The mods must have changed the title because I submitted it with the title "How Michael Abrash doubled Quakes framerate" matching the actual article title.
Individuals here on hacker news tend to gravitate towards blog posts about games rather than links to actual games, generally. Not a hard fast rule, but it's what I've observed over the years.
Hacker News or lobste.rs is my primary site for new content. But I've added blogs I've found particularly well written or informative to my feed reader (currently commafeed, formerly freshrss).
If you're looking for a way to browse the "independent" web there are a few projects out there like Kagi Small Web which curate sites for you.
https://blog.kagi.com/small-web
Buying and maintaining your own equipment is a good learning experience in itself. But universities generally don't like it when you host things on their networks, so that should be considered as well.
If you're looking to reduce eye strain and you want to consider this approach you will want to make sure that you budget for a projector screen. Even a white or off-white wall will give a bad image quality and probably increase eye strain.
The satellite industry uses hardware equipment that has been around for a long so that all known issues are worked out and they can have an idea of lifespan because cost of replacement is astronomical. There are a few places online that talk about the processors and boards used in that industry. Might be an interesting place to start.
Running a backup instance of pihole. I have my primary instance on my "server" and run a secondary instance on the pi so I can point my DNS at two separate devices so downtime on one doesn't drop my internet.
Isopropyl alcohol, as high a concentration as you can find. Before reassembly make sure the alcohol is fully evaporated. For the power supply if it doesnt stink after you clean the outside off and doesnt short out if you turn it on, do you really need to clean the interior?
One reason may be that mechanical engineering degrees really only mean something when they come from accredited universities, if you want to go for your FE or PE licenses in the USA you'll need to have a degree from an accredited university. Most places that consider you for a job as a mechanical, electrical, civil, aeronautical/aerospace, etc engineer only want to see you with a degree that's accredited. The CS job market has always been more accepting to self taught, hence courses to self teach. I say these things working in software development with a bachelor's and master's in mechanical engineering. Good friends with someone with a bachelor's and master's in electrical engineering working in software and brother-in-law to someone with an aerospace degree.