Technology
Work on AI systems, local LLM stacks, Python tooling, debugging, and the infrastructure that makes it all hold together.
The Local First AI and Agent Operations series follows one larger engineering thread across control planes, deterministic intake, governed memory, measurement, and safe agent operation. Its runnable companion pieces remain in the separate Hands-On section.
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Pulling the Plug Isn't an AI Containment Strategy
Temporary AI agents can leave behind persistent knowledge, coordinate with other agents, and rebuild communication paths. That makes containment a systems problem, not a power-switch problem.
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Scope Creep Has Never Been This Easy
I have discovered a new occupational hazard of working with coding agents.
It starts innocently enough.
I was working on my blog and thought it would be useful to have a way to listen to an article while I was proofreading it. I already have a local text-to-speech system, so why not add a little player to the local Jekyll site? Select some text, press Play, and listen to it.
That’s useful. That’s a tool.
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Remote Debugging with VS Code and Its Derivatives
Use SSH host aliases, isolated user accounts, and secure tunnels to edit and debug Python on the same Mac or a remote system with VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and related editors.
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Building This Site With AI
Initially I wanted to use a web builder which would produce my HTML, CSS, and SCSS files, in a nice WISIWIG format and even tried out a couple of the web builder products. I mostly wanted something I could move to any hosting service available and did not want to get locked into a proprietary platform. I tried Mobirise, but didn’t like their pricing model, you could buy lots of nice modules, but had to pay a recurring fee to use them, then I tried Sparkle, but there was a high learning curve for someone who is a s non-creative as me. I liked Sparkle, and might give it another ho sometime, but learning it was going to take a lot of effort.
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AI Coding Assistants
AI coding assistants have changed quickly since I first published this article. Cursor is now my primary coding editor, supported by ChatGPT and other tools when I need a second perspective.