Local AI & builder infrastructure
Ollama, OpenWebUI, SearXNG, local models, homelabs, GPUs, self-hosted tools, and the tradeoffs between local control and cloud convenience.
- Why I Self-Host
The reasons I give — privacy, cost, resilience — are all true, and all partly a cover story. I set out to build a little local-AI appliance and spent the night fighting NVIDIA drivers and firewall lockouts instead, and enjoyed it. That last part is the actual reason, and it isn't a recommendation.
- Generate Slow, Don't Slow the Generation
To teach a word you slow it down — but slowing a recording smears the exact sounds a learner needs to hear. The fix was to stop slowing audio and start generating it slow. A small experiment, an honest number, and a second lesson about which sounds you're even allowed to stretch.
- Building a Local LLM Box That Doesn't Need Babysitting
A field note on assembling a small inference machine, putting Ubuntu Server on it, and getting a stack that runs stable for daily work without constant firefighting.