Customizing Linters and other tools for your code reviews

As everyone knows, the single most-effective method and best possible investment of developer time to improve quality is serious code review.  ReviewDog is a framework for integrating linters and other workflow automation tools that amplifies the power of code reviews.  Check it out.

accelerating Terraform code reviews

Jay Wallace walks through methods and tools that supercharge your terraform code reviews to assure quality.  Very cool.

Amazon's true zero-touch Continuous Deployments

Amazon's Clare Liguori walks us through how Amazon claims they fully automate continuous deployments.  Despite the long checklists and testing requirements, each element of the pipelines make sense.  They provide the safety developers need to "fire and forget" by merging to the production branch and moving to the next task.  There is no "babysitting" or meat robot "monitoring" of a deployment.

the doomed city by boris strugatsky

The story itself is very interesting and the characters are quite good.  The writing is also (likely) amazing.  Unfortunately, the sociology is too "Soviet" for my taste and the book started grating about half way through.  3/5 Stars.   I read an English translation.

Tutorial, working example of gitops, kustomize, flux, helm

Approachable, detailed, working example on github or you to bring your DevOps skill up to the modern standard, opa gitops style.

Der Vorleser von Bernhard-Schlink

Fantastische!  Poignant, berührend und zutiefst menschlich. 5/5 Sterne.

Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

I did not like this story, the characters, or the writing that much, 2/5 Stars.

The Naked God by Peter F Hamilton

The story-telling and writing are great but the science and contrivances are terrible, 3/5 stars.

The Interstellar Ramjet concept is 60 years old

(Robert Bussard in 1959 with his Astronutica Acta issue)

Here is a wonderful history of our theoretical investigations into interstellar travel using the interstellar medium itself (Hydrogen) for fuel.  About twenty years ago, I personally was discussing the limits of such travel with my oldest son. As you know, some regions of interstellar space contain too little hydrogen to fuel a Bussard ramjet. My son suggested sending several "tanker ships" ahead of the main passenger liner to gather hydrogen from adjacent regions and leave the h2 in the path of the passenger liner.  I don't think this concept was ever published in the modern resurgence of academic study and I am too lazy to write up the math.

Interestingly, Bussard himself mentioned the use of an extremely-large magnet field for the ram scoop but is usually not credited.

The ONE Thing by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan

The voice, tone, empty bromides, and vapid aphorisms, especially in the first few chapters were very nauseating and I almost put the book down a few times.  However, one of my mentors recommended the book, so I felt obligated to get through it and the book did get better.  In a nutshell, as the title suggests, the book prescribes why and how to prioritize a single task, and  engage in that task with a singular focus.  The authors' innate values, intensity and driven personality shine through.  They assume everyone and all readers are megalomaniacal and driven to amass wealth, power, fame. The concepts and prescriptive recommendations in the book are actually very good and I do recommend the book.  For example, the time management recommendations and approaches to expanding your horizons are modern and treated poorly by other self-help authors.  3/5 Stars.  One of the top 100 business books you should read.