jetsnoc

In my case, most of my VMs live on a proxmox cluster of HP EliteDesk minis, with the laptop sitting outside that as the thing that manages the cluster and a few other odds and ends.

At first I thought this might be a Nano SaaS, but without a clear definition, I’m now guessing that would be something like one tenth of the numbers you mentioned. So “micro” seems right.

If the term or threshold does not exist, let’s define it as such.

The grit, curiosity, and people building things have always been inspiring.

Thanks for all the discussions over the years.

Happy Thanksgiving!

  **openai/gpt-oss-120b** — MLX (MXFP4), ~66 tokens/sec @ Hugging Face: `lmstudio-community/gpt-oss-120b-MLX-8bit`

  **google/gemma-3-27b** — MLX (4-bit), ~27 tokens/sec @ Hugging Face: `mlx-community/gemma-3-27b-it-qat-4bit`

  **qwen/qwen3-coder-30b** — MLX (8-bit), ~78 tokens/sec @ Hugging Face: `Qwen/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct`

  Models
    gpt-oss-120b, Meta Llama 3.2, or Gemma
    (just depends on what I’m doing)

  Hardware
    - Apple M4 Max (128 GB RAM)
      paired with a GPD Win 4 running Ubuntu 24.04 over USB-C networking

  Software
    - Claude Code
    - RA.Aid
    - llama.cpp

  For CUDA computing, I use an older NVIDIA RTX 2080 in an old System76 workstation.

  Process

    I create a good INSTRUCTIONS.md for Claude/Raid that specifies a task & production process with a task list it maintains. I use Claude Agents with an Agent Organizer that helps determine which agents to use. It creates the architecture, prd and security design, writes the code, and then lints, tests and does a code review.

My reaction is usually, "Oh, we're doing this? Fine." I'll even prompt my LLM with something like, "Make it sound as corporate and AI-generated as possible." Or, if I'm feeling especially petty, "Write this like you're trying to win the 2025 award for Most Corporate Nonsense, and you're a committee at a Fortune 500 company competing to generate the most boilerplate possible." It's petty, sure, but there's something oddly cathartic about responding to slop with slop.

The reality is that Slack isn’t that sticky. The only reason I fended off the other business units who've demanded Microsoft Teams through the years is my software-engineering teams QoL. Slack has polish and is convenient but now that Slack is becoming inconvenient and not allowing me to do what I want, I can't justify fending off the detractors. I’ll gladly invest the time to swap them out for a platform that respects our ownership and lets us use our data however we need to. We left some money on the table but I am glad we didn’t bundle and upgrade to Slack Grid and lock ourselves into a three-year enterprise agreement...

In your analogy, when a company constructs and sells a building, labor costs are deductible as part of the cost of goods sold. Only the profit—when the finished product is sold—is taxable. But under the new Section 174 rules, software R&D labor is treated like the purchase of a capital asset, even though the company is leasing a service, not selling a final, tangible product.

The flaw? Software isn’t a static, finished asset you walk away from. It’s a living system. One update might fix a bug, introduce a feature, and improve long-term architecture all at once. Is it maintenance? Innovation? Infrastructure? The answer is usually “all of the above.” So how does anyone report that cleanly on a tax form? What’s the IRS’s standard test for sorting that out?

Before TCJA, some companies may have stretched R&D definitions to claim Section 41 credits. But after the TCJA change, the incentive flipped. Now, companies are penalized for doing real R&D—the very thing we should be encouraging. Startups are now paying painfully high tax bills simply for building something they cannot lease out en masse yet.

We should want to incentivize invention, not suppress it. We need more startups, not fewer. Software—especially with generative AI—is one of the few options for us left that can create new markets, expand GDP, and drive compounding national growth. The upside is limitless. This is hammering our economy and it’s strangling startups at the exact moment we need them most.

Congress, do the right thing; restore the rules we had pre-TCJA.

Timeline:

- 1981: Section 41 introduced — provides tax credits for qualified R&D activities.

- Pre-2018: Under Section 174, R&D expenses (including software) were fully deductible; Section 41 credits could be claimed.

- 2017 (Dec): TCJA passed by the 115th Congress and signed by President Trump; Section 174 expenses to be amortized over 5 years starting in 2022.

- 2022: Amortization rule takes effect. Companies must now capitalize and amortize R&D expenses.

- 2025: Section 174 amortization remains in effect; Section 41 credits still exist but now come with a steep tradeoff.

I wasn’t out as gay yet, maybe only 15 years old. Of course, it would have been a death sentence for a teenager in Southern Idaho to come out as gay. One day though, Mike told me “You know, you can grow up here and you can be /different/ in many different kinds of ways, you can be a band nerd, a guy who writes software, you can be gay, you can be /yourself/ and no matter what some adults might tell you right now, you will be okay. Not only okay, but you can live a fulfilled and successful life while being authentic and true to yourself. You are never the person that these adults claim you are. They don’t know anything.“ He then went on to tell me Bruce’s story and how in his opinion, of course, Bruce wasn’t “evil” or “wrong” for being gay.

In 2005, I wrote my technology teacher a personal thank you letter. I wrote one to Bruce as well and I asked if it could be shared with him.

Bruce took the time to respond:

  Dear Brian,
  Thank you for taking the time to write your letter.  I was very moved by your story.  There were parts that really reminded me of some of my own experiences in life.
  The beautiful thing about life, at least as I have seen it, is that if you keep trying and never doubt yourself, you really can make amazing things happen both in yourself and in the world around you.  I am sure you too have already touched many people around you and have been a positive influence for them. That's so very important.  You may never realize the good you are doing, but it is happening.
  Being gay is becoming more and more accepted as "normal" and one day maybe it just won't matter.  As for being a geek, I don't consider that a bad term.  The world needs geeks.  But then they need gays too!
  Thanks again,
  Bruce Bastian