PresentationsGreen AI: Making Machine Learning Environmentally Sustainable
Abstract
After considering the significance of the carbon footprint of AI, Charles will offer practical strategies to reduce environmental impact at each stage of the AI lifecycle. These strategies include using smaller datasets, leveraging transfer learning, employing model compression techniques, and considering edge computing.
Slides
Writing Greener Software Even When You Are Stuck On-Prem
Abstract
There is a real efficiency advantage in high compute density via managed cloud services. Such services, which can share resources between thousands or millions of users, can achieve extremely high hardware and energy utilisation. Because of this, an awful lot of the still rather limited publicly available material on writing software with sustainability in mind emphasises shifting to cloud services. But what happens if you can't?
In this session Charles will explain why he believes we all need to be focussed on green software. He will offer practical ways to assess where you currently are in terms of your systems, advice for how to improve, and the role code and language efficiency play. Finally, he’ll offer suggestions for how to persuade your leadership that this is all a good idea, and look at some of the tools and resources that are available to help you get to grips with this rapidly evolving and fascinating area of computing.
Slides
Resources
Data sources:
Sulphur dioxide emissions
Ozone layer
Hockey stick
Cost of low carbon technology
Google 24/7 by 2030
Apple iPhone 14 environmental report
Energy proportionality
Microsoft sustainability report
Google sustainability report
Putting a CO2 figure on a piece of computation
Assessment tools:
Maturity matrix
Measurement:
GSF measurement guide and formula
Kepler (Kubernetes Efficient Power Level Exporter)
Electricity Maps
Cloud Carbon Footprint
AWS Customer Carbon Footprint Tool
Azure Emissions Impact Dashboard
Google Carbon Footprint
Demand shifting and shaping:
What are demand shifting and shaping?
Google case study
Windows 11 case study
XBOX case study
Apple clean energy charging
Books:
The Developer's Guide to Cloud Infrastructure, Efficiency and Sustainability by Charles Humble
Building Green Software by Anne Currie, Sarah Hsu, Sara Bergman
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates
Not the End of the World by Hannah Richie
Video
Remote Working Approaches That Worked (And Some That Didn’t)
Abstract
During the pandemic many people experienced remote working for the first time, but they experienced it in a way that was, inevitably, rushed and forced.
As organisations, governments, and individuals continue to deal with the aftershocks and try to work out what the future of work looks like, I want to share practical tips drawing from nearly two decades of working remotely in multiple organisations.
We’ll look at topics including:
- How to decide if remote working is right for you
- Common pitfalls of remote working and how to mitigate against them
- Specific techniques for managing remote teams
- How companies can create a shared sense of purpose with an all-remote workforce
Whilst primarily aimed at remote workers and managers, I hope the talk will also contain helpful advice for anyone in a management/leadership role, even those not dealing with an entirely remote team. Although I think that remote working amplifies some challenges, many of these exist in non-remote environments too.
Slides
Video
Doing remote work for the long-term is actually quite hard in weirdly unexpected ways you need to be aware of.
Writing For Nerds - Blogging For Fun and (Not Much) Profit
Abstract
I’m increasingly convinced that as an industry we need to get much better at sharing our knowledge with each other. Unfortunately many of us engineers suffer from a common affliction: fear of writing. It often starts at school where we were told we didn’t have a “gift for words”.
This is nonsense. Writing is a craft, and the principles of it can be learnt.
Over the last eight years, at both InfoQ and Container Solutions, I've helped hundreds of developers become better writers. With this talk I want to show you some of the parallels between programming and writing. I’ll also explain the process I use, explore some patterns that can help you to think about how to communicate your ideas, share some of the tips and tricks you can use to write well, and discuss how you get published.
By doing so I hope to inspire more engineers to get excited about sharing their knowledge.
Slides
Video
I like to think of drafting as exploring the problem domain by whatever means works for you.
