Andy Max's Web LogA small personal web log about code, infrastructure, AI, old internet culture and whatever else gets stuck in my head.https://andymax.co.uk/en-gbWhat happens when you watch all the UK news channels at once?https://andymax.co.uk/weblog/broadcast-prism/https://andymax.co.uk/weblog/broadcast-prism/Six weeks of recording, transcribing and comparing UK television news across eight channels — and what the data shows so far.Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTmediaaidatabroadcastingThe Homelab Holiday Heuristichttps://andymax.co.uk/weblog/homelab-holiday-heuristic/https://andymax.co.uk/weblog/homelab-holiday-heuristic/A real homelab outage during a family holiday, and what happened when an AI agent was given SSH access to diagnose and repair it remotely.Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThomelabaiinfrastructureincident-responseA cat flap, two air ducts, and an AI that does CADhttps://andymax.co.uk/weblog/cat-flap-ai-cad/https://andymax.co.uk/weblog/cat-flap-ai-cad/How I used AI to design and print a bespoke duct transition part for a cat flap hole — without opening a CAD program.Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTai3d-printingcaddiyAI agents are for the things you keep not doinghttps://andymax.co.uk/weblog/shield-debloat/https://andymax.co.uk/weblog/shield-debloat/After years of meaning to debloat my Nvidia Shield, I used Hermes to do it in 20 minutes. Not because I couldn't, but because I never would.Thu, 11 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThomelabandroid-tvhermesTwo modes for your coding agent: daily and hardhttps://andymax.co.uk/weblog/two-modes-coding-agent/https://andymax.co.uk/weblog/two-modes-coding-agent/Stop running one coding agent config for everything. Set up a daily driver and a hard mode, and switch when the task actually needs it.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTaicoding-agentsopencodedev-toolsWhat I Actually Use an AI Agent Forhttps://andymax.co.uk/weblog/what-i-use-ai-agents-for/https://andymax.co.uk/weblog/what-i-use-ai-agents-for/How I use Hermes Agent as a practical operator in my homelab — school meals, server health, coding, research, and the boring jobs that quietly save time.Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTaihomelabagentsautomationDo Not Underestimate the Pineapplehttps://andymax.co.uk/weblog/do-not-underestimate-the-pineapple/https://andymax.co.uk/weblog/do-not-underestimate-the-pineapple/I asked several local AI models to draw an ASCII pineapple. Many failed in odd ways. Here is what went wrong, and what it says about how models think about text and space.Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTaillmascii-artpromptingThe Tetris Test: Comparing GLM 5.1, Kimi 2.6, DeepSeek, Gemma and Sonnethttps://andymax.co.uk/weblog/the-tetris-test/https://andymax.co.uk/weblog/the-tetris-test/Testing alternative coding models on the same Tetris clone task — GLM 5.1 won, Kimi 2.6 was close, and the results were surprising.Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTaicodingllmtesting