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Once again , some supremely well-thought and useful content from Oxide:  https://rfd.shared.oxide.computer/rfd/0576 This time it is about the use of LLMs within Oxide , here are my main take aways: start from values ! A phenomenal example of how values can be so much more than the vanity checklist that most companies use them for focus on the receiving end : why should I spend time reading something that the author did not think was worth enough spending the necessary time to write it? Again, goes back to their strongly writing-oriented culture and values corollary of item number 2: self review AI-generated code before asking others to review it!

Thoughtworks just published volume 33 of their Technology Radar . I found some interesting gems in it that I thought were worthwhile re-sharing: LiteLLM : I've been playing around with it to share AWS Bedrock models over a local, OpenAI-compatible API and I am impressed with the breadth of features (for example budgeting). The AI ecosystem is vibrant and flourishing. Continuous Compliance : so happy to see this mentioned! Personally I would expand the term to include other compliance tools like Vanta and I am convinced that this kind of automation and software will be essential for organizations to scale while meeting increasing regulatory demands. AGENTS.md : as someone who reads Simon's Willison blog, this is no surprise and a welcome confirmation (another file to watch out for:  CLAUDE.md ). Oxide : I wrote this post almost exclusively to mention Oxide 😅, a company I admire. Whenever people ask me about my cloud exit strategy, my answer is: Oxide. Here's why .

I feel that terms like full stack developer and generalist ran out of steam and don't capture the attention they should IMO, enter versatile . I came across it while listening to  Scaling Manufacturing  and, surely enough, when I went to check Oxide Principles , Versatility is listed under Values:  Versatility: while we must naturally specialize, our bold mission also demands that any of us may need to apply ourselves in a new domain – and indeed, that many of us will be doing this much of the time.

There's not a lot of content out there talking about physical product manufacturing, so when I saw the episode on Scaling Manufacturing on my podcast queue I jumped right into it. Here are my highlights: Testing - while manufacturing - as early as possible If you've been aware of DevOps and Continuous Integration this will sound rather obvious, but it's always interesting to see these principles working in areas outside of software development. Medusa : Oxide's front plane loopback board which helps identify issues with high performance cabling as early as possible Reverso : a "mock" compute sled which allows Oxide to test the cable back plane without needing a compute sled Single sourcing components as a relationship investment Apple is - famously - another company that does single-sourcing (can't find the quote ATM). Here's how Oxide explains it : it's been really great working with our suppliers and they really are Oxide fans. Um, which is nic...

From time time there's an episode of Oxide and Friends that has content interesting enough that I feel like putting up with the hosts chattiness. To be clear: I love it, but time is a scarce resource so sometimes I stop after 10 minutes talking about Silicon Valley. Anyhow I listened to this episode and loved this quote so much, it makes me want to apply at Oxide!

When you have, when your engineers know what the right answer is, but they also feel that the right answer is culturally unobtainable, you have a cultural problem. Bryan Cantrill on Intel after Gelsinger @ 33:22

The XZ backdoor has been covered extensively in various writings, but I had to listen to this episode because it features Andres Freund, who discovered the backdoor: https://oxide.computer/podcasts/oxide-and-friends/1843393 And of course, Bryan Cantrill did not disappoint. His energy and passion, together with the unique views and understanding he has around topics that are otherwise trite and thought to be well understood , to me looks pretty much like how a reality distortion field would work. The big revelation for me is that we've all been featured in a movie. You know the classic movie plot in which one person finds something out, and then they go about telling everybody about it, and nobody believes them but they take it upon themselves to save the world? That's what happened, well except everybody took Andres seriously from the beginning this time. And the world was saved. Pheeewww. Well, it was saved this time.