Today was one of those DPD days where I bounced between about six different things, and somehow they all connect.
A good chunk of the day went into the Second Brain / personal assistant project.
The original idea was pretty simple: I need something local that can help keep track of what I’m working on, where I left off, and all the little decisions and ideas that disappear when I move on to the next thing.
That has been turning into L.I.S.A. — Linux Installation & Support Assistant.
She’s local-first, tied into my Obsidian Second Brain, and we’re working toward something that can capture notes, build daily summaries, prepare shutdown and morning handoffs, and generally help keep the thread when my brain decides it’s done holding onto it.
And, appropriately enough, tonight we discovered that her Daily Note thought my entire day consisted of:
“live mode retest 2026-08-10”
So apparently the human is still required.
For now.
There was plenty of hardware going on too.
I’m still sorting through the pile of salvaged hardware and figuring out what becomes a server, what becomes storage, what gets reused in another build, and what needs to go.
The rack design changed again today. I’m working on a 7U vertical section with a top 2U horizontal section and an HP ProDesk sitting on top. That turned into measuring, figuring out clearances, and making a cut list for the 2020 extrusion.
Because apparently buying a rack would be too easy.
The little HP ProDesk media-ripping machine also survived its overnight test, which is good news. That machine is eventually supposed to become a mostly automated disc-ripping station, and if the interface and automation work the way I want, there’s a pretty good chance some version of it eventually becomes an MT Server service.
MT Server itself is still moving forward too.
That’s really the common thread through most of this stuff.
I’m trying to figure out how much useful life is hiding in older hardware if you stop treating “old” as another word for “garbage.”
A retired office PC can become a media ripper.
An old mining motherboard can become a storage server.
Salvaged drives can be tested, sorted, and reused.
A pile of extrusion can become a custom rack.
And a collection of open-source software can turn an old computer into a private family server without adding another pile of subscriptions.
Not everything I worked on today is finished.
Actually, that’s pretty normal around here.
But more pieces fit together tonight than did this morning.
That’s progress.