DEV Community: p ww

I Have One Screen in My Kitchen That Does the Work of Three

p ww — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 07:00:32 +0000

I Have One Screen in My Kitchen That Does the Work of Three

My kitchen counter used to be a docking station. A tablet for recipes. A small TV for watching shows while cooking. A digital photo frame that my mom bought us that we felt guilty unplugging.

Three devices. Three cables. Three things to keep charged.

I was tired of it. So I tried something different: one 24-inch Android tablet that does all three jobs, and a few more I didn't expect.

The Setup

The Leaderhub tablet lives on my kitchen counter, propped up on its built-in stand. It's big enough to see from across the room but not so big that it dominates the space.

During the day, it's a recipe display. I pull up a cooking video on YouTube, follow along, and tap the screen with one finger when I need to pause — no messy hands on a phone. The touchscreen handles wet fingers better than I expected.

In the evening, it becomes a secondary TV. I cast shows to it while the main TV is being used for something else. The built-in battery means I can move it to the dining table or even the patio without hunting for an outlet.

And yes, it runs a photo slideshow when I'm not using it — so my mom is happy.

The Battery Changes Everything

I didn't realize how much I'd value the portability until I had it.

The tablet runs for about six hours on a charge. That's enough for a full day of recipe browsing, video calls with family, and casual YouTube. When the battery gets low, I plug it in overnight — it charges fully in about two hours.

The wireless casting is the feature I use most. I don't have to connect any cables. From my phone or laptop, I send whatever I'm watching to the big screen. It just works.

What I Stopped Using

I unplugged three things and haven't missed any of them:

My old tablet — it was smaller, slower, and ran out of battery halfway through cooking
The countertop TV — it only did one thing and took up more space
The digital photo frame — nice idea, terrible interface, always needed a new SD card

Now I have one device that does all of it. No cable management. No deciding which one to charge. No clutter.

Who Might Want Something Like This

Home cooks who follow video recipes and want a hands-free display
Families who want a shared screen for video calls, streaming, and photos
Small kitchen counters where every inch of space matters
Anyone who has too many devices doing the same thing

Bottom Line

I didn't set out to simplify my kitchen tech. I just wanted a better recipe screen. But the surprise was how many other devices it replaced along the way.

Sometimes the best upgrade isn't adding something new. It's finding one thing that does everything you were using three things for.

What's the most-used screen in your home? Do you have one device that replaced several others?

My Parents Asked Me to Fix Their Old Computer. I Replaced It With Something Smaller Than a Sandwich.

p ww — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 07:23:26 +0000

My Parents Asked Me to Fix Their Old Computer. I Replaced It With Something Smaller Than a Sandwich.

My parents had the same computer for eight years. It was a beige tower that sat on the floor next to the desk, groaning every time it booted up. My mom called me last month and said, "It takes ten minutes to open Facebook. Can you come look at it?"

I drove over on a Saturday expecting to clean up some malware or maybe add more RAM. What I found was worse than I expected. The hard drive was clicking — never a good sign — the fans sounded like a lawnmower, and Windows 10 was stuck in an update loop that had been running for three days. This machine wasn't sick. It was done.

They didn't need a gaming PC. They didn't need anything powerful or expensive. They just wanted to browse the web, check email, watch YouTube videos of their grandkids, and occasionally print a recipe. That's the entire list.

I ordered a Leaderhub mini PC for them. It cost less than what they paid for that old tower back in 2016, and it's literally the size of a sandwich. When the box arrived, my dad thought I had ordered a book.

Setting it up took fifteen minutes. I plugged it into their existing monitor, keyboard, and mouse — all of which still worked fine, by the way — and connected it to their WiFi. Windows 11 was already installed and activated. No driver discs, no setup wizards, no phone calls to tech support. I spent more time untangling their old cables than I did setting up the new machine.

My mom sat down, opened Facebook, and it loaded instantly. She clicked over to YouTube and pulled up a video. Then she opened her email. Then she looked at me like I had performed some kind of magic trick. "That's it?" she asked. "It just works?"

That's it. It just works.

What really sold me on this little machine is how invisible it becomes. It doesn't make noise — no fan whine, no hard drive clicking, nothing. It doesn't get hot even after running all day. It sits mounted behind their monitor, completely hidden, and they forget it exists. My dad told me last week that the computer "feels faster than his phone now." Coming from a man who still types with two fingers, that's high praise.

The thing that surprises me most is how much this tiny box handles without complaint. Video calls with the grandkids? Crystal clear, no stuttering. Streaming movies in the evening? Smooth as anything. Opening a dozen browser tabs while editing a document and playing music in the background? It doesn't even slow down. For what my parents actually do — and honestly, for what most people actually do — this is more computer than they'll ever need.

The old tower went to electronics recycling. The new mini PC has been running for over a month without a single hiccup. No crashes, no slowdowns, no mysterious error messages. My mom stopped calling me about computer problems entirely.

I used to think that helping family with technology meant constant maintenance — updating drivers, cleaning out viruses, explaining why the printer isn't working for the hundredth time. It turns out the best tech support isn't support at all. It's giving someone a machine that doesn't need you anymore.

If someone in your family is still nursing along a computer that makes concerning noises, do them a favor. They probably don't need what they think they need. They just need something small, simple, and quiet — something that stays out of the way and lets them get on with their day.

That sandwich-sized box behind my parents' monitor did more than replace an old computer. It gave me my Saturdays back.

What computer do your parents or grandparents use? Have you ever been the designated family tech support person? I bet you have stories.

I Built a Home Server for $150 — and It Uses Less Power Than a Lightbulb

p ww — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 04:50:28 +0000

I Built a Home Server for $150 — and It Uses Less Power Than a Lightbulb

I've been self-hosting things for years. At first it was a Raspberry Pi running Pi-hole. Then I added a second Pi for Home Assistant. Then Plex needed more horsepower, so I bought a used office desktop that sounded like a vacuum cleaner.

My setup was getting out of hand. Three devices, tangled cables, and an electricity bill that quietly crept up every month.

I wanted something that could replace all of them — without the noise, the clutter, or the power draw.

The Candidate

I already had a Leaderhub mini PC running as my secondary desktop. N100 processor, 8GB of RAM, 512GB SSD. It's about ten centimeters square and sits behind my monitor.

I realized I wasn't using it at full capacity during the day. At night, it was doing nothing. So I moved it to the corner of my desk, installed Ubuntu Server on a spare SSD, and turned it into my dedicated home server.

The machine costs around $150. It draws 6 watts at idle. For comparison, a typical desk lamp draws 40 watts.

What I'm Running

A $150 PC that sips power can't run everything — but it can run more than you think.

Here's my current setup after two weeks:

Pi-hole — blocks ads at the network level. The whole house feels faster.
Home Assistant — automates lights, sensors, and a smart plug.
Jellyfin — streams my media library to two TVs and a tablet. Direct play works flawlessly. Transcoding a single 1080p stream is fine; transcoding multiple 4K streams would push it too far.
Syncthing — syncs documents between my laptop, desktop, and phone.
A small Node.js API — I host a few personal services that don't justify a VPS.

All of this runs on a machine that's plugged into a cheap power strip behind my desk. I haven't noticed a change in my electricity bill.

What Surprised Me

Three things stood out:

It never needs maintenance. The old desktop server would lock up every few weeks. This has been running for fourteen days straight without a single hiccup. The N100 is efficient enough that it doesn't overheat, and the SSD means no moving parts to fail.

I can tuck it anywhere. It's currently sitting in a cable management tray under my desk. No one knows it's there. The fans are silent — I have to check the power LED to confirm it's running.

The upgrade path is real. If I outgrow the 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, I can swap both. The DDR4 slot and M.2 port are standard. I'm not married to this configuration.

Who This Is For

You don't need a home server. Most people are perfectly happy with cloud services and a streaming subscription.

But if you're the type of person who:

Has three services running on three different Raspberry Pis
Wants Pi-hole but doesn't want another device on your desk
Cares about electricity cost and noise
Just wants one box that does a few things well

...then a $150 mini PC is a better starting point than anything else I've tried.

Bottom Line

I didn't set out to replace my homelab with a machine smaller than a book. But when I looked at it from a power-versus-watts perspective, the math was hard to argue with.

The best server is the one you forget about. This one sits in its corner, running silently, doing exactly what I need.

Do you self-host anything? What's your setup look like?

Our Meeting Room Used to Be Embarrassing — One Screen Fixed It

p ww — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 09:31:31 +0000

Our Meeting Room Used to Be Embarrassing — One Screen Fixed It

If you've ever walked into a meeting room and spent the first five minutes fiddling with cables, trying to get the display to work, and apologizing to guests while you reboot a laptop — you know the pain I'm talking about.

That was our office for two years. A mishmash of old monitors, tangled HDMI cables, a webcam balanced on a box, and a speakerphone that picked up every cough except the person talking. Every meeting started with someone saying "bear with me while I get this working."

I finally got tired of it and decided to fix it properly.

What We Needed

I didn't want a complicated AV setup. No control systems, no rack of equipment, no IT support call every time something stopped talking to something else.

I wanted one device that did everything:

Big enough to see from across the room
Built-in speakers and mic so we didn't need extras
Touchscreen for whiteboarding
Simple enough that anyone could walk in and use it

The Leaderhub L65HM turned out to be that thing.

First Impressions

It arrived in a box big enough to hide in. The delivery guy and I carried it up together. Unboxing took about ten minutes, and mounting it on the wall with the included bracket was straightforward — the VESA pattern was standard, the screws were in the box, and the instructions were clear.

Once it was up, the difference was immediate. The 65-inch screen dominates the room in a good way — you can read text from the back row without squinting. The frame is surprisingly slim, so it looks modern, not like an old whiteboard from a classroom.

I plugged in a laptop via HDMI, and it just worked. No driver install, no display settings to tweak. Touchback worked instantly — I could tap the screen to control the laptop directly. That was the moment I knew we'd made the right call.

What Changed

The first meeting after installation, nobody mentioned the screen. That sounds like a strange compliment, but it's the highest praise I can give. Nobody fiddled with cables. Nobody asked "can everyone see this?" Nobody said "can you hear me?"

The built-in microphone array picks up voices from anywhere in the room. The speakers are loud enough that we don't need an external soundbar. And the 4K resolution makes documents and spreadsheets razor-sharp — no more zooming in to read tiny text.

We've also used the touchscreen for brainstorming sessions. Walking up to the screen and writing directly on it feels natural in a way that typing into a laptop never does. Multiple people can write at the same time, which is surprisingly useful when you're mapping out ideas as a team.

Who This Is For

If you run a small or medium office, this screen replaces about five separate pieces of equipment: the TV, the webcam, the speakerphone, the whiteboard, and the cable adapters you've been collecting for years.

It also works well in:

Classrooms and training rooms — the touchscreen and annotation tools are great for teaching
Lobbies and reception areas — for wayfinding, announcements, or just looking professional
Boardrooms — where you need reliable, instant-on presentation tools

The Bottom Line

Our meeting room used to be the room everyone wanted to avoid. Now it's the room people book first. One screen changed that.

The L65HM isn't cheap, but it's cheaper than buying a TV, a soundbar, a webcam, and a whiteboard separately — and it does all of those things better than the individual parts would.

If your meeting room could use an upgrade, this is worth looking at.

What's your meeting room setup like? Still dealing with cable chaos, or have you found something that works?

I Thought a Tiny Mini PC Wasn't Enough — Until I Tried a Bigger One

p ww — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 09:12:28 +0000

I Thought a Tiny Mini PC Wasn't Enough — Until I Tried a Bigger One

I've been using a small mini PC for a few months now. The kind that fits in your palm, costs next to nothing, and handles email, browsing, and video calls without complaint. It's great for what it is.

But lately I found myself wanting more. More speed when flipping between a dozen tabs. More room for files. More confidence that I could run a heavier tool without waiting.

So I tried a bigger one.

Not Actually Bigger

When I say "bigger," I mean relative to the tiny one I was using before. The Leaderhub LP5C arrived, and I had to laugh — it's still smaller than a hardcover book. It sat next to the old mini PC on my desk, and the difference was noticeable but not dramatic. One was palm-sized. This one was... two palms.

I plugged in my monitors, connected the usual keyboard and mouse, and within minutes I was up and running. Same silent operation. Same clean desk. Same absence of cable chaos.

But something felt different right away.

The Point Where Budget Hits a Wall

Here's the thing about ultra-budget mini PCs: they handle 90% of what most people do. Browsing, documents, video calls, streaming — all fine. That's a genuine win.

But if you're someone who keeps a lot of things open at once — like, a lot — you eventually notice the edges. A hesitation when switching between a heavy spreadsheet and a video call. A second or two of waiting when you unzip a large file. A feeling that the machine is working hard even if it never actually crashes.

That's the gap the LP5C fills. It's not a different kind of machine. It's the same idea — small, quiet, simple — just with more room to breathe.

I noticed it most when I forgot I was using it. The old mini PC made me aware of its limits maybe once or twice a day. The LP5C hasn't done that once. I just work, and the machine stays out of the way.

Why Not Just Build a Desktop?

Fair question. I thought about it. A full tower would cost about the same and offer even more performance.

But here's what I'd lose: the silence, the tiny footprint, the fact that I can tuck this thing behind my monitor and forget it exists. I've gotten used to a desk that's just a keyboard, a screen, and a coffee cup. Going back to a tower feels like going backward.

The LP5C gives me the headroom I needed without asking me to give up what I liked about going small in the first place.

Who This Makes Sense For

If you're like me — you started with a budget mini PC, it worked well, but now you're bumping against its limits — this is the natural next step.

It's also worth considering if you're a developer running local servers or containers, a designer juggling large files, or anyone who works with multiple monitors and doesn't want to think about whether the computer can keep up.

And if you've never tried a mini PC at all? Skip straight to this tier. The price difference is small, and you won't wonder what you're missing.

The Short Version

The LP5C is what happens when you take everything that makes mini PCs great — the silence, the size, the simplicity — and turn up the capability just enough that you stop noticing the computer entirely.

For me, that's exactly what I needed.

Have you hit the limits of your current setup? What made you decide to upgrade — or not?