Tools

Tools

A list of tools I use.

Fun/media

I am aggressively de-googling my life in 2025/2026.

  • immich: google photos clone, self-hosted
  • navidrome: youtube music clone, self-hosted
  • more to come? :)

Programming

  • python: general purpose language
    • conda/poetry/uv/pipenv/pip - package managers. prefer uv for speed/simplicity.
    • pil/pillow: image processing library
    • numpy: numerical computing library
    • pandas: xlsx/csv manipulation library
    • matplotlib: data visualization library
  • rust: faster than python.
  • bash: scripting language
  • just: very good build tool
  • postman: http requests
    • bruno is probably better, TODO use it
    • in general, ditch postman. they're starting to put their client behind a paywall/login wall. move to an OSS tool that's free. it's not rocket science to make something that ingests OpenAPI Spec and just runs curl...so why force corporations or individuals to pay for the simple feature of saving a Postman collection?

Text Editing

  • windsurf: bloated, use zeditor

  • cursor: bloated, use zeditor

  • vscode - bloated, only use if you absolutely need to. It's slow and used to be my favorite, but...

  • zeditor - Fast and simple text editor. Rust backend.

  • nano - command line editor

OS

i highly recommend never using windows, for many, many reasons

  • ubuntu - server OS
  • nixos - server/desktop OS
  • cachyOS - easy arch based OS, fast
  • TrueNAS CORE - freebsd based NAS OS that uses ZFS, ZFS is superior for use as a NAS for many reasons

Hardware

I run various cheap laptops and a few HEPC (High-End Personal Computer) setups. Only Linux, except for a Windows computer I use for piano playing.

  • https://pcpartpicker.com/user/henryfbp/saved/

AI

My current AI stack is here. I used to use ollama but it has issues with ROCm drivers on AMD GPUs, so I switched to llama.cpp!

https://github.com/meltingscales/cachyos-whitedragon-ai-lab

Current working stack:

  • llama.cpp: text generation backend (works with ROCm)
  • openwebui: frontend for LLM interaction (TBD)
  • comfyui: image/video/audio generation (TBD)
  • stablediffusion: image generation (TBD)

Corpo AI for coding

  • claude: You can use this, but you can also self-host local AI and use CLI tools like:
    • aider: OSS claude cli clone
    • etc...TODO: Add more coding agents here from testing.

The basic pattern to locally host is just to run llama.cpp (or ollama if you have NVIDIA GPUs) on a powerful PC, set up a VPN with tailscale, and then connect to the LLM endpoint with your less powerful computer via a coding agent like aider or a frontend like openwebui.

Local AI models

These models were intended for ollama but can be converted for llama.cpp. I plan on running my own benchmarks on each.

  • llama3.2:3b
    • TODO: Test.
  • yuiseki/devstral-small-2507:24b
    • TODO: Test.
  • hf.co/bartowski/Qwen2.5-Coder-14B-Instruct-abliterated-GGUF:Q4_K_S
    • TODO: Test.
  • hf.co/mlabonne/gemma-3-27b-it-abliterated-GGUF:Q4_K_M
    • Human remarks: It is indeed abliterated. It will happily generate usable Python malware.
    • TODO: Test.

Anti AI/Anti Slop

  • https://zadzmo.org/code/nepenthes/
    • Markov chain babble generator. Waste the time/CPU of scrapers.

Infra

  • docker: containerization platform
  • kubernetes: container orchestration
  • grafana: monitoring visualization
  • prometheus: monitoring metrics/backend

Backup

  • dd - data duplicator/data destroyer

Media

  • yt-dlp: youtube downloader, before youtube killed it with session cookie enforcement.
  • transmission: torrent client
  • jellyfin: media server
  • immich: self hosted google photos clone
  • romm: emulation ROM/retro game database
  • seanime: anime media server
    • extensions: TODO
  • gallery-dl: image downloader

Other

  • handy.computer - offline text transcription
  • sshx.io - share terminal (dangerous)

Hacking links

  • https://book.hacktricks.xyz/welcome/readme
  • https://www.revshells.com/
  • https://eclypsium.com/
  • https://ddosecrets.com/wiki/Distributed_Denial_of_Secrets
  • https://news.ycombinator.com/
  • https://www.darkreading.com/application-security
  • https://www.sans.org/newsletters/ouch/
  • https://www.databreachtoday.com/
  • https://medium.com/vmacwrites/tools-to-visualize-your-terraform-plan-d421c6255f9f
  • https://www.scaledagileframework.com/implementation-roadmap/
  • https://www.cia.gov/static/5c875f3ec660e092cf893f60b4a288df/SimpleSabotage.pdf
  • https://www.privacytools.io/
  • https://blog.openalgo.in/algorithmic-trading-roadmap-2025-from-curious-coder-to-confident-execution-0662572a7838
  • https://www.lesswrong.com/

Hacking tools

Used

  • kali linux

  • parrotos

  • dirb

  • nmap

  • rustscan

  • ftp

  • some python idk lol

  • searchsploit

  • msfconsole

  • msfvenom

To investigate

  • https://deepnet.store/products/dn_key-pro-experimental
  • Proxgrind
  • https://proxmark.com/ icopy-x
  • Bash Bunny