[ Ai and llms ] 9 min read
A frontier training run is a networking problem dressed up in a math costume. The industry chose the chickens over the oxen, so how do you get 16,000 of them pulling in the same direction? Part three of six.
[ Ai and llms ] 9 min read
Training turns roughly 405 billion random numbers into something useful through one boring move: guess the next token, get graded, nudge every number a hair, and repeat. Part two of six.
[ Ai and llms ] 11 min read
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.
[ Ai and llms ] 6 min read
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
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.
Architecture and design for AI, ML, LLM, and agentic systems that solve a specific business problem, scoped to what your data, budget, and people can actually support.
Independent guidance for the technology leaders you already have, or part-time leadership until you hire one: a strategy built around your constraints that the business can actually execute.
Getting ready for SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIST, and other security and compliance audits, with the policies, documentation, and daily processes in place well before the audit begins.
Independent assessment and design for enterprise networks and infrastructure, backed by hands-on experience designing, building, and fixing networks from mid-market to Fortune 100.
Landscape assessments, vendor evaluations, and market briefings, written for practitioners rather than procurement committees and without the analyst-firm retainer.
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.
[ Networking ] 7 min read
One of the nice things about working with Cisco equipment, as opposed to many other brands, is that you truly do get a smorgasbord of features and capabilities. On the flip side of that coin, however, the bad thing about …
[ Networking ] 6 min read
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.” Yogi Berra Usually, no matter how much planning, testing, thinking about, or stalling you build in to an upgrade project, the bill …
[ Leadership and career ] 3 min read
“So, why do you want to work here?” If you’ve worked a day in your life, chances are you’ve been asked this question during an interview. And, if you’re like the rest of us, you’ve said something about how much you love …
[ Leadership and career ] 4 min read
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, …