Oh that? That's just our perfectly normal secret floor computer

[cimorene]

OK whenever an electrician comes & they see our media server (which is just a spare computer running Kubuntu that is hooked up to our LAN and houses backups of our files and old media files that we leave on all the time), which means they see a spare computer tower humming in the corner hooked up to a mouse, keyboard and LCD monitor all stored on the floor in the corner behind the armchair...

... they always make a really similar reaction face/noise, which, because they are Finnish salts of the earth, is very "Jaha!"-based.

And I always feel this strong urge to EXPLAIN that we're not weirdos who have a mysterious HIDDEN FLOOR COMPUTER, it's not like THAT, it's our MEDIA SERVER and it's only in this room so the network cables don't have to cross the floor! -- but anything I can think of to say I can only imagine making their bemusement worse. So instead I just shove it out of the way without saying anything - still humming away, monitor still off, mouse and keyboard still balanced on top of a big Tupperware literally overflowing with about 30' of extension cord.

I wonder if these guys HAVE the concept of media server, and are actually just thinking "Lol these noobs don't even have a wireless card for their media server?" or if later they remember and are like "Oh you'll never guess what was in front of the electrical box in one of those apartments today."

Comments

[harpers_child]

When we moved into our current housing we had to get internet hooked up. The internet guy came and ran cable and hooked things up. Then to test he turned on what he assumed was the computer in the living room. At which point I explained that it was the media server. Internet guy looked at me. I further explained that it was a headless box and ran on LINUX. Internet tech looked at me like I had three heads and was speaking ancient Sumerian. I offered to go get a computer that ran with a monitor and keyboard. Internet guy looked super confused but allowed that that seemed like the thing to do. /computer in the living room story.

[cimorene]

See we haven't actually bothered to figure out what would be needed to run it without the monitor/keyboard - neither of us has any experience with running actual headless servers, just using ones that other people provided. And I guess we have to keep the spare peripherals somewhere... though the livingroom corner isn't really the BEST spot.

[harpers_child]

I have no idea how the box works. It's the SU's project. Whole thing runs off of a thumbdrive taped to the inside of the case. For all I can tell it's magic.