Technology

I still have it somewhere I’m sure, but I really gave up on it, for the convenience of youtube music of all things.

Can't complain about convenience. I use MediaMonkey since v0.1. It actually replaced my self-made music-archiver because it was simply superior and I couldn't match it. And for mobile we just sync our favourite playlists and be completely mobile even when there's no net. It's the only serious tool for serious collectors :-)

Every time I mean to start setting up servers, some reason (or my wife) talk me out of it. I’m jealous. It’s on my bucket list. I’m the only guy I know who has run server clusters professionally who has never had his own.

lol. Sorry :) My wife actually talks me into it while I try to talk myself out of it (i'm a horrible cheap fuck). I actually managed to hook her on the smart-home, as she runs into walls now when the system is down because there is no light. We forgot how to use switches :-) Seriously though: You should. If you have some kind of passion for it, just do it. I don't need it professionally anymore (long retired) but just love to keep up and tinker. And nothing beats a working self-hosted something.

I have had a couple over the years; usually use the “nuke and restart” solution.

Oucchhh. That could've gone bad. Ok, granted, with family members working on the same machine/network, danger rises. We have a global firewall and a global ad-/tracker/malware-blocker. Wifey often nags that some sites won't work, and then it's manual-fix-time for me, but so she can surf freely without fear. I don't even have any virus-/malware-scanner-crap installed anymore for decades. I occasionally check manually if something's hooked somewhere and that's it. And when I'm really really really suspicious of something, there's a sandbox. Honestly more "normal" software phone home and do shit i don't want than warez ever did. Every effing software wants to phone home, install 3 services no-one needs and what not.

And don't get me started on the "purchase software and own it" to "rent it for extortionate prices and never have anything". It so became the standard everywhere. Wait...what were we originally even talking about? :-)

I know resellers hate Amazon returns, but they agree to them. I will literally make buying decisions based on the presence or lack of the “Free Returns” flag. I would literally pay for “return insurance” if AllState started to do that, too. I hate return hassles.

Totally. At least we have that mandatory 14-days-return-policy. Everywhere. BUT a merchant might reduce your cashback upon "usage signs". Which are very subjective unless still sealed. But the reason for the law was to promote online-shopping. So you could check your product at home like you would in a shop. And return it if you don't like it. But it all takes too long, in the end I only check amazon. Better the devil you know....i hate myself for that.