Tech Essentials: Hard Drives and Home Media

We each like different blogging platforms, and share why. Then our tips for keeping your server secure.

Plus a great way to score cheap drives, a Project Off-Grid update, making your household light switches smart, and Alex's review of the HDHomeRun.

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Links:

• Telegram: Contact @hddsale — HDD Sales Telegram Channel
• What SMART Stats Are Telling Us About Hard Drive Reliability — As of September 30, 2019, Backblaze had 115,151 spinning hard drives spread across four data centers on two continents. Of that number, there were 2,098 boot drives and 113,053 data drives.
• How to disable the 3.3v pin on Western Digital USB White Label Drives - YouTube — This is an amazing way to get super cheap storage for your #Plex Media Server. The catch? The shucked #Western #Digital White label drives may not work right out of the box. Don't worry, the fix is simple..
• Amazon.com: StarTech.com 4X SATA Power Splitter Adapter Cable (PYO4SATA): Home Audio & Theater — The PYO4SATA SATA power splitter cable (1-to-4) features a SATA male power connector that connects to a single computer power supply SATA connector and breaks out into four SATA female power connectors.
• OpenLiteSpeed-WordPress - Linode Manager — Blazing-fast WordPress with LSCache, 300+ times faster than regular WordPress
• LinuxServer.io Blog
• ktz. - Alex's Blog
• Shelly 2.5 - Shelly Cloud — Shelly 2.5 comes with a programming/debug header which can be used to flash alternative firmware on the device. It has an ESP8266 inside, with a 2MB flash chip. A USB-to-UART adapter is needed as well as a reliable 3.3V with at least 350 mA drive capability.