About Raspberry Pi, Virtualization, and More.
Strata LLM Inference on a 20GB RTX A4500: 262K Context, Parallel Agents, and 88% Prompt Reuse
I tested Strata with Qwen3.8-Flash-Next IQ3_S on a single RTX A4500 20GB, including 1M context, GPU vs CPU vision, parallel inference, KV streaming, and a 128GB multi-conversation cache. The best result was not maximum context or maximum expert residency—it was a 262K setup that reused 88% of all prompt tokens while keeping two long-running agents…
How to Make Windows 11 Faster: 10 Safe Tweaks to Improve Responsiveness
Last updated: September 2026 Windows 11 can feel slow even on a powerful PC. In many cases, the problem is not raw CPU or GPU performance. Slow animations, too many startup apps, background processes, Windows Search indexing, network drives, and storage activity can all make the desktop feel less responsive. The good news is that…
Fixing a Stuck SSHFS-Win Drive on Windows: “System Error 85” and “Insufficient System Resources”
If you use SSHFS-Win + WinFsp to mount Linux directories as Windows drive letters, you may occasionally encounter a strange failure where a mapped drive suddenly becomes inaccessible. For example, suppose P: is mapped to a remote Linux directory: It may work normally for days or weeks, then suddenly Windows reports: Trying to reconnect the…
Firefox Sync Server Fixed: HTTP 500 Error on Self-Hosted Firefox Sync (syncstorage-rs) & The “Clean Slate” Solution
Struggling with HTTP 500 errors on your self-hosted Firefox Sync server? Learn why existing local data causes crashes and how a “clean slate” approach fixes the syncstorage-rs database issues.
Stuck at 30Hz? Unlocking Dual 4K@60Hz on Your Laptop: The Ultimate MUX Switch & dGPU Guide
Unleashing the Beast: A Guide to True Dual 4K@60Hz Performance on Your Laptop You’ve assembled the perfect mobile workstation: a high-performance laptop, like a Dell Precision, paired with two brilliant 4K monitors. The stage is set for ultimate productivity. But when you connect everything, you’re met with a frustrating reality—choppy mouse movements, stuttering video, and…
Gemini Deep Research Lost? The Surprising Age Verification Fix (No ID Required)
The Day My Gemini Features Vanished One minute, I was a power user of Gemini Advanced, seamlessly switching on Deep Research for complex topics and generating images for my projects. The next? Those features were gone. The “Deep Research” toggle had vanished. My prompts for image generation were met with a generic “I can’t do…
Taming the Fox: A Deep Dive into Fixing a Self-Hosted Firefox Sync Server
Self-hosting is an act of digital sovereignty. In an era of cloud services, running your own software is a powerful way to take control of your data. Firefox Sync is a fantastic, privacy-respecting service, but for those of us who want to go a step further, Mozilla and the open-source community have made it possible…
Unmasking Linux Dual-WAN Failover: A Case of the “Accidentally Deleted” Default Route
Setting up dual-WAN (Wide Area Network) failover on a Linux system is a common practice to ensure high availability for services. I recently deployed such a solution on my Ubuntu server: a primary line (enp0s11, connected to my home broadband) and a backup line (enx027c3d463e4d, connected to a 4G router). In theory, my custom script…
Rebuilding GRUB After a Ceph Misadventure on Ubuntu 24.04 arm64 Proxmox VE
Recently, I encountered a rather frustrating issue with my Ubuntu system running inside a Proxmox VE (PVE) virtual machine. The culprit? A seemingly innocent attempt to adjust the placement group (PG) count in my Ceph cluster. What started as a routine optimization turned into a full-blown system crash, leaving my Ubuntu installation unbootable and my…
Resolving VMware Workstation 17 Pro Issues with Windows 2000 by Installing Older VMware Tools Version
Introduction: When installing legacy operating systems like Windows 2000 in VMware Workstation 17 Pro, you may encounter some unexpected issues, especially with graphics and audio. In this blog post, I’ll walk you through my experience of running into problems with the desktop icon color depth and audio distortion when using the default VMware Tools driver.…