Archives

Mobile first development. A simple idea in principle, but the options, while numerous, all suck in some particular way. Yes, I’m a sucker and bought a new iPad Pro. I think that the time is right to make this purchase now, both for family and productivity. With a 5G modem, the device has somewhat unbounded future potential. But, the hardware is hamstrung by iPadOS. Last night, I was sitting at my desk using the new Magic Keyboard (there’s a mousepad). This is an ultra-level netbook with a demon inside it. It is indeed fast. Playing larger maps on Civ6 is enjoyable. The rapid responsiveness of the device is a lot like my Red Hat-issued 16" MacBook Pro (which usually sits on my desk I wrote about in January, I do need to provide an updated version soon). This thing could easily handle a lot of my day-to-day work right now. I could, in theory, do my daily job on this iPad Pro. Slack, email, browser, RDP client, and most other software I use to produce and host OpenShift.TV has iPad-friendly versions. When KubeCon NA comes (the CFP closes today), I’ll have some hard choices to make. I have to decide between bringing an 11" iPad Pro and a mic or a buffet of A/V gear in a Pelican case. ...

Finally, an average week, expect weeks are anything but “normal” these days. This past week marked the first birthday of OpenShift.TV (which is for all intents and purposes) what I’ve been working on the past year. 540 hours of content that has been archived to help folks tackle all kinds of issues with Kubernetes, OpenShift, and a host of other open source projects. I bet we’ve touched on etcd’s thirst for low latency, having to remind people to use DHCP for IPI installations, and have come up with as many “stage” names; it might total up to about 540 times too. It’s been worth it. The value it brings to others is beyond what we were hoping for. But, this week was the week of, “What are you going to do when things go back to being in person?” I’m not sure what that looks like. It could mean I bring a portable studio with me everywhere I go or something that stays a mostly at-home job with trips to cover events occasionally. I don’t know what anything will look like in two weeks from now, let alone six months from now. I know that we launched a live streaming effort a year ago, and I went through six mic arms in the process. ...

It was indeed KubeCon EU this week. What my family is told is one of my Super Bowl events (KubeCons and Red Hat Summit are in that class). It was indeed an extraordinary virtual event. That’s right; you read that right. KubeCon EU 2021 was a great virtual event. No one besides Deserted Island DevOps and CNCF has unlocked successful models of making a virtual event enjoyable. As a speaker, I did not test anything until thirty minutes before the talk on Friday morning. After 530+ hours of live streaming, if I couldn’t figure it out in thirty minutes, it was beyond fixing. I found the tooling I needed after logging in, and we were off to the virtual races. Incorporating Slack as a primary communication medium made a ton of sense. Having great content running on Twitch and a dedicated virtual track made for an excellent experience outside of the virtual event platform. I was impressed. There was one embarrassing announcement from a KubeCon vendor/sponsor, though. Talos Systems announced COSI, the Common Operating System Interface. But… Um… There’s already a COSI in Kubernetes; Container Object Storage Interface (also mentioned in DevOps’ish 215). Oops! I know naming things is hard but, this is a gross error. No one was aware of the Kubernetes projects. I mean it was in this newsletter two weeks ago. A DuckDuckGo search for Kubernetes COSI returns numerous Container Object Storage Interface results and one new entry for Talos Systems Common Operating System Interface. I would like to see this fixed to reduce any confusion in an already crowded landscape. Container Object Storage Interface should keep its name. It’s closer to the core Kubernetes project and was the first to go public if you will. Talos Systems, you’ve got to do the right thing here and rename your product. ...

A migraine is taking me down hard this weekend. Here’s hoping it goes away soon. See you all at KubeCon next week. GitOps Con on Monday. [OpenShift Commons Gathering (also live streamed)](https://commons.openshift.org/gatherings/OpenShift_Commons_Gathering_at_Kubecon_EU.html) on Tuesdays. OpenShift.tv KubeCon EU Office Hours on Wednesday through Friday. People How to bust 5 creativity myths with your team “Try these exercises to dispel common misconceptions and infuse more creativity into your day-to-day work– and your team’s.” It helps to span your idea of creativity. There are truly creative works and creative ways to get work done. Are you looking to learn more about observability practices? Join us for o11ycon+hnycon June 9-10! This is the observability event of the year, where people come together to explore cutting-edge observability practices, new tech like OpenTelemetry, and more. Register for this free virtual conference to connect with peers and learn from top Honeycomb customers and observability experts. Guess less and know more with Honeycomb. SPONSORED The Fear Black Employees Carry “The voices of racism and white supremacy are louder than ever, and Black employees — and customers, suppliers, and investors — are living with a primal, existential fear. It’s not hard to understand why: Those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6 included middle-class, middle-aged accountants, doctors, lawyers, shop owners, and even CEOs, from blue states and red states. People have learned that racists are all around them — in their extended families, their neighborhoods, and even among their colleagues. CEOs and other leaders must recognize this problem and address it competently, because ignoring it is not only morally wrong, it’s also bad for business. The author recommends five actions: 1) Commit to listening; 2) Take meaningful action; 3) Reckon with the past, and change the future; 4) Dig deeply to understand your company’s discriminatory practices; and 5) Back up your ideals with real money.” ...

Two weeks before KubeCon EU and the work is ramping up quickly. If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, grab yours today. As always, if you are underrepresented in tech and still need a ticket, let me know. I will be busy next week prepping for a flip to Central European Summer Time with a lot going on. On May 3rd, I will be mc’ing GitOps Con. It’s going to be awesome. On May 4th, the first anniversary of OpenShift.tv (yeah, it’s been a year, y’all), I’ll be live streaming OpenShift Commons Gathering hosted by Red Hat (Complimentary Registration Required). I’ll be in the Red Hat booth for a little bit on May 5th. We’ll also be streaming open source project Office Hours throughout KubeCon EU. Finally, on Friday, I’ll be doing my first ever, actual KubeCon talk (I know, weird, right?), How You Can Tell Your Kubernetes Contributor Story with These Tips - Matt Broberg & Chris Short, Red Hat; Kaslin Fields, Google; Peeyush Gupta, DigitalOcean. To say the prep for all this is coming to a head this week is an understatement. The pressure is on. Let’s get it! ...