https://www.khalidjhosein.net/Recent content on Khalid J HoseinHugo -- gohugo.ioen-USThu, 18 Jul 2024 22:53:06 -0400https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2024/07/some-uncommon-advice-for-taking-tech-certification-exams/Thu, 18 Jul 2024 22:53:06 -0400https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2024/07/some-uncommon-advice-for-taking-tech-certification-exams/I recently renewed my AWS Solutions Architect Pro certification, and of course that meant studying. Lots of studying. It doesn’t matter if you spend 100s of hours every month working in AWS, this cert’s purview is expansive. If you search, you will find lots of advice and tips on how to prepare for and how to sit AWS and other certification exams. I won’t repeat any of the common tips about sleep, what to study, or in-exam techniques.https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2024/01/forget-the-life-reset-make-mini-changes-instead/Thu, 25 Jan 2024 19:35:43 -0500https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2024/01/forget-the-life-reset-make-mini-changes-instead/Ever dreamt of hitting the reset button on life? Instead, you find yourself constantly ruminating on the idea without actually making any progress? Whether you realize it or not, you’re constantly getting and making fresh starts — tasks, life systems, workflows, etc. Here are some examples from my own life: Over the years, I moved away from actively buying and listening to CDs, to listening to music almost exclusively via streaming services.https://www.khalidjhosein.net/cloud-experience/Sat, 01 Apr 2023 17:04:33 -0500https://www.khalidjhosein.net/cloud-experience/This is a sampling of some of the projects I’ve completed in the past 10+ years. Most of the following projects were done for large enterprises and Fortune 500 companies. Designed and built a startup’s foundational multi-account architecture in AWS using Infrastructure as Code tooling (CloudFormation & Troposphere), configuration management (Puppet), and automation (scripting in Bash, Python, etc.). This was prior to landing zone or Control Tower solutions being commonly available.https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2022/02/authentication-of-users-apps-to-google-cloud-for-local-workstation-development/Tue, 22 Feb 2022 17:45:18 -0400https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2022/02/authentication-of-users-apps-to-google-cloud-for-local-workstation-development/If you are developing code (on your workstation) to interact with the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) using either the Google Cloud SDK Command Line Tools (i.e. gcloud) and/or the Google Cloud Client Libraries, then you’ll need to authenticate first. This article was inspired by the excellent explanatory how-to article created by John Tucker, and is essentially a ‘cheat-sheet’ version for that how-to. Note that this article does not cover how to authenticate when you or your proxy is inside GCP or in another environment.https://www.khalidjhosein.net/about/Sat, 01 Dec 2018 17:04:33 -0500https://www.khalidjhosein.net/about/Welcome to my little corner of the Internet! I’ve been in IT since… well, let’s just say that I had written a blog post a month, I’d have over 300 posts by now! I’ve worked for all sizes of companies, from as small as 10 to 10s of 1000s, and all types ranging from government consulting to a video game maker, from suits and ties all the way to shorts and sandals.https://www.khalidjhosein.net/home/Sat, 01 Dec 2018 17:04:33 -0500https://www.khalidjhosein.net/home/https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2018/12/terraform-tips-and-tricks/Sat, 01 Dec 2018 10:23:05 -0400https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2018/12/terraform-tips-and-tricks/Update, Feb 2019: Note that with the imminent release of Terraform v0.12, some of the advice, commands, etc. in this article may not apply or work any more. Having used Hashicorp’s Terraform since 2016, I’ve collected a set of tips and tricks around developing and debugging Terraform code. Version Pinning Even at 4+ yrs old, Terraform is still not even at version 1.0. However, along the way even the minor releases have had major–and many times breaking–changes.https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2015/10/how-to-launch-a-linux-aws-ec2-instance-and-set-the-hostname-to-a-tags-value/Thu, 01 Oct 2015 10:00:00 -0400https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2015/10/how-to-launch-a-linux-aws-ec2-instance-and-set-the-hostname-to-a-tags-value/This howto describes how to launch an AWS EC2 instance and in particular, set the hostname to the same value as the Name tag of the instance. These notes can also be referenced to create a command-line based method, an API-based method or even be done via IaC (e.g., Terraform). Log into the AWS Console and navigate to EC2 service -> Instances. Click the Launch Instances button and select a Linux AMI.https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2015/09/windows-to-macos-switching-tools/Mon, 21 Sep 2015 21:12:07 -0500https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2015/09/windows-to-macos-switching-tools/Once upon a time, my primary desktop OS was Windows of some variety. I’ll just date myself and tell you that I started with Microsoft Windows NT 3.51 Workstation. Over 2 years ago, that changed, and my primary driver became a MacBook running OSX 10.x. I’m still surrounded by various varieties of *nix, ChromeOS, Windows, iOS and Android, so still a mixed bag. Of course, having used Windows for so many years, I had built up my own little personal list of preferred tools, utilities and shortcuts and naturally wanted to replicate their functionality in some form or fashion on the Mac.https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2014/09/the-spectrum-of-electronic-communication-immediacy-or-lack-thereof/Mon, 01 Sep 2014 16:51:44 -0500https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2014/09/the-spectrum-of-electronic-communication-immediacy-or-lack-thereof/For as long as I’ve been working, email has been an ever-present communications tool, loved and hated, misunderstood and abused, carrier of unnecessary work. And for as much discussion has been poured into how to better manage and/or reduce or eliminate email, scant few organizations have been able to make much headway on this front. Not that it’s impossible. There are alternative tools available that could be used to reduce email.https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2007/10/rip-net.bnk/Mon, 01 Oct 2007 17:35:25 -0500https://www.khalidjhosein.net/2007/10/rip-net.bnk/I was a loyal Net.B@nk customer for about 10 years, until they were shut down by OTS (an agency underneath the Treasury Dept). I enjoyed the experience greatly. While I became complacent with the (initially good) rates, and stopped looking for better deals, for the most part I got what I needed which was online access to banking. NetBank was probably the first online-only banking entity to not only offer above average rates, but also free bill payment.