Large Language Marmalade

October 29, 2023 by Jay Cuthrell

Share and discuss on LinkedIn or HN

This week we take a look at Large Language Model (LLM) hype, LLM Operations (LLMOps), Help A Reporter Out (HARO), and Site Reliabiity Engineer (SRE) learnings over the past twenty (20!) years.

Adobe Firefly prompt: “A photo of a marmalade jar with a blank front label on an old wooden table” Canva manually added label text: “Large Language Marmalade”

In Case You Missed It

As with the LLM humor above, I’ve noticed that my comments on LinkedIn might not be visible to all Fudge Sunday newsletter subscribers so I’m experimenting with adding them in a weekly summary batch here.

LLM

Epiphany: “LLM” stands for “Large Language Marmalade”. Why? Many businesses will try to smear it on everything.

Source: LinkedIn

If hammer devotees see everything as nails, then LLM devotees see everything as toast.

Robotics, Traditions, and Racing

As I once said on LinkedIn, regarding the under 2 second pitstop of Formula 1…

Insert obligatory arguments around Formula 1 / Formula E rules for automation technology permission space, racing tradition, spectator appetites, and the very real window for seeing refueling / power cell swapping and tires via competitively trained human machine partnership tuned robotic systems — an ever more efficient future seems like the next progression in their respective series. Also, something something NASCAR, right?

Source: LinkedIn

Platform Engineering

As I mentioned in a recent webinar, digital product engineering for product led growth needs developer experience centered platform engineering.

Source: LinkedIn

Post Converged Hyperconverged Disaggregated Composable Cloud in a Can

For former VCE folks, this Oxide Computer Company blog post is worth a read.

Source: Oxide

FinOps Family Updates

As an Executive Member on the AWS Partner Advisory Board, it is great to see the FinOps Foundation and FinOps community growing with the addition of a new premier member — Welcome AWS! As I typically reference FinOps as being cloud fiscal responsibility, knowing the team behind AWS Cloud Financial Management (CFM) Services is officially part of the FinOps community really means a lot.

Source: AWS

Remember… It’s Not Easy Being GreenDevSecFinOps and big thanks to Nat Darke for bringing the latest Google Cloud green update to my attention — Google Workspace Updates: Track the carbon footprint associated with the usage of Google Workspace across your organization

Modern Mobile Maker

Being able to open a free visual editor (GitHub) on my glassy stainless steel touch screen mobile terminal (iPhone), edit a file in markdown format, checkin changes, commit changes — all while wirelessly connected to the Internet (5G) — and have a third party batch job service (Netlify) rebuild the file into a page within an entire website rendered as flat HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, etc. optimized for performance (Cloudflare) and served over HTTPS is something I don’t think my 1995 self would recognize… but would relish learning more about.

Source: LinkedIn

And I could add to that… and after publishing to the web, send that web content as an email to over a thousand readers around the world (Buttondown)

Workplace Thoughts

“Let’s row in the same direction so that we see eye to eye and are on the same page” #idioms 🚣 👀 📃

Source: LinkedIn

IME, an “Antoine de Saint-Exupéry” approach to #hiring those with longing for the sea (vs. lists of requirements to build a boat) attracts a potent mix of curiosity, passion, & competency 🤓📊☁️🚀

Source: LinkedIn

“Math on tape is hard to follow, so: Please Listen Carefully”

https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxejfCou0ErGVsEhP6pju4wUzuyLGW6pll

As a reminder…

Online, a common acronym is IANAL (I am not a lawyer). Perhaps we should consider IANALLM (I am not a large language model) be added to the lexicon.

Source: LinkedIn

Here comes LLMOps

I’ve written about Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) before.

Toast and marmalade aside, the portamanteau of LLM and Operations is likely. Hence, here comes LLMOps.

Source: Insight Partners

15 years of HARO

Help A Reporter Out (HARO) was founded by Peter Shankman who was becoming more well known in social media circles by 2007 on platforms like Twitter. I signed up for HARO in 2008.

Two of my interviews with reporters even made it on the FM radio. National Public Radio to be exact.

Microsoft Mobile in 2010

NPR American Public Media’s Marketplace (2010) needed a tasty sound bite about the attempts by Microsoft to get their mobile strategy right. I obliged.

Cuthrell: I think it is a lost cause. They are never going to find their way into my pocket.

Back in 2010, Microsoft had a market cap was +$230B.

11 years later, Microsoft has a market cap of $2460B.

In my defense, the goal was to Help A Reporter Out not to Help An Investor Out. 🥸

Also, Microsoft did in fact find their way into my pocket… just not as an Operating System (OS). Rather, Microsoft earned my appreciation with incredibly polished Office apps on my various corporately managed smart phones for the past +5 years.

Facebook Fatigue in 2011

Once again, NPR American Public Media’s Marketplace (2011) needed a blurb about Facebook and I provided the curmudgeonly old man shakes fist at cloud meme. When asked if Facebook fatigue was setting in… I, again, obliged.

Cuthrell: Absolutely. I think I had 1,000 or more friends or more and I just couldn’t keep track of it. Pokes, and vampire bites or zombie bites or mob hits. But from my point of view, it’s noise.

Clearly, “A place for friends” was not a place for me. Presently, I don’t use Meta (Facebook) products if I don’t have a solid business reason and don’t plan to. 🤷‍♂️

Back in 2011, Facebook was a private company but went on to IPO with a market cap of +$100B.

12 years later, Meta (Facebook) has a market cap of +$800B.

Once again, in my defense, the goal was to Help A Reporter Out not to Help An Investor Out. 🥸

HARO in 2013

Recently, I checked back in with HARO after roughly a decade of, well, not logging in to the system. But, I was amused that a past HARO pitch was still present from 2013!

Title: First responder and fleet management goes prosumer
Pitch: Having 4G in your car means that all the things first responders and fleet management technology companies have been able to do are just around the corner for consumers. Police have been using mobile access routers for years. Think of them as those personal wifi hotspot devices you see in your local mobile phone store or the commercials on TV lamenting bad folk music at the coffee place where you get free WiFi. Having this kind of personal hotspot in the car is one possibility but having a high speed connection to the cloud is the other. Imagine dash cam video publishing to YouTube and you aren’t too far off from the future.

HARO (and elsewhere) in 2023

I’ve re-upped with HARO. We’ll see what comes of it.

Maybe you’ll hear me on the radio again soon. Just, please don’t construe anything I say as investment advice. 🤣

What’s also interesting is that LinkedIn hashtag for “haro” has less than 200 followers where a the LinkedIn hashtag for “journorequest” has 2000 followers.

In parallel, I’m also refreshing my profile on Qwoted too.