Otternonsenz

From the outside of the hosting business, but with a less-than-shallow understanding of computer and networking history, I am befuddled at hosting costs (cheap as they may be even for how they’ve been historically).

Is there a way to find the actual cost to compute a given task in terms of electricity consumption, or has this been a solved problem and hosting companies just add their proprietary sauce and then charge for the end result?

I’m curious in this way, because I’d love to be able to host for clients in my geographical area, but I don’t want to over-charge more than what it is actually worth to run the infrastructure.

At the core of my question is understanding the basic economics of hosting in relation to electrical consumption and hardware wear. I’d guess the outer layer of my question has a bit to do with knowing the true cost of hosting rather than how to make the most off of clients for simple services.

Appreciate any and all input!

In building out a home recording studio piece by piece, I’ve had difficulties finding gear that is useful but not too out of my current price range (as I do not currently have the extra money). Even for “cheap” mixing controllers or rack effects are out of my abilities currently.

What boggles my mind is that the hardware for some of this gear is nothing new; Motorized faders have been commonplace since the mid 70’s, knobs and potentiometers have been around for a while, and to my understanding most older control boards are simple computers. Is there anyone on HN that might have domain experience in this or could direct me to someone who does?

I think making custom hardware for myself and others sounds like a nice hobby in my free time, but it seems like I am not aware of any resources that break down how to get into doing so. I have experience in basic circuit design and can read diagrams, and could stand to build back my abilities to solder from more than a decade of not using them.

I do understand that there are Eurorack synths and stuff out there, but I’m more talking about making music hardware at a small scale and making it available for anyone to build upon or learn from.

In working with data from real world GIS map programs as part of my day-to-day workflow, my daydreams go into the maps I’d actually like to be looking at, which are those from the home brew TTRPGs that I’m a part of.

If I wanted to make a simple program to help Dungeon Masters make and store map data to use in app or elsewhere, where do I start?

It just feels like any existing application is overkill (be that price or features for real world applications) for this use case; Plus my only experience developing is mostly front end work with HTML, JavaScript, and PHP to glue stuff together.

I’m willing to learn any language or do deeper research to figure it out myself, but unsure of where to begin. Thanks for any and all input!

Let me first say, I do get why ICANN has been successful in their ability to manage and administer their business (and to a lesser extent, duty) of being the authority in domains and domain name resolution.

But if all of this is built off of free and open protocols, why would I pay a company for the right to administer something I can do for free? Am I off base in my understanding of how the internet works, given not having to pay thousands of dollars to have the right to a custom name server?

If anyone can give me a technical explanation why it’s impossible to host your own nameservers or have your own custom domain, I’m genuinely curious.

It just feels like with the undercurrent of some in tech to get back to a more decentralized experience on the web, more would be done to allow for people to do what they want with the technology they have access to.