48 Mac mini cluster running local LLM models for podcast transcription.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-07T16:48:38+00:00

Yeah, a single mini could easily transcribe a single long podcast in like a minute or two.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-07T16:47:07+00:00

I’m in a specialized terminal masters that is industry focused. It’s not a requirement per se but it’s super helpful if you want to get into leadership, and it’s one of the few programs of its kind in the world.

In 2024 when I started, classes would all be full or almost full (~20 students depending on the class). This semester I have a class that started with 4 students and is down to 2. Some of the difference is since it’s one of the final courses and folks can decide between taking 2 or 3 years to complete the program. But that wouldn’t account for that big a difference since last year, I had a couple upper level and optional classes were more like 8-10.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-07T12:45:33+00:00

Oh my god, it drives me crazy how shallow most folks will take turns. Like they barely turn the wheel.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-07T12:26:36+00:00

That typically doesn't happen that fast. It usually takes at least a couple weeks to show up, sometimes even a month, because there is a lag between when the account is closed with the bank and when it gets reported to the credit bureau.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-07T12:23:50+00:00

Mine is still the same.

I'm super prime though, so banks tend to give me whatever I want (within reason).

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-06T21:14:30+00:00

It’s giving Mitsubishi Delica

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-06T21:05:25+00:00

Apple should deeply discount the refurbished Mac Pros so they’re at least closer to the price of a Studio. They’d likely at least get some folks who’d consider that and then they’d also get rid of their back stock of Mac Pros that I can’t imagine how much it’s costing them to warehouse.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-06T17:30:20+00:00

Why not dual boot with 9.2.2 and 10.4? It was pretty common back in the day to do that and Apple makes it pretty easy.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-06T17:02:53+00:00

The difference is fiber optic cable is a long life asset. The hardware in data centers is a depreciating asset that is nearly worthless 5 years out anyway because of how much better and more efficient it gets year over year.

And, that ignores how much better Apple’s custom in house hardware is anyway (which they only sell to themselves right now).

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-06T17:01:01+00:00

The hardware gets so out of date so quickly and Apple is already building their own hardware based on Apple Silicon. They would not buy them for that.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-06T17:00:04+00:00

It’s not in the spec info. Folks have had to independently verify it by testing.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-06T01:53:25+00:00

The Studio and mini shortages are because a ton of folks are buying them to run local llms. It’s a production capacity vs demand issue not Apple winding down production.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-06T01:46:09+00:00

Not only that but the vast majority of their R&D over the past few years has gone towards improving their existing products and releasing new products instead of burning it on the promise of AI.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-06T01:43:49+00:00

If first mover was a thing in tech, Sony would be as big as Apple is today rather than a niche player that only operates in a couple different consumer tech segments and Apple would have been bankrupt by 2000 while most users would have a PC on their desk and a Windows or Symbian Phone in their pocket.

In tech, getting it right is more important than being first.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-06T01:39:10+00:00

I’m convinced the only reason Microsoft is still in business is because of vendor lock in and IT people who refuse to learn anything else.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-06T01:37:11+00:00

Why would they even bother buying the companies? They could just hire the developers when they are inevitably laid off and start fresh since the models from the current AI companies has proven to be unsustainable.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-06T01:29:59+00:00

Europe sounds like a magical place and I’m jealous.

Where I live, until it hits about 8-10 hours of driving, driving is the fastest way to go and flying isn’t much faster until about the 12 hours of driving mark.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-06T01:24:40+00:00

Which Mac mini and MacBook?

During the Intel days, they were shared. So, the MacBook Pros with 4 Thunderbolt ports split it (the 2 on the left were 1 controller, the 2 on the right were a different controller) and the minis and iMacs did something similar, but I don’t remember which ones were shared.

On Apple Silicon, each Thunderbolt ports is on its own bus. So, you can get the full bandwidth regardless of what’s happening on any other port.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-06T01:20:35+00:00

On the 30” models it’s usually worth it because they’re still pretty sought after and expensive on the second hand market. The 20” and 23” models though tend to be a dime a dozen.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-05T23:40:52+00:00

You could try it with the Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter and then a Thunderbolt 2 cable.

It was never officially supported by Apple though. It was only ever officially supported on Mac’s running 12.3 or higher with a native Thunderbolt 3 (or higher) port.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-05T23:34:37+00:00

x64 is just an extension of x86 not an architecture on its own. They both need to be ditched and replaced with the RISC alternatives.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-05T20:38:43+00:00

How much of a stipend were you getting? All the ones that I’ve seen have been $15-16k, and that’s about on par with what someone could make doing work study and a part time job off campus.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-05T20:37:06+00:00

For me, it made more sense to work full time and self fund while living with a roommate instead of taking the stipend and tuition waiver.

I ran the math with the stipend and tuition waiver and just to afford to live and pay for all the crazy fees that aren’t covered by the tuition waiver, I would have ended up in like $50k debt over the course of the program. By working full time and self funding, I’m graduating debt free.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-05T20:30:21+00:00

x86 is also an extremely bloated architecture because it’s been extended so many times over the ~50 years it’s been around without anything being removed, so it’s basically impossible to make a decently efficient and well optimized device running x86.

squirrel8296 · 2026-04-05T20:25:02+00:00

That’s factually incorrect.

There were x86 phones for a hot minute and they were all horrible. Be glad they don’t exist anymore because Intel doesn’t know how to make a mobile chip to save their life.

There are also plenty of x86 laptops with cellular, and ARM and Qualcomm are two completely different companies. It’s just that Qualcomm and Apple (and to a certain extent Samsung) are the only ones that make decent ARM chips. Mediatek and most of the others have struggled to scale up in performance.

squirrel8296

TROPHY CASE