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Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A

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Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A

#361

Post by nielsole »

TickleSteve wrote: post #323
samlewis wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like a very appropriate use of technology to me? If they can get "good enough" results using Linux and running with technologies that the average developer is more likely to know, is it worth the investment in running a RTOS? Especially given running a RTOS will make any higher level app integration more difficult? The benefit of running with Linux outweighs the risk of "lettuce on the floor", imo. Yes, there's…

It would also be 'cheaper' to build a bridge using lego.... Correctness of the solution is important, otherwise we're just playing at being engineers.

To quote you:

> At some point, you will realise that your job is not to create an idol to the software-engineering gods but rather to have a working product.

> Does this product work? if so, its doing its job.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17824782

Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A

#362

Post by Fellshard »

kbutler wrote: post #350
pvg wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but... I didn't say any of that.

> It's a silly definition, not what I want it to mean. You wrote this intending to say, "I'm saying the dictionary definition is silly, not that bigotry should mean what I want it to mean." Instead, the sentence says, "The dictionary definition is silly, [because it's] not what I want it to mean."

That's fair, I likely misinterpreted it that way.

Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A

#363

Post by TickleSteve »

uncreativebrian wrote: post #306
symlinkk wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> compute loads What are you computing? This is what everyone is wondering.

Hey this is Brian and I wrote the article. Great question. 1) MQTT -- we have a lot of cases where we want to share data between physical or "software" devices in-restaurant, without internet connections. MQTT is our primary channel for sharing messages between things, and for collecting data in general to be exfiltrated to the cloud. 2) "Brain" apps -- these are "smart" applications that collect data from MQTT topic…

Good answer, seems we finally got to the meat of the product (no pun intended).

So the current workload doesn't do any of the fancy stuff but is just typical POS stuff with a 'smart' display for orders driven by a process monitoring a few MQTT sources.

You've just put in enough beef to allow for future expansion.

I can honestly say that answer provides more information than the whole original article.

Thank you.

Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A

#364

Post by caconym_ »

weberc2 wrote: post #360
caconym_ wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it wasn't problematic it probably wouldn't be called a paradox. I'm inclined to divide intolerances into two types: intolerances based on what somebody thinks , and intolerance based on what somebody is . I'm further inclined to model intolerances as a directed graph where nodes represent a group of one of those two types, e.g. conservatives and men might be represented by individual nodes of those two types respe…

I think you missed the point of my post, which was that this paradox allows anyone to abuse anyone else if the abuser can convince themselves that the abused is really 'intolerant'. As in the Damore case, a certain political group didn't like his message, so they claimed it contained hidden white/male supremacy messages, which was sufficient to justify his termination and abuse (contrary to your ad hominem post-scrip…

I think you missed the point of mine. Doesn't matter.

A lot of people made a lot of politicized fuss about the Damore thing, but the simple fact is that his document contained offensive generalizations about women and if I was a woman I would not want to work with him. He's free to say whatever he wants; as I said before, though, this is a fine justification for termination.

A lot of people from all sides of the spectrum made it a political issue, because of course they did. The left said Google didn't act quickly or harshly enough and the right acted like Damore's right to speak freely was being taken from him. I'm not one of those people and I'm not interested in discussing the issue in terms of 'ideologies'. Ultimately, as I've said before, what he did does not have to be viewed through a political lens for it to be a legitimate justification for termination.

edit: I said "if I was a woman I would not want to work with him." Actually I would not want to work with him regardless.

Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A

#365

Post by loco5niner »

laurentl wrote: post #156
max_im wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For sure. Meant it more as a response to contents of the article that they've managed to break down their business processes into a subset of (dare I say) microservices that have allowed them to pinpoint weaknesses in efficiency and improve upon them - ie. the waffle fries example mentioned.

On the other hand when reading the article I kept thinking of the poor sod who has to cook a new batch of waffle fries because “The Edge” told him to.

What!? I LOVED my fast food job as a high schooler. It was fast-paced, and good work. I likely would have enjoyed getting instructions from a computer, lol. I certainly wasn't some poor sod.

Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A

#366

Post by loco5niner »

Fellshard wrote: post #337
laurentl wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, looking at it as the computer helping you stay in the flow is certainly a different perspective.

It might be looking back on my time in fast food with a slightly more romanticized lens than most would probably give it. :)

Me too probably. I loved my fast food job in high school. That said, I'm glad I'm not still doing it.

Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A

#367

Post by therealdrag0 »

coffeesn0b wrote: post #162
zzzeek wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just trying to understand, I see three of those machines, inside a pretty nice rack, with the switches, routers, a keyboard, I would assume some fairly high quality hard drive / RAID type of thing etc. then the blog post claims "We run our Edge infrastructure on commodity hardware that costs us, ballpark, $1000/restaurant. ". Just the intel nuc I can find on newegg alone costs $349 each, with no memory or harddri…

This is Caleb (SRE on this project). Here’s a similar NUC we use ... this one is like $300... just an example of what we use; https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1316113-REG/intel_box...

Caleb, I'm working on a project with a similar architecture (on-prem services). I'm curious what your auth-pattern looks like as it's something we've struggled with. Mostly the balance between being convenient and being secure. It seems like each site needs an api key to access your cloud. Do you have an auth-pattern that would prevent the key from being readily available to an attacker who got access to the machine? Or do you kinda just say if they get access to the machine, then it's game over? Also with shoddy networks it is difficult to be confident that key-rotation will happen successfully. Happy to get your thoughts. Cheers.

Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A

#368

Post by behringer »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #339
behringer wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We also have an open dialog with Kim Jong-un; doesn't mean we should applaud the people that work and support him or feel sorry for those workers. They're traitors to the human race, in just the same way that Chick-Fil-A workers are directly responsible for what the company does.

Really? You're equating the "workers" of CFA to Kim Jong-un? Nothing changes with attitudes like that.

No I'm equating the CEO Dan T. Cathy to Kim Jong-un. This guy's a scumbag who loves nothing better than commanding the world to follow his hypocritical commands, and his staff are personally responsible for supporting this behavior by going along with it. I can't say I have any respect for him, his company or the people who work for him. The US should simply outlaw his antisocial policies because that's the right thing to do.

Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A

#369

Post by loco5niner »

uncreativebrian wrote: post #307
TickleSteve wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, there is some hand-waving about "kitchen equipment" and "low latency". No business case for avoiding more traditional architecture.

Hey this is Brian and I wrote the article. Personally I don't love "hand waving" so I'd love to answer your question. Its a personal mission now :) Can you help me understand what you mean by "more traditional architecture"? I'd be happy to share more about why we chose k8s vs alternatives.

Hey Brian, did you write the article? ;-)

I've enjoyed reading (all) your comments here. Just wanted to chime in and say I have a great appreciation for what CFA does and have had great experiences with the app and in general the entire ordering process at CFA. I've been, in fact, quite impressed. Nice to read about the stuff in the background that helps make that happen.

Doesn't hurt that every employee I've interacted with at CFA has been courteous, kind, and respectful.

Re: Edge Computing at Chick-fil-A

#370

Post by loco5niner »

rb666 wrote: post #334
uncreativebrian wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is Brian -- I wrote the article. We are closed on Sunday but its not dogmatic in nature. We want to make sure that everyone at Chick-fil-A has a great work/life balance. Occasionally we need to do some work on a Sunday but we try to architect and engineer in a manner that supports business-hours-friendly deployments, or scheduled deployments over night to protect that. This is truly a first-class design consider…

Just don't bring up your gay cousin.

I've always found CFA employees to be kind, courteous, and respectful.
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