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Reading Week #5

Large numbers are difficult to comprehend.  The national debt for example is kind of mind numbing.  The fun article this week is about insane numbers; imagining the unimaginable.. Continue reading “Reading Week #5”

Author bduncanPosted on 2019-01-28Categories Just-for-Fun, Reading WeekLeave a comment on Reading Week #5

Reading Week #4

Monitoring the SRE Golden Signals, an excellent overview by Steve Mushero.. Continue reading “Reading Week #4”

Author bduncanPosted on 2019-01-032019-01-04Categories Detecting Performance Issues, Reading Week, SRE, System PerformanceLeave a comment on Reading Week #4

Reading Week #3

Here are some interesting reads if you’re fortunate in having some extra time off this Holiday Season.. Continue reading “Reading Week #3”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-12-26Categories devops, Reading Week, SRETags Reading WeekLeave a comment on Reading Week #3

Works For Me #1

Hacking thy self. Sharing some productivity tips that I use .. Continue reading “Works For Me #1”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-12-232018-12-23Categories WFMTags bashLeave a comment on Works For Me #1

Reading Week #2

First of all, Merry Christmas if you celebrate it, Happy Holidays if you don’t! This week’s interesting read is about a subject I love.. Continue reading “Reading Week #2”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-12-232018-12-23Categories Detecting Performance Issues, Problem Solving, Reading Week, SRE, System PerformanceTags log filesLeave a comment on Reading Week #2

Reading Week #1

I’d like to start a new series of articles based on interesting articles to read for the week.. Continue reading “Reading Week #1”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-12-142018-12-14Categories devops, Reading Week, SRELeave a comment on Reading Week #1

WordCamp US 2018

#WCUS happening this weekend. WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg news.. Continue reading “WordCamp US 2018”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-12-072018-12-12Categories OTLeave a comment on WordCamp US 2018

Last Week’s Security Earthquake

Last week there were two earthshaking security events. Yes, the Marriott data breach was big, but I’d like to talk about the one you might not have heard of.. Continue reading “Last Week’s Security Earthquake”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-12-052018-12-06Categories SecurityLeave a comment on Last Week’s Security Earthquake

Off Topic #1

This is off-topic, but I thought I’d share an image from a recent vacation. Continue reading “Off Topic #1”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-12-032018-12-04Categories OTLeave a comment on Off Topic #1

Checklists and Runbooks

We’ve been flying planes much longer than we’ve been running systems in production, so it might be instructive to learn what we can from our fellow aviators.. Continue reading “Checklists and Runbooks”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-11-272018-11-27Categories Documentation, SRETags Aviation, Checklists, RunbooksLeave a comment on Checklists and Runbooks

A Steal on O’Reilly DevOps/SRE Books!

This is a limited time deal on 15 O’Reilly books for $15. Go. Buy. Right. Now! Continue reading “A Steal on O’Reilly DevOps/SRE Books!”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-11-07Categories devops, Documentation, RTFM, SRETags O'Reilly Books1 Comment on A Steal on O’Reilly DevOps/SRE Books!

Geolocating Your Users

I first became interested in geolocating a few decades ago while designing an email filtering system for some customers and noticing that most of the “spam and malware” originated in half a dozen countries.. Continue reading “Geolocating Your Users”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-11-062018-11-06Categories GeolocatingLeave a comment on Geolocating Your Users

All Day DevOps 2018

I was lucky to catch most of the SRE track and Keynote speakers with the All Day DevOps event this year. Fortunately, if you missed it or want to watch some of the other tracks, the videos have been made available.

Continue reading “All Day DevOps 2018”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-10-192018-10-19Categories devops, SRELeave a comment on All Day DevOps 2018

One Thing At A Time..

We want to learn things from any idea, test, change, upgrade or (heaven forbid) outage in production..

Continue reading “One Thing At A Time..”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-10-032018-10-19Categories devops, Diagnosing Issues, SRELeave a comment on One Thing At A Time..

Seeking SRE

This book just arrived this morning and I’m just through the chapter on building SRE teams. Continue reading “Seeking SRE”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-09-272018-09-27Categories devops, SRETags site reliability engineering, SRE1 Comment on Seeking SRE

Hiring Questions, Problem 2

While most technical hiring questions aren’t all that relevant, this one might be more generally useful. Find duplicate files; the trick was the speedup.. Continue reading “Hiring Questions, Problem 2”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-09-082018-10-26Categories Code Bits, Just-for-FunLeave a comment on Hiring Questions, Problem 2

From the Get Go!

Learning a new computer language can be fun! Stretching ourselves to think about problems in new ways.. Continue reading “From the Get Go!”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-08-262018-08-26Categories Code Bits, golang, Just-for-FunLeave a comment on From the Get Go!

Realtime Component Request Deficit

Looking for help naming (and finding other uses for) a novel technique in detecting grey failures.  Possible use cases are discussed here: load balancing, finding saturation points, alerting.. [ed. Decided on the name “Saturation Factor“.] Continue reading “Realtime Component Request Deficit”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-08-192018-09-10Categories Detecting Performance Issues, System Performance1 Comment on Realtime Component Request Deficit

Solving the Right Problems

Ask the right questions, listen carefully and make sure that you’re not hearing just what you want to hear.. Continue reading “Solving the Right Problems”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-08-122018-08-12Categories Problem SolvingLeave a comment on Solving the Right Problems

Don’t Panic!

Some thoughts about handling critical system issues at scale.. Continue reading “Don’t Panic!”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-08-102018-08-12Categories Diagnosing Issues, Problem Solving, SRELeave a comment on Don’t Panic!

Snowflakes

We called our albino squirrel in the backyard, “Snowflake”..

Continue reading “Snowflakes”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-08-072018-08-08Categories devops, SRELeave a comment on Snowflakes

Operations in the Cloud

As an SRE, I’m very fortunate to have had training as a pilot. There are many similarities to system operations.. Continue reading “Operations in the Cloud”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-08-062018-11-27Categories devops, SRELeave a comment on Operations in the Cloud

Interactive bash Scripts

Building interactive commands that uses editing history and tab completion can be easy in bash and serve as a wrapper for automating tasks. Continue reading “Interactive bash Scripts”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-07-292018-07-29Categories Code Bits, Just-for-FunLeave a comment on Interactive bash Scripts

Must Have Books.. Another One!

Not just “Must Have”, but “Must Read!”. A new book has been released and is available, free to download for a short time. Continue reading “Must Have Books.. Another One!”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-07-252018-07-25Categories devops, RTFM, SRE2 Comments on Must Have Books.. Another One!

vi or emacs? Really?!?

Most of the operations/engineering folks I’ve come into contact with will proclaim to be “vi” people and yet, when I watch them edit a file I cringe.. Continue reading “vi or emacs? Really?!?”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-07-212018-07-30Categories devops, RTFMLeave a comment on vi or emacs? Really?!?

CI/CD and Optimization

When we talk of CI/CD we’re often referring to Continuous Integration and Delivery while Optimization refers to Services/Systems. What I’d like to discuss is Constant Improvement/Continuous Development and Self-Optimization.. Continue reading “CI/CD and Optimization”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-07-082018-07-10Categories devops1 Comment on CI/CD and Optimization

The DevOps Alternative

In a previous article, “There’s Always a Problem”, I described situations that can arise with the “Engineering vs. Operations” old way. The new way is a DevOps culture.. Continue reading “The DevOps Alternative”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-07-052018-07-17Categories devopsLeave a comment on The DevOps Alternative

Preventing Trainwrecks

I keep a large framed photo of this on the wall in my office to remind me what can happen when things go “off the rails”.. Continue reading “Preventing Trainwrecks”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-06-222018-06-27Categories Just-for-FunTags preventing disaster1 Comment on Preventing Trainwrecks

Hiring Questions, Problem 1

A colleague of mine once posted a hiring question to ask prospective developers: “What is the least significant 10 digits of the series: 1^{1}+2^{2}+3^{3} .. 1000^{1000} ?”

Continue reading “Hiring Questions, Problem 1”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-06-212018-06-27Categories Code Bits, Just-for-FunTags awk, bash, LaTeX, modular exponentiation, scriptingLeave a comment on Hiring Questions, Problem 1

Don’t Aggregate, Consolidate!

In previous posts, I’ve emphasized that averages are particularly bad at characterizing most things that you might be looking for. However, storing aggregated data of any type can limit your ability to analyze data later. Continue reading “Don’t Aggregate, Consolidate!”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-06-202018-06-27Categories Detecting Performance IssuesTags monitoring, observability, performanceLeave a comment on Don’t Aggregate, Consolidate!

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