Month: November 2024

I have been experimenting with LM Studio over the last few days. This is a tool that allows me to run large language models locally on my computer, making it ideal for when I’m travelling or spending time somewhere with a slow or unreliable internet connection. It’s cross-platform (Windows, Silicon Macs and Linux), and has so far worked on every machine I’ve tried it on, although not always with the default settings.

There are a number of different runtimes and language models to choose from, with the smallest ones working on a laptop with 8Gb of RAM, and the large ones requiring a very powerful computer to get the best out of them. I’ver tried them on my work and home computers to do the sort of thing I use Copilot and ChatGPT for, and the experience is comparable, especially when using some of the larger models.

Ideally the software wants a decent graphics card and lots of RAM. The latter I can provide it with, but on my desktop computer it initially failed to work because it was trying to use my old and slow graphics card which is nowhere near good enough for this kind of tool. In this scenario it was just a case of telling it use a different runtime (CPU llama.cpp), and then everything started working as expected.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Linux version ships as an AppImage, which means it needs Fuse v2 to run. Newer distros will need to install libfuse2t64 to get it to run in the first place, but after that everything should just work.

In a world where AI is the future, but privacy is important as well, I think tools like this are definitely worth spending some time with.

Yesterday was the release day for the new album by The Cure. I used to try and pick up their albums on release day when I was younger, but don’t think I have managed to do so since Wish as very long time ago.

My first thought is that this record is really good. I keep trying to compare it to other Cure albums, and the best that I can do is that it’s a bit like the best parts of Disintegration and Bloodflowers. There isn’t a bad song on it, and I think it’s something I’ll come back to for many years.

If you like The Cure you will love this. And if you like music in general it’s definitely worth a listen.

In the evening there was the album launch concert, which took place at The Troxy, but was also broadcast live on YouTube which meant I could watch it without all the logistical challenges that a concert in London presents. It started with a performance of the whole new album, which is what I expected, but was then followed by a 2+ hour set of old favourites and a few things I wasn’t expecting (such as a whole segment dedicated to songs from Seventeen Seconds). It reminded me how important this band were to me when I was growing up, and how much time I have spent listening to their music. I think this lineup is probably the best ever; although it’s not too different to who was on the stage in 1989 when I last saw them play live.

Everyone looks older, but they still sound great, and these songs definitely stand the test of time. I think the new ones will as well, and am hopeful that the rumours of one more album before they retire are true.