This version of the course definitely does not seem to be VM - first. I started it before using a VM and switched to notebook for this go around. The lack of being able to hack directly on the machine is an issue for sure – Though I did get a model trained on my own stuff last time. I’ve got a post in the paperspace general thread asking about this. FWIW – the Notebook only P5000 is a site cheaper than running a vm.
My old dataset: Failing to complete training in Lesson 1 for own data
Post asking about Gradient hacking: https://forums.fast.ai/t/platform-paperspace-and-gradient/27338/47?u=larcat