Image courtesy of Peter Myers Intro When I was invited to attend my PhD supervisor’s 60th birthday symposium, it struck me as a rare opportunity to pause and look back on a journey that has, until now, been relentlessly forward-looking. This reflection, prompted by the task of presenting scientific work conducted since leaving my Matt’s group, revealed insights that I want to share here, if only so I can come back and see what it is I have inevitably forgotten....
Motivation As cloud adoption increases, so does the complexity of managing costs. As with any organization, we constantly face challenges related to optimizing and mitigating the risks of cloud spend. With the risk of cloud costs spiralling, it became clear that a more structured approach is needed. Enter FinOps — short for Financial Operations. It’s a discipline that focuses on maximizing business value from cloud spend, allowing companies to make more informed financial decisions around cloud usage....
When it comes to my own productivity, few techniques have helped me as much as time blocking. Earlier this year, I shared some thoughts on this method, praising its ability to slice through the cacophony of daily tasks and distractions. However, in the months since and, as the post-holiday workload surged, I think it is worth a revisit to this topic. The essence of time blocking, for those unfamiliar, lies in its simplicity: allocating specific blocks of time to individual tasks or types of work....
In the whirlwind of technological evolution, generative AI emerged as a beacon of transformative potential. Less than two years ago, the advent of ChatGPT set the tech world ablaze with predictions of a seismic shift that promised to redefine industries, economies, and the fabric of our daily lives. Goldman Sachs, with the precision of seasoned soothsayers, foretold the displacement of 300 million jobs.1 Yet, as we stand eighteen months into this future, the landscape is markedly different from what was prophesised....
It’s time for this years Holiday. Normal service will resume later this month.
Running Linux and working in Cloud and HPC it is common for me to be stumped when problems appear. Indeed that is where the fun is. However, after receiving a link to download some photos from a recent even, I was shocked to see the images were in .heicformat.1 I have never heard of this and was shocked that something as simple as an image file could not be opened easily on my fancy, sleek, XPS-13....
Thoughts here are my own In the ever-evolving landscape of technology and artificial intelligence (AI), the decision by the new Labour government to shelve £1.3bn of funding promised by the previous Conservatives leadership for tech and AI projects will cast a long shadow over the future of AI, and scientific compute, innovation in the UK.1 This move, while framed as a necessary adjustment to restore economic stability, underscores a deeper, more systemic issue: the vulnerability of technological advancement to the whims of political change....
In the rapidly evolving landscape of technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force, with the promise to reshaping industries and redefining the way businesses operate. As organisations increasingly integrate AI into their operations, a new challenge arises: managing the financial implications of these powerful technologies. This is where Financial Operations (FinOps) comes into play, offering a strategic framework to maximize business value from AI investments. AI’s potential to drive growth and innovation is undeniable....
` Introduction Having spent a significant part of the previous week talking about abstract Quantum Computing problems it was a joy to take a brake and focus on something more tangible. I was lucky enough to attended a weekend woodworking course hosted by Lula James - a Christmas gift I finally got a chance to redeem. It was a great introduction to woodworking with hand tools but also a challenge to my current, very digital, work....
Shadows Linger Cover - reproduced under Fair Use The second installment in “The Black Company” series “Shadows Linger” is a strange and sinister story, it bleeds the known and unknown into a dance that means you’re never quite sure what going to happen next. This novel stands out not just for its dark, gritty storytelling but for its intricate narrative structure that weaves together two distinct yet interconnected storylines. Through this dual narrative, Cook explores themes of moral ambiguity, loyalty, and the cost of survival in a world teeming with sorcery and conflict....