Kagi 又恢復 $10/mo 的 Unlimited Search Plan 了

Kagi 公告 $10/mo 的 Unlimited Search Plan:「Unlimited Kagi searches for $10 per month」。

今天公告以後可以看到有個比較抖一點的成長,但要再觀察看看是不是持續的:

翻了一下文章,還是沒看到為什麼要這樣做,尤其是財務上的理由... 最早從 $10/mo 漲到 $25/mo 就是成本問題,我的猜測是現在有量了所以 discount 比較好談 (從 9/6 的「Kagi Search Stats」的 8034 與現在的相比,的確可以看到一直在成長),然後談完 discount 後重算成本結構,發現有機會衝一波?

也有可能是 VC 那邊有進展?像是找到比較願意放手讓 Kagi 執行這樣的理念的 VC?

Anyway,$10/mo 又回來了...

Google 翻譯的中文詞彙

先前在網路上看到「Google 翻譯修好了沒? Has Google Fixed Translate Yet?」這個網站,看起來是 2021 年的時候建立的,整理出來希望可以改善 Google 翻譯在台灣所使用的中文 (zh-tw) 的翻譯品質,上面列了五十幾個詞彙,記得當時只有一個有修正,其他都還是中國或是香港的用語。

(話說 Google 翻譯的介面好像沒有分台灣跟香港...)

因為看到有英文的說明,就順手丟上 Hacker News:「Has Google Translate been fixed yet? (isgooglefixed.tw)」,還蠻意外的有些關注與討論... 大概是因為這樣,可能讓 Google 內有個整理過資料可以開 issue,過了一個月,上個禮拜陸陸續續被修正了不少詞彙,目前剩下的那幾個比較接近詞彙準確性的問題。

下一個可能是 Google Maps 上面的翻譯問題?就算切到 zh-tw 下還是會出現港式翻譯:

而把 Google Maps 英文版上看到的「Chophouse restaurant」丟進 Google Translate 翻譯是:

Cavium (被 Marvell 併購) 在 Snowden leak 中被列為 SIGINT "enabled" vendor

標題可能會有點難懂,比較簡單的意思就是在 Snowden 當年 (2013) 洩漏的資料裡面發現了不太妙的東西,發現 Cavium (現在的 Marvell) 的 CPU 有可能被埋入後門,而他們家的產品被一堆廠商提供的「資安產品」使用。

出自 X (Twitter) 上面提到的:

這段出可以從 2022 年的「Communication in a world of pervasive surveillance」這份文件裡面找到,就在他寫的 page 71 (PDF 的 page 90) 的 note 21:

While working on documents in the Snowden archive the thesis author learned that an American fabless semiconductor CPU vendor named Cavium is listed as a successful SIGINT "enabled" CPU vendor. By chance this was the same CPU present in the thesis author’s Internet router (UniFi USG3). The entire Snowden archive should be open for academic researchers to better understand more of the history of such behavior.

Ubiquiti 直接中槍...

而另一方面,在 Hacker News 上的討論「Snowden leak: Cavium networking hardware may contain NSA backdoor (twitter.com/matthew_d_green)」就讓人頭更痛了,像是當初 Cavium 就有發過新聞稿提到他們是 AWS CloudHSM 的供應商:「Cavium's LiquidSecurity® HSM Enables Hybrid Cloud Users to Synchronize Keys Between AWS CloudHSM and Private Clouds」。

而使用者也確認有從 log 裡面看到看到 Cavium 的記錄:

Ayup. We use AWS CloudHSM to hold our private signing keys for deploying field upgrades to our hardware. And when we break the CI scripts I see Cavium in the AWS logs.

Now I gotta take this to our security team and figure out what to do.

居然是 CloudHSM 這種在架構上幾乎是放在 root of trust 上的東西...

X/Twitter 又繼續在搞競爭對手的外部連結了...

八月的時候提過「X/Twitter 在惡搞外部連結結果被抓包玩陰的」這個,X (Twitter) 故意對某些網站 delay 個幾秒鐘再重導,當時爆料出來後就馬上拿掉了,結果這幾天又被抓到故技重施:「Twitter is Still Throttling Competitors’ Links—Check for Yourself」。

依照測試,Meta 家的 FacebookInstagram 以及 Threads 都中獎,另外沒什麼意外的,Twitter 前頭頭跳出來開的 Bluesky 也都有被搞...

而且這次爆料出來後也沒有「迅速修正」了,到目前也都還是如此... 來看看後續?

IPv6 Excuse Bingo (IPv6 理由伯賓果?)

在「AWS IPv4 Estate Now Worth $4.5B (toonk.io)」這邊的討論意外的看到「IPv6 Excuse Bingo」這個網站...

這個 bingo 是動態的,每次 reload 都會有不同的版本出來,理由超多...

不過實際用 IPv6 network 後會發現各種鳥問題真的多,之前 (到現在) 最經典的就是 HECogent 的 IPv6 network 因為錢的問題談不攏而不通的問題,在維基百科上面就有提到從 2009 年開始就不通了:

There is a long-running dispute between the provider Cogent Communications and Hurricane Electric. Cogent has been refusing to peer settlement-free with Hurricane Electric since 2009.

所以夠大的服務如果要弄 IPv6 都得注意到這點,像是 CDN 或是 GeoIP-based load balancer 就不能把 Cogent 的用戶導到 HE 的位置上面,反之亦然。

不過話說 AWS 手上有 128M 個 IPv4 address,整個 IPv4 address 的空間也才 4.29B,也就是說光 AWS 手上就有大約 3% 的 IPv4 address 空間,如果扣掉不可用的區段的話就更高了...

EC2-Classic 完全退役

Amazon 家的老大 (CTO & VP) Werner Vogels 貼了關於 EC2-Classic 完全退役的文章:「Farewell EC2-Classic, it’s been swell」。

2021 年的時候 AWS 的 Jeff Barr 宣布了 EC2-Classic 的退役計畫:「EC2-Classic Networking is Retiring – Here’s How to Prepare」,我當時也整理了「AWS 宣佈 EC2-Classic 退役的計畫」這篇。

當時的時間表是期望在 2022/08/15 全部退役:

On August 15, 2022 we expect all migrations to be complete, with no remaining EC2-Classic resources present in any AWS account.

但後來還是晚了整整一年,到 2023/08/15 (剛好晚了一年) 才全部退役:

On August 15, 2023, we shut down the last instance of Classic.

而公告上面的更新則是在 2023/08/23 更新:

Update (August 23, 2023) – The retirement announced in this blog post is now complete. There are no more EC2 instances running with EC2-Classic networking.

因為真的太久沒用了,看了 Werner Vogels 的描述才能回想起來當時的架構,似乎是有一大鍋這件事情,靠 security group 拆開大家:

When we launched EC2 in 2006, it was one giant network of 10.2.0.0/8. All instances ran on a single, flat network shared with other customers. It exposed a handful of features, like security groups and Public IP addresses that were assigned when an instance was spun up.

順便提一下 Werner Vogels 文章的開頭提到了 AWS 很少將服務退役,即使是 2007 年推出的 Amazon SimpleDB 也還是繼續在跑,即使現在主推的是 DynamoDB

Retiring services isn’t something we do at AWS. It’s quite rare. Companies rely on our offerings – their businesses literally live on these services – and it’s something that we take seriously. For example SimpleDB is still around, even though DynamoDB is the “NoSQL” DB of choice for our customers.

用「List of AWS Services Available by Region」這頁查了一下,SimpleDB 的區域意外的還不少,在 us-east-1us-west-1us-west-2ap-southeast-1ap-southeast-2ap-northeast-1eu-west-1 以及 sa-east-1

不過話說這開頭是不是在偷臭隔壁棚 XDDD

Kagi 常態公開他們的訂閱數量

在「Kagi Search Stats (kagi.com)」這邊看到 Kagi 公開了訂閱數量:「Kagi Search Stats」。在「Changelog」裡面可以看到發表的資訊,可以看到也沒有給太多解釋。

現在是 7945 users + 232 family plan 的收入 (但不確定到底是合併算還是分開算),另外大約是 150K/day (週間) 與 110K/day (週末) 的 query 量。

成長速度看起來不太快,目前看起來是一個禮拜大概多 100 users,如果等比例的話,一年大概多 5k users?

交叉看一下去年九月的時候寫的資料,差不多就剛好是一年前的文章:「Kagi status update: First three months」。

一年前支出的部分大約是 $26K/mo 左右;粗粗算一下現在的 query 量,假設還是一樣的成本結構,現在大約是 $50K/mo,但今年多了很多 AI 的 API cost,所以應該還會再加上去...

We are currently serving around 2.1M queries a month, costing us around $26,250 USD/month.

一年前提到有 2.6k users,當時只有單一方案 US$10/mo;現在是 7.9k users,不過方案比較多,而且後來進來的人費用有調漲,如果還是拿以前的單價來算的話大約是 US$79k。

Kagi search is currently serving ~2,600 paid customers.

當年提到 $26k/mo 的收入差不多就只能 cover 基礎建設,人事費用就還得從各種 funding 支付;現在應該是能夠額外 cover 一些些人事的部分?

Between Kagi and Orion, we are currently generating around $26,500 USD in monthly recurring revenue, which incidentally about exactly covers our current API and infrastructure costs.

GitLab 想要支援 ActivityPub

看到「Support ActivityPub for merge requests」這則消息,這個 epic 的作者 Derek Ferguson 可以看到是 GitLab 家的「Group Manager, Product」,看起來是產品團隊的主管職 (不是很確定)。

這張 epic 想建立跨 GitLab 服務之間的 ecosystem:

There already has been several very popular discussions around this (see here, here and the epic here). The gist of it is: what people really want is to have one global "Gitlab network" to be able to interact between various projects without having to register on each of their hosts.

不過目前像是在討論階段?但既然是由內部提出來的,目前的討論看起來也還算... 正面?應該是有機會看到後續的更新...

AWS 弄出了 AWS Dedicated Local Zones,很像 AWS Outposts...

AWS 推出了 AWS Dedicated Local Zones:「Announcing AWS Dedicated Local Zones」。

先講 AWS Outposts,他就是提供 AWS 自己的硬體,放到用戶的機房裡面,所以依照需求有不同大小的機器,甚至是整個機櫃:

AWS Outposts is a family of fully managed solutions delivering AWS infrastructure and services to virtually any on-premises or edge location for a truly consistent hybrid experience. Outposts solutions allow you to extend and run native AWS services on premises, and is available in a variety of form factors, from 1U and 2U Outposts servers to 42U Outposts racks, and multiple rack deployments.

在「What is AWS Outposts?」這邊有詳細列出有哪些服務可以跑在上面,可以看到主要就是基礎服務,以及一些吃 local 特性的服務。

另外在「How AWS Outposts works」這邊可以看出架構上會在同一個 VPC 裡面,但是不屬於同一個 AZ 下:

而這次推出的 Dedicated Local Zones 還是有些地方沒看懂跟 AWS Outposts 差在哪裡,看起來很像是重新包裝而已...

首先是首頁提到的,這邊有提到 AWS Nitro System,所以猜測這是 AWS 的硬體,而不是自己的硬體:

Build with AWS managed secure cloud infrastructure

Benefit from the same AWS security standards that apply to AWS Regions and AWS Local Zones and are delivered with the security of the AWS Nitro System to help ensure confidentiality and integrity of customer data.

另外在公告裡面提到的服務,跟 Outposts 有些差異:

AWS services, such as Amazon EC2, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC), Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS), Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), and AWS Direct Connect are available in Dedicated Local Zones.

另外在「AWS Dedicated Local Zones FAQs」這邊則試著說明兩者差異,但就這些句子看起來,只是不同面向的東西:

Q: How are AWS Dedicated Local Zones different from AWS Outposts?

AWS Outposts is designed for workloads that need to remain on-premises due to latency requirements, where customers want those workloads to run seamlessly with their other workloads in AWS. AWS Outposts racks are fully managed and configurable compute and storage racks built with AWS-designed hardware that allow customers to run compute and storage on-premises, while seamlessly connecting to AWS’s broad array of services in the cloud.

AWS Dedicated Local Zones are designed to eliminate the operational overhead of managing on-premises infrastructure at scale. Some customers have long-term, complex cloud migration projects and need infrastructure that seamlessly scales to support their large-scale demand. Some of these customers represent the interests of a customer community and also need multi-tenancy features to efficiently coordinate across their stakeholders. Dedicated Local Zones enable these customers to reduce the administrative burden of managing their own infrastructure on-premises with scalable, resilient, and multitenant cloud infrastructure that is fully AWS-managed and built exclusively for their use.

另外回到首頁看使用單位,目前是 GovTech Singapore,看起來就是重新包裝?

另外一個猜測是在客戶的機器上面裝 AWS Nitro System,然後裝 AWS 的軟體?這就有點怪了,而且這樣相容性之類的問題也頗麻煩,也許要指定配合的機種?

等有機會遇到的時候再跟 AWS 的人問問看好了,目前也還用不到...

Backblaze 宣佈漲價

Backblaze 宣佈漲價:「Backblaze Product and Pricing Updates」。

其中 B2 Cloud Storage 這邊最主要的改變在 Storage 的部分,這次漲了 20%,從 $5/TB 變成 $6/TB:

Storage Price: Effective October 3, 2023, we are increasing the monthly pay-as-you-go storage rate from $5/TB to $6/TB. The price of B2 Reserve will not change.

頻寬的部分增加了一些 free quota,不過在意頻寬成本的人都會用 Cloudflare 之類的方式避開了,這個其實沒有什麼差... (因為 Backblaze 流出到 Cloudflare 的流量是不計費的)

Backblaze Computer Backup 的部分沒有什麼在碰,但看起來最主要的改變是從現有的 $7/mo 漲到 $9/mo,大約 28.57%:

Computer Backup Pricing: Effective October 3, new purchases and renewals will be $9/month, $99/year, and $189 for two-year subscription plans, and Forever Version History pricing will be $0.006/GB/month.

漲幅其實頗高的,但漲完後還是市場上比較低價的產品...