Category Archives: Open Source

Infrastructure planning: A professional’s perspective.

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https://lethain.com/infrastructure-planning/

Will Larson’s Bio:

Will Larson

April 1, 2007.

Hi. I grew up in North Carolina, studied CS at Centre College in Kentucky, spent a year in Japan on the JET Program, and have been living in San Francisco since 2009 or so.

Since coming out here, I’ve gotten to work at some great companies, and some of them were even good when I worked there! Starting with Yahoo! BOSS, Digg, SocialCode, Uber and now Stripe.

A long time ago, I also cofounded a really misguided iOS gaming startup with Luke Hatcher. We made thousands of dollars over six months, and spent the next six years trying to figure out how to stop paying taxes. It was a bit of a missed opportunity.

The very first iteration of Irrational Exuberance was created the summer after I graduated from college, and I’ve been publishing to it off and on since. Early on there was a heavy focus on Django, Python and Japan; lately it’s more about infrastructure, architecture and engineering management.

It’s hard to predict what it’ll look like in the future.

In his article, Will Larson (https://lethain.com/about/) discusses the complicated processes of “Infrastructure Planning” and communicates in a very clear and effective way, a lot of what is necessary for something very complex and simplifies it down to less details and less technical language for the lay person. I think his brilliance is in this. I hope I find a lot more of this as I surf the Internet.

Here’s a couple of opening paragraphs to give you a taste.

Technical infrastructure is never complete. System processes can always run with less overhead or be bin-packed onto fewer machines. Data can be retrieved more quickly and stored at a cheaper cost per terabyte. System design can broaden the gap between failure and user impact. Transport layers can be more secure.

The sheer variety of investable projects is overwhelming. There are always new technologies to adopt or finish adopting: Docker, Kubernetes, Envoy, GKE, HTTP/2, GraphQL, gRPC, Spark, Flink, Rust, Go, Elixir are just the beginning of your options. Add cloud vendor competition, and the rate of change is pretty staggering.

With such a broad problem domain filled with so many possible solutions, I’ve sometimes found it difficult to provide guidance for infrastructure teams to prioritize their work. Originally, I thought this was because I lacked depth in some facets, but I slowly came to realize it was equally difficult for the teams themselves to prioritize their own work: there were simply too many options.

Read more…

I think you will find his article a very solid source of information.

.dec

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Building future infrastructure…

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https://docs.openstack.org/devstack/latest/

Please note shortly into the install documents

If you do not have a preference, Ubuntu 16.04 is the most tested, and will probably go the smoothest.

So make sure that you adjust for potential issues accordingly.

Another option https://cloudstack.apache.org/

#openstack #cloudstack

cloud orchestration platform https://cloudify.co

#cloudify

#cloudorchestration

https://www.openshift.com/  RedHat’s offering with new partnerships, growing

https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/ibm-and-red-hat-join-forces-accelerate-hybrid-cloud-adoption

#Research #technologychoice #solutionchoices #infrastructure

.dec

A reprint of the Hacker’s Manifesto

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Title : Hacker’s Manifesto
Author : The Mentor
                               ==Phrack Inc.==

                    Volume One, Issue 7, Phile 3 of 10

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The following was written shortly after my arrest...

                       \/\The Conscience of a Hacker/\/

                                      by

                               +++The Mentor+++

                          Written on January 8, 1986
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

        Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers.  "Teenager
Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"...
        Damn kids.  They're all alike.

        But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain,
ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker?  Did you ever wonder what
made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?
        I am a hacker, enter my world...
        Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of
the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...
        Damn underachiever.  They're all alike.

        I'm in junior high or high school.  I've listened to teachers explain
for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction.  I understand it.  "No, Ms.
Smith, I didn't show my work.  I did it in my head..."
        Damn kid.  Probably copied it.  They're all alike.

        I made a discovery today.  I found a computer.  Wait a second, this is
cool.  It does what I want it to.  If it makes a mistake, it's because I
screwed it up.  Not because it doesn't like me...
                Or feels threatened by me...
                Or thinks I'm a smart ass...
                Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...
        Damn kid.  All he does is play games.  They're all alike.

        And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through
the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is
sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is
found.
        "This is it... this is where I belong..."
        I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to
them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...
        Damn kid.  Tying up the phone line again.  They're all alike...

        You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at
school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip
through were pre-chewed and tasteless.  We've been dominated by sadists, or
ignored by the apathetic.  The few that had something to teach found us will-
ing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.

        This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the
beauty of the baud.  We make use of a service already existing without paying
for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and
you call us criminals.  We explore... and you call us criminals.  We seek
after knowledge... and you call us criminals.  We exist without skin color,
without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals.
You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us
and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

        Yes, I am a criminal.  My crime is that of curiosity.  My crime is
that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like.
My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me
for.

        I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto.  You may stop this individual,
but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.

                               +++The Mentor+++
_______________________________________________________________________________

There is a spirit of an archetype that is being expressed here. Mainstream media has attempted to hijack the word, “hacker” and paint it with a brush of criminality alone and this is short sighted and illogical at best.

Hacker also does not have to just deal with technology. The spirit of Hacking, lends itself to all forms of creations. Knitters aka Yarn Hackers. Home brewers aka Beer Hackers

If you have a passion and succeed at it and demonstrate the “chops” within a “field” then by definition you have “hacked” your way into that field or industry, profession or vocation.

Ultimately, it is about life long learning.

.dec

12 Factors

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#DevOps

Great Resource. https://12factor.net/

The Twelve Factors

I. Codebase

One codebase tracked in revision control, many deploys

II. Dependencies

Explicitly declare and isolate dependencies

III. Config

Store config in the environment

IV. Backing services

Treat backing services as attached resources

V. Build, release, run

Strictly separate build and run stages

VI. Processes

Execute the app as one or more stateless processes

VII. Port binding

Export services via port binding

VIII. Concurrency

Scale out via the process model

IX. Disposability

Maximize robustness with fast startup and graceful shutdown

X. Dev/prod parity

Keep development, staging, and production as similar as possible

XI. Logs

Treat logs as event streams

XII. Admin processes

Run admin/management tasks as one-off processes

Introduction

In the modern era, software is commonly delivered as a service: called web apps, or software-as-a-service. The twelve-factor app is a methodology for building software-as-a-service apps that:

  • Use declarative formats for setup automation, to minimize time and cost for new developers joining the project;
  • Have a clean contract with the underlying operating system, offering maximum portability between execution environments;
  • Are suitable for deployment on modern cloud platforms, obviating the need for servers and systems administration;
  • Minimize divergence between development and production, enabling continuous deployment for maximum agility;
  • And can scale up without significant changes to tooling, architecture, or development practices.

The twelve-factor methodology can be applied to apps written in any programming language, and which use any combination of backing services (database, queue, memory cache, etc).

Background

The contributors to this document have been directly involved in the development and deployment of hundreds of apps, and indirectly witnessed the development, operation, and scaling of hundreds of thousands of apps via our work on the Herokuplatform.

This document synthesizes all of our experience and observations on a wide variety of software-as-a-service apps in the wild. It is a triangulation on ideal practices for app development, paying particular attention to the dynamics of the organic growth of an app over time, the dynamics of collaboration between developers working on the app’s codebase, and avoiding the cost of software erosion.

Our motivation is to raise awareness of some systemic problems we’ve seen in modern application development, to provide a shared vocabulary for discussing those problems, and to offer a set of broad conceptual solutions to those problems with accompanying terminology. The format is inspired by Martin Fowler’s books Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture and Refactoring.

Who should read this document?

Any developer building applications which run as a service. Ops engineers who deploy or manage such applications.

Take your Smart TV to the next level

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Kingston 128GB MicroSDXC Card

Intel Compute Stick PC - Intel Atom x5-Z8300 1.44GHz, 2GB DDR3L SDRAM, 32GB eMMC, Intel HD Graphics, WLAN, Bluetooth, No OS Installed

Intel Compute Stick PC – Intel Atom x5-Z8300 1.44GHz, 2GB DDR3L SDRAM, 32GB eMMC, Intel HD Graphics, WLAN, Bluetooth, No OS Installed

Purchase these two items and you have the hardware you need to take your Home “Smart TV” to the next level.

 

You can cast and/or remotely control this setup from your Android, iPhone and others and “cut the cable bill”.

This is just a lightweight solution to get your started on your pathway to Freedom and Independence as an Empowered Prosumer.

If you want to fire it up fresh out of the Box, we highly recommend getting a Linux distribution installed on your MicroSDXC card.

https://kodi.wiki/view/Installing_XBMC_for_Linux

Not sure how to do it?

We’ll be producing a walk-thru video soon to help you.

Further postings to come.

.dec

Step 1: Elevator-In-A-Box™®©

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Using this foundation component.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fatscontainers%2Fphotos%2Fa.154596253758.117505.151376798758%2F10155459490753759%2F%3Ftype%3D3&width=500

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Construct a freestanding level transitioning system for buildings which are approximately 4 stories in height.

Allows small building owners the ability to establish a universally accessible level transitioning system in a stand-alone solution.

Pour a HEMPcrete™®© footing/pad and insert lag bolts into footing and fasten to the brackets of the Elevator-In-A-Box™®©

Drive up, stand up the Elevator-In-A-Box™®©  to the freshly cured HEMPcrete™®© foundation you have laid beside your building and prepared to construct your level extensions for each floor of the building through the appropriate exterior wall.

Shipping container’s footprint can support an emergency safety ladder (optional external mount) And ample room for a backup generator, battery system and optional solar panel and wind generator  interfaces.

Off-grid operation is primary and due to size of this base model, this system can be used in tandem with existing grid with built-in backup or the owner can optional ruggedize their solution with larger capacity power systems on board, beyond the minimum required for the core lift function.

In other words, this solution is designed to work, with or without your local utility provider making this both and off-grid, more eco-friendly solution and allows building owners to establish universal barrier free access to their properties that are 4 storeys and smaller.

.dec

An idea I’ve been contemplating for a while.

.dec

Link to KickStarter below:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/343612909/1893960128?ref=428807&token=cbcfeeae

Platform Cooperatives

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_cooperative

A platform cooperative, or platform co-op, is a cooperatively-owned, democratically-governed business that uses a protocol, website or mobile app to facilitate the sale of goods and services. Platform cooperatives are an alternative to venture capital funded platforms insofar as they are owned and governed by those who depend on them most—workers, users, and other relevant stakeholders. Proponents of platform cooperativism claim that, by ensuring the financial and social value of a platform circulate among these participants, platform cooperatives will bring about a more equitable and fair digitally-mediated economy in contrast with the extractive models of corporate intermediaries. Platform cooperatives differ from traditional cooperatives not only due to their use of digital technologies, but also by their contribution to the commons for the purpose of fostering an equitable social and economic landscape.

Platform cooperativism draws upon other attempts at digital disintermediation, including the peer-to-peer production movement, led by Michel Bauwens and the P2P Foundation,[1] which advocates for “new kinds of democratic and economic participation”[2] that rest “upon the free participation of equal partners, engaged in the production of common resources,” as well as the radically-distributed, non-market mechanisms of networked peer-production promoted by Yochai Benkler.[3] Marjorie Kelly’s book Owning Our Future contributed the distinction between democratic and extractive ownership design to this discussion.[4]

9 Working Examples of Platform Cooperatives

https://civic.mit.edu/blog/natematias/9-working-examples-of-platform-cooperatives

What is a platform co-op?

Just like traditional co-ops, platform co-ops are organisations that are owned and managed by their members. While traditional co-ops are normally based around a physical community of members, platform…

 
Modo is an example of a platform co-op
(continues at the link above.)

About

The Internet of Ownership is a resource for the emerging online democratic economy. Its purpose is to advance platform cooperativism—a vision for online platforms that share democratic ownership and governance among the people who rely on them, especially those who contribute their labor and personal data.

A two day conference on the collaborative economy

A two day conference on the collaborative economy

The conference happened on February 16-17 2017 at Goldsmiths, University of London

Platform Cooperativism
About
Directory
Resources
Events
Stories
Consortium
About

croatian French German Italian Spanish

The Internet is slipping out of ordinary users’ control. Internet technologies are transforming our workplaces, relationships, and societies. Companies like Uber, Amazon, and Facebook are capturing vital sectors of the economy such as transportation and phenomena like search and social networking. All of us who rely on the Internet have virtually no control over the platforms that affect and inform us on a daily basis.

http://platformcoop.newschool.edu/

Platform Cooperativism Consortium (PCC)
The PCC supports the cooperative platform economy through research, advocacy, education, co-design, legal advice, application development, the documentation of best practices, the coordination of funding, and events.

11 Platform Cooperatives Creating a Real Sharing Economy
An upcoming event related to Platform Cooperatives as agents of Change.

http://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Peer_Production_License

Co-operative Business Models for Sustainable Platform Enterprise

Is how we view establishing a new creative content maker’s platform.

It starts with the idea that you are able to tag your own creations on your own physical hardware or authorized “agent” that will operate on your behalf and retain on-going record of use of your content.

https://open.coop/2016/06/23/not-a-co-op-not-a-platform-co-op/

https://databigandsmall.com/2017/03/10/a-cooperative-approach-to-platforms/

I know that there is a need because I live in a Cooperative Housing Community and it works. I believe in the principles.

.dec

Being remunerated for your content.

2 Replies

How much remuneration could one reasonably expect for the content they create and share online?

Isn’t this the domain of sharing and creating virtual objects (content) and receiving remuneration for their use by others virtually?

If we disconnected the monetization layer from the content creation layer and establised a common data (content) sharing that enables circles of trust relationship management. Centralized on the original content creator’s source system. Shared with a group owned cloud to backup and mirror each member and their content.

-dec

Data and your profile

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Have you ever wondered what’s all the fuss about FaceBook and other social media sites? As one of my mentors said,  “it’s the data stupid!”

Take for example digitalselfie an open source software project that’s a Chrome extension. See a sample screen shot below.

Screenshot from 2017-02-20 21-09-22.png

The longer the extension is installed, the more data it has work with and correspondingly the same with the history you have on FaceBook with your profile. A portion of the about page from the Data Selfie site follows…

Data Selfie explores our relationship to the online data we leave behind as a result of media consumption and social networks. In the modern age, almost everyone has an online representation of oneself and we are constantly and actively sharing information publically on various social media platforms. At the same time we are under constant surveillance by social media companies and “share” information unconsciously. How do our data profiles, the ones we actively create, compare to the profiles made by the machines at Facebook, Google and Co. – the profiles we never get to see, but unconsciously create?

.dec

Re-using technology for longer…

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This Original XBox (mine is Moddied) and

Original XBOX

using something like

“XBMC4Xbox is a free and open source media player software made solely for the first-generation Xbox video-game console. Other than the audio / video playback and media center functionality of XBMC4Xbox, it also has the ability to catalog and launch original Xbox games, and homebrew applications such as console emulators from the Xbox’s built-in harddrive.”

along with

XLink Kai: Evolution VII is a global gaming network, bringing together XBox users, PlayStation2, Gamecube, DS and PSP users to the one community. Whereas other tunnelling applications stick to their roots, at XLink, we like to think of ourselves as pioneers, breaking new boundaries and trying new things.

http://www.xbmc4xbox.org.uk/ is a great resource.

KODI, Emby and Plex look to be viable options. As always, choices to explore in the Open Source community. Just one of the many things happening in The Source Lab workshop.

.dec

 

Software to build…

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in the virtual environment called OpenSimulator that we use and program, setup and maintain, you are being introduced to the world behind the places like InWorldz™ and SL® aka Second Life® 

Second Life Your World. Your Imagination.

Go to Second Life? http://www.secondlife.com

Those “places” are “wall gardens” (aka Closed platform) as they are known in the Free Libre, GNU, Open Source communities.

from Wikipedia A closed platform, walled garden or closed ecosystem[1][2] is a software system where the carrier or service provider has control over applications, content, and media, and restricts convenient access to non-approved applications or content. This is in contrast to an open platform, where consumers generally have unrestricted access to applications, content, and much more.

I am leaving you bread crumbs as you follow me through the process of getting the OpenSimulator up and running on a computer right here next to me 🙂