[ Ai and llms ] 11 min read
Just a Lot of Multiplication: What's Actually Inside an LLM
A large language model is an enormous pile of numbers, and everything it does comes from multiplying other numbers by that pile. Part one of six.
We help executive teams turn technology into a strategic advantage–driving growth, efficiency, and long-term scalability.
Latest posts
All posts →[ Ai and llms ] 6 min read
The First Rule of The Foundry
I asked an AI to tidy up my blog repo and it accidentally organized itself into a nine-member development team. I'm releasing that team, free, on GitHub.
[ Infrastructure ] 21 min read
It's a Series of Buildings
Data centers are eighty years old and already 99% full. We need considerably more of them, and we're making a hash of deciding where they go.
[ Tech field day ] 6 min read
Commvault at TFDx RSAC 2026: Clean Recovery Is a Different Problem Than Fast Recovery
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” — Mike Tyson One organization Chris Bevil worked with had a genuinely good disaster recovery program. Tabletop exercises, tested runbooks, the whole thing. When …
[ Tech field day ] 7 min read
Object First at TFDx RSAC 2026: If You Can Turn It Off, It Wasn't Immutable
“When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” — Humpty Dumpty, Through the Looking-Glass (1871) I’ve lost count of how many storage conversations I’ve sat through where immutability …
What we do
Strategic Technology Advisory
Independent guidance for CIOs, CTOs, and IT leaders on turning AI, automation, and infrastructure modernization into a strategy the business can actually execute.
Analyst Services
Landscape assessments, vendor evaluations, and market briefings, written for practitioners rather than procurement committees and without the analyst-firm retainer.
Custom Writing
Custom writing projects, from white papers to technical guides, by a long-time member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors with a deep portfolio of published and private work.
From the archive
Browse the archive →[ Leadership and career ] 5 min read
Sales Advice to VARs
There’s an old business adage that says, “All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends. And all things being NOT so equal, people STILL want to do business with their friends”. It is estimated …
[ Leadership and career ] 6 min read
Coping with Difficult Bosses
Author Janice Davies said, “difficult people are your key to self empowerment, you need to learn how to cope with them, not let them dominate and affect you.” But what if the difficult person is your boss? What then? In …
[ Tech field day ] 6 min read
Uila: Visions of the Future
If it’s true that a picture is worth a thousand words, then nascent software company Uila has written a novel with their breakout software product for monitoring, and performing root cause analysis on, virtualized and …
[ Everything else ] 4 min read
Just Write is Just Right
I took my daughter and stepson to see one of my favorite authors a couple of days ago. Neil Gaiman also happens to be one of their favorite authors, having penned a favorite story, Coraline, they both share a love for. …