Archives

A weekend project that turned into a real product: a 64×64 collaborative pixel canvas that drops into OBS as a browser source. Next.js, Fastify, raw WebSockets, a 4 KB Redis buffer, and Postgres snapshots — here's the whole stack.

Assembling into a new case: a glass panel with no screws, missing drive brackets, the coarse-vs-fine screw thread nobody explains, a SATA connector that wouldn't clear, an fTPM prompt after the board swap, and seven fans stuck on red until OpenRGB fixed what the vendor software couldn't.

The verdict on the dead motherboard: ruptured crystal oscillators, no replacement available. Two months later, a new board, a barebones test that actually spins — and a reminder that a two-euro speaker would have saved me a lot of guessing.

Pulling the motherboard out of the case to test it on cardboard. Two hours of dust, a suffocated PSU, an obscure chasm full of HDDs — and a verdict.

The homelab plan is blocked on an old desktop that won't even power on. Part zero of debugging: RAM reseat, new CMOS battery, PSU paperclip test — and what each one actually proves.