Author: Steve Block
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Quadro P2200 Transcoding
I have a Dell R730 server running Windows Server 2019. It has a Debian Linux VM running Plex and Jellyfin servers, and I wanted to add hardware transcoding with a video card, as certain high resolution HDR videos were not easily converted in real time using the CPU only (which also burned a lot of…
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Lyrics
I decided to start building a local lyrics database because I like the feature Apple Music (and others) have of showing lyrics synced to the music as you listen, and I wanted that for my own local music library. It kind of reminds me of when I was a kid and I used to put…
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Using a Spare Laptop as a Dedicated Music Source for the Office
This writeup is about setting up an old laptop as a music player that boots straight into a full screen experience, ready to send music to a USB DAC and headphone amp. Given that it uses a consumer laptop and USB it’s not going to be the king of audio quality, but I thought some…
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Miyoo Flip
This is a handheld game system that looks somewhat like a looks like a Game Boy Advance SP, though unlike the RG35xx SP it doesn’t copy the hinge design or finishes. More of an homage than an imitation. Unlike the RG35xx SP, it’s the same size as a GBA SP, and although the size difference…
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I Don’t Want Your “AI”
Revisiting My Previous Thoughts on This Whole Tire Fire Last fall I wrote about the whole “AI” garbage fire. Since then I’ve spent a decent amount of time playing with several different local LLMs using Ollama and LM Studio, attempted (with limited success) to integrate models with a language server for coding tasks, and tried…
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Darktable Notes
FYI I posted some notes on using darktable as I try to learn it. Why am I trying to learn it? I’m trying to reduce my reliance on proprietary software in general, and Adobe is a particularly abusive software provider. As productive as I am in Lightroom, I am not happy with the licensing and…
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Some Brief Linux Gaming Notes
I recently built a new gaming computer, and though it runs Windows 11 I have been giving some serious time to setting up and testing a Linux gaming setup as well. I have Fedora 41 installed on a 2 TB NVME drive in the PC, secondary to the 4 TB main drive that is running…
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Not So Intelligent
Hacker News is completely full of “AI” garbage these days. It’s all a race to the bottom of useless, pointless, and stupid LLMs, image generators, and so on with exactly zero showing real promise of any kind. But it’s dominating all the discussions. It’s so bad, because instead of interesting things it’s just idiots making…
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MacBook Air Shenanigans
I spent more hours than is reasonable getting Fedora updated on my old MacBook Air (2013). 4 gigs of ram, hilarious. The clock was set to February when this booted up, so it’s been at least 5 or 6 months since I ran the machine. The screen isn’t good but it’s overall a quality laptop.…
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New mix — Unsure, Unknown, Uncertain
We all need a little uncertainty and mountains.
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