This sounds very weird.

If you're blocking non-US IPs, you trpically block at the IP layer, before a login attempt can even begin.

Why allow someone to even log in at all?

Call me a unit fundamentalist but calling 512Gb "over half a terabyte memory" irks me to no end.

Yep. They could've had socketed RAM but they wouldn't have gotten the same bandwidth and that's really important for running things like LLMs.

However there's a major issue with SSDs. SSDs keep their data for ~10 years, which is a lot shorter than most people realize. "Spinning rust" will remain operational for longer and should keep the data for at least a century. You cannot have data on SSDs for backup or data hoarding.

I get that spinning rust is put to shame by CD or DVD (even writable ones), but still.

Work on a side project this December instead of doing this. Solving advent of code just keeps you in your comfort zone. Creates a false sense of accomplishment. Redirect all the positive energy to something that will make you proud when you are old or help with an earlier retirement. This won't.

Since I turn off my Mac almost every night, just like I turn off my television, lights, and other stuff when I don’t use them. To me, personally, it makes no sense to waste the electricity for about 15 hrs * 365 days per year.

I would put the power on any vertical side of the mini if I were designing it for my use.

Since were being pedantic. Is that 2^10 bits or 10^3 bits per MB?