“AWS Infinidash is a new networking technology that is being introduced to the AWS cloud. This technology is being used by AWS to provide a new networking model that is more efficient and more scalable than the current networking model.” —GPT-3 GPT-3 generated that statement about AWS Infinidash thanks to GitHub Copilot. I’m also using GitHub Codespaces through VSCode and the web to write this week’s newsletter. I’ll probably have a write-up on these new tools in the near future. Thank you, GitHub, for access to these tools early. But, back to the point: AWS Infinidash. It’s not real! It’s complete hogwash, and you shouldn’t feel bad if you didn’t know that. The fake AWS Infinidash service highlights the veracity of a joke gone wrong on an industry scale as it has (there’s a Rust library for it). AWS was the innocent victim of the prank, too. But, instead, it’s humans that are taking the blowback. People are dunking on other people on Twitter for not being “in” on the joke. Recruiters are getting shamed for asking for five years experience in a technology that doesn’t exist. But, according to GPT-3, it does. If they were using GPT-3, they’d be reinforced in this thinking. ...

Let me be someone to remind you to take some time off (if you can). As a family, we had many lessons learned from not being in our daily routines, setting, or location. This whole month has been a lot of optimizations in our household. All these learned from being outside our sixteen-month grooves. For example, I confirmed I needed glasses after a persistent headache went away then came back when I went back to work. Time off is healthy. Do it (again, if you can or as soon as you’re able). Go to another part of your state/country and do something different. You’ve earned it. You made it through some of the earth’s darker days. Tell your people Chris Short said so. A few friends have come through Michigan lately. I invite you to fall through if you’re able to safely. A surprising concentration of Kubernetes contributors lives here. We all seem to have a desire to show off this wonderland of ours. Case in point, I’ll see you soon, Pop. ...

In vacation mode this week. News reading played second fiddle to having fun. People AWS pricing problems could deter new cloud engineers I was quoted in this piece. I take the same opinion that the AWS Free Tier is indeed user hostile. Not because it’s limited in weird ways but, because new users could be billed thousands and before they know it, it’s too late. Take a deep dive into observability at o11ycon+hnycon, a two-day virtual conference on the future of shipping software. Happening June 9-10, this highly interactive event connects you and your peers to explore cutting-edge capabilities and unique outcomes that define observability. You’ll also hear from top Honeycomb customers and observability experts– including Corey Quinn, Chief Cloud Economist of The Duckbill Group, and Nora Jones, CEO of Jeli! Guess less and know more with Honeycomb SPONSORED. Upwards of 40% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs I don’t blame anyone for pursuing jobs that fit better to their lifestyle. I also realize a 40% is a tectonic shift in the workforce. If this holds true, we’re all going to be impacted in some way. ...

I want to point out a few signs that I think we’re pushing the industry too hard, too fast. Fires in AWS data centers, Fastly (the CDN) took an hour-long outage triggered by a customer finding a bug, Cloudflare had outages in Chicago and Los Angeles. Ransomware is running through companies like Grant went through Richmond (to the point the US Justice department is equating them, in some ways, to terrorist attacks). Things need to change. Moving towards a more hybrid and fluid environment is not just a strategic priority; it’s survival at this point. Then making sure that your entire business can’t grind to a halt because lowest common denominator security issues happen. I thought we figured it out in the early 2000s. But, technology has changed so much since then, and there are new zero-days every day. We’re in a very tight position as technologists. If you’re a developer, you’re a target. If you’re an employee, you’re a target. You and every service you touch is a target. Nothing is safe. ...

The Cloud Native community lost a great person; Peeyush Gupta. He leaves behind a wife and 10-month old child. His employer, Digital Ocean, and the Kubernetes community are trying very hard to make that that mother and child will not be as devastated. I beg of you, please donate to the Peeyush Gupta: Family Education Fund. If half the DevOps’ish readership gave $25, we’ll hit the current goal of Rs.5,500,000. It’s been surprisingly difficult for me to deal with the loss of Peeyush. I think I’ve learned death doesn’t get easier with age, at least when the person is a decade younger than you—my deepest condolences to the Gupta family. I cannot imagine what you are dealing with right now. I’ve made two public statements on Peeyush’s death. Please accept my apologies for quoting myself here. “I was gobsmacked by the news. The impact Peeyush has had in the community is a large one. It’s not possible to sit down and look at GitHub to capture Peeyush’s work. It extended into so much more than code.” —Chris Short, Heartfelt Remembrance for Peeyush Gupta (pensu) ...