Daily Check-In with Ned1313
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Bringing Buffer Overflow Back?
23 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I hosted a podcast called Buffer Overflow for about 4 years and 200 episodes. The company I worked for took down the podcast and all of its episodes. ...
Disney World Retrospective
21 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I'm going to Disneyland! Er, World. I went to Disney World, and naturally it got me thinking about technology, in-groups, and market share. Sounds str...
Certified Recycled
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There's an age old debate in tech about the utility of certifications. It's an argument we've had a hundred times. So let's have it again! This time I...
Pendulum Central
05 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Is there anything inherently good about decentralization? Is one approach always more effective or equitable than the other? The realm of technology i...
Web3 is like a wrench
04 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Tools and technology are mostly amoral. What matters is the intent of the individual using the tool. A system is what it does, or more accurately what...
You're Already There
02 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I read an interesting article today talking about how you don't need the cloud. Which is true! You don't need the cloud. Then the article went on to d...
Scripting 2: Electric Boogaloo
02 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Furthering my thoughts on when to script and not, let's turn our focus to live training, presentations, and keynotes. Also, guess what I just committe...
A Pre-script-tion
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A listener asked about my thoughts on writing scripts for creating training videos or doing it off the top of my head. I've tried both approaches, and...
Nostalgia is a Helluva Drug
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Are you feeling nostalgic about 15 years ago? Was it really that good back then? When I take an honest assessment of the things I'm nostalgic for, the...
Embracing the Grind
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Most things worth doing take time to do them. And time is a commitment. As I've mentioned before, you should avoid overloading yourself, so it's impor...
Maybe Enough Is That
15 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I'm a restless person. It's hard for me to do a single thing for any period of time. I'm always looking forward to the next thing. Trying to achieve m...
Web3 Infrastructure
14 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I recently had a conversation with someone about what it takes to run components of a web3 application, and where web3 apps fit into the larger pictur...
Jobuary?
12 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Seems like everyone is changing jobs to celebrate the new year. Is this unique to 2022, or is it a more common thing? What would it take to drag me aw...
Hard Habit to Break?
08 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Being a generally contrary person, I find it hard to create habits. As soon as I have a steady schedule or solid set of expectations, my contrary natu...
Resumes are an outdated concept
04 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Except they aren't. The reality is more nuanced and complicated, especially for folks early on in their career. As you grow more senior and build your...
2021 Year in Review
03 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
2022 is upon us! And it's already off to a shaky start. Let's look back on 2021 and I'll share some of my accomplishment and things I'm proud of from ...
Clarity Through Writing
23 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I've found a renewed focus on writing and I believe it is improving my presentations and courses. The process of writing out a technical topic forces ...
Managing Terraform Cloud with Terraform
22 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As I prepare my course on Getting Started with Terraform Cloud, I am learning a lot about how companies might want to manage Terraform Cloud at scale....
Training for 2022
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This year was a fantastic year for creating educational content. My Pluralsight catalog grew by six courses, and I started working on a series of live...
Passing the Terraform Associate Exam
17 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Terraform Associate exam is meant to test those with an associate level understanding of Terraform and about six months of solid experience with t...
Networking without expectation
15 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A few things have coalesced in my brain in the last couple weeks. The first is something I've strived to do in my career, and it has really paid off. ...
Web3 isn't what you think it is.
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Blockchain, cryptocurrency, web3? Is it all just a solution in search of a problem? Or is there something real underneath. I believe there is a real u...
Infrastructure as Data?
11 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Continuing my thoughts on the need for a CDK when developing IaC, I came across an interesting post (hat-tip Scott Lowe) about Crossplane and the conc...
HashiCorp IPO
10 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The software that HashiCorp creates has had a profound effect on my life. And the people behind that software are some of the best folks I know. I've ...
Why You Need a CDK
08 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Terraform, I was trying to do a data transformation and it broke my brain for a bit. I've since recovered, but it got me thinking about the proper ...
Can You Afford an Outage?
08 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Yes. Yes you can. The recent AWS outage today served as a reminder that even cloud services fail, no technology is infallible, and you should always p...
Embracing Hybrid Cloud
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week's Day Two Cloud is all about Azure Arc and Microsoft's Hybrid strategy. Is hybrid cloud really a thing? You bet your sweet bippy it is. 78% ...
Making Time to Write
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For the first time in a while, I wrote a technical post on my blog and it immediately got attention from Microsoft. It reminded me that there is a sig...
Five Reasons You Need a Platform Team
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Do you need a platform team at your organization? The answer is probably yes. The platform team delivers a consistent experience to your application d...
An "Overnight" Success
24 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Every overnight success is years in the making. The recent growth of the Day Two Cloud podcast has caused me to reflect on how much work it took to ge...
A Good Monday
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sending good vibes your way, I had myself an excellent Monday. Excellent podcast recording, got my home lab working, and finished the demos on a proje...
A Little Automation Advice
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today was all about automation in my corner of the world, and it got me thinking about some lessons learned. In a nut shell, automation is hard, try n...
What's Going On With YouTube?
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
My YouTube channel has been a bit stagnate lately. In case you're wondering why, I've got some answers and some plans for the future. More content is ...
Prosimo at Cloud Field Day 12
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Multi-cloud is a reality for many organizations, as is multi-region. The question becomes, how do you effectively tie together the networking for your...
Ondat at Cloud Field Day 12
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The folks at Ondat presented their solution for Kube-native storage at #CFD12. The term kube-native was new to me and I struggled a little at how it's...
MemVerge at Cloud Field Day 12
10 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
MemVerge presented their AppCapsule technology at #CFD12 and it got my mind buzzing. There are so many potential applications for this technology! I t...
Yotascale at Cloud Field Day 12
09 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Yotascale was one of the presenters at #CFD12 and I was impressed by the depth of analytics and integrations offered in their multi-cloud cost managem...
Draining My Social Battery
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Even at the best of times, my endurance for continuous social interaction is not that high. #CFD12 last week showed me just how out of practice I am. ...
Passing the AWS Solution Architect Pro Exam
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Yesterday I successfully recertified for the AWS SA Professional certification. I remember studying for months to pass the first time, and this time I...
Yotascale at Cloud Field Day
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We look at your cloud. We tag your cloud. Yota, yota, yota. You save money. What we can't yota over the money saving part? That's right, you can't. Yo...
Prosimo at Cloud Field Day
29 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Multi-cloud networking is still in its infancy. Lots of vendors are vying to be the right solution. @Prosimo_io is one of those vendors, and I think t...
MemVerge at Cloud Field Day
29 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I always felt that PMEM was a solution in search of a problem, but @MemVerge has built a whole platform on the premise that I am wrong. At Cloud Field...
Ondat at Cloud Field Day 12
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Cloud Field Day 12 (#CFD12) is happening in-person next week! I'll be one of the on-premises delegates serving as a proxy for you. One of the presente...
Not a Joiner
25 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
All my life I've been reticent to deeply identify with a pursuit. To go all in on a hobby. To join and participate in a community. I'm not a joiner. N...
VMware Buying HashiCorp?
22 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
My buddy Keith Townsend had an interesting post on his substack about whether VMware should buy HashiCorp? I like his reasoning, especially the light ...
Azure Arc is the Future of Microsoft Hybrid
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Yesterday Ethan and I recorded a fascinating episode of Day Two Cloud with Ben Weissman. He brought the knowledge about Azure Arc and its Data Service...
An API Gateway By Any Other Name
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Is just a fancy reverse proxy if we're being honest. HashiCorp announced the preview of Consul API Gateway during the day two keynote of HashiConf Glo...
HashiConf Global Recommendations
19 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
HashiConf Global is this Tuesday and Wednesday. I thought I would review what I've watched so far and make some recommendations on what to watch once ...
Editing for a Better Tomorrow
18 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For the first time in a while, I've had to edit my own Pluralsight course. It's reminded me how essential the editing process is to improving my prese...
Tired of Tech? Music Time!
15 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I'm tired of talking about tech and content creation today. Let's talk about awesome music we're listening to! We got good stuff like Spiritbox, Manch...
Hybrid is the new Cloud
15 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There's this tacit assumption that all things will go the way of the cloud. And it implies that anything on-prem is old, old-dated and should be put o...
My OS is Better Than Yours
13 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It's exhausting how precious people are about their preferred technology and what lengths they will go to show you how very wrong you are about your p...
The Load Balancer DNE
12 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Abstractions are a tricky things, especially when they are presented in a UI or CLI as a complete whole. Look a little closer and soon you see the sea...
Video Killed the Audio Star?
08 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
With 20+ Pluralsight courses under my belt, I am looking for ways to shake things up. Should I add live video to my courses to better engage with lear...
Terraforming My Mental Health
08 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Being injured sucks. Maybe this is something lifelong athletes build up a tolerance to, but I came into running later in my life and I never developed...
Facebook Down Schadenfreude
04 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Book of Face is going into its fourth hour of being down. I'm tempted to laugh maniacally and cite karma, but I also have to remember that more th...
Making a Plan for Learning
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I'm working on a talk for an event coming up and I thought I would hash it out live for all to hear. That's right! Extemporaneous thoughts from my mou...
Part 2 of HashiCorp's State of the Cloud Report
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I still have thoughts! Let's dig into the methodology of the survey and report, see who the respondents were and how that might color the data. I also...
HashiCorp's State of the Cloud Report
29 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Skills shortage, security concerns, and multi-cloud everywhere. Those are some of my key takeaways from the report. Join me in this episode where I li...
Community Recognition Programs
27 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Many vendors have a community recognition program that rewards folks that make an impact. What do you expect to get out of such a program, when does i...
Thoughts on Tech Startups
24 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If I were evaluating a new tech startup, I would want their offering to embrace three key things. First, their solution needs to be cloud-agnostic. Se...
Better Learning Through Video
24 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Most research points to a multi-medium experience when you are trying to learn a new concept. Audio, reading, video, and tactile experiences all work ...
In-person Isn't Going Anywhere
22 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Attending my first in-person event since the start of the pandemic, I am struck by how much better it is than a virtual conference. It isn't just the ...
Brevity and Efficiency
21 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Two things that I need to work on are brevity and efficiency. I need to become ruthless in paring back my instruction to the essentials and become mor...
An End to Patreonizing
15 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I started a Patreon to offset the opportunity cost of my YouTube channel content, but it didn't really work out. So I am retiring the Patreon in favor...
Don't Want To Be A Pedantic Idiot
15 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When I see a long screed about how people are using a term or concept incorrectly, I wonder what that post says about the person who wrote it. Chances...
How Much To Charge
13 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Books have been written on this topic and I don't think I'll cover all the pertinent pieces here, but I've assembled a few thoughts. For starters, try...
Do It For Free?
10 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There are some situations where I would rather do a job for free than do it at a discount. Free can build goodwill and social capital. Doing it at a s...
Only People Understand People
09 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Worried about AI or ML taking your job? Don't. Because organizations are made up of people, and people do incredibly weird things with technology. Thi...
Constant Craving Structure
08 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As much as I enjoy the summer, after a while I crave the structure of the autumn. Children go back to school. Bedtimes get a little earlier. And I can...
The DevOps Kids Are Alright
03 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There was an interesting blog post, more of a rant really, that dug into some problems with the modern DevOps movement. Many of the central points res...
Salary Transparency Feedback
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Looks like people have some strong feelings about salary sharing! Well, I kind of knew that. But I have to say, this is the most feedback I've ever re...
Salary Transparency
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Should you share your salary with your coworkers? What is the impact on yourself for doing so? Is it all a zero sum game where you have to get yours, ...
No Country for Best Practices
30 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
You keep saying best practices. I do not think it means, what you think it means. When it comes to best practices, chances are you're going to get a g...
Clearer Explanations
27 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Many of you are bloggers or have written tech tutorials. Explaining concepts and ideas is hard! Writing with clarity and economy is something that I h...
Kindness and Empathy
26 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I have three pillars that I try to practice professionally and personally: embrace discomfort, plan to fail, and be kind. The last one used to be "be ...
State of IT Pro Learning
25 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The esteemed Ethan Banks ran a survey about how IT Pros are learning today. The survey is still going, so you can check it out now and leave your resp...
NGINX Sprint 2.0 Wrap-Up
25 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I was a panelist for the Tech Field Day Extra portion of #NGINXSprint 2.0. During the past two days I learned a lot of cool stuff about what NGINX has...
Stumbling Around Tech
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We get so caught up in the hustle culture, sometimes we forget the reason we're doing this. The hustle is not the end, it's a means to an end. We need...
Updating Content is Hard
20 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When you're developing course content on a constantly evolving technology, it can be a real challenge to keep things up to date. Is there a better way...
Checking in with Ned
20 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I thought I would do a check-in with myself and see how this whole Ned in the Cloud LLC endeavor is going. The short answer is that things are going w...
Security Tradeoffs in the Cloud
18 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When a process moves to a cloud environment, it's probably time to evaluate whether the process still makes sense. This is especially true of security...
Getting Started Should Be Easy
17 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
One or my frustrations with open source projects and vendor products is a lack of clear communication and simplicity in getting started. The copy on m...
Lessons from Internet Explorer
16 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In June of 2009, IE had 65% market share. In July of 2021 it has less than 1%, with Microsoft's replacement Edge only holding 3.5%. What was once the ...
Paying Attention to Everything and Nothing
06 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There are so many different communities and platforms out there, it's really hard to focus on a narrow few. But if you don't prioritize, then you can'...
Of Mice and Man
04 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sit right down and I'll tell you a tale of bad assumptions, unintended consequences, and incomplete troubleshooting. It's a story of mice, manuals, an...
Cloud Outpost Part Deux
04 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As a follow-up to yesterday's episode, we are going to take a look the financial and operational models enabled by cloud outposts. It's not just AWS a...
What are Cloud Outposts?
02 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There was an interesting article from The Next Platform that looked at data from IDC and other sources on the sales of cloud outpost hardware. What is...
You Could Die From Exposure
30 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Two big thoughts in today's check-in. First, if someone asks you to create content for your company or organization, then they should be paying you fo...
Reading's Not Cheating
29 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
One of the things I've learned in my career is there's too much to hold in your head at one time. You will forget commands, and arguments, and syntax....
To K8s or not to K8s?
28 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
That is my question. Do I use Kubernetes extensively in my next HashiCorp Vault course or stick with an IaaS deployment. The answer, of course, is to ...
Fairness and Massive Corporate Profits
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Microsoft, Apple, and Google all reported record earnings. But the pandemic hasn't been so kind to everyone. Are tech companies getting too big? Can s...
Building Platforms in the Cloud
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The annual State of DevOps report from Puppet is out and some of the conclusions mirror what I've been hearing in the industry. DevOps teams are out, ...
Following Your Passion
23 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mitchell Hashimoto has announced he is stepping away from a leadership position at HashiCorp to focus on an engineering, individual contributor role. ...
Known Unknowables
22 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to outages and incident response the most important is people. Having the right people is going to make all the difference when producti...
Today was a good day
21 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes you have a good day as a content creator. Today was one of those days. So I am going to take a moment and just enjoy it. -------------------...
GCP vs. Azure
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Google and Microsoft have very distinct design philosophies and nowhere is that more obvious than on GCP vs. Azure. Microsoft's approach boils down to...
The Developer Decision
16 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
To learn to program or not? That is the question. Whether it is nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of IaC infrastructure, or takes arms against a ...
Don't Be a Manager
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I mean you can, if you really want to. But there are so many possible paths to take in tech and not all of them include managing people. Some folks ar...
That's no demo! That's consulting!
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes I am asked why the applications and infrastructure I deploy in my demos and videos is so simplistic. And there's a good reason, several in f...