SumGuy's Ramblings
The art of wasting time.
Docker, self-hosting, AI/LLM, Linux, and DevOps — explained by someone who learned the hard way. No fluff, no enterprise jargon, just practical stuff that actually works on real hardware.
Recent Posts
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polkit Rules: Restart a Service, No sudo
Let a group restart one systemd service with a polkit JavaScript rule instead of a sudoers NOPASSWD line. Tested rule, a sudo comparison, and debugging gotchas.
13 min read -
Security Headers That Break Your Apps
Seven copy-paste security headers gave nginx static files none, let Traefik overwrite an app's own CSP, and blocked self-framing. Tested configs for all three.
17 min read -
Postgres Autovacuum Tuning for Small DBs
Leave most autovacuum globals alone, raise the cost limit, and give your one hot table a per-table scale_factor. Tested on postgres:18.6 with real numbers.
13 min read -
Home Assistant Blueprints: Write Once
Stop copy-pasting the same motion-light automation nine times. Import, write, and update Home Assistant automation and script blueprints with annotated YAML.
13 min read -
systemd Credentials: Secrets Without Env
Stop putting passwords in Environment=. systemd credentials hand secrets to services as locked-down files, encrypted at rest. Setup plus a demo you can run.
12 min read -
LLM Semantic Caching: Stop Paying Twice
Exact-match vs semantic caching for LLM calls: a small Python cache, LiteLLM and RedisVL setups, and real scores showing why restart and stop nginx collide.
16 min read -
Reverse Proxy TLS: What the A+ Hides
Same A+ before and after hardening, yet nginx drops from 25 TLS 1.2 suites to 3, and an old curve list silently strips post-quantum key exchange on all three.
16 min read -
PUID and PGID: Container Permission Fights
Why Sonarr, qBittorrent and Jellyfin fight over bind-mounted files, how PUID/PGID works in the image, when Docker's user: fits better, and how to share media.
12 min read -
systemd-run: Units Without Unit Files
systemd-run starts transient services, scopes, and timers with resource limits and sandboxing, no unit file needed. Replace nohup, at, and ulimit habits.
13 min read -
My 125B Local Run Ran Out of Weekend
A 125B MoE ran an agent job locally for 72 hours and made real progress. A free 120B cloud route finished the same job in 7. Here is where the time went.
14 min read -
What the B in 12B Actually Means
What the B in 7B, 12B and 125B means, how MoE total vs active parameters differ, and why quantization changes the memory math. A guide for local LLM users.
12 min read -
What Your Reverse Proxy Leaks by Default
Stock nginx shows its exact version on every response and hands your real cert to bare-IP scanners. We audited nginx, Caddy, and Traefik and fixed each leak.
17 min read
