Schlomo Schapiro

DevOps is not a title, not a box to buy, nor a software to install - how can you explain DevOps in 5 minutes, e.g. as an elevator pitch riding up to the top floor with your boss? DevOps is like a driving license for running code in production In my opinion, this is the easiest and best explanation, that everybody can understand. Specifically, it is like a motorcycle driving license and this analogy carries surprisingly far, e.g.: motorcyclists pass a theoretical exam → Engineers should know about their obligations before working in production motorcyclists drive on their own, the instructor drives behind and gives instructions via radio → Engineers should work in production and a DevOps coach should accompany them with expertise motorcyclists are fully accountable for their mistakes (e.g. hitting a tree) while they learn driving → Engineers working in production are fully acc...

Software rules the world, and everybody is its subject. But you can be a ruler, too - if you like  I keep telling my family. Here is a little example where I try to rule my secondary printer by automating the tedious task of rotating and scaling content to print. My Little Zebra Printer My secondary printer (shown here on the shelf in my home office) is a little miracle device: It is a thermal transfer receipt printer , that prints on a roll of continuous paper that is 10cm (4in) wide. Specifically a Zebra GX420d . You can get such a used printers relatively cheap. This is exactly a printer like you know from your local supermarket. And it is a super useful tool to have at home, as many print jobs don't require a full A4 page and don't need to be printed on fancy bright white paper with ever-lasting toner. Most common print jobs are shipping labels (no need to cut them to size), small shopping lists (fits in a pocket), little notes to stick into a book (e.g. reading order for ...

This is especially useful for all Google Workspace admins who still use their regular account as domain admin. Google's security best practices for administrator accounts mentions Don’t use a super admin account for daily activities and I believe that this is a really important point. If you haven't done so, I also strongly recommend going over this acrticle as it serves as a check-list for your admin setup. Why isn't everybody using an admin account? Well, paying for yet another Google Workspace license just for admin work might be too much for you, especially for smaller domains. A Shared Admin Account - Bad Idea Some domains use a shared super admin account where every user has their own YubiKey configured as MFA. While this approach does separate between regular work and admin access, it doesn't give a good solution IMHO: You can't know who actually used it because multiple people have access and Google doesn...