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Running local LLMs offline on a ten-hour flight

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Re: Running local LLMs offline on a ten-hour flight

#41

Post by sweetjuly »

ryandrake wrote: post #20
rootusrootus wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd probably choose the window seat myself, because while it is cramped, it is predictably so. When I sit in an aisle seat, it's not as cramped but I regularly get shoulder checked by passing people or beverage carts. What really makes me nervous if I'm in an economy seat is the seat in front of me. Depending on how the seat is designed, if the person suddenly reclines (or hell, just flexes the seat a bunch while mov…

That was the first thing I thought of when I saw the image. That's a very expensive computer that you risk destroying when the 300lb guy in front of you decides to lean back. The ergonomics of using a laptop on an economy-class tray table are not worth it. You're sitting there like a T-rex trying to make your arms as small as possible to tap on the keys. And the vertical viewing angle to your screen sometimes prevent…

>The ergonomics of using a laptop on an economy-class tray table are not worth it. You're sitting there like a T-rex

The trick I've found is to pack a bluetooth keyboard. If you put your laptop on the tray table, you can put the bluetooth keyboard on your legs _under_ the tray table and have your arms fully and comfortably extended. This works especially well if you're a vim/emacs/other keyboard driven editor user as you very rarely need to reach up to poke the trackpad .

Re: Running local LLMs offline on a ten-hour flight

#42

Post by fernie »

koolba wrote: post #39
cpursley wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm jealous of people who can actually get comfortable enough to sleep on flights.

With enough drinks and a long enough flight, it’s unavoidable.

The keyword being "comfortable".

Most certainly avoidable, unfortunately.

Re: Running local LLMs offline on a ten-hour flight

#46

Post by proxysna »

deanc wrote: post #12
proxysna wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to set sampling parameters for the llm. Had the same issue with Qwen3.5 when i first started. You can grab them off the model card page usually. From Qwen3.6 page: Thinking mode for general tasks: temperature=1.0, top_p=0.95, top_k=20, min_p=0.0, presence_penalty=0.0, repetition_penalty=1.0 Thinking mode for precise coding tasks (e.g. WebDev): temperature=0.6, top_p=0.95, top_k=20, min_p=0.0, presence_penalt…

Yes, have tried all of these (as per the docs). Have you actually tried these? Because I have tried all 3 configurations with agentic coding that you mentioned and have the same result - loops.

I've used only Qwen3.5 so far for work and was, after initial struggles, successful with GPU setup, no mlx. Ngl the fact that they are using `presence_penalty: 0` and no `max_tokens` is weird after that exact setup caused me "initial struggles", but i've set up a simple docker-compose with vllm and qwen3.6 right now to test it out and it worked perfectly fine for me.

Gist with the compose and example of an output. https://gist.github.com/meaty-popsicle/f883f4a118ff345b430c3...

Re: Running local LLMs offline on a ten-hour flight

#47

Post by AntiUSAbah »

seattle_spring wrote: post #45

With more and more flights offering Starlink, I don't see why this would really ever be necessary. Also, agreed with the other commenters: just read a damn book and take a nap.

I hope starlink will not be the default.

Not only shouldn't we support someone like Elon Musk but also don't you find it hypcritic to respond with 'just read a damn book' and suggesting starlink?

Re: Running local LLMs offline on a ten-hour flight

#48

Post by mrbonner »

JSR_FDED wrote: post #38
stavros wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got some Xreal glasses and it's made flights so much more enjoyable. I can watch movies or work on something lying back, and the "screen" looks massive.

I’ve been so tempted but some of the reviews say it’s not good for reading code. What’s been your experience? What is the effective resolution of the screen you get? Is it sharp enough for coding?

Don’t listen to anyone saying it is fine for reading or writing extensively with the xReal. I have one and it is PITA to do that over a long period. You better just stick with watching videos or playing games with it.

Re: Running local LLMs offline on a ten-hour flight

#49

Post by SkyPuncher »

JSR_FDED wrote: post #38
stavros wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got some Xreal glasses and it's made flights so much more enjoyable. I can watch movies or work on something lying back, and the "screen" looks massive.

I’ve been so tempted but some of the reviews say it’s not good for reading code. What’s been your experience? What is the effective resolution of the screen you get? Is it sharp enough for coding?

They're like reading a projector. It's not very good, but it's better than awkwardly staring at the computer screen.

Re: Running local LLMs offline on a ten-hour flight

#50

Post by mft_ »

2ndorderthought wrote: post #26
mft_ wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m frequently surprised how little I can find online about exactly this - different harnesses for local models and how to set them up. The documentation for opencode with local models is (IMO) pretty bad - and even Claude Opus (!) struggled to get it running. And so far I’ve not found a decent alternative to Claude Desktop. (I’ve recently discovered that you can pipe local models into Claude’s Code and Desktop, so t…

Qwen3.6 is brand new. But also, search engines are so plastered with AI slop that is written by tools and companies that have no interest in you using local models. Ollama makes it 1 command to run local small models, but with the newest ones there can be kinks to work out first. /R/localllama is okay for some information but beyond that there is so much noise and very little signal. I think it's intentional.

Thanks. I’ve been experimenting with local models for over a year now, on and off, so this isn’t just limited to the latest Qwen. Anyway, I have no problem running them, but there’s a huge difference between running something via a chat interface and running it a la Claude Code so that it can interact with the local environment and create/edit files. This is the aspect that’s difficult, in my experience.
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