Thinking about a new project...
Seems I have too much computer junk floating around and need to find a place to stash some of it. Oh, wait! I could move some of it into the living room... but I'd have to pretend like it belonged there. Hmmm...
How about an electronic picture frame? Yeah, that'd do it.
I have an old HP laptop floating around that hasn't been powered up in a couple of years. It's a decent old machine - I upped the RAM from 4 to 8 GB a few years ago but it does have one little drawback - the built in monitor doesn't work. At all. But I also have a selection of old monitors of various sizes, any one of which would be much more out of the way in the living room.
And, as a bonus, I've been toying with the idea of setting up a "server" to be used as a file dumping/sharing point for sharing files (mostly photos) between Win11, iPhone, Linux and android devices. Aaaanndd a web server for sharing a big collection of recipes (Mr. Food). This machine seems like it could kill all three of those birds with one stone.
So... a Linux picture frame but -not- in full "kiosk" mode. The machine will have access to the internet, but not be externally accessible - no service ports forwarded from the internet gateway to any of the internal systems.
The only issue I am foreseeing is that the battery in the old laptop is almost certainly shot and there's no UPS in the living room. The power's not too bad here but there are drop outs a couple of times a year. Well, that and the HDD will no doubt crap out as soon as I start depending on it for anything - but that's what they make USB sticks for!
Seems I have too much computer junk floating around and need to find a place to stash some of it. Oh, wait! I could move some of it into the living room... but I'd have to pretend like it belonged there. Hmmm...
How about an electronic picture frame? Yeah, that'd do it.
I have an old HP laptop floating around that hasn't been powered up in a couple of years. It's a decent old machine - I upped the RAM from 4 to 8 GB a few years ago but it does have one little drawback - the built in monitor doesn't work. At all. But I also have a selection of old monitors of various sizes, any one of which would be much more out of the way in the living room.
And, as a bonus, I've been toying with the idea of setting up a "server" to be used as a file dumping/sharing point for sharing files (mostly photos) between Win11, iPhone, Linux and android devices. Aaaanndd a web server for sharing a big collection of recipes (Mr. Food). This machine seems like it could kill all three of those birds with one stone.
So... a Linux picture frame but -not- in full "kiosk" mode. The machine will have access to the internet, but not be externally accessible - no service ports forwarded from the internet gateway to any of the internal systems.
The only issue I am foreseeing is that the battery in the old laptop is almost certainly shot and there's no UPS in the living room. The power's not too bad here but there are drop outs a couple of times a year. Well, that and the HDD will no doubt crap out as soon as I start depending on it for anything - but that's what they make USB sticks for!