root@labs:~$ make something

What we build, and what we think about it.

Projects are the technical record: what we built, how, what we'd do differently. The blog is everything else, posted when there's something worth saying.

cd /projects cat blog/latest
root@labs:~$ ./status.sh
✓ site rebuilt and online
✓ latest post: Plex tripled its price. Jellyfin’s founders just walked. Here’s where that leaves us.
… in progress: The Synology (RS815+)
✓ forum: Home networking: what’s actually running your network?

recent-entries

LOG-007 synology The Synology (RS815+) Years of runtime, relearned every time DSM changes. ● active LOG-006 media-server Home Media Server A NAS, a media server, and an automation stack that never really finishes. ● active LOG-005 homelab Rebuilding rootlabs.us New AWS home, Caddy, PHP, WordPress, and the redesign you're looking at. ● active LOG-004 3d-printing The print lab FDM and resin printing: functional parts, jigs, and beautiful failures. ○ ongoing LOG-003 electronics Smart home, the hard way Automating the house one stubborn device at a time. ○ ongoing

readme

Root Labs is where the fun stuff goes. A lab for after-hours engineering: homelab, 3D printing, electronics, software, and whatever we get our hands on next. No clients, no tickets, no invoices. Projects, experiments, and honest write-ups of both.

blog --latest

2026-08-23 media-server Plex tripled its price. Jellyfin’s founders just walked. Here’s where that leaves us. Two things happened to home media servers this summer, and neither one changes what's running on our NAS — but… read → 2026-08-23 guides Migrating from Plex to Jellyfin Already running Plex and thinking about switching to Jellyfin? The good news: you don't have to re-rip anything or "migrate"… read → 2026-08-23 guides Getting Started with Your Synology: Choose Your Path — Plex or Jellyfin Plex and Jellyfin are not two steps in the same build; they are two answers to the same question. What… read → 2026-08-23 guides Getting Started with Your Synology: Backups and Snapshots RAID is not a backup. Snapshot Replication and Hyper Backup solve two different failures, and an external drive left plugged… read → 2026-08-23 guides Getting Started with Your Synology: Installing Jellyfin Installing Jellyfin on DSM with Container Manager: a compose file that does not need host networking, a first-run wizard that… read →