Reflections on AI, LLMs, and Vibe Coding
This is a bit of a sporadic post, but I want to share what's been brewing in my mind over the last couple of years about vibe coding, ChatGPT, and my perceptions and experiences. As someone who's led engineering teams through multiple tech shifts, there's a journey here worth unpacking.
Reigniting My Star Wars Data Project
I shelved this project for a while after a string of avoidable problems: unstable containers, MongoDB volume mishaps, API overuse worries, and a general sense that I was “hammering” the Star Wars Fandom wiki harder than felt respectful. This post covers how I rebooted the whole effort around a radically simpler (and more ethical) model: pull an official dump, stand up a local MediaWiki, and iterate offline.
My Codec & Transcoding Journey
Over the past months I dove deep into media formats, hardware encoders, open vs licensed codecs, storage efficiency and how to orchestrate all of it on Unraid with Plex and Unmanic. This is the distilled narrative—what worked, what hurt, and what I’m optimizing toward.