honda Civics - you're not doing all that for redundancy, you're doing that as a hobby and redundancy (or speed) are an excuse. I've set up ISP redundancy on my home network before, I should probably test to verify that it still works after my update some months back. It's a truly high-tech solution: A Netgear WNDR3700v2 router (5x Gigabit, dual-band, circa 2011) running LEDE (previously OpenWRT). It's not automatic, but I can set it to act as a wifi client, so if my regular Internet goes down I can simply connect into the router, connect to a phone hotspot, and continue providing internal network access. I don't recall if it's able to act as both a client and an AP on the same frequency at the same time, but since my wife's Kindle and Chumby are the only 2.4-only devices in the house I'm not really that concerned about it either. And yes, the Chumby does still work though it's just a clock these days.

minhazm423 8y ago
Hey how can i learn more about all this? id love to understand whates going on, on the github page, im following a bit but still want a better understanding the way you and the rest of the commenters have, what are some good starting points? Any resources, books, links, youtubes especially, that you can point me to? Also, in his set up, theres no router? He says hes using a VM? What does that mean?
megous 8y ago
That's also what I thought. All this for 45 minutes of internet when the power goes out, and twice a lifetime 1 day time saving when something crashes hard (like a hard drive) and you need to restore from the backup. It has to be for tinkering.
brian-armstrong 8y ago
All those stickers add 5 HP
scarejunba 8y ago
It's clearly intended to be for enjoyment and practice. Like the guys who make videos of sharpening a grocery store knife to an atom width.
- jeauxlb 8y ago
  that sounds interesting, link please?
  - scarejunba 8y ago
    With pleasure. The 'atom width' is hyperbole from me. Sharpening a $1 knife: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dFFEBnY0Bo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dFFEBnY0Bo And maybe you'll find this interesting: Sharpening a wooden knife: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKH63_r0OCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKH63_r0OCA
    - fencepost 8y ago
      If anyone is still reading this, the $1 knife video is from JunsKitchen and a bunch of his other videos are great as well. I think I'd have to call them foodie porn. And his cats are remarkably well behaved.
subroutine 8y ago
Just googled "Chumby" and I'm very happy to report that a Chumby looks as cute as it sounds ( http://i.imgur.com/bKSgZPA.jpg http://i.imgur.com/bKSgZPA.jpg )
spaceflunky 8y ago
lol Chumby. One of those quirky little devices that existed in this weird span of time when computing power was small and cheap, but our phones had not yet come to rule everything in our lives. RIP 2007-2012
- lozaning 8y ago
  Im still pissed sony bricked my Dash clock that was based on Chumby tech.
Theodores 8y ago
I like your 'water cooling Celerons' analogy. It is hard to beat a stock, as supplied by the telco, router with a generic Android phone for maximum uptime. If one connection is wired and the other is wifi then the computer handles broadband difficulties with no problems. If you are actually serious about 'single point of failure' then you just need to live with someone that is likely to not pay the bills for electricity or broadband. Being insufficiently creditworthy to have better than a pay as you go burner phone helps too as every byte costs $$$. Living in an area where any nice toys will get stolen/destroyed also 'helps' as a refurbished laptop running linux is then only practical option. Congested wifi 'helps' too, a basic wifi booster with ethernet out becomes truly useful for 'blazing speeds', particularly if wanting your backup network to come from the local cafe or some neighbour with an easily Googlable password. Having a local server for development and version control means that you are good to go when it comes to useful work even if there is no connectivity going. For entertainment a regular FM radio works fine. Two refurbished laptops and a USB stick for bulk transfer of current project stuff makes it fully possible to pull an all-nighter even if there is no electricity due to bills-not-being paid reasons. A nice add is a Chromebook, those things designed for nine year olds with a battery that lasts 10 hours with no difficulty does the job with better wifi than any normal laptop, no fans and no thermal runaway. Even better, the whole kit can be put in a modest backpack and a bit of couch-surfing later one can be back in business. It is much more satisfying to do more with less, I would probably hate myself if I had a basement full of servers and only whiled away the hours on social media rather than do 'work'. This budget ethos is anti-pattern but why should it be? The carbon footprint of operating on low-power refurbished hardware is penguin friendly and cheap. If your apps are supposed to be compatible with regular consumer PCs then it doesn't really help to have a beast of a machine with 4K screen, 32Gb or RAM and some quad Xeon. Maybe a linux toolchain with no virtualisation is better for making one's code performant on target devices. Obviously an SSD helps. The kids and the grandparents can read books together if the devices are down. They can also listen to the FM radio. What's not to like? Thank goodness I don't do company IT. Yes it would consist of two refurbished laptops hidden under the floorboards, servicing 50-100 office workers without any difficulty.

minhazm423 8y ago

Hey how can i learn more about all this? id love to understand whates going on, on the github page, im following a bit but still want a better understanding the way you and the rest of the commenters have, what are some good starting points? Any resources, books, links, youtubes especially, that you can point me to? Also, in his set up, theres no router? He says hes using a VM? What does that mean?

megous 8y ago

That's also what I thought. All this for 45 minutes of internet when the power goes out, and twice a lifetime 1 day time saving when something crashes hard (like a hard drive) and you need to restore from the backup. It has to be for tinkering.

brian-armstrong 8y ago

All those stickers add 5 HP

scarejunba 8y ago

It's clearly intended to be for enjoyment and practice. Like the guys who make videos of sharpening a grocery store knife to an atom width.

jeauxlb 8y ago
that sounds interesting, link please?
- scarejunba 8y ago
  With pleasure. The 'atom width' is hyperbole from me. Sharpening a $1 knife: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dFFEBnY0Bo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dFFEBnY0Bo And maybe you'll find this interesting: Sharpening a wooden knife: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKH63_r0OCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKH63_r0OCA
  - fencepost 8y ago
    If anyone is still reading this, the $1 knife video is from JunsKitchen and a bunch of his other videos are great as well. I think I'd have to call them foodie porn. And his cats are remarkably well behaved.

subroutine 8y ago

Just googled "Chumby" and I'm very happy to report that a Chumby looks as cute as it sounds ( http://i.imgur.com/bKSgZPA.jpg http://i.imgur.com/bKSgZPA.jpg )

spaceflunky 8y ago

lol Chumby. One of those quirky little devices that existed in this weird span of time when computing power was small and cheap, but our phones had not yet come to rule everything in our lives. RIP 2007-2012

lozaning 8y ago
Im still pissed sony bricked my Dash clock that was based on Chumby tech.

Theodores 8y ago

I like your 'water cooling Celerons' analogy. It is hard to beat a stock, as supplied by the telco, router with a generic Android phone for maximum uptime. If one connection is wired and the other is wifi then the computer handles broadband difficulties with no problems. If you are actually serious about 'single point of failure' then you just need to live with someone that is likely to not pay the bills for electricity or broadband. Being insufficiently creditworthy to have better than a pay as you go burner phone helps too as every byte costs $$$. Living in an area where any nice toys will get stolen/destroyed also 'helps' as a refurbished laptop running linux is then only practical option. Congested wifi 'helps' too, a basic wifi booster with ethernet out becomes truly useful for 'blazing speeds', particularly if wanting your backup network to come from the local cafe or some neighbour with an easily Googlable password. Having a local server for development and version control means that you are good to go when it comes to useful work even if there is no connectivity going. For entertainment a regular FM radio works fine. Two refurbished laptops and a USB stick for bulk transfer of current project stuff makes it fully possible to pull an all-nighter even if there is no electricity due to bills-not-being paid reasons. A nice add is a Chromebook, those things designed for nine year olds with a battery that lasts 10 hours with no difficulty does the job with better wifi than any normal laptop, no fans and no thermal runaway. Even better, the whole kit can be put in a modest backpack and a bit of couch-surfing later one can be back in business. It is much more satisfying to do more with less, I would probably hate myself if I had a basement full of servers and only whiled away the hours on social media rather than do 'work'. This budget ethos is anti-pattern but why should it be? The carbon footprint of operating on low-power refurbished hardware is penguin friendly and cheap. If your apps are supposed to be compatible with regular consumer PCs then it doesn't really help to have a beast of a machine with 4K screen, 32Gb or RAM and some quad Xeon. Maybe a linux toolchain with no virtualisation is better for making one's code performant on target devices. Obviously an SSD helps. The kids and the grandparents can read books together if the devices are down. They can also listen to the FM radio. What's not to like? Thank goodness I don't do company IT. Yes it would consist of two refurbished laptops hidden under the floorboards, servicing 50-100 office workers without any difficulty.