Huawei AI Cloud, Ironwood TPUv7, do the thing, TV garden Worldwide, Hacker Laws, Daylight, NVIDIA Photonics, Xsight, Finger Strength

Huawei AI Cloud: Power hungry, all optics, etc. Interesting take from China to NVIDIA. And even more interesting, how to fence off all the tariffs and restrictions…

Google Ironwood TPUv7: “It scales up to 9,216 liquid cooled chips linked with breakthrough Inter-Chip Interconnect (ICI) networking spanning nearly 10 MW” I wonder how is the network… but doesnt give low level details, just marketing.

Do the thing.

TV garden: TVs from around the world…. just in case you want to learn a language?

Hacker Laws: So many I dont know

Daylight: Looks so nice!!! And it seems it can read kindle books. Tempting

NVIDIA Photonics: I read about co-packaged from some Sherada post’s… but I didn’t see it coming so fast in production. With my network operations hat on…. how is the troubleshooting done? It the part where the fiber breaks, you replace the whole device? I guess this has been thought very deeply.

The power consumed by optics in the network is enormous and so is the capital expense. Anecdotally, we have heard it said many times that the majority of the cost in a datacenter-scale cluster is in the optical transceivers at both ends of a link and the fiber optic cable between them. Some the pieces that link switches to network interface cards is 75 percent to 80 percent of the cost of a network, with the switches and the NICs making up the other 20 percent to 25 percent. 

Xsight: Another network silicon vendor. The article mentions Tofino P4.. I hope doesn’t end that way. I didn’t know anything about Avigdor Willenz

In part, that expectation for big change comes from the fact that Avigdor Willenz is the company’s founding investor. Willenz founded Galileo Technology, a maker of Ethernet switch ASICs that sold to Marvell in 2001 for $2.7 billion, and that wealth has been spread around. Willenz invested in Annapurna Labs, which sold to Amazon Web Services in 2015 for $350 million and which has created its Nitro DPUs, Graviton CPUs, and Trainium and Inferentia AI engines. He was president (now chairman) and first investor in distributed flash block storage maker Lightbits Labs. Willenz was a co-founder of AI chip maker Habana Labs, which sold to Intel in 2019 for $2 billion and is the foundation of its Gaudi compute engine line.

Finger Strength: “I’ve never seen strength like this before” true story

TFCC wrist injury: part of life…

The Last Crusade

This is by favourite film as a kid, and after reading the first books about the movie, I got the final one. The book is identical as the movie, and felt like watching it. Good old memories.

Muhammara (Roasted Red Pepper Dip)

Watched this video, and decided I had to try. My food processor is small so I can’t make that much.

Ingredients:

  • 1 jar (480g) roasted red peppers: I used all pieces but one as I wasn’t sure if my mini processor was enough
  • 120g walnuts
  • 6 tbsp breadcrumbs
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp pure pomegranate molasses (I found it in a Turskish supermarket, but not sure if it is 100% pure pomegrenate)
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp chilli flakes
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground cumin (I didnt have it)

Process:

  • Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Toast the walnuts, stirring from time to time.
  • Add the breadcrumbs to the walnuts, don’t burn them! Stir until brown.
  • let it cool down for a couple of minutes.
  • In the food processor, add the garlic, walnuts and breadcrumbs. Blend until getting fine crumbs.
  • Add the roasted peppers (drained!), olive oil, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, all spices and salt.
  • Pulse! don’t blend! Do several times until to get a consistency like the video.

Ready to eat. You can top it up with walnuts, pomegranate seeds, olive oil, mint, etc.

Very easy, quick and tasty!

The new new thing

This is an ebook I bought because it was an offer and I have read some other books from the author.

I didnt have a clue about the book for a start. So it is about the booming years of Silicon Valley from James Clark. It starts with Silicon Graphics, that just learned that XFS was opensource from them, and other interesting bits, then Netscape, the 1st browser, JavaScript, HTTP cookies, SSL, etc that eventually ended being Mozilla! and the idea came from Marc Andreesen (that is actually a co-founder of the VC Andreesen Horowitz). Then founded Healtheon, that I have no clue about but looked like a killing business in a 1.5T healthcare market…. it doesnt look like the healthsystem in USA is any better? And that finishes there. As well, there is a lot story about the boat Hyperion, that looks a bit boring in some part.

The good things, it how at the Healtheon startup, he wanted to make millionaires the engineers. And as well, there is an important point in the Silicon Valley boom “caused” from many Indian engineers produced by the equivalent of India MIT: IIT.

It is interesting how Micro$oft was at the end “killing” those business as they wintel platform became better at graphics and MS had a monopoly of the workstations so installing a browser from a 3rd party wasn’t going to be made easy….

It is not one of the best books from Michael Lewis, but was nice to read the Silicon Valley history from another point as we mostly remember the companies that have survived till today.

Carob Cake

This is a typical Portuguese cake. I have done it before, but some years ago so time to repeat. And this is the original recipe.

Carob can be used as a replacement for chocolate. It is a pity is not used much more.

Ingredients:

  • 6 eggs (divided into whites and yolks)
  • 200g sugar (brown if possible)
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 200g melted butter
  • 180g of self-rising cake flour (if not, normal flour)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 60g carob powder (as much pure as possible)
  • 50g chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc)
  • optional: 1 tbsp of alfarroba (carob) liquor or almond liquor (amarguinha)

Process:

  • Pre-heat oven 180C
  • Beat the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and butter until it becomes an aerated mix. You can use a hand mixer for this.
  • Shift the flours and baking powder together, and add gradually into the wet mix. Mix with a wood spoon!
  • Beat the egg whites into soft peaks, then fold into the batter.
  • Once all mixed, add the chopped nuts. Be sure they spread equally
  • Butter a cake pan. Then spread evenly the batter.
  • Bake for 30-35 minutes. The goal is to have a kind of brownie, moist. So try to not get the center fully dry. This is the most difficult part for me. So if the top is baked (with a crust) and using a toothpick doesnt come 100% clean, it is ok.
  • Take the cake and let it cool down

Before getting into the oven

Day after:

The look is quite “chocolaty” and tastes very good! But I overbaked it… the cake should be less dry.

Silva Method

Via a random youtube video I found something called the Silva Method and decided to read about it. I haven’t found any live solution. I dont want to go to the claims of the method, just wanted to focus in the meditation part and unlocking.

My goal is to improve. I want a clear, calm mind, and I want to learn more, faster and efficiently.

Shelljack, Europe RISC-V, Quantum China, 100G optics teardown, Curiosity (Going long!), SS7 hacking, Juniper Hacking

Shelljack: It is old but still interesting. At least it seems easy to implement

Europe RISC-V: Interesting report about what EU is doing about the CHIP wars and RISC-V. I guess as EU is not pouring billions like USA/China is not making to the news. It was interesting to read about the participation of Spain with UCM and the people behind openchip.

Quantum China: Another quantum chip in the mix. So far everything came from USA.

100G SR4 QSFP28: An optic teardown. There are links to other teardown like 100G QSFP28 DAC and this is more hardcore: 800G ZR+ optic.

Curiosity: This is the best definition of what curios means (and I light years from it…) Ben Jojo is a star: “Trust, but verify”

SS7 hacking: More real than I thought.

Juniper Hacking: Juniper answer. In one sense doesnt surprise me, Mikrotik is famous to feed several bootnets, so why not EOL devices from other vendors?

MCP, Manus, Brain Computer, Spectrum-X, Quantum, DC, Hung Task, Do The Work

MCP: It is “old” news news from Dec 2024 but looks like a big thing now.

Manus: new hype, but looks cool. Need to try.

Brain Computer: You have to replace the neurons….

Spectrum-X with Cisco Silicon: I dont understand this move much. You are selling your Ethernet solution is the best for AI and then you bring a different one?

Quantum Computing: Several news lately from MS Majorana (official)and AWS Ocelot. Still, is being used in real problems? Just PR?

Build your own DC: good intro, I dont think you can find many books about this in amazon?

Hung tasks in linux: nice articule for troubleshooting hung tasks in linux.

Do the work

Eggplant Parm

I watched this video and I had to try.

Ingredients

  • 2 eggplants sliced
  • flour for coating the eggplants
  • salt, honey (optional)
  • Sunflower oil for frying the eggplants
  • 700g good tomato passate
  • 3-4 garlic gloves chopped without core.
  • fresh basil or dried oregano if you dont have it
  • 2 balls of mozarrella (or smoked mozarrela if you find it)
  • Parmigiano

Process

  • Spread salt generously over the eggplants. Let is rest for 30 minutes. This is very important step to remove the acidiness.
  • The eggplants should have sweat some water. Clean all the slices with water and dried them with a towel.
  • In a sauce plan at medium heat, pour a glop of olive oil, when hot, add the garlic. Dont burnt it !!! Then add the tomato passate and basil/oregano. Add salt/pepper. Add a bit of honey, optional. Simmer for 30 minutes or so. Leave aside.
  • Heat up a pan with some sunflower oil to deep fry the eggplants. The oil is ready with you put the tip of a wood spoon and fezzes.
  • Pre-heat oven at 200C
  • Coat slightly the eggplant slices with flour and deep fry until golden in both sides. 2-3 minutes each side. This is the most tedious part. But it is worth it. After removing form the pan, use kitchen paper to absorbe excess oil.
  • In an oven dish (metal/glass), pour a bit of the tomate sauce. Add a layer of eggplant, add slices of mozarella, add some basil/oregano, grated parmigiano . Repeat: tomate, eggplant, mozarella, basil/oregano, grated parmigiano.
  • Bake in the oven at 200C for around 30 minutes of golden on top.

Really tasty!!!

Eat and Run

I completed this book after reading about Scott Jurek. Ultramarathons are more famous nowadays thanks to the Internet so it is really interesting how he managed such a feats in that field, with no much money from sponsors and being vegan at that time!

There are many vegan recipes in the book. I want to try some of them: Minnesota Winter Chilli and others sweeter.

Regarding running, he mentions specific points: stretching, speed, stride, foot landing, core, progress, interval training, breathing (nose), shoes, posture.

Stotan = Stoicism + Spartan = I love it. (from Percy Cerutty)

I like how he talks about his upbringing in nature and then becoming a professional ultramarathon. The illness of his mother calls home…

And there is this quote from Kurt Cobain:

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are

It is interesting that he mentions that ultra sports attracts a lot of ex-addicts (alcohol, drugs, etc). It is kind of a different type of addiction.

One thing I see repeated in many people/books that achieve something great. They have gone some shitty things in life one way or the other. If there is no pain in your life, you dont fight, you dont thrive.