Actually, I’m gonna add another really simple option: Lyrion (Formerly Logitech Media Server). My wife swears by this one, supports local library, integrates with LastFM, and if you use Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer, or Spotify, you can integrate your streaming service with your local library for radio mixes.

Can install it right on a laptop or PC and connect to wherever your music is (local on the machine, on a NAS, etc.). After you install it, you can access it directly via a web browser or webapp, which will make it accessible from desktop or phone.

Not necessarily overkill, you can run Plex on almost anything. I used to run it on an old NUC6 I had laying around, then upgraded to a NUC8, and more recently I setup it up as a VM on Proxmox on a Ryzen 5700u mini-PC and just reimported the DB.

Virtualizing it has been good for my purposes since now it’s running alongside AssetUPnP, AudioBookshelf, and a dockerized squeezelite setup, and I’ve another VM on the host running Home Assistant with still plenty of resources to spare. Crazy we can do that now with a “server” that literally fits in my palm.

But virtualizing it makes hardware acceleration for video transcode be I more complicated, just a heads up. I play everything native so don’t use it, but YMMV.

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Edit - Plexamp is an awesome radio/DJ player, though I generally send to a Wiim Mini, as AirPlay quality with Plexamp can be kind of ass compared to direct DLNA.

There are lots of solutions, but as others have noted, Plex with Plexamp is great.

I’d recommend getting a NAS for storage and running mirrored disks. This way you’ve got some redundancy in the event of a disk failure.

It’s a monument to human achievement that they work as well as they do at all.

FTFY.

I’m in my forties and what you’re describing doesn’t sound normal at all. I beat myself up good in my younger years with sports and still do somewhat regular cardio and weightlifting. I have a bum knee and hip problem, shoulder issues from weightlifting injuries, and my back gets stiff and sore on a good day.

None of that stops me from functionally living, and none of its anything the occasional ibuprofen or toke won’t fix in the short term. I can still exercise, do physical labor, open all the jars, and be generally active, and without pain the majority of the time.

What you’re describing sounds more like an inflammatory disease or auto-immune disorder. 110% get a second opinion from a different doc, or a third if needed.

I spend a bunch of time in log reviews in my current role. “Googling the error message” image is literally hanging on my office wall.

Don’t be. I’m fortunate to be able to afford it comfortably, and it’s just part of the cost of living to me. In my 40s now and been wearing glasses since I was 10yo.

I’m just happy I’ll be able to read fine print and see stuff close again without needing to take off my glasses.

I recently went for glasses and eye exam. Near sighted with astigmatism, and now I need bifocals on top of it. Bifocals with line aren’t common now so doctor suggested progressives. I’m fine with that.

I’m also a special kid who can’t wear polycarbonate lenses because I’m hypersensitive to chromatic aberration. So need Trivex lenses as well. Throw in an anti-glare coating and my cost (with insurance) is like $460.

The sad part is given my needs and how few carry Trivex in my area, I consider it a decent deal.

Yeah, but JIF is like… sugar and palm kernel oil garbage. It’s a peanut butter product, not peanut butter.

Peanut butter should have one or two ingredients, max. Peanuts, and maybe salt.

All praise the Omnissiah.

Don’t waste your time. It’s honestly fucking awful. Reading it was like experiencing someone mentally masturbating in real time.

Face it, they can do whatever they want with your computer and you’re powerless to stop them.

Not my computer. They can’t do shit if it’s not installed.

This is why you should not trust them regarding Recall. They will not let it go. It will be forced on you eventually.

How about Windows NoPrivacyOnlyAdsForYou Edition? Kinda rolls nicely off the tongue.

Generally underscore _ works best for this, and should be viable for both OSes.

You’re not likely to do that for $150. You might be able to pull an old Dell Precision T5500 tower with a weak Xeon on eBay for cheap and refit it with more ram, better CPU and cheap non-redundant storage for $200 - $250.

For sake of power requirements though, seriously consider your use case and needs. You can get by pretty well with cheap mini-PCs like Intel NUCs or AMD minis like Beelink for pretty cheap and just cluster them with something like Proxmox to scale out instead of up when you need additional resources. This will be reasonably priced and keep the power bill and noise levels down.

Sorry, I edited my post above with some tips for desync issues. Have found in particular turning off shadows majorly reduced the frequency desyncs happen.

If you’re seeing that, good chance you’ve got some kind of network issue (or there’s a problem with the Photon setter you’re on and you should switch servers).

Generally I might see a desync every few hours. Rarely more often, but we can play for 6+hours sometimes with zero issues.

Couple things that could cause issues though:

• make sure you’re both running at the same screen refresh (60hz is preferred).

• if using the UB mod, make sure all settings are the same on both clients.

• weirdly, turning off shadows can have a major impact on network sync. Try disabling shadows.

• If you’re not maintaining 60 fps, turn down settings until you are, and if not possible lock both clients to 30 fps.

• Lastly, as noted above if you’re having frequent desyncs, manually select your option server and choose a different region. E.g - I’m western USA, but I’d there’s issues I’ll switch to US East and that will generally resolve it.

Frankly, this is the only bummer with Solasta, the fact that networking is via Photon and no LAN option. Is set up my own Option server if I could but it doesn’t seem to be possible.

Weird, wife and I have played it co-op the entire time. There’s occasional desyncs (saving and reloading fixes that) and otherwise all good.

You need to install the unfinished business mod to really make Solasta shine. It’s… unofficially endorsed by the devs (in the sense that the UB mod discord channel is hosted on the official Solasta discord). It adds races, subclasses, and more to bring the game fully in-line with tabletop options, including multi-classing.

Besides that, while the official campaign is decent enough, some custom campaigns are incredible, like full games in and of themselves, and some take more advantage of the game engine and dialogue options than the official campaign.

To me, Baldur’s Gate 3 is an interesting experiment, but in terms of gameplay it’s just not D&D. It’s a weird relationship sim with some (very) loose D&D mechanics. It has fun moments but the game is inconsistent, buggy, and generally becomes very un-fun, especially in multiplayer.

BG3 is very much a Larian game with D&D trappings, not a D&D game just made by Larian, if that makes sense.

I put something like 50-60 hours into BG3 and just couldn’t be bothered to finish it, stalled out once in act 2, and again on a second attempt in act 1. By contrast, I’ve got over 500 hours and counting in Solasta.

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Edit - oh, and with regard to rations, stack up early as you can (at least 20) and from there you’ll gather plenty in the field map if you have someone with high survival. Alternate option would be to have a Ranger or dries with goodberry, and later on other classes get the create food spell.

Or you could just disable the food mechanic altogether, it’s your game.