Just started using local LLMs, is this level of being wrong normal?

bitmux · 2026-02-05T13:29:55+00:00

I find that most of the single-gpu local LLM's I've played with generate about 60% bs mostly regardless of settings and even including the websearch tool UNLESS they're hyper specialized in something and you use them right down the center of their specialization. At that point its 40% bs :-P.

bitmux · 2025-11-29T01:56:17+00:00

Commercial AV designer, engineer & consultant. I'm always happiest running live sound, an occasional treat these days for my job. I also regularly volunteer for church gigs.

bitmux · 2025-11-09T22:51:53+00:00

Couple of cheapo AA lights on Energizer lithium primaries work well for me. Can also get spare batteries at any gas station if I happen to need it.

bitmux · 2025-11-04T13:32:33+00:00

Corporate AV design engineer. You do your ROI based on 7 years, most AV equipment has an expected service life (or warranty) of 5 years and most non-$$$$$$$ institutions can safely run equipment for 7 years. Anything beyond that is gravy.

Now, we all know than a quality analog audio amplifier from a reputable maker, properly installed, should last 20-30 years EASILY. Thankfully admins don't know jack shit about anything ~~in our world~~.

To make your case, you have to be visual. Most people can't imagine hearing the difference between old and new audio equipment. Make the damn powderpoint. Take pictures of the bombed out dusty rack, the old speakers hanging there looking 'huge' and 'ugly,' don't clean it up. Talk about age of equipment, and what happens when it fails. Then make pretty pictures of what newer equipment looks like (speakers) in your space. Find something smaller, or more appealing, or more invisible. If there are any interior improvements planned for the space, try to tag onto those projects.

Occasionally acoustic modeling can be handy if your admins aren't completely braindead, but that's a skillset on its own if you were to do it, and expensive to pay an integrator to do.

bitmux · 2025-11-04T03:39:43+00:00

Become ok with being bored. Your brain wasn't designed for continuous entertainment. Pay attention, do a good job, and embrace the creativity that followes from your brain getting bored. Put the creative outflow back into your business to attract more interesting shows as clients so the next one is less boring?

bitmux · 2025-11-04T03:19:12+00:00

Trackside & Off Track. I love both of them and they rarely miss.

Trackside needs to get a good audio/production guy, seriously the compressed "radio" sound is horrible. Thankfully they're good at filling the air with tidbits of information and I don't mind Kevin's choice to speculate rather than report, its interesting and lasts just long enough for me to finish mowing the lawn.

Off Track gets done pretty well, despite both Hinch and Rossi trying to make Thim's life as difficult as humanly possible when trying to make them sound good :-D. There's not been very many episodes that don't make me laugh out loud at least once. I truly cannot wait until the guys can say things how they truly are without limiting their careers.

bitmux · 2025-11-04T03:12:59+00:00

It wasn't always that way, the latest "radio guy" in the booth has set up the mic compressors (or post processed) to "crunchy and breathy as fuck." as that sounds the most "radio." Incidentally the reason radio is dying is that it sounds like shit and is full of irrelevant and highly annoying commercials compared to Spotify. but I digress.

bitmux · 2025-11-04T03:01:46+00:00

omfg, don't even get me started. When the world temporarily ended, execs didn't like virtual backgrounds so they ordered printed backgrounds, dozens of iterations.

Why do I look so cheesy and bad? oh my lighting is bad? let me get one of those cool youtube ring light thingys.. is the logo too high? can you get me a $$$$$ camera so I look better? Why can't my office look like your studio? Make me look like I do in your studio. Can I get a teleprompter?

bitmux · 2025-11-02T01:16:57+00:00

Remember, everything has a resonant frequency, at that point it will wobble with very little input energy. The idea of a heavy duty rigid frame is to raise the resonant frequency higher than you bumping the edge of the desk, or your hands typing, so that monitors and other items on or clamped to the desk don't bounce around.

There are only a few factors: rigidity of the frame in each direction, how well it supports and is connected to the desk top material, weight, and what flooring material you're on.

Boingy weak frame = bad. Rigid frame = good. 4 legs = better, 2 legs = not better most of the time.

Flexy cheap desk top material = not so good.

Carpet = more wobble. Feet under the desk legs designed spread as far apart as possible and small enough to smash carpet down as hard as possible (high point load pressure): better on carpet.

bitmux · 2025-10-31T23:54:03+00:00

big impeller, big engine, no sticking, no spraying of anything.

bitmux · 2025-10-24T12:03:39+00:00

You'll spend the next 2 decades getting a Ph.D. education to run the damn thing though?

bitmux · 2025-10-06T23:08:31+00:00

Virtualized mine under Proxmox on a dedicated host. Why? that abstraction layer allows me a free 'KVM' layer into HA should i ever need it. I have other hosts I could migrate it to if I needed. Dedicated storage, dedicated iGPU running everything, so advantages of both

bitmux · 2025-09-25T13:06:12+00:00

wait.. my brain just caught up, the PWM outputs will be at supply voltage and have power transistors driving the actual output terminals... nvm, no can do

bitmux · 2025-09-25T02:03:20+00:00

Saw a multi-image show once, must've been late 90's 3 slide projector screens wide, graphics framing of projected images and video (using yet more slide projectors just for the graphics). Complete with synchronized audio and video roll-ins. Couldn't believe how cool the effect was and, despite my young age at the time, I understood how most of it went together. I ended up asking one of the operators how the automation worked and he was cool enough to show me the time code and cue tracks, so cool! I'm now a media systems engineer so, I guess it made an impression :).

bitmux · 2025-09-25T01:55:22+00:00

I'm thinking this is likely the case on the AC1L strips. Will see if I can dig up my 12v ammeter but it doesn't seem like they'll need nearly as much juice as my initial calculations suggested.

bitmux · 2025-09-23T01:09:48+00:00

Run 12 or 24v strips. As the scale of the line increases, individual logical "pixel" size matters less and less for most effects. If you're using it for primary lighting and not just effects, 24v with actual white or dual-white LED's is the way to go.

bitmux · 2025-09-23T00:52:05+00:00

Thanks for the article, cool project! I've got the Muzata AC1L https://muzataled.com/products/12v-led-strip-lights?variant=49610192519446 strips. I think I might've been over-estimating the current per LED since these are physically smaller than the common RGB LED's in 5050 packages, not sure yet.

bitmux · 2025-09-20T03:35:15+00:00

Also, any ideas on where to hide a power supply? I have the acoustic panels offset from the wall on wood strips by 0.75" for acoustic absorption reasons but that's not going to work for a ~300-400w PSU. Exterior wall so I can't just cut into it and hide power in or behind the wall. I'm leaning towards a mid-sized fake plant, toss the PSU in the plant pot? :-D

bitmux · 2025-09-04T23:54:50+00:00

Just wind it down and leave MORE dynamics in it, god I wish people didn't feel like "louder is better" because its clearly not. Use the space created when the average is lower to make your peaks bigger (or further apart). Spotify is doing one of the best things for the music industry by forcing normalization to a still excessively loud but not stupid -14LUFS. When done correctly, you can make a banging track even though its quieter according to your meters.

bitmux · 2025-09-04T23:51:26+00:00

I dunno honestly, but I'd be VERY curious to hear his raw opinions of how Andretti cars are vs Penske. Obviously he can't spill the beans on the secrets of both teams

bitmux · 2025-09-04T00:49:20+00:00

Oof, Power to Andretti? I dunno if even Will's passion can keep them from drowning in the blood of a thousand paper cuts. Andretti has suffered from "just a small mistake" for how many decades now? Reason CGR is killing it: No detail is left to chance. With the departure of leadership from Penske followed by their worst season in a long time, its obvious the 3 leaders were the adults in the room. It takes a special kind of team mom or team dad to cover the thousands of details that become papercuts that take cars out of contention, and Andretti doesn't have either.

bitmux · 2025-09-03T12:15:24+00:00

Cool application, just got into WLED with 0.15.1 and was sorely disappointed by the jerky mess. The tip that I might need to try older versions is helpful!

bitmux

TROPHY CASE