mcotton

I will write about it at some point but can't get to it today.

You can grab the code here: https://github.com/mcotton/listing

I run it in Docker on my laptop or Synology NAS. It uses the OpenAI/Ollama URL schema for processing.

It is the base M2 with 24GB RAM

A simple example.

I have an older M2 Mac mini that does the OCR and visual description of all my screenshots. Screenshots are stored on my NAS.

I like to screenshot things as a quick way to remember. They are things that I would not be comfortable sending a cloud provider (customer data, prototype screenshots, bank dispute details).

It runs Qwen3.5:9b and glm5.2-ocr with Ollama and uses about 10GB of RAM. It automatically releases the models from RAM after 5 minutes of inactivity so it is pretty seamless to leave running in the background.

All the details are stored in a simple webapp with a SQLite db that I can search through.

Yup and in my opinion it is a great use case for it. Faster to generate my own extension than to trust something already in the store. Not critical enough to matter if it failed and very low threat surface.

I had to write a Chrome extensions to hide Shorts. it has been working great for me. https://github.com/mcotton/remove_yt_shorts

This could potentially have very interesting consequences for ML models. It will depend if their training data is considered part of the source code.

If there was a loss prevention specific video analytic that flagged a person’s behavior as abnormal, would the person have a right to audit the source code for the CNN and/or the training data that was used in the development of that analytic?

As someone working on such analytics it could become a real adventure to comply with that. My dataset came from customers that agreed to shared with positive/negative examples with me but not necessarily for me to share publicly. The privacy of the people in the shared examples would also need to be considered.

Backblaze is great for cloud backups. They do not backup network connected drives but will backup drives connected locally.

I'm not pretending a network drive is local, but actually mirror the important data from my NAS to a locally connected 14TB USB drive. It stays connected all the time.

I have some cron jobs that run rsync scripts, but the data that needs to be backed up rarely changes. This gives me 30TB on my NAS, of which, 14TB are backed up in backblaze for $60/year.

I can make this work in my situation because the items I want backed up are less than the working space I want on my NAS.

The best thing I did was get a hobby that got me out of the house. For me it is drone racing, but it could be jogging, swimming, or even go fly a kite.

Once I get back into the house, I've burned off some energy and can focus on my side project. For whatever reason if I sit in front of the computer all weekend I have a hard time getting started.

HUVRData | Austin, TX | Full-Time | REMOTE | Software Engineer

HUVRdata is looking for an experienced python/full stack developer to join our team. HUVR is expanding its data and analytics platform for drone based inspections. Our customer use drones to get a new view of the world. We provide them the tools and processing to get a new view of their data.

The ideal person has several successful projects that they've worked on before and has the right attitude to solve problems they've never seen before.

Our development team works with a very high level of autonomy. We trust each other to make the right decisions and help each other when needed.

We use Python and Google App Engine. If you haven't ever touched Google App Engine, don't worry, it's just a WSGI web server.

We use Node.js, NoSQL, mapreduce, and imagemagick, ffmpeg for image processing. Familiarity with these would be a plus.

If you are excited about what we are doing, send a resume and an introduction with an example of your work. Make sure it is something you're proud of (github, blog, Olympic medal, etc).

engineering at huvrdata.com

Insomnia seems to be stuck in an "Install update" loop. Each time it opens I get prompted to update and restart. I update and restart and then get updated again. The cycle continues.

I'm uninstalling and re-downloading it but just wanted to let you know.

Congratulations on making something great.

As an Austin resident I think the real lesson to learn is how poor of a job Uber did of gaining supporters. I went from being a vocal supporter to an almost hostile opponent based on their behavior.

They spent a reported $8 million in very confusing ads. They sent text messages and push notifications to customers. All of this felt very disingenuous and deceptive. I will be sad to see them go but they are their own worst enemy right now.

Thanks

I didn't see a link to the code, do you mind sharing?

I'd be happy to go through some of your options even if you don't use us. We're a startup that does cloud based security video hosting. https://eagleeyenetworks.com

Let me know if you want to talk. mcotton <at> eagleeyenetworks.com

I've never heard of that and unless you are happy with the worst-case base salary I would renegotiate. Having been a part of many bonus systems, I never plan on the bonus money to actually hit my bank account.

I know a startup who spent 18 months and all their investment capital on outsourced development. When the code wasn't up to standards they used expensive consultants to fix the code. They ultimately decided to hire development staff but couldn't add new features without breaking the existing product.

It is a good little business but failed because of bad management decisions and poorly built software.

Contact me if you want more details.

I have done similar projects in the past. I would recommend you look at phidgets.com for easy sensors that connect via USB. If you want wireless I would checkout synapse-wireless.com for their python powered wireless SoC. I also used netburner.com for their little serial to tcp/ip gizmo.

If you have questions feel free to get in contact with me.

If you really wanted to, you could spin up a windows machine and use VMWare's P2V software to create a VM of the running machine. Then downloaded it and run it on your laptop (VMWare workstation/fusion) or home server (VMWare ESXi)

I just want to see that they can write code and that it isn't awful. When looking at their code you can get a feeling if you would want that person mucking around on your project. If the person is passionate about programming they will have code they are proud of and that can be the start of a conversation.

I was in a similar situation and gave a month notice. It was awkward to stay that long. I would give them two weeks of your normal work along with one week of training for your replacement.

Python has a great community and Github makes it super easy to contribute.

Step 1: Create a github account Step 2: Look at other projects you find interesting, clone them and try them out. If you have a hard time installing it or using it, improve something about it and submit a pull request. Even if it is just improving the README. Step 3: Repeat.

You can always tear apart my projects and improve them if you are interested. http://github.com/mcotton

Leave as fast as you can. I just got out of a similar situation and it was killing me. Leaving will suck, and you'll feel like a jerk, but its your life to live and you have to do what is right for you.

Seriously, leave now.

I just got finished up with the last day of my four weeks notice. It was horrible to give that much time. My pervious boss didn't respect the extra time I gave them and my new boss is annoyed that he had to wait longer than normal.

Like a band-aid, just rip it off and be done.

You have done a great job of stating your case and responding to comments from the employee side. I have no doubt that your next programmer will benefit from this.

Thank you for starting this discussion.

I'm in a very strange situation with my boss. Things have been rough for some time now and he is not going to change.

He has put incredible pressure on me to give him 6-12 months notice. Not 6-12 weeks, but he wants a full year.

That is selfish and wrong. Since you are suggesting consideration for thr employer, What is the 'right' to do?

He has every intention of using a non-compete agreement to limit my future options, how does that show that the company values me?

I have a side project doing exactly this. My wife and I use it as our home phone, I've also replaced the phone system at my day job with it. Contact me through my HN profile if you want to try it

Thank you, this looks great.