Episodes
-
Bryan and Adam discuss the recent announcement of the discontinuation of the USENIX Annual Technical Conference (ATC), reminiscing about their own visits to the ATC and the impact of the conference. Long-time Oxide Friend, Tom Lyon, joined to dial the reminiscence back a couple more decades!
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by Tom Lyon.
Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
Bryan's blog 2025: RIP USENIX ATCBryan's blog 2004: Wither USENIX?Rob Pike 2000: Systems Software Research is IrrelevantAdam's blog 2004: nohup -pAdam's blog 2009: Triple-Parity RAID-ZUSENIX DTrace paperOxF s1e13: Put the OS back in OSDIOxF s1e4: from /proc to proc_macorOxF s2e22: RIP OptaneIf we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
Matthew Sanabria joins Bryan and Adam to talk about his role at Oxide--Solutions Software Engineer--and how it fits in with engineering, sales, support and marketing. It takes everyone in Busytown! Sound good? Apply!
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by Oxide colleague, Matthew Sanabria.
Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
Solutiuons Software Engineer applicationOxF: the "squeezefish" episodeThe Fallthrough podcastBusytownIf we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
Missing episodes?
-
Last week the kerfuffle between Synadia and CNCF, tussling over the ownership and futures of NATS, bled into the public. The outcome may cast a long shadow for open source and for the CNCF. Bryan and Adam were joined by Rachel Stephens and Adam Jacob to discuss how we got here and possible outcomes.
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by Rachel Stephens Adam Jacob, and Eliza Weisman.
Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
Goats in sweatersCNCF Slide: Why You Should Host Your Project at CNCFCNCF NATS documentsNATS GitHub discussionThe uncashed $10k checkCNCF landscapeCNCF blog on NATS / SynadiaSynadia response to the CNCFPostscript:
The CNCF updated its blog with proof that the ACH transfer of $10,000 was completed [still very funny! -ahl].
Derek Collison--as reported by Runtime News--has agreed to transfer the NATS trademark to the CNCF "because we just feel that the damage to the ecosystem and the ugliness is not worth it for anyone."
If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
Oxide is bringing up its next generation server. To discuss the (amazingly smooth) bringup process, Bryan and Adam were joined by members of the oxide team. Tales of adversity, re-work, un-re-work, and triumph!
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by Oxide colleagues Nathanael Huffman, Ian Sobering, Matt Keeter, and Aaron Hartwig.
We mentioned quite a few terms! Here's a helpful guide:
Cosmo - Oxide’s next-generation sled (currently in development) with an AMD Turin CPUGimlet - Oxide’s current-generation sled with an AMD Milan CPUTurin - AMD Epyc 9005 SeriesMilan - AMD Epyc 7003 SeriesGenoa - AMD Epyc 9004 Series (Oxide chose to skip this generation)Sequencing - the precise control of when power rails are energized throughout a PCBSled - One of the (max 32) computers in an Oxide rack; a custom form-factor optimized for power and cooling efficiencyIBC - Intermediate Bus Converter (Our 54VDC -> 12VDC converter)RoT - Root of TrustSP - Service Processor, the small computer (running Hubris) that allows for low-level controlIgnition - An even lower-level control network for power management (including power of the SP)Ruby - The AMD reference platform (Oxide has used this to prepare Cosmo software in advance of bringup)DC-SCM - https://www.opencompute.org/documents/ocp-dc-scm-spec-rev-1-0-pdf and OpenCompute standard form factor.Grapefruit - OCP DC-SCM form-factor board with our SP, RoT, and FPGA on it, used to replace the OCP DC-SCM baseboard management controller in the Ruby platform.Cadence - Software Oxide previously used for PCB designAltium - Software Oxide now uses for PCB designHubris - Oxide’s embedded operating system, run on the SP and RoTHumility - The Hubris debuggerPLM - Product Lifecycle Management – a class of software used for managing hardware BOMsBOM - Bill of Materials – the components required to build a hardware productRFK - Our colleague, Robert Keith (to distinguish him from our other colleague, Robert, and our former colleague, Keith)FPGA - Field Programmable Gate Array – Also referred to as “soft logic” – effectively programmable hardwareILA - Integrated Logic AnalyzerJTAG - A debugging interface for various processorsUART - A serial port or connectionFor previous tales from the bringup lab:
Tales from the bringup labMore tales from the bringup labBringup Lab Chronicles: A Measurement Two Years in the MakingRaiding the MinibarIf we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
Bryan and Adam have been gushing for months over Character Limit, the fantastic book by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac about Elon Musk's haphazard and disastrous takeover of Twitter. They're joined by the authors themselves to discuss the book, Musk, DOGE, and some of the Character Limit unreleased B-sides.
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, our guests were Ryan Mac and Kate Conger.If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
An Oxide customer encountered a peculiar issue at the intersection of their Oxide network and their broader network. Bryan and Adam were joined by several members of the Oxide team who collaborated to investigate and--ultimately--solve the problem using a combination of tooling, intuition, and dark knowledge.
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by Oxide colleagues, Levon Tarver, Alan Hanson, Will Chandler, and Trey Aspelund.
Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
PRs needed!If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
Much of the work at Oxide goes into hardware and software used to build and test the eventual product. Bryan and Adam were joined by Ian, Doug, and Nathanael to talk about "Minibar", a rig for connecting up an Oxide server (code name: Gimlet) for manufacturing and internal use. Triumphs and catastrophes including stabbing a connector with a guide pin and bringup mishaps!
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers included Ian Sobering, Doug Wibben, and Nathanael Huffman,
Some other, related Oxide and Friends
OxF: Cabling the BackplaneOxF: The Network Behind the NetworkOxF: The Power of ProtoboardsImages from the show:
-
Intel has a new CEO! And it's Lip-Bu Tan. We had assumed it would not be Lip-Bu--he was such a clear front-runner that the more time passed the less likely it seemed it would be him... and yet! Bryan and Adam were joined by Reuter's Max Cherney to discuss.
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, our esteemed guest was Max Cherney; we were also joined by Bryan Russett, and Alex Kesling.
Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
Cooking with Oxide and FriendsThe Oxide John von Neumann bustIntel's new CEO plots overhaul of manufacturing and AI operationsLip-Bu Tan: Remaking Our Company for the FutureIntel oneAPIMorris Chang: "A very discourteous fellow"If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
Recently, a change to a utility in the Rust toolchain changed behavior in a way that impacted users. Rather than being a story of frustration and aspersions, it was a story of a community working... and working well together! Bryan and Adam were joined by Dirkjan Ochtman (of the rustup team) and Steve Klabnik to discuss.
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by special guest, Dirkjan Ochtman, and treasured colleague, Steve Klabnik.
Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
Steve: A Happy Day For RustPRs needed!If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
Bryan and Adam were joined by Oxide colleagues Andrew, Rain, and John to talk about creating a general purpose crate for diffing structures. More generally, how do you know when something new is needed? How do you know when the investment of time to validate an idea is warranted? Software engineering is hard! (And also: general enthusiasm for Rust macros.)
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by Oxide colleagues, Andrew Stone, Rain Paharia, and John Gallagher.
Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
Checking in on Bryan's 1 Year Intel CEO predictionHiring letter to Intel's co-CEOFrom The Register "Re-hire Gelsinger!"Oxide RFD 457: Control plane sled lifecycleOxide RFD 459: Control plane component lifecycledaft cratediffus crateIf we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
The value of transparency in engineering can have huge benefits--nothing can compare to the momentum of an enthusiastic community! Bryan and Adam discuss the value of transparency at the hardware/software interface with Oxide colleague, Ryan Goodfellow. Transparency can be scary--especially in the hardware domain where secrecy is the norm--but once we knock down some of those fears, the business benefits start to emerge.
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by Oxide colleague, Ryan Goodfellow.
Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
Oxide RFD 552: Transparency in Hardware/Software InterfacesBelling the catopenSILKerckhoff's principlePRs needed!If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
Randy Shoup joined Bryan, Adam, and the Oxide Friends to look at the history of Silicon Valley through the lens of Randy's 50 years--as the child of graphics legend, Dick Shoup; an intern at Intel; aspiring diplomat; engineering leader; and father to the next generation of Shoup engineers.
-
Ratatui is a Rust framework for building rich--and incredible--UIs in the terminal. Bryan and Adam were joined by Orhun Parmaksız, who leads the project, to discuss the glory--as well as the ubiquity and utility!--of TUIs.
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, our special guest was Orhun Parmaksız. We were also joined by slightly-less-special guests Andrew Stone, Rain Paharia, and Josh Clulow.
RatatuiOrhun's blogOrhun's FOSDEM 2025 talk (YT) or (fosdem.org) with slides link etc.MinitelMinitel rust stackratatui on MinitelSpotify player tuiDiscord TUIOrhun: tui-rs to ratatui transition blog postOxF: Oxide's ratatui based configurationtui-rsOxF: Describing the Oxide management networkRatzillaTerminal Collectivetui web bub / artratatui testing with snapshotsrizzuptui-realmAsterion (game)
Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
DeepSeek was a disruptive surprise at the start of 2025--an open weights model trained at a fraction of the cost of previous models. Bryan and Adam were joined by Andy Hock and James Wang from Cerebras, whose wafer-scale silicon executes these models faster than is possible with any number of GPUs.
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by Andy Hock, and James Wang, both of Cerebras.
Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
interactive inference with Cerebras100x Defect Tolerance: How Cerebras Solved the Yield ProblemTweet from Eric MeijerOuroborusQuine RelaySimon Willison’s Weblog when DeepSeek fell from spaceTweet from Naveen RaoBONUS
MST3K archiveIf we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by Oxide colleague, Robert Mustacchi.
Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
Experiences Porting KVM to SmartOSMeltdown and SpectreRobert's "Big Theory Statement" for MACRobert's "Big Theory Statement" for cpuidAGESAOxF: Put the OS back in OSDIOxide RFD 63: Network ArchitectureOxide RFD 82: Motivations and Principles for the Design of Operator FacilitiesOxide RFD 88: Chassis Management Responsibility AllocationIf we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
Love Rust? Us too. One of its great strengths is its ecosystem of crates. Rain, Eliza, and Steve from the Oxide team join Bryan and Adam to talk about the crates we love.
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by Rain Paharia, Eliza Weisman, and Steve Klabnik.
Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
prettypleasewinnowBlessed.rs crate listAdam's codegen templatemietteeliza_errorserde_path_to_errorratatuiRatatui episode on January 27th!modular-bitfieldlexoptloomOxF: Software VerificationpaloozaCDSCHECKER: Checking Concurrent Data Structures Written with C/C++ AtomicsThe Postcard Wire FormatpostcardBBQueue Explained [video]petgraphU2MatrixGraph in petgraph::matrix_graphWhat does ## (double hash) do in a preprocessor directive? - Stack Overflowsamitbasu/rhdl: A Hardware Description Language based on the Rust Programming LanguagehttpmockcaminoOxF: The episode formerly known as ℔OxF: Dijkstra's Tweetstorm - YouTubeevmapbuf-listIf we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
The annual predictions tradition returns for 2025! Bryan and Adam were joined by Simon Willison, Mike Cafarella, Steve Tuck, and Steve Klabnik to review past predictions and look 1-, 3-, and 6-years into the future.
See the table of predictions on GitHub.
-
Bryan and Adam look back on the year of Oxide and Friends episodes, reflecting on favorite shows, moments, and (at length) cover images.
Your hosts were Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal.Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
Oxide and Friends 2024 in ImagesOxF: Musing With Changelog's Adam StacoviakOxF: I know this!OxF: What's taking so long?XKCD: DependencyOxF: Discovering the XZ Backdoor with Andres FreundMaking the background imageOxF: Open Source LLMs with Simon WillisonOxF bonus blather 9/16/2024OxF: Cultural IdiosyncrasiesOxF: Technical BloggingOxF: RFDs: the Backbone of OxideOxF: RTO or GTFOOxF: Unshrouding TurinOxF: Adversarial Machine LearningOxF: Innovation StagnationOxF: Heterogeneous Computing with Raja KoduriIf we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
Paul Frazee joins Bryan, Adam, and the Oxide Friends to talk about the inner workings of Bluesky and the AT Protocol. Paul and the Bluesky team have been working on decentralized systems for years and years--very cool to see both the next evolutionary step in those ideas and their successful application in Bluesky!
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers included our special guest, Paul Frazee, and slightly-less-special guest, Steve Klabnik.
Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
ScuttlebuttBluesky FirehoseBluesky JetstreamBluesky and the AT ProtocolBluesky Feed: Quiet PostersBluesky's bot invasion: AI accounts argue with everything you postAI Imagery labeleratprotoOxide starter packIf we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!
-
Bryan and Adam were joined by Theo Schlossnagle, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, and Steve O'Grady to talk about conferences in tech. A lot has changed in the past couple of decades about the impetus for conferences and what makes it worthwhile to attend.
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers included Theo Schlossnagle, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, and Steve O'Grady.
The lightly edited live chat from the show:
ellie.idb: 2005, huh? y’all met when i was 2goodjanet: yea i was younger than 10 loljgrillo_: I was just thinking I feel very young because I was a junior in high school but not anymore lolaka_pugs: my first conference - 1975ellie.idb: oxide appeals to the youthjbk1234: my first one was LISA in 05 or 06... mostly because it took a near act of god because my director didn't believe in sending his people to conferencesjgrillo_: "before software ate the world" is what I usually call "when the internet was still fun"ellie.idb: my earliest memory was, uhhh, Google I/O 2008 when they gave every attendee that android phoneellie.idb: i don’t recall which one it was, but i do remember playing with it when i was 5 hahahahataitomagatsu: I've only been to one tech conference in person, and it was a very tame SIGGRAPH that happened in Santiago, CL (I live in Chile). It was a lot about animation. I wanted it to have talks on image processing like the ones over on the US x3 but oh well, beggars can't be choosersgoodjanet: I've never been to a tech conferencedevdsp2175: The Germans know how to run a conference. The chaos communications congress is wild.ellie.idb: same!! never actually attended one as an adult hahahataitomagatsu: Have you attended one remotely?goodjanet: nope, closest is just watching recorded talks after the facttaitomagatsu: I attended the rustconf of 2 years ago remotely. It was amazing and I was soooo tired by the end of it. Brain got depleted of juice for the daynetwork2501: looking forward to in person dtrace conference with a dedicated zball roomahl0003: more of a trade show, but I went to the MacWorld conference in the late '90sahl0003: I still have some BeOS install CDs from thengoodjanet: im so thankful for recorded talksahl0003: this is kind of wild: I went with my brother who was 12 or so and we met a guy at Be... my brother would go on to work with him 30 years later!ellie.idb: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Droid the OG droid with the flip up keyboard and everythingtocococa: ISCA this year was just around the corner from Santiago in Buenos Aires and it was pretty cool, and CARLA took place this year in Santiago tooblacksmithforlife: Since I can never get a conference approved from work, I live off recorded conference videos on YouTubenetwork2501: best momdevdsp2175: The shade! Sending hugs to Bryan's inner child.taitomagatsu: daaaaaamn, I didn't know about either! I might keep an eye on ISCA, maybe I can go next year ❤️devdsp2175: You can't record the hallway track...jh179: Bryan's talk for Papers We Love on the History of Containers is how I found out about him, Oxide and all the rest. Had an incredible tangent about jails...zeanic: Conference idea: all hallway tracksdevdsp2175: YouTube keeps recommending Bryan's talks on running containers on the metal at Joyant.devdsp2175: And I keep watching them!ellie.idb: wow, ISCA had some really fucking cool talks this yearellie.idb: damn. i’m adding this to my watch list too!!! i’ll try and see if i can get funding for next year hahahatocococa: yeah, 100%, but my brain was melted after every daynahumshalman: Bryan has the luxury of working on OSS. I think the point that Theo was making is that Surge (I only attended the very last one) was a space where you could be open about proprietary stuff. Talking about failure in a safe space, etc.nahumshalman: Ah, Theo is now making that point.taitomagatsu: Does ISCA have any sort of official YT channel?taitomagatsu: Because I might... have a handful of talks to watchgoodjanet: 18 years ago isnt that long ago?network2501: 18 years ago is almost 3 generations of lives/eras agoellie.idb: what HPC conferences are going on? i need to hear about the deets going on with CXLjgrillo_: although 18yr is ~half my life it doesn't feel very long ago..tocococa: I am not sure, I know that all keynotes were recorded, but I don´t know where they might beellie.idb: 21 years ago i was not alive 😅network2501: What if the second time you do the talk it's even better than the last? Like book revisions?ahl0003: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i1OK4y9x0wtaitomagatsu: I've found a channel that has older ISCA videos https://www.youtube.com/@acmsigarch2299, imma keep looking for one that might have the 2024 oneblacksmithforlife: Working in government, watching "old" conference videos is great because they're "cutting edge" for where my organization is at currently. Case in point, we are just now going to the cloud and doing micro servicestaitomagatsu: https://xkcd.com/979/ahl0003: https://craft-conf.com/2025srockets: That’s why I liked !!con so much. No one tries to sell you anything.jgrillo_: I've never owned a car newer than 20yo, that's kind what it's like when you look at the car ads from its eradevdsp2175: Are you also doing an "Agile Transformation" which is neither transformative nor optimising for agility?ahl0003: https://monktoberfest.com/srockets: (Also, Ghent had better bike racing than Budapest)srockets: But worse weatherbcantrill: https://youtu.be/stMEuZJJDck?list=PLvsKqlNNP3R8JKE97pwewsDmZdcO5MEWVdrkellyannfitz: Here are the talks from this year: https://redmonk.com/?series=monktoberfest-2024blacksmithforlife: What does "hallway track" mean?zeanic: Cr... - Show more
