Naming, but not in the way you think. — Phil Karlton once said, “there are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.” One is a real problem; the other is a problem of defining reality. A misbehaving cache algorithm compromises the system’s integrity. Inadequate names can compromise the system’s entire existence. On the surface…

First Awareness. Then Productivity. — Jeff Foster wrote a great story on the origins of the expression “10x developer,” contrasting the value of outsized code-writing skills against the ability to focus on the product. From a DevOps perspective, its all-inclusive reach from development to operations demands collaboration. …

But is it any good? — Kubenstein is a side-project named after a play on the words “Kubernetes” and “Frankenstein.” I wrote it to experiment beyond the more straightforward use cases for GPT-powered assistance to Kubernetes administrators, such as in querying cluster resources or in interpreting errors in cluster messages. You can see examples of those…

You Never Know What You Had Until You Lose It — The pandemic is over and it is time to return to normal. And in the business world, that normal includes the traditional office. But why? Step away from conspiracy theories of power plays and real estate valuations, and you will find two simple reasons rooted in psychology and neuroscience: When…

New Financial Metaphors and Debt Management Lessons for Modern Software Development — “When I began the Ponzi scheme I believed it would end shortly and I would be able to extricate myself and my clients from the scheme.” — Bernard Madoff. Software developers can be great with numbers but are usually terrible with finances. Ward Cunningham coined the term “technical debt” to…

An exploration of storytelling as the foundation of everyday life — From an early age, we are taught to pay attention to the facts. To memorize and recite them. “Facts matter!” Unless we were into writing essays or part of a debate team — I wasn’t into either — we probably didn’t do much in the way of connecting those facts…

When Imitation Is the Sincerest Form Of Failure — “We’re done. We are flipping it.” After training an AI for six days, a group of Marines was told to defeat its advanced detection capabilities. A robot running the system was placed in a traffic circle. The task was to approach the sentry, undetected, from a long distance, then touch…

In the Cloud, It Is the Right Choice. — “If it needs more than 50 lines, I am using Python.” I heard this comment during the Q&A portion of a session I had just presented. The session was related to wiring service instances inside a private subnet in a Cloud provider. I had shared a few examples written in…

The Fantastic Tale of an Italian Giant — You may know the name, but you may not know the story. This almost incredible tale starts in 19th-century Italy in the small city of Chiaravalle. A story told many times, familiar to the people of Italy and many working in education circles. It covers three centuries, four continents, world…