Notes on the DuckDB UI

DuckDB recently shipped with a new local UI package[1]. It allows users to visualize DuckDB databases as well as run SQL queries through embedded notebooks. You can start the UI by running duckdb -ui in the terminal which starts an http server on port 4213 by default. $ duckdb -ui

Vector Projection

Vector projection is the process of projecting one vector onto another. In simple terms, it is the adjacent side of a right triangle with the original vector as the hypotenuse.

Vector Normalization

Vector normalization is the process of scaling a vector to have a magnitude of 1 or unit length. In other words, we want to change the length of the vector to 1 while keeping the direction the same.

The Value of Expertise

I've been reading a lot about the impact that AI[1] has had and will have on the software industry. Some herald the death of Software Engineering as a profession[2], others claim it's a full-on paradigm shift in our work[3], while some hold mixed[

Notes on setting up Claude Desktop MCP servers

The model context protocol is a pretty awesome way to get more out of your LLM. Claude's desktop app has positioned itself as an easy way to get started exploring the space. Claude desktop works by launching servers declared in claude_desktop_config.json on startup and then

How to use Azure AI Foundry OpenAI Deployments with the OpenAI SDK

Azure OpenAI Deployments are a way to deploy and manage your OpenAI models in Azure. However examples in the dashboard and documentation use the AzureOpenAI sdk. This is fine if you plan to stay within Azure but can be a pain if you plan to switch between other OpenAI compatible

Blocking Spam Email Domains with Self-Hosted Ghost

I noticed an uptick in spam signups on my self-hosted Ghost instance. Specifically those coming from email to SMS gateways[1]. I suspect that they use the email address to send a text message to verify the phone number. I'm not sure how many people actually use these

How to use Bluesky posts as Ghost comments

Today I ran into a couple of interesting posts that focused on the benefits of bluesky as an open platform. One of the use cases shared focused on using bluesky for blog comments[1]. This shows the potential for using bluesky comments as a way to engage with readers that

On Ghost Engineers And Proof or a Lack thereof

I've been watching the media landscape evolve in real time and I feel compelled to share my opinion. I'm not a researcher or journalist, but I have been in Engineering for a long time. I don't intend for this to be an attack on

Reinstalling NVIDIA drivers on Zorin OS

I've run into this issue twice now while using Zorin OS so it made sense to leave notes on resolving them as well as links to resources. The root issue appears to be instability with driver updates. Given that my use case is primarily machine learning, having a