Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Twitter, Amazon, and Pornhub Work Together

This short video, from the Vlog Brothers, does a pretty good job explaining the issue at hand.  It's a little dated, but the issues are essentially the same.
Disappointing.  I had so many notes... so many things to say... I'm so pissed... but now I'm out of time (at least I hope so).  It's supposed to go down tomorrow: we stand up against net neutrality.  Quite a few big, online players (think Twitter, Amazon, Netflix, Github, Atlassian...) are orchestrating an effort to stop the FCC from ending net neutrality.

For those of you who don't know,  net neutrality is pretty much the idea that that the internet should remain as is - with no "governing" body controlling access to content.  This is a big issue, right now, and there seems to be some confusion.  I've run across a few videos and articles from people who think net neutrality is the exact opposite, and should be fought.  If you know anyone in those circles, please make sure they know the facts.  We need to be on the same page.

The internet has leveled the playing field, and given everyone access to an endless stream of information, and means of self-expression.  In short, the government wants in on that.  Don't be fooled by claims of faster and cheaper internet service.  It's just a carrot.  Once we cede control to the FCC, we'll be at the mercy of its policies.  And do you trust it to "fairly" regulate use?  Do you think "undesirable" content will NOT be marginalized, if not completely banned?  I think we will lose our voice.  We'll go right back to pay-to-play, and "being served" preferred content.

Consider the argument that it doesn't make sense for companies and customers to foot the bill needed to support a few sites.  If porn sites, for example, use 30% of the bandwidth in the country, why should all of us support that infrastructure, if we don't watch?  Make the porn companies pay.  Makes sense right?  But what if I told you Netflix was the actual culprit behind 30% bandwidth usage?  Would that make a difference?  Who gets to make that decision, and why?  The point is, we already have a system that works for everybody. Regulation moves away from that.

I think this is an issue on which a very divided country can still agree.  Let net neutrality stand.  Our internet access is too important.

TechCrunch has a great article, if you're interested in learning more.

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Using AWS Command Line Interface

For those of you who don't know, I’m a big fan of the command line and automation.  Obviously, implementing scripts incurs development costs, but once they are complete, the time savings are invaluable.  I was recently browsing Pluralsight when I came across “Mastering AWS Command Line.”  I was already preparing to download files from a bucket for a current project, so the timing was perfect.  Outside of a few small tasks, I’ve only used the AWS browser console.  I figured this was an opportunity to improve my productivity and learn something interesting.  It’s only two hours, so you won’t be a “master” after watching, but it is a good primer for working with the CLI.  AWS documentation is pretty good, so that’s all you really need, anyway. 

As we continue to move towards cloud infrastructure, AWS becomes a critical resource.  It's my new go-to for static assets.  Being able to quickly navigate, copy, and move files between directories/buckets makes life so much easier.  Some operations aren’t even possible with the console – downloading an entire bucket, for example.  If you’re not already using the CLI, it’s only a matter of time before it happens.  You may find this course a nice warm-up.

The CLI also enables automation, through scripting – which turns out to be a big deal.  Amazon bases its pricing on resource use.  With S3, that’s not a big problem; you’re essentially using the same amount of data no matter what.  Automating tasks isn’t going to save money.  That’s not true with all services, though.  With EC2 instances, for example, service management becomes necessary.  The most cost-effective methods require some form of automated monitoring, and starting/stopping services.  I remember a conference speaker telling us about receiving a $10,000+ bill from Amazon because multiple devs left EC2 instances running all month.

Anyway, I try not to let these articles get too long; I just want to share a few thoughts.  If you decide to check out the course, let me know what you think.