Would you use a single-board computer (like the Raspberry Pi or ROCKPro64) in your house for a critical service (e.g. primary NAS, router, home automation, website, Email server)?
Displaying poll results.
Using one already (specify)
46%
52 votes
Considering it for the next hardware refresh
15%
17 votes
Waiting for a particular feature to mature (specify)
1%
2 votes
Haven't really thought about it
16%
18 votes
They'll have to pry my x86/AMD64 chips from my cold dead hands
8%
10 votes
Waiting for a true RISC processor to come to market
Don't complain about lack of options. You've got to pick a few when you do multiple choice. Those are the breaks.
Feel free to suggest poll ideas if you're feeling creative. I'd strongly suggest reading the past polls first.
This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.
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(1)
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 14 2020, @12:32PM
(5 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Monday December 14 2020, @12:32PM (#1087157)
do you expect me to open the router to count how many boards it has?
also: my christmas lights flicker according to a few different patterns, I have to push a button to select. does that mean that there's a single-board computer in there, or did you mean "general purpose computer"?
also: I have a washing machine that was built less than 10 years ago. I'm pretty sure it relies on a processor of sorts, possibly a stripped down general purpose computer... but I'm not gonna bother checking for the amount that you're paying me to post this.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday December 14 2020, @01:55PM
You may have not heard the term "single board computer" but it's pretty commonly used in geek circles.
As mentioned, the Raspberry Pi is probably the best known, but there are lots to choose from, and they can do lots of different jobs around the place, if you know how to set them up.
Messing about with that sort of gear is one of the few things the users on this site have incommon. Maybe it's not the place for you.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 14 2020, @02:37PM
by Anonymous Coward
on Monday December 14 2020, @02:37PM (#1087165)
Yeah, multiple OpenWRT devices. They used to host website, email, tor node, etc. Today, they are only used as access points. I had too much trouble with hardware failures, but the software was great.
The services are split between a VPS on linode, and a local server with reliable x86 hardware and ECC memory.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by shrewdsheep on Monday December 14 2020, @03:34PM
(4 children)
So that would be x86+SBC (learned about it here on SN). 2x SATA, 4x USB so it can serve ~ 60Tb (running at 13Tb, rsync-RAID). I will soon put it under full load in a fan-less configuration so it will be thermally throttled. I am wondering about experiences as to whether this will shorted its MTBF.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Monday December 14 2020, @04:52PM
I'm assuming with those disk sizes you're using traditional hard disk drives rather than solid state. So you can't really have a totally silent system. Why not use an oversized cooler with a low rpm fan? That sort of setup is still pretty darn quiet and will keep the temps down for longer life and have better performance since it will avoid throttling.
ODroid here as well. I'd never use a toy (literally, it was created as an educational toy) like a Pi for anything critical, but I've got a bunch of stuff running on ODroids that never miss a beat. Also some slightly more obscure embedded platforms that are essentially unstoppable, some have been running for close to ten years without ever being touched.
I have an Intel NUC with a very similar CPU (Celeron J3455) to run my home web server and act as a media center computer. The only issue I hit was when I also wanted to record my security cameras too: I saturated the Intel QSV capacity.
On the original thread's question: I've run my home server on ARM (Odroid C2) but decided to move back to x86. The Intel low power CPUs burn very little power; now that ARM is catching up in clockspeed the power savings isn't huge and these servers are plugged in, so the power savings is only for heat and electricity cost. The biggest issue is up-front cost; the ARM SBCs are typically sub 100USD with memory installed, but a comparable Intel setup will be 2-3x once memory is included. However, x86 still is the best for compatibility. Stuff like video drivers is no hassle, and I can always get x86 binaries for software. Similarly, almost all docker images support x86 but if you want ARM you may need to do some legwork yourself.
Isn't a proprietary router, essentially a single-board computer, just purpose built. It's almost a trick question.
I understand they were asking, if you were going to use a RaspberryPi/ROCKPro64, etc. in the near future or were already using one. I mean you could use OpenWRT or something like that with a proprietary router. Which would essentially be the same thing as using a RaspberryPi as a router. Sure, OpenWRT on a proprietary router is much narrower in scope, but you're still using a custom solution at that point.
The biggest difference between using a RaspberryPi as your router and an ASUS branded router is control. Who is in control of your router?
-- Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Interesting) by canopic jug on Thursday December 17 2020, @01:10PM
One of the routers I have is proprietary but checking it more closely it looks like it is actually OpenWRT even if the ISP, in violation of many licenses, does not provide the source code for it and the many tools it contains. I suppose that if I were to open it up and poke around with an oscilloscope I could probably end up finding the contacts for a serial console. It would be best if the ISP simply worked with the upstream project and acknowledged the license they have agreed to.
-- Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
Yup, PC Engines as well in the ones I mentioned earlier.
The most critical service I currently run on a Raspberry Pi is weather. On the third Pi (two previous ones died), and I don't know how many times I've had to reboot and/or reflash it to bring it back to life.
Only if you're doing it terribly terribly wrong. Ads arrive in your client because your client requests them. Interposing a server that does something to prevent the client from getting the ads it requests, whilst not unheard of, is rather wasteful most of the time. The correct way to stop the client from receiving ads is to stop the client from requesting ads in the first place. Most common clients have this feature either built-in or as a plugin.
-- Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
So, No-Script, uBlock Origin, block all images, etc? I mean, what are you getting at exactly? You either receive the webpage or you don't receive the webpage. Sure, you can block some content from loading, but I'm not sure what you're trying to say.
-- Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
Your question barely makes sense. It's as if you've learnt some of the words that are relevant, but not how to use them in a sentence.
Learn one millionth of the HTTP protocol, then reform your question if you actually want an answer. Or live in ignorance, which would be easier for both of us. Your not being sure about things is *100%* your fault.
-- Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
Pi-hole is a Linux network-level advertisement and Internet tracker blocking application[2][3][4][5] which acts as a DNS sinkhole[6] and optionally a DHCP server, intended for use on a private network.[1] It is designed for use on embedded devices with network capability, such as the Raspberry Pi,[3][7] but it can be used on other machines running Linux, including cloud implementations.[6][8][9][10]
Pi-hole has the ability to block traditional website advertisements as well as advertisements in unconventional places, such as smart TVs and mobile operating system advertisements.[11][12]
Instead of relying on the consumer hardware / software that comes with your TV, Computer, or Console to not request advertisements. You just don't serve them. Which is a lot better than even the likes of uBlock Origin.
-- Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
Ah, yes, if you don't have control over your browser, then a proxy somewhere on the way out of the network can be helpful. I used to use privoxy with some anti-advert filters way back before browser plugins were common (or even a thing?).
-- Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
You don't have to go that far. All you would need to do is check the code yourself and any Open Source browser should fit the bill. Then you compile it yourself. That's how you have control over your own browser. But first you have to look at your compile tools source and your OS's source, and make sure your hardware is open, so you can check that. But that way lies madness. At a certain point, you have to trust that not everyone is out to screw you or at least that there's enough eyes on the project to make that kind of thing harder to do.
-- Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
The complete panoply of potentially faulty software is really too much to carry out. I do have to start trusting somewhere.
Even the popular so-called full-function browsers are too much to review. And they do seem to be produced by organizations (like Google) with their own axes to grind.
At least Chromium, the Google browser allegedly without Google-specific stuff, seems to work, but i have no idea what's under the hood. It's apparently open-source, but is anyone independent really checking it for user security potential malfeasance (except for malfeasors who are mostly hoping the malfeasance stays and are unlikely to report on it)?
As for javascript, I'm firstly concerned that the javascript engines inside the browser keep their activities inside the browser, to defend against the thousands of malfunctioning javascript packages that are invoked indirectly from a web page. Even keeping that under control is difficult.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 21 2020, @04:32PM
by Anonymous Coward
on Monday December 21 2020, @04:32PM (#1089923)
If you're fine living without javascript, just use dillo or w3m or (e)links or netsurf. If you want javascript, you have to write it yourself or use qtwebengine/webkit or gtkwebkit2.
But the truth is, I just haven't thought about it. As noted above, modems and routers are mostly single board thingies. But, I'm comfortable with desktop and server hardware, that's pretty much all I own. Need a reason to step outside my comfort zone, I guess.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 15 2020, @12:42AM
(1 child)
by Anonymous Coward
on Tuesday December 15 2020, @12:42AM (#1087358)
Aside from the heat and the plumbing, neither of which benefits much from electronic gizmos, there aren't a lot of "critical" home services.
I use a Pi as a MythTV client. I used to use an XBox, but it was bad at it. Kodi has too many bugs on Xbox and there isn't a true MythTV client. Plus the Pi uses a lot less power. I'd prefer to use a Pi as a Wi-Fi access point, but it doesn't have much of an antenna, which is pretty much the only reason to use a "real" router over a Pi at sub-gigabit speeds (now that the Pi 4 has a real system bus instead of using USB for everything).
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday January 06 2021, @12:09PM
Yes, I actually do have an actual RockPro64 and I've been using it as a NAS, torrentbox, and Nextcloud server for my home. My family uploads their pictures and videos there. It's one of the few SBCs I've found that you can plug SATA drives into, and I dropped in two WD Blue 3 and 4 TB drives for a total of 7TB of storage. I've had a series of journal entries describing my experience when I built the thing early 2019 and it's been working well with few issues ever since.
-- Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 19 2020, @02:42AM
(1 child)
by Anonymous Coward
on Saturday December 19 2020, @02:42AM (#1089138)
I considered that one too, but it seems that Odroid doesn't provide any cases with a form factor big enough to hold more than one 3.5" drive. I think that was practically the only reason why I went with the RockPro64 instead.
-- Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
Internet service in my area isn't reliable enough for me to even think about hosting anything actually important at home. That's what cloud VMs and/or professionally managed hosting (depending on the criticality of the service) are for.
-- The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday December 16 2020, @04:55PM
A critical service doesn't need to be a "hosted service". As someone pointed out, a Pi-Hole could be a critical service and an NAS doesn't need to be accessible to the outside world.
-- Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
The question was about things in your house, not a reactor (unless you happen to have one).
Commercial products, up to the level critical infrastructure, like power plants and distribution, major telecoms, and chemical factories (and I'm not entirely sure about those) are no better designed and built than a Raspberry Pi or Arduino. I spent almost an entire career working on embedded systems for multiple industries, from consumer products up to defense.
It's not that hard to use a very small SBC to decide if the outside air is warmer than inside when you want to warm your house and cooler than inside when you want to cool the inside, then open a vent and run a fan accordingly. Compared to some of the crap I've seen the HVAC industry install, you're better off with the SBC.
I don't like anything I consider "critical", which was explicitly in the question, being of shoddy quality. Doesn't matter if it's for a job or for home.
Commercial products, up to the level critical infrastructure, like power plants and distribution, major telecoms, and chemical factories (and I'm not entirely sure about those) are no better designed and built than a Raspberry Pi or Arduino.
The ones I sell as (part of) a solution most definitely are. RPis and most Arduino boards are underengineered pieces of garbage as far as stability, reliability, and quality of components goes.
Commercial products ... are no better designed and built than a Raspberry Pi or Arduino
Maybe not, but there has usually been at least one engineer involved who have tested that it doesn't overheat at max load etc. And the seller typically guarantees replacements for several years.
Yes, most thermostats (the devices controlling HVACs) are dumb. You need building automation to get it to do anything more intelligent as in your examples.
Yours managing to not eat itself for that long does not mean it's a reliable product, just that yours has managed not to eat itself for that long. Last I looked, the components on a RPi were Mickey Mouse garbage, especially on the power stability side of things but also on the don't blow the fuck up because an input line got a voltage spike side of things.
I specifically got a high quality power supply so that even if my mains is brown, my DC's pure. The plan was always that they would be servers for low-bandwidth applications, I had plenty of riends and colleagues who have done the same before me with equal success, the risk levels were considered negligible.
-- Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
Sure. Form factor isn't really relevant to me though. I can always find a way to make something work if it's useful, good kit. That they use shitty components and circuit designs that are both fragile and sub-par is my issue with most SBCs.
Google uses many substandard boards in their farms. They weed the bad ones out soon but it doesn't stop them from installing new ones that may have problems. Redundancy, backups and logs are your friends.
I'm currently using 2 Raspi for receiving and decoding ADSB signals (aircraft positional reports), another one as a cheap and cheerful access for visitors to both email and web browsing, and yet another as am intelligent signal generator for calibrating and testing my DSP circuits. I also use Arduinos for various gadgets that I have made.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday December 17 2020, @02:05AM
(1 child)
I use an earlier version of a similar dongle based on a RTL2832U chip but I have no doubt that the V3 will work equally as well if not better. For software I used both a plain vanilla and modified dump1090 but I have not improved the signal processing (despite trying), simply changed some of the presentation of the data that dump1090 provides. I have written my own display software (Python 3). I provide feeds to FR24 and ADSB-Exchange. Unfortunately, I have hills in the way to the NW of my location so I have relatively poor low-to-medium altitude coverage in that direction but elsewhere I am getting 200-250 nm with indoor antennae. I had planned to mount an outdoor antenna during the last 18 months but real-life events have stopped my work on that project - hopefully only temporarily.
I've been using a Fit-PC as my router+firewall+DHCP server for the past 7 years. It's a single board inside, but upgradable RAM, and SSD. And a module installed with 4*gigabit ethernet.
If the poll is about the "small single-board computers" such as a RaspberryPi then sure, why not? As long as the CPU and network is fast enough.
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Wednesday December 16 2020, @12:47AM
I've had a couple of Raspberry Pi 2B's work as a web server and security cameras. The web server was running MediaWiki and did a pretty good job. The security camera was also decent enough to help us catch a neighborhood vandal spray painting things at our apartment. Camera quality has gone up since then, but it was "good enough."
However, I would NOT use one as a router or other device, such as a NAS. The bandwidth just doesn't cut it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 16 2020, @05:28AM
by Anonymous Coward
on Wednesday December 16 2020, @05:28AM (#1087931)
All my services are stable, you insensitive clod!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by rufty on Wednesday December 16 2020, @04:51PM
(1 child)
Got several dotted around. The main one is NAS (netatalk+NFS), git repo, prototyping webserver, prototyping postgresql server, 44net endpoint, print server, anything else I'm breaking. Other than that I've got one running as a clock and one running blinky Christmas lights.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday December 16 2020, @04:57PM
The latest RaspberryPi 4 with 4GB or 8GB of RAM might do the trick. I've toyed with earlier versions and the interface was always a bit slow. I've got a RaspberryPi 4, I think the 2GB variety. I've not tested it extensively, but it's a fair bit more snappy than previous versions. You might be more interested in the RaspberryPi 400 as it's got a little more performance than the standard RaspberryPi 4, but it's not a standard RaspberryPi. The 400 is a custom board built into a keyboard.
-- Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
The line between SBC and microcontroller gets a little fuzzy. I picked "I don't host any critical services", but the ESP8266 I have connected to my garage door opener almost counts.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2020, @07:00AM
by Anonymous Coward
on Friday December 18 2020, @07:00AM (#1088807)
Use 3x RPI4B in a cluster doing NAS, PLEX, even my desktop. Dumped Intel/AMD a year ago.
Wife still has Intel/AMD but uses other RPi3B+, RPI3B, RPI2B and 2x RPI1B still being used from NAS, PLEX, to Firwewall and DNS servers.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Saturday December 19 2020, @09:26PM
I have a couple Olinuxino Lime2 [olimex.com] SBCs that I have run for years*, one "production" (web server, some update scripts) and one "development." (I used to run Pi-hole on one of them, which it turned out I didn't like).
They are dirt-slow ARM A20s, slower than the old power-hogging Pentium 4 that they replaced, and seem to "just work" after you get them up and running.
*except that we moved this past October and I haven't set them back up yet in the new house because they're a pretty low-priority project
(Score: 2) by legont on Sunday December 20 2020, @11:24PM
Those of us who remember the 3-channels TV era and tubes are laughing at this.
Of course, those of us who remembered horse-drawn wagons and lanterns were laughing
at our parents.
Regardless, I regard electricity as critical but the rest is just entertainment--except the
cel phone which is needed for emergencies, and no consumer is "hosting" that themselves.
-- Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday December 22 2020, @10:20PM
Cell Phones are great, for personal emergencies. Wide spread emergencies, tend to kill cell phone reliability. That's where the Ham Radio operators come in.
Some people work from home via the internet, at which point a router can actually be a critical piece of hardware, along with your computer. Both of which could be a Raspberry Pi. At this point, I'd be hesitant to suggest a Raspberry Pi as a main desktop, though.
-- Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
I'd host my own email server except for the fact that we live in the boonies, get frequent severe weather in the summer, and often have to go without electricity for days due to the fact that the power goes out and our power company is too cheap to maintain infrastructure.
Bleh.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday January 06 2021, @05:42PM
I host too my own email server, website, and file server, but not on a single-board computer. It runs on an ancient AMD desktop PC running Linux, from before the days when computers were controlled by secret extra CPUs.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 14 2020, @12:32PM (5 children)
do you expect me to open the router to count how many boards it has?
also: my christmas lights flicker according to a few different patterns, I have to push a button to select.
does that mean that there's a single-board computer in there, or did you mean "general purpose computer"?
also: I have a washing machine that was built less than 10 years ago. I'm pretty sure it relies on a processor of sorts, possibly a stripped down general purpose computer... but I'm not gonna bother checking for the amount that you're paying me to post this.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday December 14 2020, @01:55PM
An SBC like this can easily act as a router:
https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/12/13/nanopi-r4s-sbc-preview-with-openwrt-and-ubuntu-core/ [cnx-software.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Disagree) by PartTimeZombie on Monday December 14 2020, @11:23PM (3 children)
You may have not heard the term "single board computer" but it's pretty commonly used in geek circles.
As mentioned, the Raspberry Pi is probably the best known, but there are lots to choose from, and they can do lots of different jobs around the place, if you know how to set them up.
Messing about with that sort of gear is one of the few things the users on this site have incommon. Maybe it's not the place for you.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 16 2020, @10:05AM (2 children)
Wait, I thought this place was to scream about US politics and pontificate about areas outside your expertise.
(Score: 5, Touché) by DECbot on Wednesday December 16 2020, @01:54PM
Oh, that's just a hobby to pass the time while waiting for the next tech article.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 1) by drakaan on Thursday December 17 2020, @03:07PM
I thought that was Facebook.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 14 2020, @02:37PM
Yeah, multiple OpenWRT devices. They used to host website, email, tor node, etc. Today, they are only used as access points. I had too much trouble with hardware failures, but the software was great.
The services are split between a VPS on linode, and a local server with reliable x86 hardware and ECC memory.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by shrewdsheep on Monday December 14 2020, @03:34PM (4 children)
So that would be x86+SBC (learned about it here on SN). 2x SATA, 4x USB so it can serve ~ 60Tb (running at 13Tb, rsync-RAID). I will soon put it under full load in a fan-less configuration so it will be thermally throttled. I am wondering about experiences as to whether this will shorted its MTBF.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Monday December 14 2020, @04:52PM
More Heat == More likely to die, to a certain point.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Interesting) by slinches on Monday December 14 2020, @06:24PM
I'm assuming with those disk sizes you're using traditional hard disk drives rather than solid state. So you can't really have a totally silent system. Why not use an oversized cooler with a low rpm fan? That sort of setup is still pretty darn quiet and will keep the temps down for longer life and have better performance since it will avoid throttling.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Saturday December 19 2020, @06:38AM
ODroid here as well. I'd never use a toy (literally, it was created as an educational toy) like a Pi for anything critical, but I've got a bunch of stuff running on ODroids that never miss a beat. Also some slightly more obscure embedded platforms that are essentially unstoppable, some have been running for close to ten years without ever being touched.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Monday December 28 2020, @04:36PM
I have an Intel NUC with a very similar CPU (Celeron J3455) to run my home web server and act as a media center computer. The only issue I hit was when I also wanted to record my security cameras too: I saturated the Intel QSV capacity.
On the original thread's question: I've run my home server on ARM (Odroid C2) but decided to move back to x86. The Intel low power CPUs burn very little power; now that ARM is catching up in clockspeed the power savings isn't huge and these servers are plugged in, so the power savings is only for heat and electricity cost. The biggest issue is up-front cost; the ARM SBCs are typically sub 100USD with memory installed, but a comparable Intel setup will be 2-3x once memory is included. However, x86 still is the best for compatibility. Stuff like video drivers is no hassle, and I can always get x86 binaries for software. Similarly, almost all docker images support x86 but if you want ARM you may need to do some legwork yourself.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Freeman on Monday December 14 2020, @04:49PM (1 child)
Isn't a proprietary router, essentially a single-board computer, just purpose built. It's almost a trick question.
I understand they were asking, if you were going to use a RaspberryPi/ROCKPro64, etc. in the near future or were already using one. I mean you could use OpenWRT or something like that with a proprietary router. Which would essentially be the same thing as using a RaspberryPi as a router. Sure, OpenWRT on a proprietary router is much narrower in scope, but you're still using a custom solution at that point.
The biggest difference between using a RaspberryPi as your router and an ASUS branded router is control. Who is in control of your router?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Interesting) by canopic jug on Thursday December 17 2020, @01:10PM
One of the routers I have is proprietary but checking it more closely it looks like it is actually OpenWRT even if the ISP, in violation of many licenses, does not provide the source code for it and the many tools it contains. I suppose that if I were to open it up and poke around with an oscilloscope I could probably end up finding the contacts for a serial console. It would be best if the ISP simply worked with the upstream project and acknowledged the license they have agreed to.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 3, Informative) by McGruber on Monday December 14 2020, @05:33PM (17 children)
Adblockers are a critical service, right?
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday December 14 2020, @11:32PM (1 child)
They are at my place, but run on a PC Engines APU 3C2.
I think that would be classed as a single board computer, but it is also embedded AMD X64.
The most critical service I currently run on a Raspberry Pi would be my Volumio network music player.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday December 19 2020, @06:40AM
Yup, PC Engines as well in the ones I mentioned earlier.
The most critical service I currently run on a Raspberry Pi is weather. On the third Pi (two previous ones died), and I don't know how many times I've had to reboot and/or reflash it to bring it back to life.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Freeman on Wednesday December 16 2020, @04:52PM (1 child)
Yes, yes, it is. An unfiltered internet is a giant cesspool of advertisements.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Wednesday December 16 2020, @11:38PM
Among other things, and it probably won't change in the foreseeable future [youtube.com].
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday December 17 2020, @12:26AM (12 children)
Only if you're doing it terribly terribly wrong. Ads arrive in your client because your client requests them. Interposing a server that does something to prevent the client from getting the ads it requests, whilst not unheard of, is rather wasteful most of the time. The correct way to stop the client from receiving ads is to stop the client from requesting ads in the first place. Most common clients have this feature either built-in or as a plugin.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday December 17 2020, @04:12PM (11 children)
So, No-Script, uBlock Origin, block all images, etc? I mean, what are you getting at exactly? You either receive the webpage or you don't receive the webpage. Sure, you can block some content from loading, but I'm not sure what you're trying to say.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday December 18 2020, @07:47AM (10 children)
Learn one millionth of the HTTP protocol, then reform your question if you actually want an answer. Or live in ignorance, which would be easier for both of us. Your not being sure about things is *100%* your fault.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Freeman on Friday December 18 2020, @04:01PM (9 children)
I guess my confusion stems from the fact that "Advertisements" aren't defined in the HTTP Protocol, HTML, etc.
Something like Pi-Hole is about as good of a "blocker" as you could get. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi-hole [wikipedia.org]
Instead of relying on the consumer hardware / software that comes with your TV, Computer, or Console to not request advertisements. You just don't serve them. Which is a lot better than even the likes of uBlock Origin.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Friday December 18 2020, @08:49PM (8 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Sunday December 20 2020, @09:34PM (7 children)
How does one gain control of one's browser?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Dr Spin on Monday December 21 2020, @10:55AM (6 children)
How does one gain control of one's browser?
You start by taking over the country where the code is written. Call me back when you have done that,
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday December 21 2020, @12:49PM (5 children)
Or, alternatively, how does one write a browser? How simply can it be done and still be useful?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Monday December 21 2020, @03:51PM (3 children)
You don't have to go that far. All you would need to do is check the code yourself and any Open Source browser should fit the bill. Then you compile it yourself. That's how you have control over your own browser. But first you have to look at your compile tools source and your OS's source, and make sure your hardware is open, so you can check that. But that way lies madness. At a certain point, you have to trust that not everyone is out to screw you or at least that there's enough eyes on the project to make that kind of thing harder to do.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Thursday December 24 2020, @08:22PM (2 children)
The complete panoply of potentially faulty software is really too much to carry out.
I do have to start trusting somewhere.
Even the popular so-called full-function browsers are too much to review. And they do seem to be produced by organizations (like Google) with their own axes to grind.
At least Chromium, the Google browser allegedly without Google-specific stuff, seems to work, but i have no idea what's under the hood. It's apparently open-source, but is anyone independent really checking it for user security potential malfeasance (except for malfeasors who are mostly hoping the malfeasance stays and are unlikely to report on it)?
As for javascript, I'm firstly concerned that the javascript engines inside the browser keep their activities inside the browser, to defend against the thousands of malfunctioning javascript packages that are invoked indirectly from a web page.
Even keeping that under control is difficult.
-- hendrik
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday January 04 2021, @04:02PM (1 child)
Firefox is still the least worst choice. At least for me. I've got enough eggs in the Google basket.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday January 06 2021, @11:12AM
I'm using firefox and chromium. Chromium instead of chrome for just that reason. A matter of limiting harm. At least slightly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 21 2020, @04:32PM
If you're fine living without javascript, just use dillo or w3m or (e)links or netsurf. If you want javascript, you have to write it yourself or use qtwebengine/webkit or gtkwebkit2.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday December 14 2020, @08:19PM
But the truth is, I just haven't thought about it. As noted above, modems and routers are mostly single board thingies. But, I'm comfortable with desktop and server hardware, that's pretty much all I own. Need a reason to step outside my comfort zone, I guess.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 15 2020, @12:42AM (1 child)
Aside from the heat and the plumbing, neither of which benefits much from electronic gizmos, there aren't a lot of "critical" home services.
I use a Pi as a MythTV client. I used to use an XBox, but it was bad at it. Kodi has too many bugs on Xbox and there isn't a true MythTV client. Plus the Pi uses a lot less power. I'd prefer to use a Pi as a Wi-Fi access point, but it doesn't have much of an antenna, which is pretty much the only reason to use a "real" router over a Pi at sub-gigabit speeds (now that the Pi 4 has a real system bus instead of using USB for everything).
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday January 06 2021, @12:09PM
What kind of pi? And what kind of antenna? Does it work for digital broadcasts? Or for cable TV (this one I don't expect)?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stormwyrm on Tuesday December 15 2020, @05:49AM (2 children)
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 19 2020, @02:42AM (1 child)
ditto RE the HC2 (not a "Pi", but pretty much is) .. https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?t=39486 [odroid.com]
(Score: 2) by stormwyrm on Saturday December 19 2020, @05:57AM
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 1) by Zappy on Tuesday December 15 2020, @08:14AM
Most, if not all, laptops are sbc.
But also have several Pi's running for home-assistant and video recording software.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday December 15 2020, @02:30PM (1 child)
Internet service in my area isn't reliable enough for me to even think about hosting anything actually important at home. That's what cloud VMs and/or professionally managed hosting (depending on the criticality of the service) are for.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday December 16 2020, @04:55PM
A critical service doesn't need to be a "hosted service". As someone pointed out, a Pi-Hole could be a critical service and an NAS doesn't need to be accessible to the outside world.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 15 2020, @04:28PM (11 children)
Where's just an outright "no"? Non-industrial SBCs are simply not built robustly or reliably enough to trust with critical services, period.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by dltaylor on Tuesday December 15 2020, @08:35PM (2 children)
The question was about things in your house, not a reactor (unless you happen to have one).
Commercial products, up to the level critical infrastructure, like power plants and distribution, major telecoms, and chemical factories (and I'm not entirely sure about those) are no better designed and built than a Raspberry Pi or Arduino. I spent almost an entire career working on embedded systems for multiple industries, from consumer products up to defense.
It's not that hard to use a very small SBC to decide if the outside air is warmer than inside when you want to warm your house and cooler than inside when you want to cool the inside, then open a vent and run a fan accordingly. Compared to some of the crap I've seen the HVAC industry install, you're better off with the SBC.
(Score: 5, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 15 2020, @09:28PM
I don't like anything I consider "critical", which was explicitly in the question, being of shoddy quality. Doesn't matter if it's for a job or for home.
The ones I sell as (part of) a solution most definitely are. RPis and most Arduino boards are underengineered pieces of garbage as far as stability, reliability, and quality of components goes.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by isj on Tuesday December 15 2020, @10:29PM
Maybe not, but there has usually been at least one engineer involved who have tested that it doesn't overheat at max load etc. And the seller typically guarantees replacements for several years.
Yes, most thermostats (the devices controlling HVACs) are dumb. You need building automation to get it to do anything more intelligent as in your examples.
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Thursday December 17 2020, @12:41AM (3 children)
phil@razspaz:~$ uptime
02:36:36 up 1078 days, 15:51, 8 users, load average: 0.57, 0.74, 0.75
There's another one that's a webserver and mariadb server (one's dev, one's prod) that's been rock solid for over 2 years sitting beside it.
I did the paranoid thing of having a complete clone of the top one to swap in instantly, but I've never needed it.
Of course, everyone's smug until the thermonuclear shitstorm arrives...
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday December 19 2020, @05:16PM (2 children)
Yours managing to not eat itself for that long does not mean it's a reliable product, just that yours has managed not to eat itself for that long. Last I looked, the components on a RPi were Mickey Mouse garbage, especially on the power stability side of things but also on the don't blow the fuck up because an input line got a voltage spike side of things.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday December 20 2020, @12:10PM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday December 20 2020, @08:20PM
The supply side is less than robust, yes. Every output suffers from power issues as well though from being cheaply designed.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Friday December 18 2020, @06:35AM (1 child)
You are aware that the Raspberry Pi comes in Compute Module form factor as well, right?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday December 19 2020, @05:21PM
Sure. Form factor isn't really relevant to me though. I can always find a way to make something work if it's useful, good kit. That they use shitty components and circuit designs that are both fragile and sub-par is my issue with most SBCs.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 19 2020, @03:59PM (1 child)
Raspberry Pi Org disagrees
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=20/12/17/1535231 [soylentnews.org]
https://www.raspberrypi.org/for-industry/ [raspberrypi.org]
Google uses many substandard boards in their farms. They weed the bad ones out soon but it doesn't stop them from installing new ones that may have problems.
Redundancy, backups and logs are your friends.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday December 19 2020, @05:19PM
Kinda goes without saying, doesn't it? Of course they're going to say "we're awesome". Doesn't change the quality of their product at all though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by janrinok on Tuesday December 15 2020, @06:58PM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday December 17 2020, @02:05AM (1 child)
Do you use the RTL-SDR Blog V3?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday December 17 2020, @08:31AM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by isj on Tuesday December 15 2020, @10:02PM
I've been using a Fit-PC as my router+firewall+DHCP server for the past 7 years. It's a single board inside, but upgradable RAM, and SSD. And a module installed with 4*gigabit ethernet.
If the poll is about the "small single-board computers" such as a RaspberryPi then sure, why not? As long as the CPU and network is fast enough.
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Wednesday December 16 2020, @12:47AM
I've had a couple of Raspberry Pi 2B's work as a web server and security cameras. The web server was running MediaWiki and did a pretty good job.
The security camera was also decent enough to help us catch a neighborhood vandal spray painting things at our apartment. Camera quality has gone up since then, but it was "good enough."
However, I would NOT use one as a router or other device, such as a NAS. The bandwidth just doesn't cut it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 16 2020, @05:28AM
All my services are stable, you insensitive clod!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by rufty on Wednesday December 16 2020, @04:51PM (1 child)
Got several dotted around. The main one is NAS (netatalk+NFS), git repo, prototyping webserver, prototyping postgresql server, 44net endpoint, print server, anything else I'm breaking. Other than that I've got one running as a clock and one running blinky Christmas lights.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday December 16 2020, @04:57PM
That is what I call the beauty of the RaspberryPi, you don't have to spend a whole bunch of money to do some interesting things.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Interesting) by mydn on Thursday December 17 2020, @07:15PM
I use a Pi to run PiHole, UniFi Controller, and a few other network services.
I also use one to run SpyServer and host several rtlsdr dongles, although I don't consider that to be a critical service.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cmdrklarg on Thursday December 17 2020, @10:18PM (1 child)
I do use several Pi's at work to run intranet dashboards displaying important info in the manufacturing plant. Works slick and are mostly bulletproof.
I've been musing about getting one for home to use as a streaming box though I wonder about whether it would perform adequately.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday December 18 2020, @04:06PM
The latest RaspberryPi 4 with 4GB or 8GB of RAM might do the trick. I've toyed with earlier versions and the interface was always a bit slow. I've got a RaspberryPi 4, I think the 2GB variety. I've not tested it extensively, but it's a fair bit more snappy than previous versions. You might be more interested in the RaspberryPi 400 as it's got a little more performance than the standard RaspberryPi 4, but it's not a standard RaspberryPi. The 400 is a custom board built into a keyboard.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Friday December 18 2020, @05:21AM
The line between SBC and microcontroller gets a little fuzzy. I picked "I don't host any critical services", but the ESP8266 I have connected to my garage door opener almost counts.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2020, @07:00AM
Use 3x RPI4B in a cluster doing NAS, PLEX, even my desktop. Dumped Intel/AMD a year ago.
Wife still has Intel/AMD but uses other RPi3B+, RPI3B, RPI2B and 2x RPI1B still being used from NAS, PLEX, to Firwewall and DNS servers.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Saturday December 19 2020, @09:26PM
I've got a Pentium III single board currently running openWRT firewall.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Saturday December 19 2020, @10:59PM
I have a couple Olinuxino Lime2 [olimex.com] SBCs that I have run for years*, one "production" (web server, some update scripts) and one "development." (I used to run Pi-hole on one of them, which it turned out I didn't like).
They are dirt-slow ARM A20s, slower than the old power-hogging Pentium 4 that they replaced, and seem to "just work" after you get them up and running.
*except that we moved this past October and I haven't set them back up yet in the new house because they're a pretty low-priority project
(Score: 2) by legont on Sunday December 20 2020, @11:24PM
but I am using Pi's as file servers, VPN, video and web servers; in the US and abroad. Only firewall is on Intel.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Tuesday December 22 2020, @07:06PM (1 child)
Those of us who remember the 3-channels TV era and tubes are laughing at this.
Of course, those of us who remembered horse-drawn wagons and lanterns were laughing at our parents.
Regardless, I regard electricity as critical but the rest is just entertainment--except the cel phone which is needed for emergencies, and no consumer is "hosting" that themselves.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday December 22 2020, @10:20PM
Cell Phones are great, for personal emergencies. Wide spread emergencies, tend to kill cell phone reliability. That's where the Ham Radio operators come in.
Some people work from home via the internet, at which point a router can actually be a critical piece of hardware, along with your computer. Both of which could be a Raspberry Pi. At this point, I'd be hesitant to suggest a Raspberry Pi as a main desktop, though.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1) by isocelated on Wednesday December 23 2020, @02:17PM (1 child)
I'd host my own email server except for the fact that we live in the boonies, get frequent severe weather in the summer, and often have to go without electricity for days due to the fact that the power goes out and our power company is too cheap to maintain infrastructure.
Bleh.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday January 06 2021, @05:42PM
I host too my own email server, website, and file server, but not on a single-board computer. It runs on an ancient AMD desktop PC running Linux, from before the days when computers were controlled by secret extra CPUs.