For inspiration I'll describe our setup:

We have a TP link TAPO camera, it sits on a VLAN without access to the internet. We can access and watch it through home assistant. There's a custom integration that allows for some control of the camera including motion control, motion and noise detection, though the basic integration should be fine by now for just the video and audio feed.

Since we have some notification set up when the motion or noise is triggered, we don't need to have the video feed open all the time (it even pops up on our Kodi TV). Though, we do use an old spare android phone as a dedicated baby monitor, but we're not tied to using just that one.

This is stationary for our home though and the initial setup of the camera does require internet connection, but after that... It all lives locally.

We also do have a cheap TrueLife video baby monitor, closed loop, with a dedicated receiver unit, but that is more of a travel solution. No fancy function, just video and audio feed from the camera to the parent unit. The range of this thing is rubbish though...
And when we don't need video feed, we use regular Motorola PMR walkie-talkies, one of them (on the child side) in VOX mode. Any baby monitor can only dream of its range and battery life...

So, that's our setup in a nutshell. If you'd like to know more, feel free to ask 😉

I have both the regular Xbox wireless controller and now the 8bitDo ultimate 2C. And damn I love the 8bitDo one. The joysticks are far superior and pleasant, with zero play around the middle, on the Xbox controller they are a bit wonky and loose around the middle hence they don't zero out every time. And it cost half of what I paid for the Xbox controller...

Knights and Merchants 😉 Older classic, but there's a remake that makes it more playable on modern machines

Also, at some point during manufacturing they hang it by the holes.

Never, they'll try again and again with different names, covered by different purposes and stuck to another law.

Nice ones! Since it ain't a server I haven't mentioned it, but I had my WiFi ssids named CLACKS.

Since I'm kinda fan of Terry Pratchett, I naturally have HEX at home.

Same boat here, I have the 5 II and I absolutely love it. Great size, the camera is OK on auto but can do wonders in manual mode (depending on your skill).
The lack of software support is a bummer though. I was surprised it's not in LineageOS' official support anymore...

Do you use any custom ROM on your Xperia?

PIA

I do have an Onyx Boox tablet, the Note 2 plus to be specific, and I do run Calibre and calibre-web on my home server.
Though I don't actually use calibre-web at all, and the full flat calibre only to organise the collection. Usually I just copy the files to my tablet manually, but I do leverage the built-in RSS reader in Calibre to create my own epub "newspaper" periodically, which is synced to the tablet by Synching.
I have also used to have (actually still have it, but not use it) an old Kobo touch with Koreader, and I intended to download the books wirelessly using the calibre-web, but honestly, I just copied it over an USB anyway...
If I think about it, I could simply sync my whole library over Synching.

Thanks to everyone for ideas and your time. We have set a dropbox account and sent out a file request link, it is filling up already.
When this anniversary is over, on our next meeting I will bring up the possibility of deploying our own NAS with nextcloud at our building.
Cheers

I know of it but haven't tried it yet. For my personal needs I actually use Zerotier to connect to my server remotely, but having two IP adresses is a bit anoying and not family friendly. Also it doesn't work 100% of the time, sometimes I have troubles connecting. When the right time comes and I will get my IPv6 address I will switch to Wireguard to tunnel home, but until then...
In my case right now, any VPN is out of question, as it doesn't meet the no-authorization condition, and I don't want 60 people poking around on my LAN.
But thanks anyway, I might try Tailscape over zerotier to see if it is better.