[conspire] Quiet, Freedom-compatible NAT/firewall/misc box?

[Rick Moen]

Just to finish that thought (as I failed to do, upthread) about
reappraisal:

> Part of the background of this is a reappraisal.  I've been used to
> dealing with primarily rackmount server gear.
[...]
> That advantage is RAM -- and, secondarily, total power draw and ability
> to support modern components _well_.  I couldn't possibly give a damn 
> about CPU oomph, as a PIII frankly does all I really need on a non-VM
> platform for my main server, given network bottlenecking at the aDSL 
> link stage.  OTOH, 16GB RAM ceiling instead of 2GB is a big enough
> advantage to create a difference of type rather than just of degree, and
> doing that with new, modern, not-aged units that draw _less_ power than
> my PIII, are much smaller, and are totally silent, is a real attraction
> -- for a change.

In my opinion, the (new) existence of cutting-edge CPUs that can run
with very low power (without that out-of-tree kernel crap you endure
with ARM), with little or no noisy cooling, the existence of small
motherboards and cases, and the existence of SSDs changes the game.
Home servers have just become intensely practical.  The burgeoning
category of HTPC proves it, because the new units that are great for
HTPC are also superb for home server use.

Very few people will appreciate that fact, because I'm in even a more
severe minority in (1) running my own Internet presence (including
static IPs and my own DNS) and (2) neither outsourcing it to an ASP nor
putting it in a colo than I was in the 1990s.  However, fuck public
apathy and obliviousness.  This is a goldmine for those who can see it.

I can have now several home servers for diverse roles, and neither have
a hulking physical presence, nor a source of noise, nor guilt about the
power suckage and emission of a cloud of heated air in my house during
the summer.  And so I very likely will

The several P4 rackmount servers in my garage went unused for a very
good reason -- and it's more likely than not that they'll never get
used, because basically they are and always were noisy, power-sucking,
hulking fossils.

I might actually consider one of those Avoton-or-similar Atom-based
boards that can support 64GB of RAM, even if it does cost ~$350, which
is way more than it ought to.  Although a 16GB ceiling might well be
good enough, especially at 1/3 the price.