I've been banging my head against NNCP trying to create a "floating node" that can keep its configs and data synced across a laptop or two and a desktop. I am slowly coming to the conclusion that this is the wrong approach, that using my laptop as a "desktop" as well with my docking station, and using my desktop(s) as I would a headless server is probably the correct approach long term. Then I just have to admit my work laptop is a secondary device more akin to a cell phone rather than primary-primary with the Linux Thinkpad. This then raises the question of how I'm going to do bulk storage at home... and that should probably live on a NAS. Either I upgrade to a more expensive Synology DiskStation NAS, or I finally finish setting up the disk array on my USB3 8x3.5" SATA enclosure, jack it in to my mini desktop, and use that for both Kubernetes PVs and general file server duty.
The terabytes of flash I have stuck inside the Thinkpad and the even more terabytes of flash I could attach externally have their own appeal along with store-and-forward networking: I have found that when I'm traveling by motorcycle instead of by airline, I still find a LOT of places with poor, intermittent, or outright absent terrestrial Internet uplink. The ferry halfway to Seattle, Port Townsend, the hotel in Spokane, and almost certainly the entire distance between Spokane and Chicago when I make the great trek east this summer.
This means I need a "big server" that can't be entirely microservice containers, so I have an endpoint for NNCP for both Usenet and publishing my blog. On the other hand, that's only NNCP + INN2 + Lighttpd and maybe an open SSH port if I want to use rsync. Maybe the NNCPNet tools and Postfix as well if I want to really go for the "one big server for all my Internet writing" approach. This bears deeper consideration.
The reason I need to have all this stuff locally is as a counterfactual to what I am doing right now, using my phone, mosh, tailscale, and a Bluetooth keyboard to write this remotely on SDF. Too laggy!
Resuming this file with the same editor config running locally on a big laptop instead, this feels much nicer.