Thanks. I have some experience with BeeLink, and they seem solid.

Thanks; this is the advice I was looking for.

Exactly. If you’re running kubernetes, you probably want etcd to have its own disk. And if you don’t have a NAS, then you’re looking at extra disk to hold your data. The data disk should probably be separate from the OS disk.

I AM a friend in IT. In my experience, retired workstations are not energy efficient. Otherwise I agree.

I know Pi used to be the trendy answer, but I’ve been hearing about how their value/money isn’t what it used to be. What’s the latest advice?

Keep fighting the good fight, my friend.

I host my own email on my own domain, and I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble.

This is a good read.

tl;dr: Undersea cables are a conjunction of political, geographic, and economic factors. International politics began a seismic shift when Trump was elected the second time, and that shift is continuing. In contrast to the sensationalist title, work is being done to address the problems, but it’s slow and fitful.