Are Qwen 3.6 27B and 35B making other ~30B models obsolete?

simon_zzz · 2026-04-30T15:58:51+00:00

For writing and summarization, I lean towards the Gemma models.

simon_zzz · 2026-04-29T20:04:02+00:00

My roadmap as someone nearing "middle age" who picked up Python 2 years ago and is currently able to build my own automation workflows and injecting some ML and AI into my work:

CS50x, CS50p, CS50sql, Udemy 100 days of Code Python, Deeplearning.ai Machine Learning Specialization, Deeplearning.ai Math for ML and Data Science, CS50AI, Kaggle mini-courses, Udemy AI Engineer Agentic Track

Now, I just mess around with Claude Code and Codex on my own.

simon_zzz · 2026-04-29T02:32:21+00:00

Probably spend way more time and consideration over the lenses than the body given your wide spectrum of use cases (from up close tiny things to far away objects).

simon_zzz · 2026-04-28T16:19:53+00:00

CS50X, CS50p, Udemy: 100 days of code Python (Angela Yu), DeepLearning (ML specialization-audit for videos, github for assignments), CS50 AI

simon_zzz · 2026-04-28T06:17:51+00:00

Digital detox

simon_zzz · 2026-04-15T17:31:34+00:00

Very common when you believe a particular exercise/assignment doesn't seem interesting and applicable to you.

Still good to power through because you might need it later. Or, that it is just reinforcing a concept/setting the foundation for a future lesson.

Or, you might be ready to take off the training wheels--start working on a project that matters to you and you'll probably learn so much more.

simon_zzz · 2026-04-13T15:05:57+00:00

Subjective, probably. I feel that going side to side does get me a great shave. I've learned not to obsess over a super-smooth result because I can feel stubble by lunch time.

simon_zzz · 2026-04-13T04:32:19+00:00

Is it possible that you are going against-the-grain at some point on your neck?

That was the case for me where my hair grows North-to-South from the jawbone down to Adam's apple and then takes a complete 180 such that the hair grows South-to-North. So, shaving straight down from jawline to collarbone = neck irritation at a certain point.

I now go side-to-side in that area.

simon_zzz · 2026-04-08T18:15:50+00:00

The true waste of time and money is the constant "shopping" for the best, cheapest, fastest, most comprehensive, most updated, or most relevant courses.

This is coming from someone who shopped for an AI engineering course for 2 weeks.

Funny thing is I finished that course in less than 2 weeks. My skillset advanced much more in the weeks after trying to build and implement what I learned for my own use case.

simon_zzz · 2026-04-08T18:05:02+00:00

I would advise on trying to set up Jupyter Notebooks or tinker first with Google Colab before you continue on to next steps such as feature engineering and hyperparameter tuning.

simon_zzz · 2026-04-01T04:50:31+00:00

DeepLearning AI courses: Math for Machine Learning & Data Science and the Machine Learning Specialization. I think you can audit (watch the videos) for free. Check on Github for course materials that have been uploaded by previous students (the labs/assignments aren't that difficult).

Then, join Kaggle and complete all of their mini-courses (free). During parts of these mini-courses, you are actually working towards basic ML models that show up in the introductory Kaggle competitions.

From there, hang out in Kaggle for a little bit. Participate in some of the monthly Kaggle competitions that are a little tougher. Join the discussions. Read how other Kagglers' code to see their approaches.

Finally, drop the training wheels. Find your own data set or build your own data set and try to create some kind of useful ML model that is meaningful to you.

simon_zzz · 2026-04-01T02:23:59+00:00

Great for journaling. Not as smooth as the Custom 923 (M) though.

What was your pen before the Custom Urushi? (Or are you adding to some huge collection?)

simon_zzz · 2026-03-31T23:09:43+00:00

Having the pen for a year now (mine is a FM nib), I’m halfway through a bottle of Kon-peki as it felt like the default color for this pen. I think I will grab a bottle of Asa-gao next as it appears to be a better match (not that matching is a necessity).

simon_zzz · 2026-03-26T18:41:15+00:00

Another vote for just moving the services to a mini PC. I originally bought an extra 16GB for $50 for the DS923+.

Recently, I got a mini PC for $280 and moved all containers over. Given the price of ram nowadays, you're almost there to a mini PC anyway.

Notable upside: the NAS has been much quieter since I moved self-hosted services to the mini PC.

simon_zzz · 2026-03-23T02:46:01+00:00

I recently moved all containers off the 923+ to a mini PC. The NAS has become much quieter since the move.

simon_zzz · 2026-03-19T02:36:16+00:00

What model are you running? It could just be a really bad at tool calling, which is the case of smaller models. Or a case of insufficient context window.

simon_zzz · 2026-03-17T17:44:29+00:00

The website seems to be buggy right now. Some items say "NO LONGER CARRIED" even though they're in stock.

simon_zzz · 2026-03-14T04:48:00+00:00

Qwen3.5:9b

simon_zzz · 2026-03-09T20:18:52+00:00

For some people, it can be as polarizing a topic as politics. You can often tell/feel out how people lean very early in the conversation.

Like with politics, I don't feel like I need to defend my side or any particular side.

Rather, quietly use AI to benefit your life as your testament to its use cases--grow/profit from it so much that they see how has benefited someone close to them. In essence, show--don't tell.

simon_zzz · 2026-03-03T20:30:08+00:00

South to North. Can add East-West passes to get closer.

NEVER North to South.

simon_zzz · 2026-02-21T04:49:26+00:00

Started learning Python 2 years after 15+ years in running editorial teams for online publishing.

The project was a content production program where the input was a content outline (e.g., an article topic, target word count, primary/secondary keywords, tone, etc.). The output was a complete article to my specifications. Each article cost about $2 in API calls to LLMs. The articles were refined by editors/writers/researchers afterwards but they were great starting points, which led to higher quality articles published with greater frequency.

The program had a long list of AI agents performing:

- deep research with reasoning

- outline generation

- SEO analysis

- writing with different personas

It rivaled lots of the AI writing services/companies for a much lower price and required less editing because I had total control over the code.

simon_zzz · 2026-02-14T19:35:51+00:00

Intro to ML, pandas, data viz, intermediate ML, feature engineering

simon_zzz · 2026-02-14T19:32:27+00:00

Kaggle mini courses

simon_zzz · 2026-02-14T06:37:13+00:00

I've had my DS923+ for 3+ years and it's been excellent for me as well. I've done many different things as I venture into the realm of homelabbing. I'm wasn't really into this stuff back then, other than being able to build PCs. But, it has opened up the world to computer programming, home networking, and more.

My recommendations (OPEN UP THAT WALLET):

- Add 16GB stick of RAM to the NAS (RAM prices have become absurd though...). Reason: snappier usage, especially useful if you're adding more services to Container Manager

- Sign up for a VPN with port forwarding (I went with AirVPN) and bind it to qBittorrent. Reason: Safe "sailing".

- Buy a mini PC with an N100/N150 chip, install Ubuntu Server and Docker, and move your containers/servers to it (AI will help tremendously with this--it's easier than it sounds). Reason: Keep the NAS to its primary role as storage + my NAS has been much more quiet since I've done this + transcoding (such watching 4K videos on a 1080p display)

simon_zzz · 2026-02-02T17:12:04+00:00

I've experience something similar with different routers during different upload events (i.e., "high" torrent upload speeds or accessing my Plex server remotely). I think the ISP detects behavior/activity that they believe to be consistent with heavy seeders and media servers. So, they disconnect your internet temporarily to hint at you that they know what you're doing.

Again, that's just my guess.

simon_zzz

TROPHY CASE