Alex Leko
All content on this blog was created fully or partially using local AI (Apple MLX).

Recent Posts

Transcribing podcasts locally with Parakeet TDT and ffmpeg

A local workflow for transcribing long podcast MP3s with NVIDIA's Parakeet TDT. It uses ffmpeg to split and compress audio, then a Bash script to send chunks for transcription and save the results without a cloud service.

How to Force Your Binary to Stay Alive on macOS

Migrating a background service from systemd to macOS launchd? You'll learn how to set up, enable, and run a persistent command-line tool as a background service on macOS.

Ignoring SSL certificate errors in Python requests

`requests` may fail to verify a server certificate when its certificate store is outdated or the server uses a self-signed certificate. This post covers updating the store, supplying a CA bundle, and disabling verification for testing, with a warning about the security risk.

Working with Git worktrees

Git worktree checks out branches into separate directories that share one repository. This guide covers adding, listing, moving, locking, and removing worktrees, with examples for parallel development, testing, and code review. It also describes directory layouts, aliases, IDE use, and limitations such as checking out a branch in only one worktree at a time.

How to convert MP4 to MP3 using FFmpeg

Convert MP4 files to MP3 with FFmpeg and the LAME encoder. The guide covers variable and constant bitrates, stereo or mono output, sample-rate settings, and metadata preservation.

Running Docker builds from Jenkins in a container

This post shows how to add the Docker CLI to a Jenkins image and mount the Docker socket so Jenkins pipelines can run Docker commands. The The post includes a Dockerfile and commands for building and starting the image.