We are moving with phones, but not broadcasts
40 years ago, we moved to this house. We discovered that thereās an extinct volcano between us and the ridge where all the transmission towers are. (Portland has several extinct volcanos in the area, one of the bonuses for being in the Ring of Fire.) After fighting the antenna battle for a couple of years, we subscribed to the local cable network. We cut that cable several years ago when we discovered that we could benefit from streaming everything from the net. The Roku TV we bought is built to be a simple menu to help sort out and bring in internet services. We can even find Aussie Rules Football, although the game makes no sense to me.
Our TV uses Android. It is a pain to negotiate all the menus just to get a channel. Every channel has its own login setup, and the moment you setup a login you get swamped with emails. We avoid it.
Get Australian Rugby League ā¦ you might understand that , it is like American football.
I never understood ARL either until @daniel.m.tripp explained to me that it is in Gaelic.
No, rugby makes no sense. Canāt understand any of the penalties.
My school played rugby. I played every week and endured hours of reporting of results at weekly assembly. ā¦ but noone ever explained how to play or the rules.
It was sort of assumed that the school sport culture was everyones vital interest , while academia was only for the few bookworms.
Regional differences and assumptions. I had never heard of yogurt or bagels until I left the hinterlands for university in the big city.
Happy days, my first curry for lunch
My first grapefruit was at boot camp in the army.
Itās a broadcast standard VS the North American NTSCā¦
Both are essentially 4:3 ratio - but NTSC lower resolutionā¦
Australia didnāt adopt colour TV broadcast until about 15 years after USA and Canadaā¦ Because we were so late to the party - we could adopt a better standard - I think most of Europe is also PAL - note : there are mutliple versions / implementations of PALā¦
And theyāre all irrelevant / redundant now anywayā¦ e.g. ABC News āFree To Airā is now HD - in a 16:9 ratio - and I think defaults to 1920x1080ā¦
Iāve been looking at getting a more comfortable computer chair - one that can recline and fold away the armrests so itās more like a sofaā¦
No itās not in Gaelic - the two codes (Gaelic and Australian Rules) are not dissimilar - in both you can dribble the ball, there are goals and points (sometimes called ābehindsā) - but in Gaelic football, the ball is round, in AFL (not ARL) the ball is torpedo shaped like a rugby āballāā¦
I can follow a soccer match, AFL and/or Gaelic Football or rugby, and kinda figure out whatās going on - and they mostly have some decent continuation of play (less so in rugby) - the one code I donāt understand is āAmerican Footballā or Gridiron - itās annoying, they stop play every 5 minutes or less - itās annoying - I donāt understand it - and thereās hardly ever continuous playā¦ I guess if you grew up with it - it would be fine - but I grew up with a mix of Rugby, Soccer and Australian Rulesā¦
Note : despite the designation āGaelicā - itās only played in Ireland (i.e. not Scotland), like Hurlingā¦ But itās similar enough to AFL - thereāve been AFL matches with Aussies VS Irish, and Gaelic Football matches with Aussie AFL players VS Irishā¦
See my earlier post - Australia Rules is not dissimilar either, to an indigenous game called āMarngrookā - and is possibly why most of the top tier Australian Rules players are of indigenous heritageā¦
Hello Friends
Huge thanks for the replies
Bill
Amazon is a good source. Newegg.com is another one. Be sure to search for refurbished machinesāmany used ones are perfectly usable.
Thanks for the advice of the bold part, it is acceptable if is for me, but for a potential customer is other history. For the italic part, according with Google it is not the same as ārefurbishedā. Therefore the latter is better. Of course new is much better than both but cost is other concern
Neville
I second that.. a machine a few years old will most likely run Linux without the driver issues that frequently occur with brand new hardware.
Good point, but in that case I prefer a ārefurbished machineā because it was re-tested. Again it if is for my own use.
For a server , I would look at a desktop towerā¦ they are cheaper than laptops and more maintainable.
Has sense, but now being curious: What would be better a PC Tower or Mini PC and Why?
Dan
Last time I bought a system to run as a server was on e-bay - refurbished Dell Optiplex SFF (itās tiny but still has a half height PCIe GPU slot)ā¦ Check the reviews of the seller before committingā¦
Thanks for the bold and italic parts ā¦ pls could you consider in share the URL of your Dell if it is available? If not pls share the specs here
Thereās actually very little difference between a Linux desktop and a Linux serverā¦ Is there even any?
At a first glance either 1 or 1.5GB less of RAM for the server against the Desktop. So the experience of the terminal is valuable for usā¦
(i.e. the binaries executed on userās desktop UNIX machine, but display on remote X terminals - note: an X terminal is actually a ādisplay serverā).
Correct, GUI is used in the client machine if I want see some stats for example about Java I use JMX through VisualVM, for database interaction as admin is used DBeaver
Frost
Not sure where youāre based Manuel,
In south america
but I normally poke around Currys Business (if only to see whatās out there as theyāre normally quite dear), manufacturer sites, GumTree/FB marketplace, CEX, and my local repair shop - theyāve always got loads of NAS kicking around. Seems like the second hand market around me is flooded with them.
The problem of the sale stores in my country is that the models are āoldā and with the price being higher to pay the salesman commission and shipping costs and more ā¦ therefore is smart do the buy through the Web
I ended up building a mini ITX in the end as bang for buck went a lot further when I was looking.
Sounds great, could you consider in share the current specs?
Dan
Yeah - Nah! You can forget about it - theyāre SO NOISY! They draw so much power!
I am assuming it is a big point in favor for a Mini PC
My NAS file server is 15 years old - still going HP N40L Microserverā¦ dual-core AMD Turion 16 GB ECC RAM 16 TB storage (11-12 useable)
JellyFin server hex-core i5 (gen10) 28 GB RAM
I am assuming your Dell has ābetterā hardware because is newer, Am I correct?
My backup device - i.e. to backup other servers and MacBooks - is a RPi4 with 8 GB RAM - 1 TB USB 3 boot SSD, and 2 x 6 TB USB 3 HDDs for backup (latter 2 connected to the Pi via powered USB 3 hub).
I use my MacBook Pro with Ubuntu (16GB + 1TB SSD) for Java/Spring development
louyo1
We have had very good luck with Dell refurbs ā¦ ā¦ ā¦
Interesting your long feedback, pls could you share the URLs (if exist) of your servers? if is not possible consider to share the specs
Thanks to all for your time and support 
If you want expansion provision, a tower is better.
If you want quiet and small use a mini.
There are also SFF towers ā¦ in betweenā¦ eg Dell Optiplex.
I have a refurbished Optiplex ā¦ it is a fine Linux machine.
Note : this e-bay for Australia - not sure how useful it would be to youā¦ Pretty sure it was a straight $400 when I got it in December 2025ā¦
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/205224913244?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11412.m144671.l197929&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=b7240520d6c343cf900523a0e37b4214&bu=44220118408&exe=0&ext=0&osub=-1~1&crd=20260106001912&segname=11412
Iāve also already share the specs elsehwere on this forum but :
- Dell Optiplex SFF 7080
- Intel i5 (gen10)
- 16 GB DDR4 (single stick - has 4 slots)
- 256 GB SATA SSD (the specs vary a bit - mine came with a 2.5" SATA SSD not an NVMe - and I havenāt even looked at the board to see if it has an NVMe slot)
Again Big thanks for the replies
Neville
If you want expansion provision, a tower is better.
If you want quiet and small use a mini.
There are also SFF towers ā¦ in betweenā¦ eg Dell Optiplex.
Understoodā¦ new term learned: SFF ā¦ I am going to do a research about the difference between SFF and Mini
I have a refurbished Optiplex ā¦ it is a fine Linux machine.
Could you share its link and specs? What Distro is used and why?
Dan
Big thanks for the link!
Iāve also already share the specs elsehwere on this forum but :
Dell Optiplex SFF 7080
Intel i5 (gen10)
16 GB DDR4 (single stick - has 4 slots)
256 GB SATA SSD (the specs vary a bit - mine came with a 2.5" SATA SSD not an NVMe - and I havenāt even looked at the board to see if it has an NVMe slot)
Again big thanks!