Backup Updates, Plex Storage, Seagate RMA Process and A Good Look at Mike’s Rack – HGG368
When an 8 TB Seagate drive disappeared from my mining rig, the warranty claim took about five minutes. Getting a replacement was a separate matter. Mike Wieger and I also compare Mac and Windows backups, talk through his move from a Dell OptiPlex to Plex on Unraid, and take a look at the Rosewill case and Cisco switch in his home rack.
Jump to the original transcript
Watch HGG368 · Original video from the episode page
Chapters
- [00:00] — Welcome to Home Gadget Geeks
- [03:33] — Mac and Windows backups to Unraid
- [07:54] — Bare-metal backups and which files go off-site
- [13:15] — Mike moves Plex from Windows to Unraid
- [18:24] — Rosewill drive bays and mounting 2.5-inch SSDs
- [20:04] — My Plex DVR, Drobo and Windows Media Center setup
- [23:42] — Rosewill RSV-L4500 cooling and case layout
- [30:35] — A look at Mike’s rack and Cisco switch
- [35:52] — An 8 TB Seagate drive fails and I file an RMA
- [40:31] — Erin Lawrence’s window-cleaning robot review
- [47:14] — A look back at old computer prices
- [56:21] — SpaceX’s Mr. Steven recovery boat
Episode Background
Mike Wieger and I recorded this episode on August 30, 2018. We’d been comparing notes on his new Unraid box, and this week we got into the details of what he moved onto it. Prices, hardware configurations and warranty terms below are from that conversation.
This Week on Home Gadget Geeks
- Mike’s Carbon Copy Cloner and AOMEI Backupper setup
- What we back up off-site, and why our Plex libraries get different treatment
- Plex on Unraid, tuner compatibility and keeping DVR recordings local
- The Rosewill 4U case, SSD mounting and Mike’s Cisco-equipped rack
- My failed 8 TB Seagate drive and what happened after I filed the warranty claim
- A window-cleaning robot, vintage PC prices and SpaceX’s recovery boat
Full Show Notes
Backing up Macs and Windows PCs to Unraid
Mike used Carbon Copy Cloner on the Mac and AOMEI Backupper on Windows. His new Unraid box gave him enough space to keep those machine backups on the network again. He kept off-site copies of documents and photos through his computer, while the full drive backups stayed on the NAS. He described how a local clone could still help if he deleted files from Dropbox and the deletion synced. For a closer look at the storage choice, see HDD vs. SSD for Backup.
I was using Acronis to make bare-metal backups to my Drobo, even though I was already leaning toward a simpler Windows setup that I could rebuild. The files I cared most about were family photos and videos. I kept copies in places including OneDrive, Google Drive and the Moro Data box. Moro Data had provided that box for review.
Moving Plex from a Windows OptiPlex to Unraid
Mike expected his Windows OptiPlex to be the better Plex machine, partly because it already worked with his USB tuner. He tried Plex on Unraid anyway and said it ran better in his setup. The USB tuner was the piece he had to give up in the move. That’s worth checking before you switch hosts, especially if live TV and DVR are part of why you use Plex.
My setup was different. Windows Media Center was still in use in the living room while I tested Plex Pass and the NVIDIA Shield. I kept Plex recordings on a local 2 TB drive and could move movies to the Drobo after processing them. I was also testing recordings from HDHomeRun tuners and leaving those TV recordings as they came in.
Inside Mike’s rack and the Rosewill RSV-L4500
Mike’s 4U Rosewill case had room for up to 15 drives. He had six installed, including two SSDs. The case kept his drives cool with the stock fans, and he found it surprisingly quiet. The 2.5-inch SSDs were awkward to mount, so I suggested looking at Icy Dock adapters. We also talked about checking CPU cooler clearance in a 4U case, and the original notes call out Netdata for monitoring Unraid.
Mike’s rack paired his Unraid server with a Cisco switch. His photo was part of the Facebook conversation we included with the original notes.
What happened when my 8 TB Seagate drive failed
The Burst miner stopped seeing one of my 8 TB Seagate SMR drives. I tried to get it spinning again and heard it ticking. I set the drive aside, logged into Seagate’s site and used the serial number to start the return merchandise authorization, or RMA. Filing the claim took me about five minutes. If you’re choosing a drive for a NAS or backup today, my CMR vs. SMR hard drive comparison explains how the workload factors into that choice.
I chose the advance exchange option we discussed on the show. It cost me $12 at the time, with shipping included. The plan was for Seagate to send a replacement first, then for me to return the bad drive. Seagate had no replacement available when I filed, and I was still waiting when we recorded. Those were the terms of my 2018 claim.
On the next episode, I reported that the 8 TB replacement had arrived. If you want the rest of the story, pick it up in HGG369.
HGG369 · The Seagate replacement arrives
If you’re in the same spot, here’s what to do when your hard drive warranty replacement is out of stock.
From window-cleaning robots to a SpaceX recovery boat
We previewed Erin Lawrence’s upcoming appearance after seeing her review a robot that holds itself to a window while it cleans. We also looked at old computer ads shared by Ryan Kerschner and talked about Mr. Steven, the boat SpaceX outfitted with a net to try to catch a Falcon 9 fairing half.
Key Takeaways
- Decide what you would need to rebuild and what you could never replace. Those categories may call for different backup plans.
- Mike’s dual parity helped protect against drive failures in his Unraid array. He kept separate copies of the photos and videos that mattered most.
- Test tuner support before moving Plex. A server can run Plex well and still leave you with a DVR problem.
- Check mounting and cooler clearance before ordering parts for a 4U case.
- Keep track of both the warranty claim and the replacement timeline. My claim was quick to file, and I still had to wait for stock.
FAQ
What did Mike use to back up his Mac?
Carbon Copy Cloner, with the Unraid server as a network backup destination.
What did Mike use for Windows backups?
AOMEI Backupper. He used it to make periodic drive clones and store them on Unraid.
What did Mike keep off-site?
He kept cloud copies of documents and photos through his computer. The full computer backups went to his local NAS.
What did Jim use for full-system backups?
I used Acronis to make bare-metal backups to my Drobo, with separate copies of important files.
Why did Mike move Plex to Unraid?
He tried it after bringing his new server online and found it ran better for him than it had on the Windows OptiPlex.
What did Mike give up when he moved Plex?
His existing USB TV tuner. I was testing a different setup with HDHomeRun tuners.
Where did Jim store Plex DVR recordings?
I recorded to a dedicated local 2 TB drive and used the Drobo for longer-term storage of processed movies.
Which rackmount case did Mike use?
The Rosewill RSV-L4500, a 4U case with space for up to 15 drives. His build included two 2.5-inch SSDs, which needed some improvisation to mount.
How did Jim spot the Seagate drive failure?
The miner stopped seeing the drive. I couldn’t get it spinning again and heard it ticking.
How long did the Seagate warranty claim take to file?
Five minutes was how long I spent filing the claim. Seagate was out of replacements at the time.
What did advance exchange mean in this case?
Under the 2018 option I chose, Seagate would send the replacement before I sent the failed drive back. I paid $12 with shipping included.
When did Jim report that the Seagate replacement arrived?
I reported its arrival in the next episode, HGG369, published September 7, 2018.
Products Discussed in This Episode
Some product links may be affiliate links. If you use those links to make a purchase, The Average Guy Network may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for supporting Home Gadget Geeks.
Rosewill RSV-L4500 4U rackmount case · Original Amazon link
Carbon Copy Cloner, AOMEI Backupper, Acronis, Drobo and Moro Data
Plex Media Server, Plex Pass, HDHomeRun, NVIDIA Shield and Windows Media Center
Unraid, Netdata, Icy Dock drive adapters and Mike’s Cisco switch
Seagate 8 TB SMR hard drive and TeamGroup 32 GB microSD card
Links and Resources Mentioned
Hard Drive Know IT Guyde · HDDs for backup, NAS and bulk storage
TeamGroup 32 GB microSD card · Original Newegg listing
Kevin Schoonover’s original Facebook discussion
Ryan Kerschner’s vintage computer ads
Space.com’s look at Mr. Steven, via the original Facebook conversation
Jim’s original Facebook discussion about Mr. Steven
MapleGrove Partners · Original hosting credit
Home Gadget Geeks mobile apps · Original resource
Listen and Subscribe
Subscribe to Home Gadget Geeks
Conversation from the original episode
Mike Wieger
The Facebook Post ·
I say this every time but with the Cisco switch and UnRaid box up and running the rack is now complete… until the next upgrade.
2 Comments
Kevin Schoonover shared a link.
On the last HGG Mike Wieger pointed out prices are dropping on memory cards as well. I have used TeamGroup cards in phones and tablets with no issue. They do have a lifetime warranty:
32GB $6.99:
NEWEGG.COM
Team 32GB microSDHC UHS-I/U1 Class 10 Memory Card with Adapter, Speed Up to 80MB – Newegg.com
Buy Team 32GB microSDHC UHS-I/U1 Class 10 Memory Card with Adapter, Speed Up to 80MB/s (TUSDH32GUHS03) with fast shipping and top-rated customer service.Once you know, you Newegg!
Ryan Kerschner
Blast from the past! One of my coworkers found an old paper stashed away and brought it in to work. Thought you all might enjoy seeing this.
Jim Collison shared a link.
The Facebook Post
So very cool.
SPACE.COM
Meet Mr. Steven, SpaceX’s Rocket Nose-Cone-Catching Boat
SpaceX’s nose-cone-catching boat, Mr. Steven, is preparing for the ultimate interception.
Original HGG368 transcript
Otter transcript of the original podcast audio, recorded August 30, 2018. Timestamps refer to the audio edition.
[0:00:00] Jim Collison: This is The Average Guy Network, and you have found Home Gadget Geek show number 368, recorded on august 30, 2018. Here at Home Gadget Geeks, we cover all the favorite tech gadgets that find news reviews, product updates, and conversation, all for the average tech guy. I’m your host Jim Collison, broadcasting live from the Average Gadget Team Studios. Here, beautiful, like top 10 weather mike, unbelievable. I think Wednesday, right here. Yes, yesterday
[0:00:39] Mike Wieger: was perfect. Absolutely, I took actually. I had half the day off, and Anna had the whole day off, and we spent a lot of that outside. It was absolutely gorgeous. Yeah,
[0:00:47] Jim Collison: fall is in the air. Husker fever is in the air. Scott Frost is our head coach. We’re saying it’s going to get a little frosty this weekend, and exciting, exciting. We’ll see. We’ll we’ll see. We’ve been down this road with two other coaches in the last decade, and it’s been a little less than successful, Mike. But that’s Mike’s wearing the Husker gear. I should have left my. I had Husker gear on. I should have left it. I went home gadget. You got
[0:01:14] Mike Wieger: to represent. Emily was all confused in the chat room during the pre-show. She said, “Hey, you’re not wearing your blue shirt. It’s throwing me off.” I said, “Well, it is first week of Husker football. I should have worn some Creighton.
[0:01:22] Jim Collison: I would have should have wore some Creighton gear. I don’t own a single blue thing. Do you not really in blue
[0:01:28] Mike Wieger: Creighton gear at all?
[0:01:29] Jim Collison: No, I’m gonna have to get a hoodie or something. Okay, I’m gonna have to get a hoodie. But anyways, you can catch the show and you can catch the show notes, World Class show notes each week out at theaverageguy.tv. Don’t forget, you can join us on our mobile app. Easiest way to listen live and on the road. If you’re doing it that way, home gadgetgeeks.com. We thank our Patreon subscribers for that. They’re sponsoring that now, and we appreciate you guys that support us through Patreon. If you haven’t decided to do that yet, you can. You can become one of those subscribers, and we appreciate you doing that. Head out to theaverageguy.tv/patreon, or just head out to theaverageguy.tv. Look for the Patreon link. Super easy to do. Super easy to sign up for. We’ve got one and $5 plans if you want to jump in. A couple of you have recently. We appreciate your sponsorship of it. Always nice those funds drop into the bank, and then if I need to do new stuff here, or we need to do some giveaways, or some of those kinds of things, we use those funds for that. So we appreciate. Well, in this case, the mobile. I’ll be fully transparent. Those mobile apps cost 100 bucks each. So every year I pay 200 bucks, and when you support Patreon, that goes towards it. So just full disclosure on on the way we do that, and we appreciate your sponsorship of the show. Don’t forget rate, subscribe, review all that stuff that you need to do, whatever platform you’re on. Get it done so that you get notified whenever there’s a new show that’s out there. And then don’t forget, Mike and I will stay around for a little crypto. Actually, some exciting news in crypto this week. Maybe is there? I mean, I think so. A little more positive than I don’t know. Okay. We post the and don’t forget we post the crypto show to the Patreon page. You don’t have to pay, but we just put it over there so you get an opportunity to see us over there. Theaverageguy.tv/patreon. All right, Mike. Welcome back. We um we last week we ditched the backup conversation. I teased it in the very beginning of the show. Kyle Wilcox called me out on it on Facebook. He’s like, dude, I listened to the whole show waiting for your backup update, and then I just at the end I’m like, yeah, we’ll do it next week, whatever. So, Mike, you have kind of found, you know, in the backup space, you kind of found a new way or a different way, one I hadn’t really worked on or worked with before. And I thought, well, let’s talk about it. So, give us a little rundown on what you’re using, why you’re using it, those kinds of things.
[0:03:33] Mike Wieger: Yeah. So when I was looking at my backup, I thought, okay, well, for me, a lot of my stuff is already stored in the cloud. So my documents are either in Dropbox or iCloud, both of them, and then all of my photos, because we, you know, Han and I both use iPhones. Then my Mac is my main computer. That’s all backed up to iCloud. So my essentials, my photos, my videos, and all of my documents are backed up to the cloud. So I’m not really worried about offsite backup for my computer, to be honest, and you know all the a lot of the apps I have the keys in my email. It wouldn’t be detrimental if I were to lose it. But what I do want is I want the ease of a clone of my hard drive in case it were to crash. I could easily just format a new drive, throw the drive in the computer, and and be good to go. So my new backup solution is is essentially it used to be going to the NAS and then the NAS to the cloud, but now I’ve kind of eliminated that cloud because you know the cost of that for me I was like well I’m already paying for iCloud and Dropbox so why would I pay for another cloud service when those are essentially my mission critical documents and those are you know I know that’s not backup it’s it’s always I always got a that’s sync. It’s not backup, so if I were to wipe it out, it would go away. But it’s it’s good enough for me, and especially because I’m doing the second form of backup. But what I’ve found is for my Mac, I’m using Carbon Copy Cloner. So if you are a Mac person, this is just drop dead easy. It’s the best backup software for Mac. I tried. Tried and tried to get used to Time Machine, but Time Machine is just so finicky. If you do any Googling, or if you’ve ever been tried to use Time Machine, it loses its backup all the time and says, “Oh, I got to restart. Sorry, I got to redo that whole thing.” And it’s got to copy all that data back over. It’s it’s just not the best. So Carbon Copy Cloner is fantastic. It creates a sparse image over on your NAS, whatever you want to do, and then it it just does it. It just it’s just easy. And then so I wanted to find the same thing for Windows. And you guys always talk about a Cronus. I know a lot of I know you and a lot of people are Cronus fans. And so I did try that out, and it did work great on the Mac side. It wasn’t as good, but on the Windows, it was it was good. But it cost money. I’m like, okay, is there a free something out there that will work? And I actually found. I’m sure you guys in the Windows space have used this too, but it actually works pretty well if you’re just looking for a simple clone. Backuper, so just Backuper, and it’s from Aome Tech, A O M E Tech. Have you had you heard that one, Jim? I have heard of
[0:05:57] Jim Collison: it. Yeah, I have heard of it. Back in the Home Server Show days, that’s that that came up as an option. Some folks and
[0:06:03] Mike Wieger: and it’s still a pretty powerful option. It was fast. It does a lot of the things like a Cronus does. You know, I I didn’t like I said I didn’t need anything advanced. I just needed to make a clone of the hard drive every so often and throw it on the new Unraid Box, and and that’s exactly what it does. So backup for Windows and carbon copy cloner for Mac. All of that going over to the Unraid server. So that new Unraid Box allowing me to now do all of my network backups because I have the space again. I was running low on space when I was running it on my r7 10, but now that I have, I have eight terabytes of usable space. So so backing up over there, and I have ditched the cloud backup for the NAS. So I really have no, I have no cloud backups of like my hard drives of my computers. My cloud backup is of my documents and my photos, just based on my my computer. Because I think a lot of us would find that we’re pretty much covered when it comes to that, right, and even if I were to wipe my heart, let’s say I deleted all of Dropbox, it deleted it from the cloud. I can go get my backup from my NAS. I can go grab that old clone. So the odds of me deleting everything out of Dropbox and then nuking my Unraid Box at the same exact time are pretty rare, and I’m willing to take that risk, so it’s worth it for me to save that money. And not to say I wouldn’t like it; it ought to be totally transparent. If there was something as simple as Crash Plan was for Unraid now, I would probably just do it. But there’s really not a simple, simple solution, and not a all-in-one pay $60 a year and you’re good. All of it is, you know, the backblaze b2, where you’re paying per gigabyte, and then you’re paying per transfer. So if there was a super super easy solution, I would probably do it. But I didn’t find one, and so I thought, you know, I really thought it through, and this works for me.
[0:07:54] Jim Collison: Yeah. No, it’s a it’s a good one. I’ve heard of it before. I’m surprised it’s still actually hanging around. Just to be honest, it’s one of those off the beaten path that doesn’t get talked about. This backup, doesn’t get talked about a lot. I’m glad it’s working for you. I mean, it works great. Interesting to hear how that goes. You know, if that continues to kind of, you know, to kind of work for you here in the future. You know, there’s really two methodologies, right? One is keep your important documents. The other thing is back up everything so that you can do a bare metal bare metal reinstall. You know, if something goes wrong, you can kind of put your Windows environment right back. I have found for me, I try to keep Windows 10 just as stripped down to the basic. Like I don’t customize anything. I might change the screen to all black. That’s kind of the most customization I get in it, I’d rather customize the cloud apps, the Chrome, and some of those kinds of things that are going to pull all that back down. Just I I sign into them and it just automatically updates. Right, Windows has got some of that functionality now as well. So I’ve kind of been getting away, even though I use a Cronus and I take a Cronus and I have a target locally to the Drobo, so the kind of the functional backup goes to the Drobo, and then I back it up. I back up, and these are a Cronus bare metal backup, so I could do bare metal if I wanted to. And then I send a copy over to my iOSafe, right? The fireproof, waterproof server that I have it. It still works. It’s great. I don’t collect that much data on my desktop, so I can I can store one or two or maybe even three PCs on the IO safe for for bare metal. If that’s why I want to do it, but then like you, my critical documents go completely over the Moro data box, and those that’s at one terabyte cached. Everything else lives on Backblaze B2, and so all my documents, there’s no, there’s nothing but video files, audio files, documents, those kinds of things that are over there, and it syncs. It does it so it does its own job. It keeps them locally. The ones I use all the time, it keeps local. The ones it doesn’t, it puts on the B2 server. It keeps right. It those. That’s a really good box. I mean, the more I use that thing, the more drop dead simple that Moro box data is. I mean, it’s it’s not cheap. I mean, 500 bucks entry in, it’s an expensive NAS, but for one terabyte of local cache and fast on the network, man, that thing works great. And it Mike couldn’t be easier to connect to Backblaze b2. I mean, you go there, sign up an account, create a bucket. It gives you a number. You go into the admin console and Moro data. You put it in. It’s done.
[0:10:29] Mike Wieger: That’s yeah. See, if it was that easy for me, I would totally be doing it. And that. So on that box, I was going to ask you, can you run like a Docker? Could you run Plex Media Server on there? Does it have any capabilities like that?
[0:10:39] Jim Collison: No, it’s for $500. That’s
[0:10:40] Mike Wieger: an it’s an expensive box without the functional the functionality of like a VM or Dock or something like that. Yeah, and
[0:10:46] Jim Collison: full disclosure, right? They gave me that box. Yeah. So just full disclosure, I didn’t pay for it. If they
[0:10:52] Mike Wieger: opened it up a little bit more, I think I would be so on board to spend the money and grab one.
[0:10:56] Jim Collison: I’m not sure though. I want a Plex container on it because I don’t want to push my Plex, and we’re going to talk about your Plex setup here in just a second. But I don’t know if I want to if I want to push my Plex recorded stuff anywhere to the cloud. Like I just want, you know, I’m not interested. For me, I’m not interested in backing up movies. I’m not interested in backing up TV. If there was a disaster, you know. I’ve got. I bet we have 300 DVDs that we bought that sit on a shelf out here. All the Avengers, all the Bourne, all the Mission Impossible. You know, all those things that my kids love and I love too. In service. If that collection burnt down, I wouldn’t lose a minute’s worth of sleep about it. In the same way. Like you know, it’s like okay, we we paid five bucks for them, or three bucks, or 10 bucks. Sarah always buys them on sale when they first launch, or whatever. And I just I’m not that I’m just not that concerned. And maybe I need to be more, but we don’t watch them that much. That it’s like, well, okay, then maybe I just go to either Red Box and get the new ones, or I don’t know, find them on a clearance somewhere. I or or stream them now, right? Yeah. So you know, so even the recorded TV stuff, leave it local, you know. And
[0:12:10] Mike Wieger: and yeah, exactly. And that was my exact point. Is a lot of the stuff that sits in my Unraid Box is media server related, which you know wouldn’t be the end of the world. the The way I’m losing that is the house burns down, right? That’s the only way I’m losing that.
[0:12:23] Jim Collison: Yeah, and I’ll be happy to have everybody out of the house, and I don’t care about the movies. Exactly, you know
[0:12:29] Mike Wieger: my movies, so I just
[0:12:30] Jim Collison: don’t, and I’m not going to spend a yeah. Go ahead.
[0:12:32] Mike Wieger: I’ve got two disc parity on there, so I mean I’ve got the backup of you know, so it’s not a thing of hard drives going down. That’s redundant, but yeah, I’m not going to spend the money to back up all of that when all of my other stuff is already backed up. The things I would lose sleep over are photos and videos, right? All the family photos and videos. I’m going to lose sleep if I lose all those memories. But those are all backed up to iCloud. So
[0:12:52] Jim Collison: yeah, and I, Mike, I literally have those sent. Mike, I’ve got some on OneDrive. I have some on Google Drive. I’ve got some of them pushed over to this to the to the to the Moro data box. I’ve got like, you know, and I just they’re two they’re double and triple backed up.
[0:13:09] Mike Wieger: Yep, same here. Yeah, mine’s in the cloud. It’s on a computer and it’s on the on. And I have another copy of them on on the Unraid Box. Yeah. So
[0:13:15] Jim Collison: yeah. Well, hey, you you mentioned Plex. You’ve made some changes. Talk a little bit about those in your own environment about how you’re going to host Plex at your place.
[0:13:23] Mike Wieger: Yeah, because we talked about last week. Now that the Unraid Box is up and running, you know, if I was thinking about moving Plex over, and originally I had said no, mainly because I didn’t. You know, I’d always been worried about power, like the you know how beefy of a server you need for it. I was like, well, running it on on that old Optiplex box is working a little bit better. Plus, with Windows, I was able to use my USB tuner, and then I got to thinking about it more. I’m, you know what? Let’s just give it a test. So I ran it because if you go on YouTube and you really do search, you know, the best Plex servers that everyone recommends either FreeNAS or Unraid. FreeNAS wins usually, but Unraid is like number two for you know some of the best servers that you can do for for Plex. So I started it up, and I was super surprised at how well it ran and how much better it ran than it did on the Windows box. And I think it’s you know when you think about it, Windows has a lot of cruff that’s running. You got a lot of extra things that are taking up CPU and RAM, and all of the hardware is being utilized by other services for Windows. So when you really strip that all away, and you have just a clean version of Unraid or a clean version of FreeNAS, it’s amazing how much power it can dedicate to Plex. So that’s what I did. I’ve been super impressed. The only thing I had to give up was the USB tuner, but I actually, you know, I just I bit the bullet. I I have that up on eBay, and I’m actually I just bought one of the HD Home Run extends, and yeah, and that was a that was a choice though. So when if you guys are looking for those tuners, they now have the newer version. So the Extend is a newer version, and they think they have a newer version of the smaller one as well. But essentially, the first generation of those devices, and even some of the current gen, it the stream was MPEG. Well, those files are massive. You’re talking like an hour TV show is gigs of data, but the newer devices can stream an H.264, so it’s a much smaller file. It streams a lot better. So if you’re streaming it over the internet, if you’re connecting to your Plex from outside of your home or even in your home, it just streams a lot better than it did when it was in MPEG two, so it was kind of two things at once. I got the H.264 upgrade because even the USB tuner was still MPEG two, so I got the upgrade, and because it’s on Unraid, this was the reason I had to do it. Unraid cannot use those USB tuners because they don’t have the drivers and it’s not Windows, so you need a network tuner, which those HD HomeRun extends are, and I’m pretty excited about it. So that’ll come this weekend. We’ll get that up and running and get everything starting to record again, and and then we’ll be. But it’s been working great. I think I was gonna I was gonna test it and see how things, how many streams I can get going. But I actually before I test it, I ordered our I already ordered a new CPU for it. So I’ve been doing another upgrade. What’s in there now is an i 520 400, which is super old. It’s that’s from 2010. It’s a quad core. It does okay. It keeps up. It’s not too bad for just an Unraid Box. But I upgraded just a tad. Not it’s still a super old CPU, but the i 737 70, which is from 2012, quad core with hyper threading though. So
[0:16:20] Jim Collison: it’s the same processor I’m running right now on this podcasting box. Really? Yeah. Yeah,
[0:16:24] Mike Wieger: and it’s so. I mean, so it’s a great little,
[0:16:26] Jim Collison: good little chip. No, it’s super cool. It runs actually very, very cool. It handles video very very well. I think your trans coding will be done licky split. That’s
[0:16:36] Mike Wieger: what I’m hoping for. A little bit upgrade to trans coding. How
[0:16:38] Jim Collison: much RAM did you put in there?
[0:16:40] Mike Wieger: There’s only four gigs, but it doesn’t touch it.
[0:16:43] Jim Collison: Okay,
[0:16:44] Mike Wieger: so I have four gigs, and I monitor it all the time. And even when I am trans, it it still sits at about 33% of RAM being used. Is it for some reason
[0:16:51] Jim Collison: on that board?
[0:16:52] Mike Wieger: I believe so.
[0:16:53] Jim Collison: I have. Why don’t I? Why don’t I drop these off? Oh my god,
[0:16:58] Mike Wieger: I would love you for that.
[0:16:59] Jim Collison: Well, at least four more, I think here, that could get you a. That would get how
[0:17:03] Mike Wieger: many? That’s two two gig each.
[0:17:06] Jim Collison: Two two gig sticks. That’s my problem.
[0:17:07] Mike Wieger: I only have two slots. I think I got double check. I think that board only has two slots.
[0:17:11] Jim Collison: No, that’s a bummer. Yeah, I’ve been trying to give these things away. Really? Yeah, my board has four
[0:17:16] Mike Wieger: slots. I’ll check.
[0:17:17] Jim Collison: Yeah, check it. I’ll bring these back.
[0:17:18] Mike Wieger: Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
[0:17:20] Jim Collison: No, I like to give them away. I’ve been giving away. I gave my on hub router away. Really? Yeah, you might. Yeah. Well, my son, my son needed a router. He just bought a new house.
[0:17:29] Mike Wieger: Okay. And he moved
[0:17:29] Jim Collison: in with nothing. Like he’d been living in an apartment or somebody else’s house, and he has. He really has no. And he’s been poor since he got out of college, right? And he just has nothing. And so he was moving in this new house. Just really fortunate moved in with the the gal he’s living with, and so he gets there and he literally has nothing. And I was like, “Well, hey, I got a router. I got a wireless router. Pretty good one too. Yeah, pretty good. And for him, he’ll love it, you know.” And I was like, “Need some switches, or you know, do you need you know?” And so it was fun giving him that stuff because he had nothing, and so it was just kind of fun to give him give him that stuff. Oh, you got an extra.
[0:18:08] Mike Wieger: Does he need a 24 port TP-Link? Because this is what my Cisco switch replaced, and I I can’t find anyone to even take this.
[0:18:14] Jim Collison: Oh yeah, well let me I’ll let you know. Yeah, I’ll swap
[0:18:17] Mike Wieger: you for the RAM. Yeah, if that works
[0:18:19] Jim Collison: out, that’s a be good trade
[0:18:20] Mike Wieger: for a TV link switch because I have no need for it. It’s big. It’s taking up space.
[0:18:24] Jim Collison: You um. So you’re finding. So are you working in the in the with the current Unraid Box? Yeah. In the how many drives do you have in your Roswell case now? Because that’s that case is designed to hold 15, right?
[0:18:39] Mike Wieger: Uh. Yes. I have. No, I have six. Sorry, I have six, and two of those are SSDs.
[0:18:45] Jim Collison: Okay,
[0:18:45] Mike Wieger: which that was my one complaint about the Roswell is that I had to kind of they don’t have a way to natively support two and a half inch drives, so I had to kind of I screwed it to the side, and so it’s kind of just I mean it’s screwed in, but it’s hanging there on the right side, yeah.
[0:19:01] Jim Collison: Icy Dock the
[0:19:02] Mike Wieger: best.
[0:19:02] Jim Collison: Icy Dock has some really inexpensive plastic covers that will convert two and a half to three and a half.
[0:19:09] Mike Wieger: See, that’s what I should have done.
[0:19:10] Jim Collison: Yeah, no, no, just and you you still can you can pick up a few of those and and kind of fit them in there. I think they’re eight or nine bucks, Mike. Just to be honest, they’re super cheap.
[0:19:18] Mike Wieger: I should definitely look at that.
[0:19:20] Jim Collison: That’s the best way. I’ve gotten some some two and a half inch drives that needed to go in some various spaces that that needed to fit. In fact, I even tried it in the Drobo where it worked out pretty well. Where I put a two and a half inch drive in that three and a half inch closer. Icy Dock is so good at that, and they’re actually super reasonable. So give that give that. Yeah,
[0:19:40] Mike Wieger: that’s a really good. Yeah, I needed something. Just a plastic case
[0:19:43] Jim Collison: with a little board on it, and you just you put the thing in there, and you slide it in, and you lock it, and you throw it in there. That they might be 15. I’m I’m not gonna. I I can’t remember. They’re not terribly expensive. Um, I’m hope I’m not lying to you. I might be making that up, but they do have some great plastic cases. Look them up there.
[0:20:00] Mike Wieger: I’m looking it up right now, and I’m also pulling in the while
[0:20:04] Jim Collison: you’re looking it up. While you’re looking it up, I’ll say on my Plex side. You know, I have Sarah watching Windows Media Center out in the living room, and we’ve been trying to switch over the NVIDIA Shield, but I’ve also been testing Plex and the new Plex Pass and a lot of those a lot of those things that come with it, and now that I’m kind of winding down a little bit, or I’m I’m putting less load on my burst box. That’s a Core i7 from I don’t know four four years ago, so it’s pretty powerful. 16 gig of RAM in there, man, it’d make a really good Plex box.
[0:20:36] Mike Wieger: Yeah, would. So
[0:20:37] Jim Collison: yeah, so I’m thinking I may move that over. I point everything to the Drobo at this point. I do put a single drive in for my Plex, like a like a two terabyte drive. That’s just Plex recording. I think it’s good to have all that stuff kind of close and local movies. Once I’ve once I’ve trans coded them or done whatever I need to do to them, I can throw the movies on the Drobo and it can stream it just fine as long as I’m not trying to do anything fancy, those movies can play off the Drobo just fine. So I may be making, I may be making that switch.
[0:21:08] Mike Wieger: So keeping Windows on
[0:21:11] Jim Collison: it. Oh yeah, no, no, I wouldn’t change a thing. Actually, I’m still going to run Burst off of it. I’ll just put Plex on it as well.
[0:21:17] Mike Wieger: Okay.
[0:21:17] Jim Collison: Yeah, yeah. No, the the Plex load, or I’m sorry, the burst load right now is not very big, and and so and I don’t transcode a lot, and we’re not even using it very much. So for this point, I’m still, I am keeping Plex like warm and in the oven for a day when Windows Media Center collapses. That’s really what I mean. I watch it from time to time. Some of those kinds of things, but I’m really waiting for Windows Media Center to collapse so that Sarah goes, “Oh, what do we do now?” And I’m like, “Okay, I have it all figured out. It’s all ready to go. I can literally turn it on, and have her using it same day.” I think she
[0:21:56] Mike Wieger: would like the the user experiences a lot better. I think,
[0:21:59] Jim Collison: yeah, just being a user
[0:22:00] Mike Wieger: remote on you know on whatever. We
[0:22:03] Jim Collison: talked about this a couple weeks ago. She likes what she knows, and I I didn’t learn this early in my marriage, and I should have. I should. I just need to let those things run out. Like I don’t need to move her into new things until she’s ready. Just doesn’t make any sense. So I’m just waiting. I’m just waiting at this point. I’m just I. It allows me to buy equipment. I’ve got an Nvidia Shield we don’t use very much, but you know what? If I needed it, I got it. It wasn’t terribly expensive. I mess with it from time to time. Just works better for me. So that’s that’s one of those things. I just have a couple things in the ready. So if I need to make a switch, I’m ready to go. I’m always kind of thinking, okay. When’s Windows Media Signer going to stop syncing Sky data, or when it’s when is it going to just going to crap out? And I’ll say, hey, when it does, I’ll be like, well, that’s broken. Can you try this and see how she likes it? You know, right. That’s that’s kind of what. And you you
[0:22:58] Mike Wieger: said this earlier, but you’re also using a HD home run, right?
[0:23:01] Jim Collison: I am. I have two. I have two. Yeah. The connect. Yep. The connect and what’s the other brand? There’s there are two different ones. Let me see if I can see. So
[0:23:11] Mike Wieger: then, are you converting those after you’re done? Are you leaving them in MPEG too? I leave
[0:23:16] Jim Collison: the the the TV ones.
[0:23:18] Mike Wieger: Yeah. Just you just leave them alone. I just
[0:23:19] Jim Collison: leave them. Yeah. I don’t convert.
[0:23:21] Mike Wieger: Okay,
[0:23:21] Jim Collison: I don’t convert. But Mike, I’m not. Also, I’m not using it full time, and I’m not. It’s not like we’re using it all the time. I have some recordings going just to kind of test it and see how it’s going, and kind of keep it again, keep it on the ready for her. But I’m not using it. I’m not using it full time. Let’s see if my
[0:23:42] Mike Wieger: so that Rose Wheel case that I was talking about. It’s actually I’m I’m kind of sad. It’s on sale right now. I paid I think 120 for it. It’s 99 bucks. Oh
[0:23:50] Jim Collison: wow!
[0:23:51] Mike Wieger: So 99 bucks get you that. It’s a 15 bay. It has seven fans in it, three in the front, three in the middle, and then one in the back for exhaust, and I tell you, those drives stay super cool. I can be at max load on those drives, and it’s
[0:24:07] Jim Collison: put the link to that in the show notes, would you? Yes, I may pick that up this weekend. If it’s 99 bucks, that’s I kind of want to move. You know, a lot of folks have been asking me. You know, we we know we don’t normally talk crypto. We save that for the post show, but let me bring this in kind of as conversation because it’s really more about storage than it is about crypto. You know, I purchased the 14 Seagate hard drives. It’s been fun. We’ve been selling them off just because I really want to go internal. I I don’t. You know, I’ve done. I’ve always done this thing where I’ve strapped these USB drives. You know, spaghetti, octopus, whatever you want to call it, and I thought, well, you know, things are winding down. It’s a slow time in crypto. It’d be a good time to kind of start converting things over. And some some folks have been asking me, like, why are you selling these drives? And sell them for 100 bucks, which is a pretty good deal. And um, and I’m like, I just I want to get, I kind of want to build out like pace that has. That has you know six or eight terabyte drives in it and gives me some power, gives me some options.
[0:25:06] Mike Wieger: Right,
[0:25:06] Jim Collison: I’m I’m with it. So I like your case. I’m probably going to go with that case, and then I’m just I think I’m just going to buy a component at a time, and start finding things. Just start loading that thing out and start moving as old systems go offline. Start moving more of those onto that system and use it that way. So, at 99 bucks, it’s hard not to.
[0:25:27] Mike Wieger: Yeah, the only thing I mean, you’re going to pay a lot more. The reason they’re so cheap is because they’re not hot swappable drives. If you want to put, if you want to take a drive in or out of the thing, you’ve got to take the entire top off of the server case. So, I mean, you’re you’re paying for convenience when you pay that high price for hot swappable. But you know, for you, you’re gonna load it up and you’re gonna let it sit, right? And for me, I’m gonna load it up. I’m gonna let it sit. I’m not gonna be getting in there and fussing with the drives. But if you are, if you’re a person that’s always in there adding, swapping, you know, adding drives all the time, you might want to look at. They do have a for you 12 bay hot swappable version, but you know it’s 240 bucks. So you really get up there.
[0:26:11] Jim Collison: Cyber schools in the chat room says we’re better off buying them from Roswell on eBay. He says they never pay more than $85 shipped directly from Roswell using coupon codes, so cyber cyber schools. If you’d send those to me, what coupon
[0:26:25] Mike Wieger: codes are we using here? Let me know what those are.
[0:26:28] Jim Collison: We’ll add those to the show notes. I might be, I might be in the market to pick that up. He dropped the link in there. 109, full. And then what? How do? Where do we find the coupon codes for those? If you want to send those over to me or figure out how to get that done, that’d be all right. Well, we’ll we’ll I’ll I’ll see if I can track those down. He says they’re always listed right in the ad, so I might want to watch might want to watch for those. Maybe I’ll set a slick deals alert for that, Mike. Been doing a lot of those recently, where I’ve been setting Slick Deal alerts just to see what’s popping up. It’s amazing what you can find on Slick Deals. Yeah,
[0:27:08] Mike Wieger: got me into that too. So on on eBay right now, I’m seeing for 149.
[0:27:13] Jim Collison: Cyber Schools put a link in the chat, which we’ll include on here in the in the show notes. You want to go out and look. I’ll do a little bit of work on Saturday. To oops, that’s the wrong one. We’ll try and get those in the show notes for you. If you’re listening to the recorded version, and if you’re interested, I I just Mike, I just love to get the case kind of a in you know everybody’s kind of got their own opinion of what that should be, but I’m kind of interested in you doing a a little more robust server. Yeah, Windows 10. Well, Mark kind of thinks Mark Robson kind of thinks this, so pushed me over to Unraid. It’s possible.
[0:27:54] Mike Wieger: Well, and the great part about that is you could run the VM. Yeah, and then you could just spin you know spin up that VM when you want. You have the same hardware, right? Just, I think that would work pretty well.
[0:28:06] Jim Collison: Yeah. So, Cyber School says so. I guess there’s a deal. There’s an extra 20% off by using the code Just Relax, and right now, and that brings it down to 8799, and then you can usually get an extra 10 or eight or 10% off on eBay is doing eBay bucks, so you want to watch for you. You might want to watch for those deals. Looks sold out right now, but you might want to watch for those deals. Kind of if you’re, and that’s like I’m in no hurry, Mike. So right, right now knowing that like 85 is the low water mark, you know? Kind of wait, see if I can find one in that 85 to to 185 to $99. I mean, we know you can get for 100 bucks. Hey, look, for $15, I don’t know if I’m going to scrap around that long. Just to be honest, like you, it’s 99 bucks on e on Amazon, free shipping, right? Right now, yeah,
[0:29:00] Mike Wieger: oh yeah, yeah,
[0:29:01] Jim Collison: done, done deal, or 85 bucks free shipping. I don’t know if I’m going to squabble over 15 bucks for too long. You know. So sometimes we, you know. But if I can make it, I mean, if I can make it work, sometimes that’s the fun. I a lot of our listeners they love the thrill of the kill. Like it’s not, it’s not necessarily about buying it at the lowest price. It’s about buying it at the lowest price. True, that’s the
[0:29:26] Mike Wieger: whole fun part about it. Totally agree. The one thing that the challenge I have, Jim, with that case that I’m wondering, I and I honestly haven’t done much much research, but I was going to ask the community if anyone has found a good CPU cooler that fits in a 4u case. So I was looking at the Be Quiet. The Be Quiet ones are super cheap. I don’t need anything too nice. It’s honestly it’s an i 737 70. But do you actually? What kind of cooler do you have on yours? Because it’s the same CPU you have. Do you have anything? I have the stock one.
[0:29:56] Jim Collison: I just have the stock one that came with it. Yeah, but I’m using it in a. I’ve got one of those land boxes, you know, the cyber cooler. Now, is that the right? Is that the right brand? Anyways, you know, it was meant to. It’s got handles on the side. It’s a big square box. They’re beautiful. They were. They’re beautiful boxes, and I I love them. Is a box. They’re flat and square, so there’s plenty of room. I mean, I’ve got I have this much headroom on that on that fan, and I have room. Those GPUs are sitting in there, and I have an extra fan on top of those GPUs running down into them, and it’s not even close to the top.
[0:30:35] Mike Wieger: Okay. Okay. Is that case loud?
[0:30:39] Jim Collison: That that was just going to say it is
[0:30:40] Mike Wieger: dead quiet, like whisper quiet. You would think so with those fans, and they’re the stock fans. I thought I would have to replace them with like some Noctua fans or something like that. But the stock fans in there, you trying to think if I can hear it. My I have one machine that’s louder over there than that one, but I don’t. I don’t. Yeah, so it’s on the bottom there. Jim showing my rack that I just took a picture of. So nice
[0:31:03] Jim Collison: rack. I just wanted to say that to you, man. Nice rack.
[0:31:06] Mike Wieger: Yeah, pretty nice rack. Yeah, it’s down there. It’s super quiet. I I would say I would say dead silent. You might hear it if it was right next to you. Then what’s above it? So there’s the Unraid Box, and it kind of look from this picture. It looks like it’s just really long. Those boxes are super long. We got a r7 10, r2 10 version two above that, which is Pfsense. Then the Dell Optiplex, and then the keyboard and the monitor, and then up above that’s a Cisco 3750 G switch, I believe. I’m getting my numbers right. It’s the gigabit managed 48 port version, and then the patch panel. It’s all it’s in there.
[0:31:51] Jim Collison: Rock on! If you got some suggestions for me on, like, if I’m if I’m going to build a box out like this, send me an email, Jim at theaverageguy.tv. I would love to hear your suggestions. I’m in no hurry. I do have. I’m flush with cash because I’ve been selling these hard drives, so it’s it is burning a little bit of a hole in my pocket. And not that it needs to get reinvested. My daughter just started in school, and it was a little more expensive than we anticipated. So I may funnel some of that into payments, but it’s it is one of those things. I’m not necessarily thinking I need to go buy one of these. But if you’re interested in sending me your recommendations for them, send me an email, Jim at theaverageguy.tv. Let me know what you think. Price. Send me some links. Love to dialog. Or better, need a
[0:32:34] Mike Wieger: rack. To be honest,
[0:32:35] Jim Collison: well, I’ve got a pretty good rack, but the the but you’re right. I do I do need to find a rack as well. That’s one thing I need to find locally, like you did. I need to keep my eyes open for somebody who’s just blowing one of those things out that I can put down here in the basement.
[0:32:51] Mike Wieger: Mark Robinson says, “Remember when Mike was only an Apple guy?” Another Jim goes, “Those were the days, Mark.” That’s so true. When we started podcasting, I didn’t have a single piece of equipment in my house that wasn’t like
[0:33:02] Jim Collison: I brought you on here to be the Apple guy.
[0:33:06] Mike Wieger: You converted me. I had I had consumer grade router. I had there was no such thing as a rack, and I had all Apple products. I now look at me. It’s this this my phone and the Soul MacBook are the only remaining Apple devices in the home. It’s so
[0:33:20] Jim Collison: great, though. It’s so great. It just it’s been fun because you’ve you’ve made this journey, and not that. Listen, I never intended. I like I said, I brought you on here to be the Apple guy. I wanted, I wanted the other side. I wanted, I I wanted some experience that was outside of the Microsoft ecosystem. And well, there we go. You’ve you’ve you’ve been infected by the community, not just me, but all of us out there in in what we talked about. Also interested. So I mentioned if you’ve got a if you have a recommendation for me, send me that email, Jim at theaverageguy.tv. You could we could also carry this on in the Facebook group. Many of you have been making the jump over to Facebook, Mike. I’ve been surprised. I’m about one or two or three a week now. I’m approving to come into the group. I don’t know where you’ve been, but welcome. One and two make some rack recommendations for me in there. I’d love to. And when I think about racks, not the rack itself, I’m going to buy that local. I’m going to find one of those local. But for the server or whatever, I’d like to get more where I could get somewhere in the 10 to 15 hard drive space. So let me know, Jim at theaverageguy.tv.
[0:34:28] Mike Wieger: Ryzen’s not a bad idea if you you know build a Ryzen-based server.
[0:34:31] Jim Collison: No, right. Actually, right now it’d be a great idea. To be honest, yeah. And I was going to go to
[0:34:35] Mike Wieger: when you build it, just try Unraid first. Do the free trial. See if the VM works for you enough for your for your burst mining, because other than that, you probably don’t even touch that machine, do you? You just let it sit there. I don’t.
[0:34:51] Jim Collison: I don’t. It sits
[0:34:52] Mike Wieger: there.
[0:34:54] Jim Collison: Yeah, the burst box is really. It’s got a dedicated monitor to it that I’ve got mouse without borders for. This box, I leave the burst pool page open. We’ll talk a little bit about that in the post show. There’s some changes out there on that, as well as the tab. Before I don’t know, I didn’t think about this before, but the tab for the Discord group is there because I don’t have to hear it. That Discord group is super loud. I mean, it’s just like it’s like when my cat starts, you know, purring. So I don’t even hear it anymore. And of course, it’s got the miner running on it, so it’s all its own dedicated box, and and it works great.
[0:35:30] Mike Wieger: But I guess if you did that, you would have to replot because Andrea’s going to wipe all those. So probably not. I could move over.
[0:35:36] Jim Collison: I could move them over. You know, take them from one. Yeah, I could get one started and then just just move them over and then wipe
[0:35:45] Mike Wieger: them, add them to the pool, add them to the array.
[0:35:47] Jim Collison: Yeah, something like that. Yeah, it wouldn’t be impossible. Wouldn’t be bad. No, and even as we’ll just stick with
[0:35:51] Mike Wieger: Windows though,
[0:35:52] Jim Collison: down to about 50 terabytes, and so you know, I could I could have that backup running pretty quick. Yeah, Turbo Plotter. Anyways, we’re not here. We’ll talk a little bit about that in the post show. Speaking of that, Mike, this is related to the crypto, but not related. Those, you know, I bought 14 of those eight terabyte Seagate SMR drives. They’ve been good little drives. I did have one go bad this week. Oh, really? Yeah. No, it just quit working. I came down here, and the the miner was like, “Hey, I can’t see this drive. So I did some quick testing in the morning and couldn’t get it spinning again. And then I heard it; I could hear it ticking. You know,
[0:36:31] Mike Wieger: oh, interesting. That’s
[0:36:32] Jim Collison: never a good sign of beep or two in there. So I think out of 14 drives, those cheap SMR drives, I kind of expected to have one or two logged into the Seagate website, started an RMA process, created an account, did an RMA process. Five minutes, I was done. They have a new drive coming to me. I took the Premier option, which is I prepay, so 12 bucks. They they send me a drive. They were they’re not available at the moment, but as soon as one becomes available, I’m sure it’s going to be a refurb. They send me a new drive. I put it in place. Then I have a week to package up the old one, send it back. Good deal. Yeah, I mean shipping would have been eight or yeah bucks anyways, and so might as well wait for them. I wish I could get that drive going. I can’t. It’s dead. It’s so
[0:37:17] Mike Wieger: on that RMA process. Do you have to like provide a receipt, or do you just plug in a serial number, nothing.
[0:37:21] Jim Collison: Serial number based on the data manufacturer, and I think a little bit. I think they do it the data manufacturer plus whatever, because I bought those drives back back in the spring. They they must have been fairly new because it was like March of 2019 is is when it was over. So, and I think I bought those in January or February. So I think maybe they give it a couple months. So it’s not exactly 12 months; it’s probably like 14.
[0:37:47] Mike Wieger: I should have tried that though, because I just had a Seagate. It was actually one of the four terabyte, you know, just the the USB three, the four terabyte, the smaller ones, right? The the two and a half inch version. And one of those that completely died on me during burst mining, but I I chucked. I just threw it away. Yeah. Okay. How old was it? Less than a year. I know that. Oh yeah. I just I didn’t even think about the army. Honestly, I was like, oh yeah. I’m so used to buying used hardware. That one, all my hard drives though are not. You know, lawyers
[0:38:15] Jim Collison: just flush with cash. Whatever. Yeah, we
[0:38:17] Mike Wieger: just
[0:38:17] Jim Collison: just smoking $20 bills. Just
[0:38:20] Mike Wieger: no. I’ve never, I’ve never had, you know, I’ve never had a, I’ve never had hard drives go bad, so I just totally forgot about the army process. Honestly,
[0:38:29] Jim Collison: well, we’ll see how this goes. Like, I don’t have the drive yet; it’s it’s sitting actually right here. So here it is, and and I’ve got it kind of isolated. It was drive number three, and as soon as the RMA comes for it, I’ll put it back in. I may not even replot it. I may just sell it. May just move it on to the next person that wants it. You know, yeah, there you go. Back that way, and and so Seagate. I know a lot of people have had nightmares with Seagate. There’s only really two companies, right? Seagate and Western Digital, for the most part, what what we’re buying from them? Those are the two manufacturers. So far, so good. So I’m I’m again I’m not saying they’re great. I’m just saying I I had a pretty good RMA process and they’ve streamlined that. Put the serial number in, put the model in, hit submit. Hey, here’s your drive. Here’s the here’s when the warranty is done. Is it bad? Yes. They didn’t make me test it or upload anything, they were just like there is a disclaimer. They’re like if you send us a good drive, we’re gonna send it back. That that was kind of what it said in there. Okay, and so there there was a little this a disclaimer in there. So we’ll see how it goes. I’m I’m I’m optimistic. It was a pretty good experience. 14 drives, one going bad so far, not too bad. By the way, if you’re listening to this, and a few of you have bought drives from me, and you’re listening this, I’ll just remind you: if it does go bad in the next month or two or three or whatever, maybe even six, you might be able to just RMA that directly with Seagate and use up the. Of the warranty, then ask where I bought it or when I bought it or the receipt for it or any of those kinds of things. So if you’re listening and you bought those, one, thanks for doing that. Two, chances are there’s a little bit of warranty left on there, so an added bonus for buying them early. So there you go, Mike. In a couple weeks, three weeks, I think Aaron Lawrence is coming back, and if you’re Listen, community, listen to me. If you’re not following Aaron Lawrence on YouTube, you ought to be. Like, yeah, she
[0:40:29] Mike Wieger: Facebook. She posts all to Facebook too, which is great. Yeah,
[0:40:31] Jim Collison: she’s an amazing reviewer, and she kind of gets some stuff off the beaten path. And just today, she posted a YouTube video, and you know, I’m big on the robots, and she has a window cleaning robot that literally sucks itself to your window and then cross
[0:40:50] Mike Wieger: the window. Yeah, just goes.
[0:40:51] Jim Collison: Yeah, just it sucks itself to the window and then cleans your window for you. Now, is it the fastest thing in the world? Could you do it faster? Absolutely. Could you? Yeah, because now
[0:41:01] Mike Wieger: I got to sit there and put it on the window. Wait, pull it off. Put it on the next window. Wait, yeah, but just think
[0:41:04] Jim Collison: about the things you could be doing while you could set it on the window. Watching
[0:41:07] Mike Wieger: it probably is probably all I’m gonna do. Set it on the window. Cool, pretty lights. That’s pretty pretty sweet. Could have done 10 minutes ago, but I was watching my new tech go crazy.
[0:41:19] Jim Collison: I, I’m kind of, I’m, I’m kind of like I saw this. We’re gonna talk about it when she comes on in three weeks because she did it. And anytime she’s on, we got to talk about robots because she’s, she seems like they send her all the robots. Yeah, they send her a
[0:41:32] Mike Wieger: lot of cool stuff. She did like home theater chairs the last time she was on. She’s done a lot of cool tech.
[0:41:37] Jim Collison: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so uh, she. reviewed this pretty cool, pretty expensive. I’m not sure it’s like 450 bucks. Oh wow! Yeah, and I’m thinking, man, I can do a lot of a lot of window washing for four, especially you know my windows. I can hire a ton of
[0:41:57] Mike Wieger: window washing for you.
[0:41:58] Jim Collison: Snap them out, and you you know you can wash them from the inside and then put them put them back. Oh,
[0:42:02] Mike Wieger: you have those kind. I am jealous. I
[0:42:04] Jim Collison: do. Yeah, I do pretty nice. Yeah, but I would love to be that guy who pulls that window down, sticks the thing to it, and then lets it run and go do something else. And then it does from her review, and we’ll get her in person when she’s here. But pretty good little review of it, and it does pretty good job on the window. She had it; she tried it on the floor and a few other things. To it gets confused on tile and some of those some of those other things. But I love this idea. It’ll only get better. And Mike, I would love to be able to open the window, stick it to the outside, and walk away and come back five minutes later.
[0:42:39] Mike Wieger: Well, while you’re mowing, and like every every pass or too bad, you just notice and you go pull it, put it on a new window, and the more I think about it,
[0:42:47] Jim Collison: yeah, I’m not going to spend
[0:42:48] Mike Wieger: $400. I can’t remember the last time I’ve washed my windows.
[0:42:51] Jim Collison: Well, we’re moving, and I’m thinking about it because I don’t think we’ve washed ours ever on the outside. I
[0:42:58] Mike Wieger: haven’t yet. I know that on the inside, yes. People
[0:43:01] Jim Collison: outside know. Yeah, people look, and so I’m just kind of thinking, I’m probably that that job is probably going to fall on me. I wouldn’t mind having a little robot that would that would wash my windows for me. So I was thinking, Mark Robson is reminding me. It seems like Aaron always precedes the big barbecue show. So the next week we’re doing the big barbecue and grill show, so Mark and Mike will be coming on. Mark, Mike, and Mike will be coming on for the grilling show. So we’re looking forward to to that as well. Also from the chat room, Tojoski also mentioned I mentioned Western Digital and Seagate, and then of course he mentions HGST, which I think owns Western Digital at this point, but you can get those HGST drives. Those are kind of your white label hard drives that you can get. You can find those pretty inexpensive. That’s there’s some really good deals on those, especially on eBay. You can find those right now. You can find like three terabyte drives for 50 bucks. So if you need some storage, but you don’t need eight terabyte drives at this point, three terabytes kind of the sweet spot for about 50 bucks. Those HGST drives work really well for that kind of space. eBay is a great place to pick up those. I I think I purchased six of those three terabyte drives back in the day, and they they just been rock solid. Yeah, the intention was I probably I bought three Western Digital Reds for the Drobo, and then I bought three of the HGST drives for burst mining. Okay, and I ended up putting them all in burst in the day and and filling the Drobo up with whatever I had left over because I was just trying to get everything deployed to burst, but some some pretty good drives. That’s
[0:44:46] Mike Wieger: the other thing I like about Unraid too is that you know if if you can’t afford the red drives or you know specific NAS drives, it’s not a big deal because it spins them down most of the time, and Unraid stores the entire file on one. Disk. So if you’re accessing files, usually you’re only spinning up one disk, and then it’ll spin it back down. So you’re not, you know, you don’t need NAS rated drives specifically. If you’re not, if it’s not going to be up and running a lot. Now, if you’re running a Unraid Box that’s being used all the time, then it’s a little bit different. But the way that Unraid does it, you you could get away with a lot of green, blues, you know, those sort of drives, and and probably be just fine.
[0:45:25] Jim Collison: Yeah. Well, I intended I bought the reds with the intention of regardless of where burst went, I was going to take the reds and move them into the Drobo as I filled up the Drobo. So that was the goal. So today they’re sitting somewhere in my network. I’m not sure where they’re at. I have to open up. They’re somewhere
[0:45:42] Mike Wieger: here.
[0:45:42] Jim Collison: They’re somewhere around there. I have to open up, take a look, and see where things are at. But the intention was, as I get more data on the Drobo, then I would feel I would pull those three, those three terabyte reds over, because man, there’s that’s like peanut butter and jelly. The reds in the Drobo are just super sweet, and it really likes those drives, and so it just keeps keeps humming along. Mike also in the chat room, or I’m I’m sorry, also in Facebook this week, Ryan Kirschner had put dropped a blast from the past. One of his coworkers had found an old newspaper stashed away and brought it into work. I forget what date this was from, but it has a TRS 80 for $4,000. Come and get your. You’re invited to come see the new TRS 80 model 1230 3999. I forgot how expensive you missed all this because by the time you were buying computers, the the bottom had come out of the PC market and and in the Mac market, they had gotten pretty reasonable. But I had forgot just how expensive Ryan loaded pictures to it in there. But 80k of internal memory, 100 a 1.25 meg. disk drive expanded floppies in there eight programmable function keys like this thing did nothing by today’s standard you know
[0:47:14] Mike Wieger: or $1,000 which what would that be today even
[0:47:18] Jim Collison: yeah no and I want to think this is like 1980. I don’t think it is. I’d have to look on the picture to see. So
[0:47:26] Mike Wieger: I wish that my I wish my mom had been. So my mom was is a graphic designer, and she was when I was a kid. She did a lot of that. So we were on the Mac side. So like in my years when I knew what I was doing with a computer, like when I was super young, I remember some old computers we had. But when I was old enough to actually use a computer and know, do you remember the old Mac that was a? They called it the lampshade or like the lamp Mac. Had an arm and you could move it all around, and so that is the Mac I grew up on, like actually using when I was probably in middle school, aged. I wish I knew what the equivalent. I just look it up. I should look up what year that was made, and and you could tell me like what the equivalent Windows machine was back in the day. Yeah,
[0:48:04] Jim Collison: if you could tell me the year, because my
[0:48:06] Mike Wieger: dad would bring home an extra laptop from work, and we would play games over a LAN, you know. And I thought that was like the coolest thing ever that you could hook up two computers, and that was like my intro to to gaming really, because I didn’t have an. I I was no you know I didn’t have a gaming system back then, besides an N 64. So, yeah, that was those. But but it it had to be pretty advanced, right? Because my dad was bringing home an extra laptop to play a video game connected by a LAN, and it was like Battle Bots. It was like a pretty sophisticated graphic intensive game. So it could have been too crazy.
[0:48:42] Jim Collison: Yeah, in the same paper they’ve got the Windows
[0:48:45] Mike Wieger: 9895.
[0:48:46] Jim Collison: It could have been, could have been in those years. They have an Atari 20. Is that a 2500 for 100 bucks? And it it’s the old, you know, the old cartridges, right?
[0:48:56] Mike Wieger: Yeah,
[0:48:58] Jim Collison: and then and then jam those things in there. Oh, put a pencil in there. You got to put a pencil. All these different ways. Why they couldn’t made that better? That was a little more reasonable, right? Those were those were 100 bucks. Um, trying to get the year from the chat room on this TRS 80. Um, Cyber School says that was Windows ME back then. L O M E. That would have been turned. You know, at the turn of the century, right? They came up the Millennium Edition. Me, that’s what that stood for. It was. Oh, really? Yeah. Did you know that? Yeah. Windows was Windows ME had today. It has. It had about right right at 2000. Right at 2000. Okay. 99 2000. Right. Early 80s, I guess, for the for the TRS-80. Um, the yeah the the ME version was lived about as long as Windows 8 did. It was not loved. Nobody liked it. It didn’t game very well. It was it was kind of a mess. They were trying to rebrand in there.
[0:49:58] Mike Wieger: So it must have been then. It must have been Windows. 2000 or Windows 98 that I was playing on because my middle school years would have been, jeez, 2001 to 2005 essentially right around there. Yeah. Well, no, so maybe it was it could have been me. Yeah. But what what would a Windows ME wasn’t used in the industry, right? It wasn’t enterprise.
[0:50:22] Jim Collison: No, never. It never. It it. So enterprise
[0:50:25] Mike Wieger: would have been Windows 2000. That’s what I probably would have been on was Windows 2000.
[0:50:29] Jim Collison: Yeah, 2000 was a predecessor to NT. Yep, it might have been
[0:50:33] Mike Wieger: NT. I remember. I remember messing around on NT.
[0:50:36] Jim Collison: Yeah, you know. So 95 and NT were separate, and then 95 went through through 98, and then Windows NT became Windows 2000. ME was an attempt to pull them together, but it never really worked very well. They really they really really struggled with that. And you know those were some interesting years. That stuff was just difficult and terrible computing. You know you think what we have now. We just
[0:51:00] Mike Wieger: the
[0:51:00] Jim Collison: stuff we do now. This is always what I’ve hoped for, and we just suffered through those years to get to this point where the technology is actually really functional. It’ll actually do something for you now. Back in those days, it was questionable if it did anything for you. To be honest, some word processing, a little bit of networking. It’s amazing we made it through those times. Just to be honest, that stuff was crap.
[0:51:22] Mike Wieger: It’s so surprising that you know if you think through what shocks you in technology, it’s kind of weird. Each person has their own thing. Still, to me, to this day, I am just for some reason baffled that we can video chat in real time and how low latency this can be. Like the fact that you know how low latency video chat is in HD is just shocking to me. Of all the technology, like VR, that’s I mean that seems normal, but video chatting in real time to me for some reason that has always blown my mind. So that since it since it started and it became a thing,
[0:51:56] Jim Collison: it’s pretty great
[0:51:57] Mike Wieger: because I that was one thing I was I was I did go through the generation of not having video chat to having video chat and seeing all the narrations of how bad it was at the beginning and then how decent it’s become.
[0:52:08] Jim Collison: It’s
[0:52:09] Mike Wieger: it’s crazy.
[0:52:10] Jim Collison: Well, I remember when you could get video on AIM. I think it was AIM Instant Messages one of those two, and I would try to get people to video chat with me, and nobody wanted to do it. I’m not talking strangers. I’m talking friends. Like, hey, you want a video? This, like, this works. And they’re like, no, I don’t, no, I don’t want to. I’m not interested. And you’re like, wait. I mean, the internet was in was at the time for us was unlimited, so it’s not like it was a bandwidth thing. And you know, I’d be like, hey, we could talk video. No, no, I don’t want to do it. And and I’m surprised today there’s still a number of podcasters who don’t want to use video, you know. And you’re like, wow, there’s so much power in this.
[0:52:48] Mike Wieger: Well, and it’s kind of become a standard. Like I, my boys FaceTime Hannah’s parents probably every other night. It’s usually right around dinner time, and you know, just for five minutes, just to say hi.
[0:53:00] Jim Collison: Yeah,
[0:53:00] Mike Wieger: you know, hey, hey, Momo. He he loves saying he loves talking to grandma, you know. And then they talk, and he’s just used to it. He grabs the phone and he thinks that that’s just how the world operates. Is he can call anyone and just see him, just video
[0:53:12] Jim Collison: in in five minutes. It’s not a big deal, you know. It’s like hey, let’s just call. Um, you know, we may get back to a generation that just calls today. We all ask for permission anymore? Like we used to just call when it was just a cell. When it was just a telephone, right? Four cell phones. People just called each other. They didn’t ask for permission. Hey, you gonna be around? They called the house to see if you were there. Today, I find people they’ll text before they call. Hey, you got a few minutes? Yeah, and then and then they say yes. Then they’ll call or they’ll just have the conversation via text, but I am finding the kids, the younger, the real young ones, are inclined. They they just they’re like, why would you do that? Let’s just talk. Yeah, and so it’s just so much easier. And
[0:53:52] Mike Wieger: on on the so this is I’ve never had an Android phone. On Android, you’re not an Android guy either, but I guess your wife is is Hangouts as built into the OS as FaceTime is on on Apple? I don’t
[0:54:08] Jim Collison: think so. Okay, I don’t think it is. No, FaceTime
[0:54:10] Mike Wieger: is just so simple, right? You just click it, FaceTime. Like it’s it just starts. It’s like it’s like a call. It’s easy, if not easier, than a phone call. Yeah,
[0:54:17] Jim Collison: no, you just click it, say FaceTime, boom, you’re in. Yeah, yeah, it works great. And you can even
[0:54:21] Mike Wieger: have FaceTime be the like in your favorites on your iPhone. You could have FaceTime be a favorite instead of their phone number. It’s super simple. But Hangouts isn’t as integrated, so I think especially on the iPhone, if you are in an iPhone ecosystem and you and your friends are, FaceTime is just a a normal thing.
[0:54:36] Jim Collison: NickSops in the chat says, “I feel like if it’s an important, I just call. Just text means not as important and it can be answered later. Yeah, no, it’s weird. We have these hierarchies of importance on calls. Like, you can answer this later, or you can answer it now. One of the problem is I get so many alerts, and I really need to shut everything off except phone calls, and I really need to spend some time letting all my family calls actually tell. Now I’ve been, I jump back onto onto my Fitbit, and I get notifications on my Fitbit, and I forget how handy this is, Mike, to have it on the watch. Oh, I can’t live
[0:55:12] Mike Wieger: without it.
[0:55:13] Jim Collison: All I can get’s notifications. I can’t see anything, right? But I can get notifications, and I can see if Sarah’s calling me, or I can see if it’s one of the kids because I don’t I don’t vibrate and I don’t I have my phone makes no noise and that drives my family bonkers that they can’t get a hold of me like you have $1,000 device in your pocket and we can’t get a hold of you like what is wrong with you you moron so
[0:55:41] Mike Wieger: I’m probably about the same way. Everyone always says I’m the worst answering my phone.
[0:55:44] Jim Collison: Yeah,
[0:55:45] Mike Wieger: but
[0:55:46] Jim Collison: I’d love to hear some more nostalgia. By the way, that our group is good for this on Facebook. So if you’re Facebook.com/group/theaverageguy, something like that, gets you there. Link is links on the on the average TV. It’s my favorite. Yeah, post more of these. I love these, Mike. Before we run out of here, interesting story coming in from. Of course, you know I’m a big space guy. I follow space.com. I get alerts all the time. Elon has his new rocket nose catcher, which sounds kind of funny. They call it mr. Steven. He comes up with the craziest names, and you’ve
[0:56:21] Mike Wieger: got to see the picture if you haven’t seen it yet. Because when you posted this to the Facebook group, I was like, “Okay, that I I didn’t know what it was,” and it made me read the story because I was like, “What is that?”
[0:56:31] Jim Collison: Let me show this thing here. Pretty
[0:56:33] Mike Wieger: cool.
[0:56:34] Jim Collison: Yeah. So if you’re watching the video, you can see it now. It is a big gigantic boat. It literally just has a big net on it, and they’re just catching these things. Here’s the amazing things: it’s falling from space. It is a nose cone or two pieces of a nose cone, right? It is literally falling from space, and they put thrusters. They have holy cow! I cannot get my my notifications to stop. They have put thrusters, these nitro nitrogen, I think thrusters in there that help guide it in, and then they they bring in it, and it doesn’t do the rocket thing where it comes in and then you know where it comes in and makes a perfect landing. No, this thing comes flying in from the atmosphere, and they try to slow it down a little bit before it hits these nets, but
[0:57:22] Mike Wieger: you know how accurate that has to be because that barge isn’t moving very fast. Like you know that ship right there is not like oh got to go run over here real quick to catch this thing. So they’ve got to have it down to a pretty close calculation of where this thing’s going to land. Or are those thrusters doing a lot to adjust where it can land?
[0:57:39] Jim Collison: I think they are. I think they’re doing just enough.
[0:57:42] Mike Wieger: Could yeah, and I
[0:57:43] Jim Collison: think it has some parachutes too.
[0:57:45] Mike Wieger: Okay, not
[0:57:46] Jim Collison: coming in hot.
[0:57:47] Mike Wieger: You know,
[0:57:47] Jim Collison: it it. But but think of the math associated with okay. It’s going to space. It’s coming off a rocket. It’s coming back. It launches a parachute and it hits the net. Now, to be fair, they haven’t actually successfully done this yet. Like they, but in
[0:58:07] Mike Wieger: theory, it’s really impressive.
[0:58:09] Jim Collison: No, that’s the funny thing. Like they have spent all this money and they have yet to really hit one of these nose cones into the into the catcher’s mitt. But it is for me. I love the audacity of them trying this. Like to me, this is all the cool things. These are all the super cool ideas we would have come up with when we were seven, you know, and been like, “Hey, imagine if we had this big, big ass ship and it had a big ass net on it, and we’re gonna fly this thing into space, and then we’re gonna bring it back, and through parachutes and math, we’re gonna catch
[0:58:47] Mike Wieger: it.
[0:58:47] Jim Collison: Like in the 60s, they didn’t think this perfect
[0:58:50] Mike Wieger: way to describe Elon. Like take the creativity of a seven-year-old with the pocketbook of a billionaire playboy, and and you’ve got Elon Musk. Like he’s got the creativity, he’s got the brains, a little bit of the engineer, and he’s got the pocketbook, and he, you know, yeah, no, right on. So in the 60s, the engineers
[0:59:08] Jim Collison: are like, “This is too hard. It’s just going to land in the ocean, and you’re going to spend a million dollars, and it’s not going to be able to be used again.” That’s what they said in the 60s. Now they were in a hurry, to be honest. Yeah, they were trying to. That’s probably a good
[0:59:20] Mike Wieger: point when you when you’re not rushed, and so they were
[0:59:23] Jim Collison: just doing whatever it took to get that you know to get that stuff into space and to beat the Russians, but you know in this I I love this and you know Elon’s come under a ton of fire recently, and I know he’s not the most dynamic personality, but you gotta love the audacity of him trying to catch a freaking nose cone. Totally
[0:59:44] Mike Wieger: agree.
[0:59:45] Jim Collison: I to me that’s pretty awesome. I I just I’m I’m super intrigued by what they’re doing, and not just what they’re what they’re doing, but what the other space programs. There’s a couple other private ones as well, who are trying to make this thing work. And you know, as a kid, it always. Was weird to me that space was just locked up by NASA, and how cool is
[1:00:06] Mike Wieger: it? It’s
[1:00:07] Jim Collison: not. Yeah, how cool is it that we’ve got some of these billionaire moguls trying to make this thing work for the for the average guy, so to speak, and they’re really trying some some very crazy hard to do things. The greatest part about it is most of it’s failed so far. Like you know, this landing the rocket thing hasn’t. They’ve had more crashes than they’ve had landing, right? But they just keep trying. They’re going to get it.
[1:00:34] Mike Wieger: Yeah. Well, so the the last funny story about this is, I got the notification that you had posted something, and I clicked it and I think you had you had said something, but you didn’t mention space. You said like, “Wow, this is just so inspiring or so cool.” I saw the picture and in my head, I was at work and I couldn’t read the article. I’m trying to like you you you formulate what the article is going to be. I’m like, “Oh, it’s probably like a suicide prevention like barge. They park this under bridges, and it catches people like so so that people can’t prevent like commit suicide. In my head, that was the story I had come up with for what that picture of that was. So when I read the article, imagine my surprise. I was like, “Oh, that’s not catching people. That’s catching rockets coming from space. That’s way cooler.” I mean, it’s cool to prevent suicide too, but yeah, that’s really cool. Right on. But that was the that was in my head, so I thought that barge was going to do before I read the article.
[1:01:28] Jim Collison: Super cool, super cool stuff. I just I love what’s going on right now, you know, with space. I, you know, some of the stuff we’re doing financially as a country and the world is doing. I don’t know if it’s sustainable. We we live in a really good time where money flows, especially for these kinds of things. And you know, the U.S. economy is strong. That’s not the truth in other countries around the world. There’s a lot of countries right now whose economies are really really bad. If we think of Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, right? I mean, we we’ve got some real problems around the world, and this might be the the rich getting richer. But I do like to see that some of these billionaires are putting money, and you know Elon spending. I mean, this isn’t. There’s no guarantee return on any of this stuff. And you know, you talk about putting. They put those D 9s or what was that? What was called? It’s like a $900 million rocket or something like that, and you think that’s a lot of money. It’s a lot of money, you know. And even at 90 million, you think because that’s I think they’re trying to get it down in this between 50 and 100 million. That’s kind of the goal. Okay, 50 and $100 million launch, something like that, and in the next 10 years or something, and you still think, “Dang, that’s still a lot of money.” Like, and these guys are spending it. This is coming out of their company stuff. And I’m again, it’s not philanthropy. They’re not doing us the goodness of the heart. These guys are trying to make money out of this. Don’t get me wrong, but it’s cool. I think that we’re trying to get this space thing figured out. So,
[1:03:00] Mike Wieger: I wish the space thing. You know, we’ve talked about this at nauseum in past episodes. I wish the space thing was more popular with people of my generation. I think people, and I think I just missed it. I wasn’t quite old enough to be a kid during the time when we were landing on the moon and all that stuff. Where it was like super exciting. So you just, you know, as a kid, I didn’t go through the experience of seeing that and having it be some really cool experience. So, I feel like my whole generation has missed out on how cool and how advanced this stuff really is. So, I think we’re, you know, whenever when if you ask someone from my generation about Elon Musk, they’re gonna they’re gonna mention Tesla first, hands down. They’re SpaceX. They might not even have heard of it, so I wish they got more clout for what they’re doing.
[1:03:46] Jim Collison: Right? Yeah. Well, and maybe that’s good, Mike. That it’s not a, you know, in the ’60s when we were going to the moon, everybody was following attention. So
[1:03:57] Mike Wieger: you’re probably right.
[1:03:58] Jim Collison: You know, and and maybe it’s good. Maybe it’s a good sign of the times. Breathing them
[1:04:02] Mike Wieger: a little bit to kind of have all these failures and not have them be no totally of SpaceX when they fail.
[1:04:07] Jim Collison: Yeah. If the U.S. government was doing this and they were crashing these rockets more times than they were successful, there would there would be an outcry in the in the public. Like, come on, you’re we’re wasting taxpayer dollars. Yeah. Good point. You know, so it it is good. I think in some ways it’s good. This is way more complicated than what we’re talking about, but it is good that the public sector, I think, is kind of taking on space or the responsibilities for space. You know, they’re talking about having a space hotel within a year or two, and you’re kind of thinking seriously? Really?
[1:04:39] Mike Wieger: I didn’t know that. Yeah.
[1:04:40] Jim Collison: Really? Yeah. They really think they can have that up and running. So, so, so pretty cool. Well, we’ll we’ll spend a little bit of time in crypto in the post show, but for those of you who joined us live, appreciate good good crowd out here. By the way, yeah, really
[1:04:55] Mike Wieger: good chat. This is the most people I think we’ve had in chat in a while. No,
[1:04:57] Jim Collison: it is good for all of you. Quayzy and Ken and Drasna, Mark, Emily, to Joe Ski. I haven’t seen you in a while. Welcome back. Good to see you, Justin. Cyber Skulls, Tony, other Jim, Cybermancer, Kevin, Nick Sops was out here a little bit earlier, coming over from the from the Discord group for the pool. We’ll talk a little bit about some changes going on in the burst pool and some other stuff, other things that are happening. I got a little commentary on burst that I’ll have ready for you. If you stay around for the post show, you don’t. You can get the post show by heading out to our Patreon page. If you go to theaverageguy.tv/patreon or just head out to theaverageguy.tv, there’s a Patreon link. Actually, updated all the ways to subscribe to us. By the way, including I am now I’m two for two in the last two weeks of getting a newsletter out to you. It’s really just a link and a reminder that the show is out there. But if you have some suggestions, some things you like to see in that, I’ve been trying to post some deals or whatever in that. If you like to see it, there’s I don’t know 65 or 70 of you who actually open that. If you want to get signed up for it, head out to theaverageguy.tv. Click on the newsletter link, and there’s a sign up for it right there. I will not spam you. I will not sell your address. I barely send you email from me, just to be honest. But if if you want to get signed up there, you can do that as well. A couple other reminders to you. So get signed up for the newsletter. One, if you want to send me an email, Jim at theaverageguy.tv. Follow me on Twitter at jake Collison. Mike is at Wieger tech. You can do that as well. I talked about following us on Facebook, facebook.com/group/theaverage guy. Don’t forget theaverageguy.tv platform, both web and media hosting. The whole shebang hosted by Maple Grove Partners. Get secure, reliable, high speed hosting from people that you know and you trust. And plan start as little. You can get the whole shebang for 10 bucks a month. Super good deal. We because we know Christian, head out to Maple Grove partners.com if you’re looking to set something up. He is a stand up guy. And then don’t forget the mobile app’s available for you. It’s free. Our Patreon subscribers help me pay for that. And so if you’re supporting us on Patreon, you’re now helping support the mobile app. Get that at homegadgetgeeks.com. Easiest way to get it done: download it, have it available. Really, just download it on your phone so you have it. You don’t have to use it. It doesn’t download anything. By the way, it’s all streaming. But that way, if you’re on the road sometime and you want to listen, or you’re in a place like Cyber Manser was in a hospital and they blocked YouTube. You could have listened to us. I think he probably ended up listening to us through the Spreaker app on the page, but it might have been just as easy to listen on the phone. So you can get that you can get that done as well. Mark Robson has asked, “When are you going to put the schedule back in the emails?” That’s a good idea. That’s a
[1:07:38] Mike Wieger: good point. I actually enjoyed that. Oh, okay,
[1:07:40] Jim Collison: done. Yeah, done. We’ll start putting that back in. So, if you want to know what’s coming up, whether it’s just Mike and I, we have a whole bunch of guests coming up here. I booked. I don’t know why, but all of a sudden, a whole bunch of people oh got booked in there. So I mentioned on the 20th, so september 20, Aaron Lawrence is coming back. The 27th is the big barbecue show. You want to be here for that. the The fourth of October, Rich Hay is coming back to talk about Ignite. So we’re gonna it’ll be an all window show that time. The 11th, Dwayne Robinson’s got some stuff to chat with. He contacted me and said, “Hey, can I come back on?” I said, “Yes.” And then on the 18th, Emily Procop is coming back on, so she’ll she’ll be here. She’s we may even be supporting some story behind shirts for that, Mike. Yes, they’re on their way. So pretty excited. I’ll add those dates back in, Mark. Good, good idea. I’ll send those back in so folks know what is going on. And Cyber Manser says he’s streaming YouTube from his phone. Like that’s a miracle. Like you know, video to a phone. Like we just take that for granted. Like yeah, that should work. And then he’s
[1:08:41] Mike Wieger: not that far behind. Like the fact that you and I are streaming that live,
[1:08:45] Jim Collison: yeah, right now it’s pretty cool. So get signed up for the newsletter. Don’t forget, I still have a bunch of Hello Fresh. I get them every week. We just got another box this week, and if you want to try Hello Fresh, a couple of you contacted me and said, “Give it a try. I can get you basically your first week for free, guys. They don’t sponsor, and I don’t get anything for this. I’m just saying, Hello Fresh has changed the way we eat, and I like it so much. Tonight I cooked dinner. I had a podcast tonight, Mike, and I got home at [5:30]. I still got dinner done. I still had it in the wine the the wine fiasco that we talked about in the beginning of the show, that all happened as I was cooking dinner. So if I can do it, you can too. If you’re struggling with your meals, I’m just saying this, like because we did. We struggled with something good to eat, like, and we always just punted by going out, like, ah, let’s just go get pizza, or let’s just go get, you know, let’s just go get Chinese. And and this Hello Fresh is not any more expensive than going out. In fact, in some cases, it’s a little bit cheaper. But it’s they send you a box that’s right there. They send it to you. That is so great. So contact me, Jim at theaverageguy.tv. I’ve got these coupons for free stuff. I send them to you. You sign up. You try it for a week. If you don’t like it, you cancel. But I again, I make nothing. Not this. They’re not even a sponsor. I’m just saying you should give it a try, Mike. You were going to say something. No. Okay. We are live every Thursday, 8 p.m. Central. I am less drunk today, right now, than I was when we started the show. That’s always a good way to
[1:10:17] Mike Wieger: end. That’s always a good way. Sober at the start. Start drinking again, man.
[1:10:20] Jim Collison: I know I’m gonna need to. You and I are
[1:10:21] Mike Wieger: you and I are this the graph that goes like this, right? You’re on your way down. I’m on the way up. Let’s get to how we’re so
[1:10:28] Jim Collison: hammered when we started tonight. Oh my gosh, not intended, but it’s just the way it worked. We’re live every Thursday. I have to go back and listen to how my intro sounded. I think I was. I think
[1:10:38] Mike Wieger: it was pretty good. Okay, okay. Well, I’ve done it. It was actually you’ve been struggling with your intro the past few weeks. You you know, so I think actually this week was the best. So good, awesome. Yeah, it was pretty fun. Maybe I should be hammered
[1:10:50] Jim Collison: before the show a little more often. Maybe at least 6pm. But we are live every Thursday 8pm. Central and Eastern. We’ll here at TheAverageGuy.TV slash live. We will ask you to stay around for a little bit of post show. It’s all crypto. With that, we’ll say good night, everybody.
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