JDubbleu

I followed this guide from PiMyLifeUp. I'm a pretty technical person, but I've been leaning on their guides more and more because they're so damn simple, and I'm tired of feeling like I'm reading the Linux equivalent of medical journals.

One issue I ran into was the qbittorrent user that is created did not have rwx access to the directory I was downloading files to causing my torrents to stall, so be aware of that. You also need a small fan for the Pi's processor otherwise it will overheat. Other than that we just have a 2TB SSD connected over USB to the Pi 3B+ and it works great, even with 4k BluRay content.

Once you get the qBittorrent server set up, set the default download location as a library in Plex and as long as you enable autoscan torrents should automatically get ingested into Plex once they finish. The setup also makes it way easier to seed and get super high ratios if you're into that. Then you can connect to qBittorrent from anywhere on your local network and give it magnet links, or even setup ZeroTier One as a P2P VPN to allow you to connect from remote networks. Currently it is setup to tunnel all traffic through ProtonVPN running on Wireguard.

Sure! It is this one from Amazon. I went for it because unlike a lot of KVMs I saw, this one had a "remote" that could be put on your desk instead of having to hit the switch button on the KVM itself which made hiding all the cables a ton easier. You can see it the center of my monitor stand.

The KVM itself has 4 USB-A inputs and two DP/USB-A outputs (one for each device). I run one set of DP/USB-A cables to my PC and the other set to my Macbook. The USB-A going to my Macbook plugs into a USB A to C dongle with an ethernet port on it that I plug directly into our switch. Unfortunately, when I ran ethernet into the switch I was only getting ~400Mbps down instead of 1Gbps, so I opted to run networking to each computer independently. For video I use a DP to USB-C cable which goes directly into my Macbook. For charging I just use the standard charger that came with it. Even though it is not as nice as having a single cable for power/video/input it works great for my use case, and plugging in the extra two cables is hardly a bother considering the laptop sits there for days at a time.

Hope this helps!

Did you happen to get them during that GameStop sale as well?

Thank you! Ultrawides are so nice, glad you were able to get one at that price. I remember when they used to be $1k+ for a 1080p ultrawide.

Thanks! It's a 49" Odyssey CRG9. It's rated for 120Hz, but like most Samsung panels you can push them a bit. I currently have it at 144 Hz and haven't had any issues. I got it refurbished on Amazon for $800.

100% agree. The few times I have to turn off uBlock because it is breaking some obscure website it is always an awful experience. Auto-playing videos, ads taking up half the screen, and those annoying as fuck cookie banners. I can't imagine using the internet without an ad/cookie blocker. I accidentally turned it off on Lemmy for a while and it was the only site that I didn't immediately notice.

I have an Odyssey CRG9. It seems so absurd at first, but after a while it makes using any 16:9 monitor feel cramped as hell. Just be aware ultrawide support is lacking at times, but nothing you can't tweak around. Took me about a month of use to get everything to where I don't have to think about it much anymore.

The Max would be major overkill, and might actually be worse for you because of the worse battery life to drive the higher power draw chip. My personal laptop is a 16" M1 Pro MBP and I've never had it hitch on me. My work laptop is a similar spec 14" and I regularly run a dozen of programs at once (Outlook, Slack, Chime, dozens of Firefox tabs, Music, and 3 to 4 IntelliJ instances) without issue. Occasionally it does get a little warm when I'm doing 30+ minute builds, but that is akin to many torture tests reviewers use.

Edit: After seeing the price difference is only $200 I'd just get the Max if you don't mind a bit less battery life.

I've never personally used the machine you're referring to, but unless you're doing long video renders it likely won't matter. Programming takes very little resources, even when using a debugger, compared to the torture tests reviewers use. Any heavy load comes in bursts of compiling/interpreting which also don't hit the machine anywhere close to as hard. Music production might be a bit more strenuous, but still well within the area of not having issues.

I'd say stick with the 14" if that's what you prefer. It's not designed to render videos 24/7, but even if you did that it's still pretty damn fast even when throttling.

My primary issue with Connect at the moment is it desperately needs a reduction in the amount of taps to do anything. It takes 3 to download an image, and 4 to subscribe to communities. Both of these are things I feel should be in the ellipsis menu of any post, but currently you have to click through to the post or community. Meanwhile there are a dozen things in there I rarely use absolut flooding the menu. I also wish it saved comment drafts, but that is relatively minor.

It just needs some reprioritizing of actions and it would be perfect IMO.

To think some software engineer had to write that user prompt...

I've never heard anyone other than OP have any privacy concerns over Signal. Their encryption method is rock-solid, and they win the award for best response to a government subpoena