2026-06-18 –, D105 (capacity 300)
Inspired by talks at 2025's DevConf.cz, I returned home and promptly bought a second hand workstation, and then a GPU on Prime Day. The plan was not to spend a lot of money. It was not to buy the latest and greatest hardware. It was to see could be achieved on hardware that is abundant and affordable. Results have been, mixed, and at times I've asked myself if I was doing it wrong, if the hype about certain technologies (such as OpenClaw) were deserved, and whether the whole endeavour was misguided. Whilst everyone else is raving about M4 (now M5) Mac's, Framework Desktop, Dell GB10's and more, I wanted to see what I could do with US$500 and tech that there's no waiting list for. This presentation distils for everyone what I've learned, the pain points, the successes, and ultimately whether I'd do it all over again. (Spoiler - I would!)
James Freeman is a published author, with more than 25 years of industry expertise. He has tackled complex enterprise challenges in real-world production environments using Ansible, often introducing this powerful automation tool to CTOs and organizations for the first time. As the author of five authoritative books on Ansible, James's passion for empowering others continues to inspire engineers and businesses to unlock new possibilities in IT.