I can’t help much on the power draw side of this question, but one thing to look out for with a UPS is some sort of communication option. (Usually NUT over ethernet, but there are some USB options too.) Most modern UPS brands will have a plugin you can install on your Raspberry Pi and Mini PC that allows your UPS to signal, “Hey, I’ve got 3% of battery life, you actually need to gracefully shut down now.” It’s mostly useful for NAS applications with spinning drives, but it could help save your Pi’s SD card potentially.

It’s a pretty standard feature these days, but the cheapest of the cheap will omit it.

What are you talking about?

It’s still surreal to see OpenAI’s need for training data be so vast that they casually developed and open sourced a generational leap in transcription technology just so that they could scrape online videos better.

Long Switch can’t hurt you. Long Switch isn’t real.

https://www.serverbuilds.net/ is a popular website online for folks building NASes at home. They’re fans of Unraid as well. They’ve got a Discord if you’re looking for something more interactive. Worth checking out. 👍

There’s an interesting conversation to be had about making the Fediverse more user friendly at the cost of increased centralization and non-standard extensions. It’s really difficult to focus on the message you’re trying to convey when you have five other alarmist topics crammed into the post.

Mozilla’s conflict of interest taking money from one of the largest internet advertisers and browser manufacturers was widely discussed during their recent anti-trust trial. It’s not super constructive to flatten the whole conversation to Mammoth being “Google Funded”.

Some dongles are limited to 4K@30. Like this one. You’ll want to double-check the specs of your adapter. They do make DP/HDMI to USB-C cables for what it’s worth. USB-C is a frustrating spec because you can run a lot of different standards over it. Even with cables you’ll want to make sure they’re not running some older spec.

I just double-checked your monitor’s manual. It looks like HDMI 1 can only do 30hz. Only HDMI 2 and the DP ports support 60hz. Were you trying to connect through HDMI 1?

Try plugging the Mac in without a dock.

A lot of docks out there are DisplayLink based, and you may need to install their driver to get the higher refresh rate.

Also try switching up which type cable you’re plugging into the dock. Most dock manuals have an esoteric support table based on whether or not you plugged in a DisplayPort or HDMI cable.

Get a bug guy to come spray the exterior of your place. They can use stronger stuff then folk’s indoor life hacks. Eventually they’ll stop getting in.