RE These cheap USB-to-HDMI adapters are terrible, and yet incredibly useful

https://ounapuu.ee/posts/2026/06/22/usb-hdmi-adapter/ I came across Herman Õunapuu's post suggesting these things, and after finding multiple uses for this ~$5 object, I wholeheartedly agree. Terrible video quality. Incredibly versatile. Currently I'm setting up another home server in its new location. Normally I'd have to do this at my desk, clear the clutter away to make a spot for it, reach around the back of my monitor, unplug a bunch of crud, etc. and eventually get to the point where ssh is enabled, and only then can I reach it remotely. Instead, I just: put it where it's going to live plug in the HDMI-USB thing run a long USB extender cable to my laptop fire up VLC and hit cmd-R (Open Capture Device) select the USB Video device bam, I can see the tty output Much better! As an added bonus, if something goes wrong, and needs troubleshooting, for example a change in boot order via GRUB, or whatever, it's a lot faster to do this in-place. I'm sure I can figure out a few more uses…