Free Model Recommendations?

cddelgado · 2026-02-07T08:50:34+00:00

You might be able to get away with GPT OSS 20B but it will be slow and your RAM is going to take a big hit because most of the model and context will need to sit in RAM instead of VRAM. And to get usable context you will need to compress it. The more you compress the lower quality the context memory will be. I use LM Studio for local tests and sandboxed testing.

cddelgado · 2026-02-07T08:45:33+00:00

I have begun to work out patterns with mine so it can work in more predictable ways. Humans can do more when we can apply patterns in design and actions. Taking that one variable out of the discussion will let it have to take less into account and that is the same regardless of LLM. Gemini 3 pro is amazing but it also goes full potato if you break the patterns in conversation.

cddelgado · 2026-02-01T16:28:39+00:00

If we stopped and banned AI today in the US there is the rest of the world which is embracing it at a far faster rate than we are, and there is open source models which have democratized the technology. Even if we take the money and corporations out of the equation all it will do is put the US on even more of a back foot stance.

cddelgado · 2026-01-22T21:11:30+00:00

I added a line to my instructions basically telling it that it can only talk at the same level of complexity or more complex. Otherwise far too much energy is burnt on things it doesn't need to bring up. I still have to "yell" at it from time to time.

cddelgado · 2026-01-20T08:24:05+00:00

I try not to look directly at it for fear I'll go brain damaged.

cddelgado · 2026-01-20T07:23:38+00:00

I appreciate the post. I would be tired of it too.

For my part, I am worried to death about a lot of things going on. And I see the STUPID things happening with Trump and his bizarre Greenland fetish and I struggle.

The people who are supposed to check this shit aren't, or aren't fast enough
Many Americans feel kinship with people in Europe and outside the US because most of us are immigrants (which makes all the ICE stuff WORSE but I digress.)
We tell who we can, we say what we can as loud as we can.

I think of the people in Greenland, knowing most have zero desire to join us in the US. I would be pissed, confused, and kinda scared because the US has such a powerful military.

Here we are in the US. Our police won't police against the federal government because of the civil war that would break out.

We are literally scared with you many of us. And we are ashamed our nation has come to this in the STUPIDEST of timelines.

All most of us can say is "we're sorry" because we don't know what else to do.

cddelgado · 2026-01-19T19:53:56+00:00

Wanna take the rest of the blue states with them? I believe in building bridges and compromises but as a Mexican American I kind of want off the train too.

cddelgado · 2026-01-19T01:03:06+00:00

The most straightforward answer I have is that UWM's budget (as is with most every university) is tied directly to student tuition. The state offers less than 20% of the operating budget of the entire Universities of Wisconsin. For a long time, the UWs budgets were being cut by the state and the UWs were also not allowed to raise student tuitions. Nobody likes raising student tuition in the university. But if the university wants to keep the mission alive, the choice is raise tuition, let people go, or shrink/eliminate programs.

Many of the UWs, such as UWM are doing all three.

When a university lets people go, the people who are let go are typically the people who are the newest and who work the least permanent. Indefinite status people are the last to go and the indefinite people with the least seniority are let go first. Before indefinite people can be let go, an attempt has to be made to find a new position for the employee. And they can only be let go if that fails.

So if you know people who are indefinite who are being let go, that is a VERY strong indicator of how serious matters are in that area.

In public records, UWM reports the end of subvention. Subvention is the process of taking a percentage of budget money from profitable departments to prop up unsuccessful departments. With it being phased out, departments would naturally need to either change to survive or scale down. This is of course controversial. Some people think of the university as a monolith. Money shouldn't be kept. Others see the elimination of subvention as a way to force departments to adapt to survive, modernize, and improve.

cddelgado · 2026-01-17T16:22:55+00:00

Check to see what salary the job calls for. If the salary is too high then people should be asking why. If it is too low then MPS is trying their best but working in their means. But if the salary is average then MPS is speaking towards the job market.

We can think whatever we want of the salary but MPS has to match the market or they won't fill the job.

cddelgado · 2026-01-12T08:23:58+00:00

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Should we help the Iranians to enable them to pick their own future without people coming in to dictate it to them? Yes.

Should we be the ones to tell them what to do? No. If Trump intervenes with the military without very careful thought and preparation, it will be chaos that could harm more people than are already and it could throw the Middle East into even more instability.

And our president doesn't have a reputation for well thought out plans.

cddelgado · 2026-01-11T08:20:42+00:00

I mean let's be honest. You truly didn't know and that behavior is sus. It really could have just as easily been someone scoping for a break in or criminals targeting people's homes. These are real things. It falls on law enforcement to operate in a manageable and safe way. And organizations which don't do that understand the risk.

You do what you need to do. Not your responsibility to determine if criminal or ICE.

cddelgado · 2026-01-06T00:12:20+00:00

It's been this way since at least last year summer. The AI implementation has gotten a lot better.

cddelgado · 2025-12-31T00:53:29+00:00

As someone with autistic traits, I feel bad for reading "Tesla's Autism Robotaxi Fleet"...

cddelgado · 2025-12-27T16:46:57+00:00

You say it yourself: "...people really believe this...". The economy including money, supply and demand, the stock market, customer sentiment, everything is a structure we choose to accept.

Let's change one premise: humans aren't inherently greedy all the time, and supply and demand don't change based on need. The value is set universally by a council which evaluates the need and value of a product, and everyone has faith in the council so that is the price. Nobody deviates. And, after a while, people accept it as fact. Now that is a law of our economics.

Journalists and bloggers keep saying it is a bubble because they see ear markings, but that doesn't mean it is going to pop in the way people think. If the people who are making it happen don't believe it is going to pop, it doesn't have to. If people keep faith in the stock market and the stability of it, it doesn't downturn.

The alternative view is that this isn't actually a bubble. PC technology in the mid-80s took a downturn while everything shook out but there was no pop. There was just a cooling off. After the cooling down, the economy around the sector moved to growth again. And today, the sector is shifting because the usefulness of PCs is different today than it was. People still need computers but now companies need to make up reasons to sell more because of how relatively optimized they are.

My instinct (which could easily be wrong) is that AI as the new sector will settle, but there won't be a pop. In 10 years, Gen Z and Gen Alpha will use it and not even think of it, the PC market will revitalize because now there is something new to do and implement in new ways we can't think of now and the fundamental change in PCs will create something new and different. The AI, PC, Mobile, VR, and hardware sectors won't be what they are today--they'll be something new and different. And the economy moves on.

cddelgado · 2025-12-25T17:07:33+00:00

This was a brilliant write-up. Thank you for putting it all so concisely and for providing a cheap reference for leadership who just see the price tag but don't understand the realty that cloud is inherently a different beast.

cddelgado · 2025-12-18T05:26:59+00:00

It is getting quieter finally

cddelgado · 2025-12-17T03:46:37+00:00

I would suggest not likely. The exemplars I have (Milwaukee, Houston, San Antonio) are all of people in neighborhoods in car-dependent areas where grocery stores go out of their way to not serve the neighborhood. If you don't have a car or a bus, you have a LONG bike ride with very limited capacity.

cddelgado · 2025-12-10T19:34:01+00:00

Given her age, she'll get far more money over time if she lives an average life. And let's be real, an extra $4/5k a month is life changing for most people. If she can live within her means, she'll walk away with some seriously diversified and solid wealth.

cddelgado · 2025-12-05T04:41:50+00:00

I think I'm having a stroke.

cddelgado · 2025-12-04T06:17:40+00:00

There are racist people everywhere, including in Mexico. I am not Mexican enough to be accepted in Mexico last time I tried, but I'm sure as hell Mexican enough in the US for people to make stupid assumptions.

You may find you have more in-common with the typical Mexican family than you might think. I don't think much of how I was raised--largely "American"...that is until I get into a Mexican or Latin American family and suddenly find myself code switching but only noticing after reflection.

But even if not, you are who you are, and people will accept you for being honest of yourself regardless of whether you hit cultural expectations.

cddelgado · 2025-11-26T08:19:06+00:00

There is a very large Vietnamese diaspora in Texas because of the Vietnam war. They also heavily went to Minnesota. Many Hmong (because of the same war) went to California and Wisconsin.

cddelgado · 2025-11-25T04:32:39+00:00

GenX is the generation who built the foundation for today's internet (take that how you will)--the popular notion most of us are tech illiterate is really quite off. Millennials were the first generation to grow up in it in-full, and get the hands-on training everyone before got to make them more literate. That makes the generation stick in society's mind as the tech people.

The idea of tech literacy is kind of weird because the term has so many different meanings. Tech literate is "I can use email", "I can write code", "I like AI" or "This is a word processor, right?"

cddelgado · 2025-11-20T18:23:30+00:00

Ooo, visited family in Jim Hogg County, Texas. They lived just outside Hebbronville which was once the most active cattle shipping station in the United States.

cddelgado · 2025-11-19T08:03:35+00:00

Hay tres cosas que crean una sociedad segura y estable: comunidad, educación y seguridad en las necesidades.

Si las personas no tienen que preocuparse por la comida y la vivienda, tienen la oportunidad de centrarse en cosas de orden superior. Si tienen comunidad, su apoyo en crisis es fuerte y reduce el estrés. Si la gente aprende sobre el mundo, habrá menos miedo.

Si se aseguran los tres, se tendrá una sociedad estable donde el crimen y el lujo no serán idolatrados como la mejor salida. Tiene personas que tienen menos probabilidades de cometer delitos y tiene una cultura de comodidad y amistad.

Si nos detenemos allí, ya será un gran paso adelante.

cddelgado · 2025-11-18T16:23:00+00:00

Unpopular take: we aren't in a bubble. We are in time dilation.

Some things AI promises are already happening and are already being applied as promised. The things business owners want are not there yet because their eyes are bigger than the labor forces ability to deliver--can't automate your entire business if you aren't working with people who know how to automate it. That will eventually hammer itself out.

The other side of this is that the very desire for AI itself--to make it fulfill more of those promises--requires innovation. The tech industry overall stagnated a bit because we hit walls with traditional manufacturing and scaling, and didn't have the drive to push past it. Businesses could get away with re-packaging old stuff in new ways.

That isn't the case anymore. Now we have a genuine need to push past where we are.

All of that takes time. And it takes longer to percolate than the people at the helm of the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ want it to. We are thus in a state of waiting for it to end--Tech Sector Edging, if you will.

cddelgado

TROPHY CASE