52 Weeks of Cloud

Noah Gift
  • 5.0 (4)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY
52 Weeks of Cloud

A weekly podcast on technical topics related to cloud computing including: MLOPs, LLMs, AWS, Azure, GCP, Multi-Cloud and Kubernetes.

  1. 47 MIN. AGO

    What I Cannot Create, I Do Not Understand

    Feynman's famous blackboard contained two key insights that apply directly to learning AI: build to understand and master solved problems. At Pragmatic AI Labs, this translates to implementing core components (like token processors and embeddings) from scratch before using frameworks, and studying successful architectures to understand proven solutions. The approach emphasizes hands-on building over memorization, with students encouraged to break and rebuild systems while progressing from raw implementations to production frameworks across Python, Rust, SQL, Bash, and Zig.

    5 min

  2. 1 DAY AGO

    Rise of Microcontainers

    A technical exploration of micro-containers demonstrates how containerized applications under 100KB, built with compiled languages like Zig, Rust, and Go, offer revolutionary potential compared to multi-gigabyte Python containers. Through ten use cases including edge IoT on ESP32s, WASM browser integration, serverless cold starts, security hardening, embedded Linux services, accelerated CI/CD pipelines, mesh network distribution, FPGA soft core loading, unikernel comparisons, and AWS Lambda cost optimization, the discussion illustrates how stripping containers to bare compiled binaries enables new capabilities in resource-constrained environments, demonstrated by a 16KB Zig HTTP server running in a scratch container that exemplifies this minimalist approach to modern containerization.

    7 min

  3. 1 DAY AGO

    Software Engineering Job Postings in 2025 And What To Do About It

    The software development job market faces significant headwinds in 2025, with job postings down to COVID-era levels due to rising interest rates, monopolistic big tech behavior, and looming recession risks from tariffs and government workforce reductions. While AI's impact on replacing jobs is overstated, it primarily benefits senior developers by enhancing productivity. Despite these challenges, opportunities exist for developers who focus on value creation through cost reduction, performance optimization with languages like Rust, starting solo companies leveraging cloud infrastructure and LLMs, or relocating to lower-cost regions while maintaining high living standards. Success requires focusing on critical skills that deliver measurable value rather than following technology hypes or management trends.

    15 min

  4. 2 DAYS AGO

    Container Size Optimization in 2025

    Container size optimization in 2025 centers on four key approaches: scratch containers (0MB base) for maximum security and performance with statically linked binaries, Alpine (5MB base) offering a minimal yet functional environment with musl libc, Google's distroless images (10MB base) providing language-specific runtimes without shells or package managers, and Debian-slim (60MB base) delivering a stripped-down but complete Linux environment. The trend toward sub-1MB containers, particularly using modern systems languages like Zig and Rust, enables efficient scaling across embedded devices, serverless platforms, and container orchestration systems while exposing limitations in traditional scripting languages that require full runtime environments.

    9 min

  5. 2 DAYS AGO

    Tech Regulatory Entrepreneurship and Alternative Governance Systems

    Modern tech companies like Uber, Airbnb & Tesla intentionally operate in legal gray areas to force regulatory change. They grow rapidly to become "too big to ban" and mobilize users as political force. Similar to how mafias emerge when government is weak/ineffective, tech companies fill governance gaps but prioritize profits over public good. Both systems push negative impacts onto public - e.g., Airbnb disrupting housing markets, Uber increasing traffic. Key problems: Concentrated corporate power Weakened democracy Regulatory capture Public costs/externalities Reduced competition Solutions for governments: Strengthen democratic institutions Limit corporate political influence Support small business Create public tech alternatives Enforce antitrust Implement wealth taxes Improve public services Core issue is tech companies acting as alternative governments without accountability. Requires balance between innovation and maintaining democratic control. Success depends on competent government delivering efficient services to prevent alternative power structures from emerging.

    21 min

  6. 3 DAYS AGO

    Websockets

    This episode explores WebSocket implementation in Rust, demonstrating how Rust's zero-cost abstractions and ownership model enable efficient real-time communication systems. Using a SQLite-backed WebSocket demo as the practical foundation, we examine the protocol's evolution from HTTP's request-response pattern to full-duplex persistent connections, highlighting Rust's compile-time guarantees and async/await ecosystem for robust connection lifecycle management. The implementation leverages tokio for async runtime efficiency, implements thread-safe SQLite connections, and showcases clean architectural separation through modular design (ws.rs, db.rs, errors.rs). The discussion spans from core WebSocket concepts through Rust-specific optimizations, culminating in real-world applications for resource-constrained environments like embedded systems and space applications, where Rust's predictable memory usage and lack of garbage collection make it particularly suitable for WebSocket implementations.

    8 min

  7. 3 DAYS AGO

    Corporate America: A life of Quiet Desperation and How To Resist and Escape

    Drawing on Thoreau's concept of "quiet desperation" and Graeber's analysis of b******t jobs, this podcast episode frames corporate America as a system of soft authoritarianism that controls workers' time, location, thoughts, and value creation. The speaker outlines how corporations maintain power through standardized pay, ethical flexibility, and worker dependence, while offering a "Shawshank Redemption" inspired escape strategy: minimize corporate engagement, develop valuable skills independently, save 2+ years of living expenses, and build uncorrelated income streams through consulting and investments, ultimately aiming for authentic living and freedom from wage slavery.

    26 min

  8. 4 DAYS AGO

    Memory Allocation Strategies with Zig

    The podcast discusses Zig's memory management approach, contrasting it with C and Rust. Unlike C's error-prone manual management or Rust's compile-time ownership system, Zig uses explicit allocators with runtime checks. It offers four main allocator types: the General Purpose Allocator for careful tracking, Arena Allocator for bulk temporary allocations, Fixed Buffer Allocator for stack-only memory, and Page Allocator for large OS-level blocks. Each serves different use cases, from embedded systems to large applications. Zig's approach results in significantly smaller binaries and runtime overhead compared to Rust - a "Hello World" program in Zig is about 300KB versus Rust's 1.8MB, and a basic HTTP server in Zig can be as small as 300KB compared to Rust's 2MB. The key difference is that Zig prioritizes explicit, transparent memory management with runtime error detection, while Rust enforces safety through compile-time checks with a larger runtime cost. The speaker suggests Zig could complement Rust, particularly for specialized use cases requiring minimal binary size or runtime overhead.

    9 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

A weekly podcast on technical topics related to cloud computing including: MLOPs, LLMs, AWS, Azure, GCP, Multi-Cloud and Kubernetes.

Information

  • Creator
    Noah Gift
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2025
  • Episodes
    180
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2021-2024 Pragmatic AI Labs

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