Jim Becher

AI Costs – Tokens and Credits

AI Costs: Tokens, Credits, and What They Mean for you and your team AI is everywhere these days, but how much does it actually cost to use? If you’ve played with ChatGPT, Claude, or similar tools, you’ve probably seen terms like tokens and credits. Here’s a quick guide to what they mean—and how to avoid surprises on your bill. What Are …

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Why I Still Self-Host After 20 Years

selfhost

Over the past few months, I’ve been having some energizing conversations with colleagues and friends about technology trends, personal infrastructure, and the explosion of AI tools. One recent chat with my teammate stuck with me—we got into a discussion about self-hosting, and it made me pause and reflect. It turns out, I’ve been self-hosting software at home for over 20 years. …

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Building a Weather App with 4 AI Dev Tools: A Hands-On Comparison

AI Dev Tools

AI-powered development tools are helping change and shape the software development ecosystem. From writing code to designing interfaces, these tools make software creation faster, more accessible, and often more fun. To explore this shift, I decided to build the same simple application—a weather app—using four emerging AI development platforms: Replit AI  Bold.new Loveable.dev V0.dev Each tool takes a slightly different approach …

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How I Use n8n for Business and Personal Automation

n8n

I’ve been using n8n for over three years, and it has become an essential tool for both my work and personal life. Whether it’s automating business workflows or managing my daily tasks, n8n has been my go-to solution for seamless automation.  I am always amazed at what can be done with n8n.    I would say this is one of the …

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Why I’m All In on Cloudflare (And You Should Be Too)

cloudflare blog

I know firsthand the importance of security, speed, and reliability when managing online services—whether it’s websites, applications, or home and business security. That’s why Cloudflare is an essential part of my toolkit. From domain registration to security and performance optimization, Cloudflare provides everything I need to keep my projects running smoothly and securely. I’ve been using Cloudflare for both personal and …

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Running an AI LLM locally – Testing out DeepSeek

I have been working and experimenting with AI in all diffrerent aspects of my life.  I have changed the way I work with AI around stratagey and busienss.  However one of the benefits of being in technology is both using the technology and teaching others about the technology. Many people I have talked with lately are asking questions about deepseek.  They …

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Macbook Upgrade and challenges

macbook reinstall

I recently updated my main computer, a MacBook Pro, to a more current version. I appreciate how easy Apple makes the migration process. You reset the Mac, and then you migrate from one Mac to another.   The entire process of migrating from my old Mac to the new one took four hours, which included updating macOS on the new Mac. …

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Long Overdue Update – 2025

Long overdue update

I won’t even check the date of my last blog post because, honestly, I don’t need that kind of negativity in my life. Let’s just say it’s been a while. But instead of dwelling on that, let me jump right into what I’ve been up to and where I’m headed. Family & Focus First and foremost, my family is doing well, …

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Python 3 on MacOS

python

Python 3 on MacOS

I recently had the need to create a small python script to run a process.  I quickly looked up a process I could utilize to read a Rest API then do some work based on that content.

I fired up Visual Studio code and wrote out the framework of the program I needed in about 10 min.  (NOTE: I have not used Python in a long time and it was fun to quickly put something together).

Once I was done writing the code I jumped into a term terminal and ran the program “python GetAPIData.py”.  It worked well – opened a file of records added to an array and displayed the line items and did a count.

I then added some code that referenced how to call an API and it used the “requests”, knowing I needed to run “pip install requests” before I ran the program, I was rewarded with an error.

 zsh: command not found: pip

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How to find your Wifi Password on a Mac

"wifi" by miniyo73 is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

I recently had an issue where I wanted to re-broadcast a wifi network using my own router.  This allowed me to use an existing wifi network that I had a password for a few years ago and my MAC remembered it automatically.    The location I was at – my remote office did not have a great connection to the wifi …

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NFT Craziness – What is an NFT

NFT

The Crypto world has changed a lot in the last few years. One new and upcoming topic is NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens). In the last few weeks, we have seen a significant increase in the volume of NFT purchases.  If you follow cryptocurrency you have probably heard about NFT’s in the news.  I’d like to take a few minutes to share some …

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Working from Home Suggestions – Comfort

WFH

I started my journey working from home about a year ago.  Our company has been 100% remote for the last 4 years, and the team has built up a great process to be able to efficiently working from home.   During this COVID-19 Pandemic, I have read a lot of really good Work From Home (WFH) articles.   This quick post will be …

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Opera Browser – Daily Driver for 3 years

Jimiz Opera Browser

I just realized I have been using Opera as my main browser for over 3 years.  Somehow in 2017, I decided that I should give Opera a try.  If you are not familiar with Opera, it is a browser similar to chrome or firefox. In fact, Opera is built on chromium the underlying components of the chrome browser.  Opera is by …

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Amazfit Bip S

Amazafit Bip S

I have been extremely happy with my Xiaomi Amazfit Bip smartwatch.   It has been over 2 years since I discovered and purchased this inexpensive smartwatch.    The key item that caused me to purchase this watch was the 30-day battery.   However, I have determined that what I love the most is the alarm.  Because I wear the watch to sleep, the …

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Xfinity Injecting a Message in my browser

Xfinity

I recently received this message in my browser while opening a web page I designed for a friends company. I have received this message before while going to other sites, and just refreshed the browser and continued, not thinking anything of it. “There is an issue with your connection – We had an issue while attempting to notify you about your …

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