Git merge vs rebase, diff, patch, stash

This week I have had a bit of a struggle with git when trying to develop a change and I was getting constant conflicts when trying to get my branch up to date with main.

https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/merging-vs-rebasing: A refresh for merge vs rebase. When I first started with git, the environment was pro rebase. But after that job, all places were pro merge. Somehow I visualize better a rebase. I will start using rebase to see if I really understand.

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/git-diff-and-patch/: That’s how I finally managed to push my change into master. I had a diff generated by my gitlab PR and applied it into master.

https://opensource.com/article/21/4/git-stash: Something I already commented about but hardly used.

https://opensource.com/article/21/3/git-cherry-pick: Never used it but I was reading about this week as I thought was my only way out from the merge conflict nightmare I was in.

AusNOG 2023

Nice NOG meeting:

Vendor Support API: Interesting how Telstra uses Juniper TAC API to handle power supplies replacement. I was surprised that they are able to get the RMA and just try to replace it. If they dont need it, they send it back… That saves time to Telstra for sure. The problem I can see here is when you need to open ticket for inbound/outbound deliveries in the datacenters, that dont have any API at all. If datacenters and big courier companies had API as 1st class citizends, incredible things could happens. Still just being able to have zero-touch replacement for power supplies is a start.

No Packet Behind – AWS: I think until pass the first 30 minutes, there is nothing new that hasnt been published in other NOG meeting between 2022 and 2023. At least the mention the name of the latest fabric, Final Cat. As well, they mention issues with IPv6 deployment.

There are other interesting talks but without video so the pdf only doesnt really give me much (like the AWS live premium talk)

RFKill

Somehow my linux laptop sometimes disables WIFI when I upgrade it. It doesnt really bother me as I can enable it by an icon in the UI but one day my UI lost the panel with that icon after another upgrade. So I had to learn how to enable the wifi. Via this page, I learned about the different status and then checking the options of rkfill command got my WIFI enabled back again.

# rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: no
1: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: no
# 
# rfkill unblock wifi
# 
# rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
1: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: no
#

At some point, I would like to test bluetooth in my laptop.

Wistron

I have never heard of Wistron until I reached this page. Maybe it is because:

Wistron typically only sells to hyper-scalers

I guess the hyperscalers put their own NOS on top? Anyway, quite interesting the model with 16 ports for Optical SN (that is 4x400G per port).

MITRE ATT&CK

From another security maillist, Mitre is mentioned a lot but till this week I didnt really dig a bit about. So copy/paste:

MITRE ATT&CK® is a globally-accessible knowledge base of adversary tactics and techniques based on real-world observations. The ATT&CK knowledge base is used as a foundation for the development of specific threat models and methodologies in the private sector, in government, and in the cybersecurity product and service community.

In similar subject, at some point, I would like to see how vulnerable my VPS is. Still not sure if would be usable or how to use Mittre to do that. At least to get some audit/basics done and improve my “security” knowledge a bit. As usual… time.

Google Spanner

From an email list, I read something about Gmail migration to Spanner. I was a bit surprised because I use gmail and didnt know anything about it. That email sent me to this page. That migration had to be a monster one! More details here. From the first page, I had a bit more info about Falcon. In summary, that is part of a bigger picture about building the “AI-driven” future infrastructure.

FP8-LM

From the AlphaSignal email list, that most of the times go over my lame knowledge, I found this piece of info, quite interesting:

FP8-LM: Training FP8 Large Language Models

Goal: Optimize LLM training with FP8 low-bit data formats.
Issue: High cost of LLM computational resources.
Solution: FP8 automatic mixed-precision framework for LLMs.
Results: Reduced memory by 42%, increased speed by 64%.
Insight: FP8 maintains accuracy, optimizes training efficiency.

Repo. Paper

This is something I want to really understand at one point. FP (Floating-Point) instructions can be from several sizes (8, 16, 32, 64). So the bigger, the better precision. I guess for some scientific tasks that is important. But looks like for AI, with FP8 could be good enough.

Limits Computer Performance

Reading across this blog, I came to this statement:

What limits computer performance today is predictability, and the two big ones are instruction/branch predictability, and data locality.

That is from this interview. I dont kown Jim Keller but it is a long and interesting conversation. I liked it when he says he was the laziest person at Tesla!

And actually I found a tab from his company

Love is not enough

Before moving, I went through some piles of papers and found a couple of pieces with the note “Love is not enough”. I am pretty sure they were notes I took from a book of Mark Manson (likely The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck – I need to re-read) And somehow this morning, I got this video in youtube.

Summary:

Love is not enough:

  • Love doesnt equal compatibility: Love is emotional. Compatibility is logical
  • Love doesnt solve your relationship problems (amen)
  • Love is not always worth sacrificing yourself: Dont tolerate behaviours in your partner that you wouldn’t do with your best friend. A loving relationship is supposed to supplement your individual identity, not damage it or repace it.

The only way you can fully enjoy the love in your life is to choose to make something else more important than love.

Friendship > Love

In my case, I dont really think about love but companionship. I think too many times about that “perfect” companion to go through life (good and bad moments). And then I am very solitary person (it gets worse with age). And then you are not sociable, and many things you read tell you that having a strong social support is critical in mental health, life satisfaction, etc. So it is like in the middle of two paths.

Good concert of NIN.