2025-09-03
When building, and especially testing, Vortex, we use several cloud VMs with different kernel versions (usually LTS ones), and a dedicated GKE test cluster. The trouble with eBPF though, is that a lot of the features depend on what kernel version is running on the target system. And maintaining multiple cloud VMs with different kernel versions is a tad expensive, and really not that straightforward. And so, QEMU to the rescue. When it comes to emulators, QEMU doesn’t really need introductions. This blog is a guide (mostly to myself) on how to build a Debian-based image with a specific kernel version to be used as an eBPF testbed.
Startup · Startup · Updates · Updates
3 minutes
2025-08-21
A quick update on what I’ve been building for the last couple of weeks. I’ve put together a small team at Alphaus to explore eBPF with a specific goal: building a tool for AI security and monitoring. The kernel-level visibility you get with eBPF is perfect for this, but the real work is in making it useful. Our immediate focus has been on getting visibility into encrypted network traffic. We needed a way to inspect TLS traffic without messing with certificates or acting as a man-in-the-middle. The obvious path was using eBPF uprobes to hook user-space functions directly.
Startup · Startup · Updates · Updates
2 minutes
2025-06-15
Apologies for being silent for a while. Still alive here; still doing CTO work for Alphaus. But at the same time, since about the start of the year, I started another startup here in Tokyo with two other cofounders. Long story short - it didn’t really pan out, at least for me. I mean, the startup is still moving forward, but with me no longer in it. I “resigned”, just recently actually, due to founder conflict. There was a lot going for it; it got accepted into the Antler Japan accelerator program (Batch 4) this year. It also received an infra backing from Google Cloud worth about $100K. Anyway, it is what it is, and I have to move on.
Life · Life · Updates · Updates
2 minutes