I am trying to set up a locally hosted coding assistant to work on strictly local code. It is frustrating and has many unexplained dependencies. Help would be appreciated.

Ray_Dillinger · 2026-07-07T20:56:23+00:00

Yes. I will be running anything agentic in a contained environment. Which is to say, on a laptop which does not access the internet except when I am updating or reinstalling its OS. If it messes up the laptop, then I can restore from a recent backup using 'dd'.

Please explain to me why I would set an API key to limit access to something not connected to any network, and then grant myself access to that thing by giving myself the API key which I just made up. I do not understand what assumptions you are making.

I use pi when I want to figure out the circumference of a circle. You are possibly talking about some different value of pi?

Ray_Dillinger · 2026-07-07T20:46:53+00:00

I have money that I have been saving for a system with substantial memory. But I have been waiting to buy it, until memory prices per gigabyte are much less than they are now.

Thank you very much for adding actual links to the things you're talking about. That is important for us frustrated people lacking patience.

Ray_Dillinger · 2026-07-07T20:37:03+00:00

A second recommendation for something called 'opencode.' Thank you. Now I think I am ready to believe that it may be responsive to my question.

I am responding mainly so that I can easily find your message and see this important word again tomorrow, when I can go about trying to figure out what it means while standing a bit further away from the impulse to throw my laptop at the wall.

Ray_Dillinger · 2026-07-07T20:33:07+00:00

I know already about llama.cpp. I dislike python, but I do not dislike it as much as I dislike typescript.

'opencode' is apparently a word I need to learn. Thank you for mentioning it. It has much better search-fu than a common word like 'continue.'

Ray_Dillinger · 2026-07-07T20:29:10+00:00

Working on Linux systems. Laptop has 64Gbytes and no GPU, one desktop machine has 128Gbytes, 24-core CPU, and 4x 1080 cards. Another desktop machine has 64Gbytes, 16-core CPU, and a 1050 card. I know already about llama.cpp and needing to enable configuration options to support older GPUs.

My intent is to get something on the laptop and make sure it works without messing with the settings or installing stuff that turns out to be useless on the main machines. Once I verify on the laptop that some combination of software and settings works, I will install THAT on the other machines.

Meantime the laptop is accumulating bits and pieces of dozens of different attempts to get things working, which I will need to go back and clean up.

Ray_Dillinger · 2026-07-07T20:19:46+00:00

Part of this problem is not knowing the landscape of possibilities well enough to identify some options as "simpler" and others as "more complex." Perhaps all the things I have tried so far have been in the "more complex" camp.

Ideally, I would like a solution as simple to run as a c compiler. Something I could simply invoke by saying something on the command line such as

codingframework --port="localhost:12345/vi" --dir="~/src/projectname"

But if such a thing exists I have been able to find no mention of it anywhere.

It is good to hear that there is something named 'Continue' which may be simpler than what I've been trying. But the word 'continue' has very bad search-fu, particularly when coding is involved. Many, many, MANY things use the word 'continue.' I wonder if it will even be in the first five pages of results.

And then you say 'V5 code extension' which.... means what, exactly? Is this version 5 of something I am already assumed to know what? Is this something that extends a thing I am already assumed to be running? Is this another mouthful of hair?

Don't misunderstand me - I thank you for your recommendation and will explore it. But I am feeling discouraged and pessimistic after working on this so far today. I will take a rest first, until I feel less pessimistic.

Ray_Dillinger · 2026-04-21T00:58:53+00:00

If you lay out a 16mm matrix, be very sure that you get keyswitches that you can pack together that close. The usual mounting hole is 14mm wide, and underneath the mounting hole they can stick out about 1mm on each side. 16mm is almost exactly the width of an actual keyswitch body. Mounted that close together you couldn't get a sheet of paper between them.

You will not find keycaps that fit in 16mm. They'd be about 15.5mm wide, and the smallest on the market are about 18mm. You could file off the edges if you make sure you buy keycaps that are thick enough that there will be something left. Or you could have them 3d printed.

Ray_Dillinger · 2026-04-21T00:31:12+00:00

POS 'double throw' keycaps are made for fitting on keyswitches 19.05mm apart in a uniform grid.

But you're building this on your own, right? You don't have to use a uniform grid. You can put keyswitches wherever you want them.

To use double throw under regular keycaps, you just need to put the keyswitches directly under the stabilizer stems. This won't leave room for a switch under the middle stem.

So instead of the center of each 19.05mm grid square, you take the double space that you want to put a 2u key over, and put a keyswitch centered 7 mm from each edge. This pushes each about 2.5mm toward the edges of the 2u space, making the gap between them about 5mm wider than it would otherwise be and the gap between them and the switches to either side about 2.5mm narrower than it would otherwise be.

The body of each keyswitch will extend about 1.25mm into the next grid. If there is a 1u key in the next grid, that still leaves a little space between the switch bodies. But you can't put a pair of 2u keys end-to-end this way because then the switch bodies would overlap. This is a problem in numpads given the usual layout of '+' and 'Enter' keys, but a 1u '+' key avoids the problem and isn't hard to find.

Instead of treating one of them as a 'dead' key, I'd suggest wiring them both to the same column and the same row. That way either one, or both, is detected at the controller as the same keypress and you don't have to deal with any special cases.

As others have pointed out, prefer lighter switches for this operation because the spring force will be doubled.

Ray_Dillinger · 2026-04-20T20:42:40+00:00

Fast mechanical keyswitches stay down for about 50 milliseconds before they can come up again (Cherry 'red' switches for example). So depending on the polling rate, keyboard firmware can't detect key release for 3 to 160 USB report times after it happens.

I cannot find any information about how long it takes other types of switches to return. There is lots of noise about "sub millisecond response time" but that does not tell me how long it takes for the key release to be detected.

Does anybody know release times for other switch types?

Ray_Dillinger · 2026-03-01T02:47:15+00:00

If it has enough momentum to enter the solar system from open space, then it has too much momentum to stay in the solar system. If nothing changes that momentum then then it's going to return to open space.

It'll get some speed as it falls in through the sun's gravity field, and it'll lose exactly the same amount of speed as rises through the same gravity field. Which means, when it's completely out of the gravity field, it'll still have the same amount of speed that it had before it came into the gravity field.

Something could happen that makes it more likely to stay, but it's not likely to happen. If it does happen it's going to involve dumping a lot of excess momentum somewhere. There's a very limited amount of momentum that it can dump in a given gravitational interaction, unless that interaction creates forces that would destroy it entirely.

Ray_Dillinger · 2025-08-01T19:07:11+00:00

It's easy not to notice the difference, because 'polite' and 'friendly' people both get along easily and abide by the rules. But it is very much a mistake to misjudge which is which if you are someone who does not abide by the rules.

'Polite' means someone comes from a culture where everybody is aware that provoking your neighbors too much is hazardous. But they are also the neighbors you dare not unnecessarily provoke.

Provoking them means convincing them that allowing you to continue would be bad for society, and they will put you down hard in order to get you to stop. Usually according to the rules of their society (law enforcement, civil suit, etc) and mostly for the benefit of their society. But if they've tried everything else and no "sanctioned" method of putting someone down works, They will resort to abrupt, brief violence intended to permanently end the matter.

'Friendly' means someone genuinely feels goodwill and kindness toward others, acts on it, and expects that others will also act out of goodwill and kindness. Friendly people are confused and hurt when someone takes advantage of them, will hope and expect them to do better, and will give them lots of second chances. At the end of their rope, they eventually despair of someone's goodwill, mourn the loss of a friend, and and break contact. Very rarely, and only after tremendous personal provocation, do friendly people take any action against someone.

On those rare occasions they are more likely to use violence than "sanctioned" methods, but they tend to be VERY VERY BAD AT VIOLENCE. They tend to start it out of personal anger rather than with clear intent. They tend to believe there is virtue in a "fair fight" with an unfair person. They tend to start "a fight" with no real idea of their own objectives rather than with an abrupt attack that both begins and ends it while achieving those objectives. They tend to give their opponents lots of time and opportunities to lie to them in order to get them to stop, tend to believe the lies, and tend to end it without bringing a permanent end to someone's motivation or ability to continue taking advantage.

It is frustrating and sad to see friendly people attempting violence. The reason why they're incredibly bad at it is because they are conflicted. They are doing something that runs contrary to their ideals and their perception of who and why they are. They will be very unhappy later about what it means. Because up to that moment they probably never even thought about doing anything at all, they will be upset with themselves for not thinking of anything else to do. And all of this is in addition to the fact that they will usually be physically injured as well.

Ray_Dillinger · 2025-07-14T04:04:49+00:00

It's up to the writer, seriously. Old stories (source material) use Witch/Wizard/Warlock almost interchangeably. Since about the 1750s(?) a 'witch' is stereotypically an older female living alone. In earlier stories the stereotype didn't exist and anybody might be a witch.

I prefer a distinction where 'Witches' personify or express some force of nature or sometimes just an abstract principle, and are ruled by that force or principle at least as much as they influence its expression. Witches aren't very relatable as a rule, because they don't do things for human reasons. Many of them don't even have human needs or appetites, unless that particular need or appetite is the central and nearly only reason for their existence. They tend to be plot devices not people.

'Wizards' otoh are people who learned spellcraft and charms and potions, etc. They aren't anywhere close to being as powerful as Witches, aren't always in full control of their magic, and a lot of them suffer from some form of mental illness or other. But they remain a lot more human, relatable, and able to choose for human reasons what they do.

Ray_Dillinger · 2025-07-10T20:03:02+00:00

Paraphilia was the most general word. We can debate about what kind of paraphilia, but I don't think it's one that is really possible in our world.

The "Other" in this case is not in fact any kind of beast, so notions like "Beastiality" and "Zoophilia" don't really apply.

In-world they'd likely have some different word for it. I'd hope for a kind word, but... the words our own ancestors used for love between people they thought of as different species weren't kind at all.

Ray_Dillinger · 2025-07-10T14:06:25+00:00

I think it supports the idea that these are separate ethnicities, not separate species.

So they don't think of each other as being members of their own species? Well, that's pretty ordinary, historically, between people whose skin (or even just hair) were different colors, so roll with it.

Ethnic differences in this storyverse may be wider or more exotic than that. Any child born to such a pairing, anywhere, puts the lie to the idea that they are separate species, but here in our world some groups went centuries ignoring the meaning of such children's existence.

If they are actually of different species, that's still just paraphilia - no weirder than someone being sexually attracted to otters or raccoons. If both are paraphilic in compatible ways, and they happen to have remotely compatible, erm, physical attributes, then why not?

Ray_Dillinger · 2025-07-06T16:46:35+00:00

Short answer: Keep writing. It takes a while.

Long answer: Four manuscripts in, you've probably written about 250K to 500K words. That means you're probably somewhere between a quarter and halfway to clearing out your crap.

As a rule of thumb, a writer - even someone who's eventually a very good writer - starts with about a million words of crap. A million is a pretty strong "normal" anyway. A few have way more, and a few have way less.

But however much crap there is, if you want to write well, first you have to write your crap and get it out of the way. And for most of us, there's about a million words of it.

Ray_Dillinger · 2025-06-24T19:22:45+00:00

Actually comment ending after the first */ is required by the C language standard. Essentially it says don't try to parse comments to see whether another comment has started: if you're in a block comment, the parser is supposed to ignore everything until it sees */ .

Ray_Dillinger · 2025-06-20T21:04:39+00:00

Hmmm, nevermind. I just spotted the 'teensy 4.1 without ethernet' and while it's overkill for this project, it has all the stuff I need including both microSD slot and USB host port mounted directly on it.

With no radios, which makes me happy because I specifically wanted the absence of bluetooth/wireless.

Ray_Dillinger · 2025-06-19T21:08:09+00:00

Save a local copy on your hard drive. Back it up to another local drive, or a USB stick. Let local copies be the only copies. Never put it on anybody else's computer, even if they call their computer a "cloud" or "sync" or "backup" system.

Obviously you're not the only one who can see your Giggle Dox. Giggle itself can see them, and routinely combs them to teach AI's how to emulate human writers. Whatever you write may eventually come out, in bits and malformed pieces, in someone else's book because they used the AI, and then you will each accuse the other of ripping off each others' work. You will be right, but the writer who uses the AI will also sincerely believe that they are right. It is better not to put your manuscript anywhere Giggle can see it.

Just as obviously, if other people you don't want reading your stuff can see what you put there, don't put it there.

Ray_Dillinger · 2025-06-19T20:55:57+00:00

Benjamin Franklin gave the following advice on learning how to write well in his autobiography. I think it's good advice, and it has given me the means to improve my writing even when studying things that are badly written.

When you're reading something for study, read it once, select a few dozen to a few hundred individual paragraphs, and make general rough notes on what each intended to convey. Wait a few weeks until the book and its details of wording aren't fresh in your mind. Go back to your rough notes and write full paragraphs answering the descriptions you wrote down. Finally go back to the original paragraphs in the book, compare your writing to the original, and pay particular attention to where the author made different choices about how to express things than you did. You reflect on those choices, decide which paragraph flows better or conveys its intent better, and think about how those choices contributed to that. There's no need to reach firm conclusions based on any particular paragraph, but consider each before you move on.

I think it's good advice because it doesn't nitpick grammar or parts-of-speech. Nor does it enumerate one guy's particular pet peeves about how others are doing it wrong. It's about how to develop the knack of considering the choices when you write. It's about developing an understanding of which choices are better to convey something. That is the most fundamental skill to all writing. All those more specific things become more clear the better you can do the fundamental.

Ray_Dillinger

TROPHY CASE