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”
Reading Week #4
Monitoring the SRE Golden Signals, an excellent overview by Steve Mushero.. Continue reading “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”
Works For Me #1
Hacking thy self. Sharing some productivity tips that I use .. Continue reading “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”
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”
WordCamp US 2018
#WCUS happening this weekend. WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg news.. Continue reading “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”
Off Topic #1
This is off-topic, but I thought I’d share an image from a recent vacation. Continue reading “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”
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!”
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”
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.
One Thing At A Time..
We want to learn things from any idea, test, change, upgrade or (heaven forbid) outage in production..
Seeking SRE
This book just arrived this morning and I’m just through the chapter on building SRE teams. Continue reading “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”
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!”
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”
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”
Don’t Panic!
Some thoughts about handling critical system issues at scale.. Continue reading “Don’t Panic!”
Snowflakes
We called our albino squirrel in the backyard, “Snowflake”..
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”
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”
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!”
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?!?”
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”
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”
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”
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: 
.. 
?”
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!”