I don’t consider myself very technical. I’ve never taken a computer science course and don’t know python. I’ve learned some things like Linux, the command line, docker and networking/pfSense because I value my privacy. My point is that anyone can do this, even if you aren’t technical.

I tried both LM Studio and Ollama. I prefer Ollama. Then you download models and use them to have your own private, personal GPT. I access it both on my local machine through the command line but I also installed Open WebUI in a docker container so I can access it on any device on my local network (I don’t expose services to the internet).

Having a private ai/gpt is pretty cool. You can download and test new models. And it is private. Yes, there are ethical concerns about how the model got the training. I’m not minimizing those concerns. But if you want your own AI/GPT assistant, give it a try. I set it up in a couple of hours, and as I said… I’m not even that technical.

0 points
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Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
NVR Network Video Recorder (generally for CCTV)
PSU Power Supply Unit
VPN Virtual Private Network

3 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 12 acronyms.

[Thread #917 for this sub, first seen 12th Aug 2024, 07:15] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

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2 points

With all respect, the first paragraph seems self contradictory.

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3 points

Very technical vs not can be very subjective.
It can be a 50 year old sysadmin vs Adam I pulled from the street or a graybeard linux admin vs a beginner sysadmin only in it for thr career instead of the passion (those can be very non-technical but good problem solver folks)

I know my comparison is flawed

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5 points

Isn’t this using a lot of computing power?

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5 points
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you hear that said about AI because companies are desperately throwing more and more resources at it to get 0.3% better results, and people are collectively running an insane amount of prompts all the time.

but on a personal level it’s not really any different from any other computations, people render videos all the time and no one complains about the resource usage from that, because companies aren’t trying to sell bloated video rendering services to gardening businesses.

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5 points
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I’ve been testing Ollama in Docker/WSL with the idea that if I like it I’ll eventually move my GPU into my home server and get an upgrade for my gaming pc. When you run a model it has to load the whole thing into VRAM. I use the 8gb models so it takes 20-40 seconds to load the model and then each response is really fast after that and the GPU hit is pretty small. After I think five minutes by default it will unload the model to free up VRAM.

Basically this means that you either need to wait a bit for the model to warm up or you need to extend that timeout so that it stays warm longer. That means that I cannot really use my GPU for anything else while the LLM is loaded.

I haven’t tracked power usage, but besides the VRAM requirements it doesn’t seem too intensive on resources, but maybe I just haven’t done anything complex enough yet.

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9 points

Not really, it uses some GPU power when it’s actively generating a response, but otherwise it just sits idle.

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49 points

people need to take a step back and realize we have the capability to trap quasi-omnipotent quasi-demons in our personal computers

yeah they lie a lot and rarely do what you want them to, but that’s just what demons do

And it’s all powered by some dark crystals created with light magic that slowly poison the planet

that’s some arcane bullshit

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3 points

How long can something like that really last, though? I wish we had a better idea of the timeline, before the quasi-demons start freelancing lol

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176 points

“learned some things like Linux, command line, docker, and networking/pfsense” “I don’t consider myself technical”

Don’t sell yourself short, I work in IT and have colleagues on our helpdesk who would struggle endlessly with those concepts.

I hereby dub you a tech person, like it or not, those skills can and do pay the bills.

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8 points

I was just talking to a member of my devops team and I was talking about this exact thing and they said “I didn’t know you could attach a GPU to a container”. So, yup, just stay on top of this stuff at home and you’ll do fine

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2 points

Who uses GPUs for AI anyway. They cost more than a car sometimes

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1 point

Can confirm, the GPU in my laptop costs more than all but my newest car.

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40 points

This made me smile. Thank you. The grass is always greener and I sometimes daydream of working in IT instead of healthcare. Maybe someday.

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13 points

Nah dont.

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8 points

Healthcare is pretty rough, I’d be willing to bet that the grass actually is greener in this case.

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5 points

hahahaha best advice ever.

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4 points

Join us. We have cookies (well at least until the end of our sessions)!

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11 points

Thank you for this. I consider myself technical and those words felt like a punch in the gut.

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12 points

I’m sorry if I offended. I can’t code or understand existing code and have always felt that technical people code. I guess I should expand my definition. Again, sorry that my words felt like a punch in the gut… wasn’t my intention at all.

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11 points

It depends heavily on what you do and what you’re comparing yourself against. I’ve been making a living with IT for nearly 20 years and I still don’t consider myself to be an expert on anything, but it’s a really wide field and what I’ve learned that the things I consider ‘easy’ or ‘simple’ (mostly with linux servers) are surprisingly difficult for people who’d (for example) wipe the floor with me if we competed on planning and setting up an server infrastructure or build enterprise networks.

And of course I’ve also met the other end of spectrum. People who claim to be ‘experts’ or ‘senior techs’ at something are so incompetent on their tasks or their field of knowledge is so ridiculously narrow that I wouldn’t trust them with anything above first tier helpdesk if even that. And the sad part is that those ‘experts’ often make way more money than me because they happened to score a job on some big IT company and their hours are billed accordingly.

And then there’s the whole other can of worms on a forums like this where ‘technical people’ range from someone who can install a operating system by following instructions to the guys who write assembly code to some obscure old hardware just for the fun of it.

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61 points

Now that you’ve dubbed OP a tech person…

Hey OP, can you help me fix my printer? It’s only printing “RED RUM RED RUM” for some reason.

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2 points

Have you replaced the blood cartridge?

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21 points

Have you tried giving it red rum?

Oh, and make sure you hold it out with the insides of your arms exposed, it’ll feel less threatening that way.

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43 points

It is done.

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10 points

This gave me confidence as well, thank you 😆

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7 points

With how low the average person is with tech skills, it’s very easy to be top 10%.

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