The lab log

2026-08-22 media-server Jellyfin vs Plex: which one actually runs in our lab Every homelab eventually asks this question. You get a media library going, you want to actually watch it on a TV that… read → 2026-08-22 media-server The Arr stack, explained without the acronym soup The names sound like a pirate convention. Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr, Jackett, Bazarr. Once you understand what each one actually does, it stops… read → 2026-08-22 media-server Synology vs QNAP: the NAS argument we keep having This argument shows up in every homelab forum thread eventually, and both sides are right, which is the annoying part. The actual… read → 2026-08-22 software The AI tools that actually earned a place on our machines Two years ago this section of the blog would not have existed. Now AI tools are just part of how we build… read → 2026-08-22 3d-printing What we wish we knew before our first 3D print Everyone’s first print goes wrong in roughly the same handful of ways. Here is what we wish someone had told us before… read → 2026-08-22 meta What happens here now The site is rebuilt, the blog works, the forums exist. So what actually happens here now? More write-ups, less silence The plan… read → 2026-08-22 homelab Building the new rootlabs.us: the process The last post covered what the new rootlabs.us runs on. This one is about how we actually got from the old site… read → 2026-08-22 homelab Building the new rootlabs.us: the stack When we decided to rebuild rootlabs.us, we had one hard constraint and one soft one. The hard constraint: the whole thing runs… read → 2026-08-22 meta Hello world (again) So this is attempt number two at a Root Labs blog. The first version of this site was built back when we… read →