TerminalBytes

About

I'm Hemant Kumar. TerminalBytes is where I write up the stuff I build at home when I should probably be sleeping. Solar-powered iPhone 8 running an OCR server, Kindle 7th-gens turned into homelab status displays, an iOS audiobook client I built from scratch because none of the existing ones did what I wanted, Minecraft servers on $400 mini PCs that have been running for years. Mostly it's old hardware doing new jobs on as few watts as I can manage.

What I cover

  • Mini PCs and homelab hardware. Beelink, GMKtec, GEEKOM, Intel NUC, ThinkCentre. Power draw measured with a Kill A Watt, prices from when I bought, and what broke after six months. If I wrote a "best mini PC" post, I own one of the things on the list.
  • Self-hosting and Linux. Docker, K3s, VPNs, Audiobookshelf, Jellyfin, Postgres. The stuff that means you don't pay $9/month forever for a folder of your own files.
  • E-ink and Kindle hacks. Jailbreaks, e-ink dashboards, getting one more year out of a Kindle 7.
  • Solar power and energy efficiency. Window-sill panels, EcoFlow battery math, and what running things off-grid actually costs over a year.

How posts get written

Every post is about hardware I either own or have tested in person. Power-draw numbers come from a Kill A Watt P4400. Pricing comes from Amazon at the time of writing and gets updated when I notice it's stale. If a thing's on the site, it's because I either own it or would buy it if I had the need.

Posts containing Amazon links carry the disclosure block at the bottom plus the FTC-mandated phrase. The "Last updated" footer tells you when the post was last reviewed.

Get in touch

Email hello@terminalbytes.com for anything. I read everything. Replies might take a day or two if I'm deep in a side project.

Where to find me

The hemant6488 handles are personal (work history, general dev stuff). The terminalbytes and @MysteriousSophon handles are where the blog itself shows up. The Sophon part is a Three Body Problem reference; if you also liked it, the rest of the favourite sci-fi shelf is Red Rising, the Stormlight Archive, and A Deepness in the Sky.

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