Archive for the ‘technology’ Category
Dealing with Policy Debt
TL;DR Start writing down why decisions are made. Future you may thank you. Future other person who’s wondering what you were thinking may also thank you. Then keep a dependency graph of the things impacted by the decision. It will help unravel what gets woven around it. Background I was at an excellent AFCEA event […]
Filed under: security, strategy, technology | 1 Comment
Tags: ADRs, AFCEA, Agile, architecture, change, compliance, culture, debt, decisions, innovation, policy
Silent PC upgrade
TL;DR After 6.5y+ of service my PC needed a refresh – so it has a new motherboard, CPU, RAM and SSD, and I’ve taken the opportunity to switch to Linux. It’s still completely silent, but noticeably faster :) Background I built a Silent PC based on a Streacom DB4 case back in the summer of […]
Filed under: technology | Leave a Comment
Tags: benchmark, CPU, DB4, Intel, Kubuntu, Linux, motherboard, PC, QuietPC, RAM, silent, ssd, Streacom, Ubuntu
Using a Model to Model
TL;DR Once we get past ‘bullshit work‘, the primary enterprise use cases for Large Language Models (LLMs) appear to converge on various ways to make it easier to work with unstructured data. That’s because an LLM can generate an ‘understanding’ of the data, saving the painstaking process of getting humans to provide context. Of course […]
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Tags: AI, data, GenAI, language, LLM, model, modeled, structured, unmodeled, unstructured
GL.iNet MT-6000 Flint2 Review
TL;DR The Flint 2 seems to be a pretty awesome router. It was a little fiddly to set up my (quite complex) existing VLANs and wireless networks onto it, but it’s been working without a hitch since then :) Why? I’ve had a Draytek 2866ax router paired with an AP960C access point for about 18m[1]. […]
Filed under: networking, review, technology, Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Tags: Access Point, AI, Flint 2, Flint2, GL.iNet, MT-6000, OpenWRT, review, SSID, VLAN, wifi
October 2024
Pupdate Autumn is definitely here, and it’s been wet enough that the boys have needed their coats some days. The good news at the start of the month is that Milo’s treatment is working, and he’s back in remission :) Travel The end of the month has been quite busy for travel. NYC One of […]
Filed under: monthly_update, technology, travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: AMT, apple, Bath, eSIM, Intel, iPad, ipad-mini, ISM, lenovo, M920q, Mini 7, NY, NYC, OpenWRT, pupdate, Rathfinny, solar, travel, vineyard, watch, wine, winery
Grace Hopper
It’s wonderful that this lecture by Grace Hopper at the NSA in 1982 has made its way out into the world. It’s SO prescient on a variety of topics like distributed computing, language standards, service ownership and the leadership vacuum. She could see it all – 42 years ago. If you work in IT today, […]
Filed under: retro, technology | Leave a Comment
Tags: COBOL, distributed, Grace Hopper, history, leadership, SOA
Bullshit Baffles Brains
It’s right there in the title. If the word offends you, just stop, now. TL;DR Generative AI is a bullshit machine, but that’s fine because we need machines to do the bullshit jobs. Military Grade Bullshit I first heard the phrase ‘Bullshit Baffles Brains’ in my early days in the Navy, and I would hear […]
Filed under: technology, wibble | 2 Comments
Tags: AI, bullshit, ChatGPT, generative, LLM, Navy
Full Fibre Saga
Almost two weeks later than planned, and after almost three days without an Internet connection to the house it seems like I finally have a working Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) install. Phew! This is the story of how it took so long, and the regulatory failure that underpins the sorry state of affairs. Background […]
Filed under: could_do_better, technology | Leave a Comment
Tags: adsl, BT, CBT, fibre, FTTC, FTTP, full fibre, OFCOM, ONT, OpenReach, PlusNet, VDSL
AI MacGuffin
I’m increasingly hearing AI talked about as a MacGuffin… It could magically solve this thorny and expensive problem that’s been intractable for years. We all just need to geek a bit harder, buy (or rent) more GPUs and scrape together some better training data… In this context AI cannot fail, it can only be failed, […]
Filed under: technology | 1 Comment
Tags: AI, hype, MacGuffin
USB C Charger Reviews
I’ve had a few things that charge from USB-C for a while: my Planet Gemini, Nintendo Switch, Oculus Quest, SteamDeck, GL-MT1300 travel router, and a bunch of Raspberry Pi 4s; but the arrival of my Lenovo X13 has had me kitting myself out with a bunch of new chargers. So here follows some reviews (with […]
Filed under: review, technology | 4 Comments
Tags: adaptor, Anker, cable, charger, GaN, Mackertop, mains, Mu, power, power bank, PSU, review, Syncwire, USB, USB A, USB C, USB-A, USB-C, Ziwodiv
Chris Swan's Weblog 