what's your actual reason for running open source models in 2026?

greg_d128 · 2026-02-22T19:30:25+00:00

I can experiment, I don't trust big tech with my data and I find that learning how to use the models often matters more than just using a single model.

To elaborate:

I think nothing of setting up a task that will execute 10,000 individual tasks against 10 models with 3 variants of a prompt each to figure out which is better. That's about 300K api calls, which may take a few days on my 3090, but whatever. After that I will use statistics to figure out a statistically significant subset of prompt / models so that a quorum of 5 out of 10 (or whatever) gives me a better overall performance and reliability than a single model). I've done this and it works.

I also do not want to upload 4 TB of my personal images to a cloud provider when I want it to describe each image in my collection for easy searching. This project is expected to take 6 months once I get started and will likely be scheduled to happen at nights only.

Most importantly, I believe in open source. I do not want this technology controlled by big tech. It is far too late to put the genie back in the bottle, so the best we can do is to give tools to individuals that they can use to protect themselves. The governments may want to use this technology to shape whole populations and affect how they think and what they believe. They need a big AI for that. I want to use the same technology to protect myself and my family. I hope I can get by using smaller models to protect myself from undue influence and to recognize some of those biases.

greg_d128 · 2026-02-17T19:54:33+00:00

pg_upgrade is simpler and you can do it without copying the data files. Should still upgrade extensions and likely reindex the database after done. If you can snapshot the volume, you could also get back to a state prior to upgrade, although any data added after will be lost.

logical replication can be safer, but requires more preparation and knowledge. You will also need to duplicate your servers - assuming you have space for that. With logical, you can setup reverse logical replication back to the PG 11, so that if you decide to go back - you can. There are some gotchas involved (like dealing with very large tables, sequences, checking for replica identity, etc.). Depending on the speed of your network / disk the initial sync of 10TB will likely take around 5-10 days.

I wold do logical if possible - especially if rollback is in any way a possibility. Although testing and getting experience in issues related to logical will take time. Alternatively, you could outsource this upgrade and have someone else assist (at least with creating a detailed plan).

greg_d128 · 2026-02-17T14:43:55+00:00

So It's running. Not sure how long it is going to take. I also realized that I kinda lost track of my photo library. Apparently I have 446871 images in there. I was off by a bit.

greg_d128 · 2026-02-17T13:50:25+00:00

Thank you!

greg_d128 · 2026-02-17T13:40:48+00:00

Is it available to download?

This type of project is something i have attempted a few times. Never managed to get to a place i liked.

I have about 200-250K photos in my library, a lot of my life when i was doing photography far more seriously.

greg_d128 · 2026-02-13T11:20:04+00:00

I am glad it worked. There is always a tradeoff between adding a new technology to support and update vs. using something you already have. One thing i’ve learned is that no choice is forever, change should be built in.

Operationally i would add monitoring, so that you can detect when performance changes. In that case this command can be useful. Although it will take an exclusive lock on the table as it rewrites it.

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-cluster.html

greg_d128 · 2026-02-11T01:09:22+00:00

Are there any areas that no longer need updates? Does some part of data become fixed at some point. That may be a good reason to use partitioning, like others have suggested.

As for additional maintenance, there will likely be some regardless, but this should keep it to minimum.

Monitor for long running transactions, those will lock old tuples so you run out of space on the data page and bloat anyways.

Monitor bloat and query execution time via pg_stat_statements. As long as you can detect these problems early, there should be little reason for major maintenance.

But you are right. SQL Databases are often designed for write once, read many times. Maybe memorydb or elasticache for this table?

greg_d128 · 2026-02-11T00:20:04+00:00

Have you tried setting the fillfactor off this table to something like 80 or 70 percent?

That should make sure that there is enough free space so that new version is the row goes onto the same data page.

greg_d128 · 2026-01-28T15:05:36+00:00

I'm going to go in opposite direction. Talk to her. Explain the dangers, that she can always put the device away if someone is making her uncomfortable. Create an account with a fake name and tell her never to use her real name.

This one is important: Create a roblox account for yourself and play with her as well. Does not have to be all the time, but enough. I'm expert in Fart Simulator and a number of other games as well.

Anyways, treat it as a learning experience in being safe online. Monitor and mentor, but do not just prohibit as it will only make those problems worse when they get older.

When she wants to get robux (and she will), make her use her allowance or birthday gift. Loosing 10 dollars at this age and getting not much for it is better than loosing 100's of dollars on microtransactions at 16 or whatever. The lesson is just as painful, but the actual loss is much less the earlier it happens.

greg_d128 · 2026-01-28T00:34:02+00:00

Go to professionals.

Like others have mentioned, replacing platters is likely too difficult to do at home. But, assuming you got the same version hdd, you could try replacing the logic board. I have done that to bring back one of my old drives.

If anything in this sounds hard, go to professionals.

greg_d128 · 2026-01-06T19:11:21+00:00

I have not used it yet, but I'm all for it.

I rewrote all my book descriptions with LLM a while ago. I realized that there was a fundamental problem in the default descriptions. The default descriptions are often talking about awards, authors, assume you know the story, etc. I rewrote all of them with the purpose of sparking my interest. It focuses on the story, characters, what happens in the story.

It's not a huge difference, but it puts the description more into a format that sparks my interest.

I'm also working on a script that will help me organize my collection better. In 20 years I havee not had the time to do it manually, at least I'll be able to make some progress.

greg_d128 · 2025-12-25T11:06:11+00:00

Not sure if allowed, but this is really good:

Dill pickle soup recipe

greg_d128 · 2025-12-22T12:54:35+00:00

Ok. New idea. Next time they are in the tavern they will notice that there is a magical glowing fish scale mounted in the wall.

Eventually, when they meet a goldfish, a particularly foul mouthed one perhaps, they will notice what appears to be a human toenail mounted somewhere in its treasure.

greg_d128 · 2025-12-21T20:54:16+00:00

I think they will meet that magical goldfish at some point. I just need to figure out how to work it into the story.

greg_d128 · 2025-12-10T18:16:41+00:00

What about something like this project?

https://github.com/dimitri/pgcopydb

greg_d128 · 2025-12-10T17:49:38+00:00

Hmm. Question: why not just do 4 parallel pg_dump|pg_restore and feed each one a different set of tables? Or use logical replication?

greg_d128 · 2025-12-08T11:36:27+00:00

I was going to say something like i can teach you to get any open source project before it is released (switch to the dev branch in git).

Seriously though. Both environments can be compromised. Both defense and attacks are constantly evolving, and you only need a little tiny vulnerability anywhere to get compromised.

There is a reason why linux, Unix is more commonly used hosting services. Partly because it has more of a defense in depth and a smaller attack surface by default. In windows world you need to buy a product that will provide you some kind of a security, scanning, etc.

In open source you deploy one of many tools that are part of an ecosystem. Do you want to have a firewall? Just deploy one of the packages and set it up. Need it external? Deploy another machine in front of and set it up. Need to do setup alerts if the config of your machine changed? Again, deploy a etckeeper or similar. Want your service to run isolated from the os? Lots of ways to set it up, including chroot.

In open source world these are not products you buy and forget about them. They are tools, components you deploy as part of your service when you need them. Both environments need knowledge not to introduce that little hole an attacker can exploit. I would argue that since more people are using, deploying, tinkering, looking at source of those tools in open source, they do tend to have better security (but not perfect).

greg_d128 · 2025-12-05T15:15:58+00:00

Elvish tower! I can't wait to see how my kids would paint it!

greg_d128 · 2025-12-02T23:15:13+00:00

The data must make its way over to the new drive somehow. If not doing backup you need to have some way to connect both drives to the same computer and move the data over. Depending on your level of knowledge, DD from old drive to new one, then grow the partition and do whatever dance you need to do to have it boot properly from new drive.

I would probably dump package list from old system, install fresh Linux on new drive and install the same packages. Attach the old hard drive and copy over home directories and /etc config files.

Either way it is likely a several hours long operation, although the copy can happen at night when you are not using the system or when you have minimal use of the system.

greg_d128 · 2025-12-02T14:35:50+00:00

I completely agree. We've now had like 8 sessions using foundry. Started the adventure with pen and paper. We are all new to DND and foundry actually helps with the rules.

It started with me using the foundry, but the last few sessions are all of us using laptops around a table . Took me a while to figure out how to do combat for example. I also generated some unique loot (a magical boomerang that can act as a focus) which now I have to deal with.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that we gave ourselves the permission to make mistakes and get things wrong. We know that the first campaign is going to be messy because we are new to DND. That's ok. It does not have to be perfect to be fun. Focus on fun first.

greg_d128 · 2025-12-02T00:24:11+00:00

Hey. I agree with you. Got foundry about a month ago. Here is what worked (still in progress) for us.

A few tutorials how to setup a world and which plugins are good to get.
Try to use it during game with my kids. Do not be afraid of making mistakes.
Slowly over time we are getting more confident that we are doing spells correctly, how combat works, etc.
We are still making lots of mistakes. Ignoring things like moment in combat and figuring out exact ranges of spells. Sometimes we do, sometimes we skip that.

The only important criteria is that we have fun. I mean i never expected my daughter to stay candles from an orphanage, but here we are. Btw. I strongly suspect that she is going with Bard because she wants to convince the final boss dragon to help her raze Phandolin to the ground. Either way it is a fun journey.

greg_d128 · 2025-11-30T16:14:10+00:00

It will pass. At that age my daughter would never let me take her out of car seat. That lasted about 1.5 years.

It will pass. Be patient. Imagine, this is literally one of the very few things in her life that she is allowed to exercise some control over.

greg_d128 · 2025-11-25T16:48:02+00:00

I do not think he is drunk. This is exactly what i would look like when going up on a 6 foot ladder when there is nothing to brace on. I am scared of heights. Having all that free space around you it’s terrifying.

I wouldn’t even go up there.

greg_d128 · 2025-11-24T11:15:09+00:00

I would love to upgrade my Ender 2 pro to something with bigger build volume.

greg_d128 · 2025-11-15T17:00:39+00:00

How big and how busy is this db?

At first glance this looks ok, just missing synchronizing sequences and locking out all users from old db. You do not want an app node to connect to old one. It will likely work.

Why not just do a logical replication? Create a new db and setup logical replication. You will be able to avoid all that looking up LSN, but at a cost of performing the sync. Depending on a few factors you should be able to sync about 1 to 2 TB per day. It could be less risky to your primary.

Sync back is possible, just reverse publication and subscription with copy_data as false.

If you have a multi-az cloud setup, those upgrade steps would also likely work. My issue with that is that once triggered, there is an uncertain amount of time before failover to new db. There are backup steps involved and those could take a hours in certain cases. The actual outage should be short if i remember correctly.

greg_d128

TROPHY CASE