2y ago

What do you ask for from Santa?

Or from your kids, cousins, etc.. trying to keep it simple. What do you request as cheap homelab related items?

I just have those nice Monoprice Slimrun cables so far.

Cable organization things for racks?

Tools (usually pretty expensive)?

Gift cards?

Or just avoid it altogether?

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simple idea: Label maker
not so simple: Highpoint NVMe RAID AIC with 8 x 8TB m.2 to go with it

My wife was asking me for ideas and I asked for 7000kwh to power my lab for the next year :D
- That's almost exactly 800watts, all year long. That would be more than enough for me😂

Off the top of my head: Electric screwdriver, pcie NICs, media converters, maybe some hard drives, bulk USB drives for imaging PCs, patch cables, front bezels for my servers, patch panels, blank panels for the rack, a desk mat, an electric duster, magnetic screw bowl, maybe some certification study material. All of these can be under $100 and most are easy to pick out for friends and family that aren't technically inclined.

To get my first IT job that I applied for. Thankfully, I passed my first interview, and the recruiter was very happy with me.
Knock on wood / fingers crossed!!!
- I went on a first interview after studding mechanical engineering for 9 years. I applied for IT job and I got it lol. We talked about my homelab setup and my hobbies and I guess they liked me even though I didn't have previous IT experience. I'm now extremely happy I get paid for a job I love.
  
  Thank you!

Amazon gift card is always a good choice. No matter if they are tech nerd or other. Just about everyone can find something at amazing they want.

I once asked for a portable vacuum cleaner so I can vacuum my homelab easier hence more often.

No more questions “what’s the best?” Proxmox, Truenas, OMV, Ubuntu or Fedora or Mint

Nothing.
We have been buying less and less stuff these last few years, and it’s been great.
Good for our stress levels, and the environment.
Win/win.

I ask for maintenance windows.
- You don't need maintenance windows if your services are clustered and your devices are redundant.

I'm too particular to ask for computer parts. I ask for hobbies and/or experiences that pull me away from computers.
I don't want to have to explain to my mom why an Intel CPU won't work on my AM5 motherboard, but I would love to go have a nice dinner with her.

I need time. Give me some hours, please...
It is hard to find time for lab, also when I do fixing something takes 3-5x longer than I expected.

Just avoiding buying anything. If anything is needed can be purchased other times.

My family knows not to buy me computer or camera gear because they'll never get it right (also it's too f'ing expensive).

I usually ask for small devices like Pi's. I also am really getting into the maker space so things to help / explore that are on my list too.

My public list has 8tb drives and ram.
I'd kill for another machine, then I'd do a whole two node docker swarm.

I ask Santa to drop the prices of used/refurbished M90q/P360 below 100 bucks. - please

I've reached the conclusion that Santa is a tech-phobe. All I get is festive sweaters, novelty socks and alcohol. At least the latter is useful in drowning my tech dreams disappointment :-(

All I want for Christmas is 4 x 2 TB nvme's and an Asus Hyper card - is that to much to ask Santa... is it!
- I'm running a biofurification m.2. card that was $30 and it's amazing, might want to try it if your motherboard supports it. Bifurcation is the ability for the motherboard to split individual pci-e lanes into multiple groups that can be used by many devices at once. The cost of m.2. pci-e cards plummets if it relies on the motherboard for that.
  It's from a company called Konyead, it's their 4 slot m.2. ssd to pcie 4.0 x16 adaptor.

A PC that can run proxmox that’s has at least 128GB RAM. Pushing that 32gb limit with the VMs I’m running. Also time with my daughter b4 she turns into an all-out teenager

I've reached the age where I buy myself something special for Christmas like I do everyone else on my list. This is how I make sure I get what I want for Christmas.

I want a 3d printer. I'm designing my own POE Led lighting system for my living room, halls, closets etc, and running all the lights in my house "poe ++" and a smart home software control center with poe light switches that control lights by ethernet based on how they're assigned in the software.
So if I want to I'll be able to change what a 3 switch plate does, maybe it's christmas and I want to swap switch 3 from turning on my sprinklers to turning on off my projector, w/e.
I want to design all the switch cases, light pod cases, etc and 3d print everything.
My living room will have 9 poe led pods in the ceiling, all RGB W/C white. I have build a media pc that is our tv's "android" set top box, and I have an hdmi pass through capture card in it, so I want to be able to use the pass through hdmi card to gather the color being sent to the tv to deduce the dominant color so I can program ambient lighting for the whole room.

Oh well, some new gear I think. In Europe i’ve had a supplier from UK which was really nice and had fair prices for refurbished gear, but since UK left EU, it become too complicated to order, and customs taxes. Recently i found out another supplier which is closer to my country, it’s in EU so i don’t bother with customs and taxes, but i still do some research to check if it’s okay.
Anyway, i also wish to ask Santa for a LIR in RIPE region. I know it’s not cheap, but yeah…

Around here, gifting basically stops when a kid starts with highschool, during highschool they still get extra cash, and that's it, that's when the gifting for holidays ends

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