← Back to the main page

My lab, observed October 3, 2026 2 hosts · 20 containers · 1 VM
A HOBBY LAB FOR LOCAL AI · A HUMAN IN COMMAND

The machinescan think.You still decide.

I’m Doug Cashio. I started in IT in 1996, the year Quake went truly 3D after Wolfenstein and Doom spent years faking it brilliantly. This is my workshop after hours: local AI, original worlds and a few things that fly.

Board the starship Try an experiment

A 30 second starship tour · 12 illustrated requests · sound off

Watch the intro · 6 seconds
Next: inside the workshop

Built at home. Open to inspect.

FROM THE WORKSHOP · OCTOBER 3, 2026

A backup that keeps up with the work.

A backup only counts if you can get your files back. I restored this one on a second machine and checked every file against the original. The receipt shows exactly what was tested, and what was not.

  1. 01 Capture
  2. 02 Decrypt
  3. 03 Verify
Read the repair and receipt
Illustration of an encrypted archive linked to a file verification receipt
990files restored on a second machine and matched to the originals

Files verified October 3, 2026. A live system restore was not performed.

A TOOL TO TAKE WITH YOU · OCTOBER 3, 2026

A brief worth keeping.

Choose what matters. Keep the sources and the unknowns attached. Take the decision brief with you.

Make your brief Download an example
A DECISION BRIEF
  1. 01What we observedA source and a date.
  2. 02What we don’t knowThe unknown stays visible.
  3. 03Who decidesA person keeps the final say.
EXAMPLE · YOURS TO ASSEMBLE
Meet the person and the lab

AT A GLANCE A hobby lab and proof of work. A technology career since 1996, with more than twenty years in cybersecurity.

By day
Security for the MSP channel Principal Solutions Consultant, helping managed service providers deliver security and cloud services. Career history on LinkedIn ↗
By night
My lab after hours Two servers I own, a job scheduler, and the experiments you can try here. See the dated record ↓
In the open
Work you can inspect Change the inputs, explore the worlds, and see what happens. Read the source ↗Explore the Studios →

What runs here

Zeus and Apollo are my two servers. Hermes schedules jobs; Atlas is a local model. The experiments below illustrate the routing rules. The dated evidence shows what was actually observed.

Everything you try here runs in your browser; nothing reaches my servers. The evidence section answers from a dated record, and a small copilot marks where a person holds authority.

Open to speaking, mentoring and comparing notes.Say hello →Certifications on Credly ↗

Every name on this page, in plain English
Bit
The gold copilot. It marks where a person holds authority.
E.V.E.
The Evaluation Verification Engine. A console for dated observations and clearly labeled lore.
HERMES
My job scheduler. The first experiment below shows how a routing policy chooses where work goes.
DSH
My operator console, where I run everything from.
Zeus and Apollo
My two servers.
Atlas
The local model that handles recurring work.
cAshIo
Cashio, with the AI in capitals. My personal AI workspace, and the name on this site. Its page is linked in the footer.
Zenith
The name of this site’s visual edition. Each evidence record keeps its own date.
Workhorse, Research, Synthesis
Routes for everyday drafting, sourced research and combining information.
FOUR WORLDS

Pick a world.
Stay a while.

Fly, tinker, watch or read. Each world opens as its own page and brings you right back.

STARSHIP LAB Your ship. Your intelligence. Pick a mission, cut the cloud link and compare three designs on the same twelve requests. Open the page PRINCIPLES ENGINE Put the principles in motion. Turn a small instrument and see the design decision behind each rule. Open the page THE STUDIOS A world worth getting lost in. Shape the light, ignite a 3D signature, or explore the short film collection. Open the page FLIGHT HERITAGE Built with a test pilot’s mind. Four aviation pioneers and the working lesson I take from each. Open the page
ONE DECISION

Try a decision.
See what changes.

One choice, one result, about twenty seconds.

THE PRIVACY TESTIN YOUR BROWSER · NO UPLOADS

One change. Who decides?

Analyze a document and require sources. Now make that document private.

01 / PUBLIC DOCUMENT ResearchA request for sources selects Research, the route for checking claims.
02 / PRIVATE DOCUMENT Your call.Same task. Same sources. A different boundary.
Where should the private document go?
Take the controls: public request ↓Private version ↓
FROM MY WORKSHOP / SMART ROUTING

Spend the AI budget where it matters.

Quality picks the model.

Cost only breaks a tie.

My routing law · published in the dated export

Try the rule: change the task, require sources, then make the input private. Watch which constraint wins.

Try the routing demoRead the evidence boundary
GO DEEPER / SEVEN EXPERIMENTS

Seven questions.
Take the controls.

SIMULATIONS · IN YOUR BROWSER

Choose a question. Change the inputs. See the rule at work.

The workbenchRouting, escalation, evidence and four more experiments.
Swipe to explore all seven →
EXPERIMENT 01 OF 07 · HERMES, my scheduler

Choose a route

Choose the work. Add a boundary. See the route.

Choose the work
WHERE IT GOESQUALIFIED

Everyday drafting

WORKHORSE LANE

Choose a task, then follow its five step route.

WHY IT MATTERSEveryday work goes to a general model. Asking for sources sends it to a research model. Private information always brings in a person. That one rule keeps AI costs down without cutting corners.Inspect the routing rule in the released code ↗Trace this decision ↓
Rule, limits and a test to try

Change the inputs. See the rule choose a route.

Intent and sources choose the route. Privacy can overrule both.

What wins when intent, evidence requirements, and privacy disagree?
RulePrivate input always holds the external route for human review. Otherwise, Research intent or a source requirement selects Research. Analyze selects Synthesis; Draft selects Workhorse.Try thisChoose Analyze and require sources: Research wins. Now turn on private information: Human review wins. Change the intent again; the privacy boundary holds.BoundaryA deterministic routing model with four outcomes. It calls no model, measures no provider, and does not establish the current HERMES deployment’s behavior.
NEXT / Know when to pause
THE SYSTEM MAP

Meet the machines.

Two servers I own, Zeus and Apollo, do the computing. Hermes, my job scheduler, decides where each task goes, and my operator console (DSH) is where I watch and approve. Follow one request across them.

The system mapFollow one sample request, or inspect a machine’s role.
Job schedulerSELECTED
HERMES49enabled scheduled jobs
The scheduler turns a task into a job.

49 of 56 retained definitions were enabled at the October 3, 2026 observation. The HERMES experiment explores the routing rule in your browser.

Scheduler observation · October 3, 2026 · routing not verified
2hosts
20containers
1virtual machine
FLEET · October 3, 2026Inspect the dated evidence ↓
SYSTEM MAP · CONCEPTUAL VIEW
YOUR SAMPLE REQUESTDraft · sources optional
ROUTE CHOSENWorkhorse
Follow one example from human intent to human review. No request is sent.
  1. 01Intent
  2. 02Qualify
  3. 03Compute
  4. 04Review

The same request and routing rule as the HERMES experiment.

Continue with these settings in HERMES ↑ Inspect the selected system’s role and evidence →
THE EVIDENCE

Trust has
a timestamp.

A dated look inside the lab.

Ask the evidence console what was observed, or inspect the raw record.

LAST OBSERVEDOctober 3, 2026
HOW · RUN BY MERead only
THE RECORD

What the record shows.

RUNNING20 containers and 1 virtual machine on 2 hosts
BACKUPSEvery snapshot on record passed its integrity check.
LOCAL MODEL · ATLASPrimary configuration: a 16,384 token window, read October 3, 2026
See how the record grew

The latest observation comes first and counts running guests on the two servers. Older columns keep their original dates and unknowns.

Record Latest · Oct 3 Sep 7 Aug 28 Containers running
20
19
18
Virtual machines
1
1
Not recorded
Hosts online
2 of 2
2 of 2
2 of 2
Public lanes
Not verified
Not verified
10
Count the same thing.Containers and virtual machines are separate counts. The extra guest is a new container. “Not recorded” is an unknown, not a zero.
Let unknown stay unknown.The older route count has no current verification. It stays in its archive.
Keep the claim inside the evidence.A running guest is a count, not an application health check.
A real run: the backup tool that refused to run
DEEPSEEK HARNESS · EXECUTION RECEIPT

Keep the snapshot moving with the work.

The tool's notes describe a fixed revision check that blocked snapshots as the project advanced. The repair archives the current revision, checks that it stays stable, and includes the installed skills, agent presets and operations scripts.

The October 3, 2026 receipt records 990 verified files and a matching archive hash from decryption on a second host. This was DeepSeek Harness operations tooling. The trigger was a daily schedule configured for 3:45 AM Central; the work was a backup script, with no AI routing claim.

Three fields from the execution receipt "status": "verified",
"restored_files_verified": 990,
"live_restore_performed": false,

Receipt: October 3, 2026 at 3:45 AM Central Daylight Time. This checks readable console files, not recovery of a running system or the fleet. One missing snapshot date means uninterrupted daily success is not claimed. Storage paths and host identifiers remain private.

Inspect the redacted job receipt →
The evidence boundary, in one place These fleet counts and integrity checks do not establish application health, full system recovery or current AI routing. Private addresses, service names, spending and the model catalog stay private. The browser experiments are simulations.
Read the latest export
Earlier records (4) Archived record, September 26Archived record, September 24Archived record, September 7Archived record, August 28
E.V.E.EVALUATION VERIFICATION ENGINE
DATED
Page updated · October 3, 2026Fleet, scheduler, Atlas configuration and backup integrity: October 3. Earlier console and routing audits stay in the archive.Each reply carries its own date. Easter egg replies are marked lore.Tap a command below or type your own. Try help.
MEET DOUG

Doug Cashio

A workbench for the things I keep wondering about.

I like systems I can take apart, explain and put back together. This site is where that curiosity meets aviation, science fiction and the pleasure of making something work.

LinkedInMy GitHub · @jamescashioMy Credly badges · @james-cashio

The GitHub and Credly handles use my first name, James. Everyone calls me Doug.

The cAshIo celestial signature: a gold and titanium wordmark inside an orbital ring
THE cAshIo SIGNATUREDORMANT · GOLD INTENT
Explore the celestial signature in 3D → Watch its quiet orbit · 5 seconds →
IMAGINATION, WITH INTENTION.
OPEN A CHANNEL

Don’t panic.
Say hello.

Bring me your trickiest question about local AI, private data or keeping a human in the loop. I am open to speaking, mentoring and comparing notes. The answer is probably not 42.

[email protected]
Starship lab

Starship lab

Compare three designs on the same twelve requests, then explore the ship that carries them.

Read the text and artwork →
Principles Engine

Principles Engine

Turn the orbital instrument and inspect the decisions behind three working principles.

Read the text and artwork →
The Studios

The Studios

Shape the light, explore the signature or settle into the short film collection.

Read the text and artwork →
Flight heritage

Flight heritage

Four aviation pioneers, the aircraft they shaped and the lessons I carry into my work.

Read the text and artwork →
CASHIO / ENTERING THE STUDIO

Preparing your scene…

You can return to the site at any time.
BIT / YOUR COPILOT

Mission Control.

I’m Bit. You choose. I point the way.

TYPE STYLE
EXTRAS
↑ ↓ navigate↵ enteresc close