On the home AI front, I decided to get the Beelink EQi. Transferring the brain of my OpenClaw to it today. I wish this could be a Mac mini, but the cost of Apple storage is ridiculous. Much easier to drop a 4 TB SSD in this.

@manton lovely! Curious as to what kinds of tasks you offload to it?

@manton I’m interested in hearing what else you use it for. I’d generally prefer to run my own, if practicable.

I’ve just started experimenting with agentic ai. The first task I set up was scrolling my facebook feed (gah, I hate fb but it’s where so many of my friends stil post) and creating an ad-free digest of friend updates—not reposts, not political opinions, just personal updates or posts about stuff they’re doing, like traveling, hikes, outings, job changes, kid/family updates, etc. First digest arrived today; pretty useful!

@manton Did you evaluate any of the Mac mini extension docks that have NVMe slots and plug into thunderbolt?

I go back and forth on a Linux box vs new daily driver. I think with OCLP 3 hitting with Tahoe support I might be able to hold out until M7 Pros, but Intel’s very long in the tooth (and Homebrew dropping support entirely doesn’t make it easier)

@manton * Though that doesn’t count the fact that Linux is extremely AI malleable, as the Omarchy crew is proving. Which is certainly its own big advantage vs. Mac and really is a temptation.

@rscottjones That’s a great use of it! I experimented with something similar for X, giving me a daily report of notable posts from certain people I might want to know about. I have another one (in ChatGPT currently) that gives me general open web news.

@bax I didn’t look at Mac mini Thunderbolt… I should have. Mac would be nice for OpenClaw because I could plug into iMessage. I also think it’ll just be fun to run a Linux server at home again. I haven’t had one since around 2004-ish when I ran Yellow Dog Linux on an old Mac!