Drinker's Digest

DRINKER’S DIGEST

Vol 1, Issue 1 | Jan 2022

06

Being inherently reflective about what has been and what could become especially on a new year, I am sharing, first, the spider web tool (left diagram) which I find useful in evaluating expectations and reality. I wish to share this further, ideally on a mountain hike, over bon fire at night and morning coffee, with some interested parties. Materials are being developed for an online portal. If you are trying to get some clarity on some things, join us on a hike or a coffee.

After some relief on the COVID 19 pandemic lockdown, our last year end-new year getaway was in a serene and photogenic place in Capas, Tarlac called Estancia de Lorenzo (photo next page). I was pleasantly surprised it has a decent swimming pool. All attending staff were all very accommodating. If you are coming there in a bigger group, they have a large roasted Peking Duck which you can order.

Quite a neat trick in working around the energy-intensive deep learning training, engineers are going back analog, via photons, not electrons to push machine learning and artificial intelligence by taking advantage of some linearity properties in multiply and accumulate operations. A snippet is shown on a spread, page 4-5.

If you are a traveler passing by Guimba, Nueva Ecija, I suggest you try the Tonkotsu of The Ramen House, which should be a good break from all the fast food typical on a road trip.

Happy new year!

Drinker’s Digest is a magazine supplement for conversation and reflection about interesting food, places and in between, some engineering notes.

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Estancia de Lorenzo, Dolores, Capas, Tarlac; (63) 917 709 6908

Man loves everything that satisfies his comfort. He hates everything that wants to draw him out of his acquired and secured position and that disturbs him. Thus, he loves the house and hates the art. / AdolfLoos

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Deep Learning and Photonics Hammerly, R. 2022. The future of deep learning is photonic. IEEE Spectrum, July 2021, p31-47

01

In contrast to electronic graphical processing unit (GPU) accelerators, optical processors carry out neural network calculations with photons, instead of electrons.

02

Training a certain deep neural network for natural language processing produced five times the carbon dioxide emission typically accumulated with driving an automobile over its lifetime.

03

Analog computations can be done optically. Optical fibers can support much higher data rates than electrical wires, at lesser power.

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04

Photons follow Maxwell’s equations, which are linear. The trick is to use the linearity of optical devices to do the one thing that deep learning relies on most: linear algebra.

05

The device can perform N multiply and accumulate operations using the same amount of energy to read whether N is small or large. Sometimes, you can save energy on the input side of things, too. That is because the same value is often used as an input to multiple neurons.

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Kabit Pytiago | 2022Jan2

“I will get a kabit.”

“What did you say?!”

“Just wait shortly while I roast the ribs,” she told me before lunch as she unpacked a box from Lammart. “I bought you a glass for your wine.” She raised the slender glass delicately aloft.

“Luxury items, like expensive wines, are not pronounced as they are spelled.” I explained.

“There’s always a silent letter somewhere, as though speaking in hushed tones about mistresses.”

“O, thank you.” I replied.

“That’s the sign for today. I need to go back to S&R. I will get a kabit.”

“Talaga lang, ha” she replied wryly.

“What did you say?” she stopped rummaging through the box with wrinkled forehead as she turned to me.

“You mean a Calvet?”

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THE RAMEN HOUSE Danzalan St., Sta. Veronica, Guimba, Nueva Ecija 0627 458 2064

The Ramen House is quite a brave attempt at recreating Japanese food and ambiance in a tiny rented stall somewhere in the innards of Guimba, Nueva Ecija.

The exterior of the shop is inconspicuous. Once inside, typical Japanese elements are all over the place. Wooden chairs and tables, au naturel. Suspended lanterns. Cherry

blossoms print on the wall. The brand logo in anime theme with faux katakana font. Red, black and white colors.

Our tonkotsu was served promptly in a wide mouth dark bowl, with chopsticks and soup spoon. The ingredients looked and tasted fresh, neither aged nor decaying in storage. The soup was not salty.

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That is not an easy task because as the broth is kept hot all day, the soup tends to lose moisture, thereby concentrating the salt. The noodles were not soggy.

There were no konbanwas, or kimono-themed aprons, or samurai bows, or Nihonggo music. Instead, there’s simply that Pinoy hospitality for a great ramen.