linux - Techie Mike - The IT guy in Thailand

Running AI Models on Old Hardware — A 10 Year Old Xeon Is All You Need

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hardware • 8 min read

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Running AI Models on Old Hardware — A 10 Year Old Xeon Is All You Need

A post hit the front page of [Hacker News yesterday](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48353348) with a title that made a lot of people stop and stare: *"[A 10 year old Xeon is all you need.](https://point.free/blog/gemma-4-on-a-2016-xeon/)"* It racked up 685 points. The author ran **Gemma 4 (26B…

Techie Mike • 02 Jun 2026

Switch from pip to uv — Python's Rust-Based Package Manager Guide

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Python • 9 min read

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Switch from pip to uv — Python's Rust-Based Package Manager Guide

# Switch from pip to uv — Python's Rust-Based Package Manager Guide If you've ever sat waiting for `pip install` to finish building wheels in a Docker build, you know the pain. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Sometimes longer, depending on how many native extensions your project pulls in.…

Techie Mike • 02 Jun 2026

How to Set Up Hermes Agent on a Mini PC Home Server

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linux • 5 min read

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How to Set Up Hermes Agent on a Mini PC Home Server

Set up Hermes Agent on a BMAX Pro 8 mini PC and run your own autonomous AI assistant 24/7. This guide covers hardware, installation, AI provider configuration, and Discord gateway setup.…

Techie Mike • 26 May 2026

Setting Up a Python Development Environment on VirtualBox with Ubuntu (2026 Edition)

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Python • 7 min read

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Setting Up a Python Development Environment on VirtualBox with Ubuntu (2026 Edition)

# Setting Up a Python Development Environment on VirtualBox with Ubuntu (2026 Edition) I've been using VirtualBox for development environments for years. The beauty of it is isolation — your host machine stays clean, you can blow away the VM when a project ends, and you get a true Linux environment…

Techie Mike • 27 Oct 2024

Troubleshooting VirtualBox Missing Dependencies — Windows and Linux

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VirtualBox • 5 min read

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Troubleshooting VirtualBox Missing Dependencies — Windows and Linux

# Troubleshooting VirtualBox Missing Dependencies — Windows and Linux VirtualBox is one of the most reliable free virtualization tools out there, but it throws some cryptic errors. The most common one I've hit — and the one that sends the most people to forums — is the "Missing Dependencies" error.…

Techie Mike • 25 Oct 2024

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Media Server • 4 min read

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Installing Radarr, Jackett, QBitTorrent, and Plex Media Server on Ubuntu

# Installing Radarr, Jackett, QBitTorrent, and Plex Media Server on Ubuntu Setting up a home media server is one of the most satisfying projects you can do with an old PC or a cheap VPS. The combination of Radarr, Jackett, qBittorrent, and Plex gives you fully automated media management — from find…

Techie Mike • 23 Oct 2024

Proxmox Homelab: Setup on a Mini PC, Ubuntu VMs & Beyond

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Proxmox • 5 min read

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Proxmox Homelab: Setup on a Mini PC, Ubuntu VMs & Beyond

# Proxmox Homelab: Setup on a Mini PC, Ubuntu VMs & Beyond If you've ever wanted to run multiple operating systems and services on a single machine without the overhead of a full VMware setup, Proxmox is where it's at. It's an open-source virtualization platform that's powerful enough for productio…

Techie Mike • 22 Mar 2023

Steganography: How to Hide Data Using Kali Linux

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Ethical-Hacking • 5 min read

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Steganography: How to Hide Data Using Kali Linux

# Steganography: How to Hide Data Using Kali Linux Encryption is great, but it's obvious. When someone sees a blob of ciphertext, they know you're hiding something — they just don't know what. Steganography takes a different approach: hide the message so well that nobody even knows it's there. The…

Techie Mike • 10 Aug 2020