I've got a few different points to bring up, so if you're in the tl;dr crowd, skip to the third paragraph.
I just attended the bimonthly university/government auction and got another steal: 19 desktops (mostly crap but some good ones) for $20 total plus a 2.2GHz laptop for $50. Of interest though is that a $2000 server rack (just the rack), with ~25 server nodes included, sold for a whopping $350. This brings me to the very real possibility that, some time in the future, I might actually be able to buy a full multi-node server...
While talking to the buyers who bought the server, I learned that there's a colocation computing center here in town that rents out spots on their gigabit network - unlimited bandwidth - for about $50/month. I'm thinking of moving my own servers there at some point for the speed benefits (currently hosting via DSL) and so I can drop my home internet to a lower tier. Anyway...
What's this about free hosting? I recently offered the use of
The Terulia Web Server to SilkWizard for NEStalgia hosting. It was in use for a day or two, and although I didn't hear any complaints regarding speed/lag/etc., Silk has since consolidated his hosting elsewhere. As it is, this computer is now running at about 2% of operating capacity. I see this as a waste of potential, so I'm willing to set up user accounts for 2-4 active users so they can host their games on this machine. The stipulations are: 1) no DBZ games, 2) your game can't be a CPU hog in-and-of itself (i.e. 100% CPU usage with 0 users is unacceptable), 3) you have to incorporate
TRC into your game. If you are interested in this free hosting opportunity, post a reply here and I'll get back to you on Monday (leaving for the weekend).
Finally, I wanted to gauge general interest in free hosting at the mentioned colocation center. This is just for my future reference. If enough people are interested in this setup, then I will probably place some bids the next time a $5000+ full server setup goes up for auction.
edit: The promotional
2.8GHz desktop giveaway is still underway.