Links and strange finds, January 31st, 2025
...from the World Wide Web and beyond!
Socrates Didn’t Whiteboard
This week’s Software Defined Talk: “This week, we discuss the latest news about DeepSeek, how to make sense of the countless hot takes, and a review of The Nvidia Way. Plus, some thoughts on Valentine’s Day.” Take a listen, or watch the unedited recording, and subscribe if you don’t already.
(I wanted to make sure about that whiteboarding, so I asked to robot. Checks out.)
Relative to your interests
Cloud vs. On-Prem: Which Is Better for Your Kubernetes Cluster? - The New Stack - You could also buy a stack instead of building one. Another consideration: use a PaaS.
DOGE, Software, and Government - “DOGE has become the great Wishing Well of political punditry.” // The difficulties of IT modernization in large organizations, well explained in a mini-case study. It’s always people and culture, etc.
Yes, but..
Wastebook
“toxic positivity." Here.
“Everyone on all sides is arguing their interests, but it doesn’t mean they’re wrong.” Ben Thompson, Sharp Tech, January 30thc 2025.
That meeting could have been an email. A very short email.
“Although Mr Ellison has handed over the CEO reins to an able lieutenant, Safra Catz, the closest he has to a true succession plan is funding anti-ageing research.” Schumpeter
And: “Mr Ellison’s brash corporate persona conceals an intensely private man whose non-business views are almost as invisible as his company’s ubiquitous software.”
Conferences
Events I’ll either be speaking at or just attending.
cfgmgmtcamp, Ghent, Feb 3rd to 5th, speaking. VMUG NL, Den Bosch, March 12th, speaking. SREday London, March 27th to 28th, speaking. Monki Gras, London, March 27th to 28th, speaking. CF Day US, Palo Alto, CA, May 14th. NDC Oslo, May 21st to 23rd, speaking. KubeCon EU, April 1st to 4th, London.
Discounts: 10% off SREDay London with the code LDN10.
Logoff
I’ve discovered Alfred. I have resisted these launch bar things forever, just using Spotlight. But, I think I get it now! Especially if I was a programmer and was always fucking around with files, I could see this would be amazing. Even typing “win” to select a window to switch to is pretty good. // Also, my friend DaShaun graciously offered to help me re-learn Java and Spring (live streamed, no less!) with the goal of writing some MCP servers for Claude to - you guessed it! - play D&D with The AI. We didn’t get to the MCP part, but I think we’re close!