Posts

Most people think Jesus died for theological reasons. They’re wrong. He died for economic ones. We picture sandals. Sermons. Miracles. We imagine a spiritual world. Distant. Religious. Safe. But the people living there? They weren’t thinking about theology. They were thinking about money. Or more precisely—the lack of it. Here’s what nobody tells you about first-century Judea. Rome didn’t conquer territories to improve them. Rome conquered territories to drain them. ...

“Can we train a YOLO model using an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 GPU with just ~975 temperature panel images?” This question from my colleague sparked an interesting journey into computer vision and object detection. What started as a simple inquiry turned into a comprehensive exploration of training YOLO models for digit recognition on digital displays - and yes, it absolutely works on a RTX 4050! The Challenge My colleague shared a dataset of approximately 975 images of temperature panel digital meter readings from refrigeration units. The goal was to automatically extract temperature readings from images like these, where each display shows temperatures for different rooms (Meat Room, Fish Room, Vegetable Room, and Dairy Room). ...

I just watched an incredible MIT lecture on YouTube about Foundation Models and Generative AI, and I’m still processing the profound insights shared. Here’s what I learned about why AI has suddenly become so capable—and why it took so long to get here. I stumbled upon this MIT lecture video while researching AI, thinking I understood the technology pretty well. By the end of the 90-minute presentation? My entire perspective had shifted. ...

Redis is an open-source, in-memory key-value store known for its high performance and versatility. It operates primarily as a cache or a quick-response database, storing data in memory to enable low-latency read and write operations. Redis supports various data structures, including strings, lists, sets, and hashes, making it suitable for a wide range of applications from caching to real-time analytics. Its design allows for rapid data access and manipulation, which is crucial for applications requiring high throughput and low latency. ...

Key Themes and Insights 1. Emotional Runway vs. Financial Runway Financial Runway: Refers to the amount of money a company has to sustain operations. Emotional Runway: A less-discussed but critical concept that reflects the mental and emotional capacity to continue working on a project. Emotional highs and lows can drastically affect this runway. Acknowledging the existence of emotional runway is crucial. 2. Factors That Shorten Emotional Runway Neglecting Physical Health: ...

Earning the Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS) was the next big goal on my Kubernetes journey after clearing CKA and CKAD back in October. Riding high on the success of those certifications, I felt confident and scheduled the CKS for November. Little did I realize that this exam would challenge not just my Kubernetes skills but also my consistency and mindset. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ...

Apache Kafka is widely used for building distributed, real-time data pipelines. However, running Kafka in a production environment requires a solid setup to ensure performance, reliability, and scalability. Strimzi simplifies deploying and managing Kafka clusters on Kubernetes or OpenShift, but to be truly production-ready, several factors need to be considered. In this article, we will cover essential best practices and optimizations to make your Kafka cluster ready for production, based on insights from the Strimzi Production Ready series and additional knowledge. ...

A lot of Reddit users say that CKAD is easier than CKA. Personally, I agree—it does feel lighter if you attempt CKAD after completing CKA. The CKAD focuses more on scheduling tasks, while CKA involves administration of clusters. So, in CKAD, it’s more about speed and being quick with your typing to finish all the questions in time. 🏃‍♂️🕒 My Study Approach After passing the CKA two weeks earlier, I had a pretty good idea of what the exam interface and questions would be like. I compared the CKA and CKAD certifications to see what additional topics I needed to cover for CKAD. ...

Last November, I scheduled my CKA exam, but guess what? I kept putting it off for months. Every time I thought about studying Kubernetes, it felt like I was facing an enormous mountain I wasn’t ready to climb. Life got busy, I lost motivation, and the exam remained on hold. In July, I bought the KodeKloud CKA course, thinking it would push me to start studying. I studied a little, then stopped, and this cycle went on for weeks. Kubernetes seemed too big and complex to handle, and I didn’t know where to begin. And then, life happened—my father was hospitalized, and I had even less drive to study. ...

In 2014, security researchers discovered a critical vulnerability in the HSBC mobile banking app for iOS. The app was found to be susceptible to man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, allowing attackers to intercept and manipulate sensitive financial information. The root of the problem? The absence of SSL pinning. Without SSL pinning, the app was vulnerable to accepting any SSL certificate, even a forged one, which enabled attackers to eavesdrop on the communication between the app and HSBC’s servers. This security flaw put users’ banking information at risk and highlighted a significant gap in the app’s security framework. ...

Joshua had been waiting anxiously for weeks. As an aspiring clerk, he knew that the government official’s appointment order could arrive any day. This appointment was crucial—it would determine his future and career. Every morning, Joshua checked his local post office, hoping that today would be the day the letter arrived, confirming his new position. In many ways, Joshua’s experience mirrors how Kafka, a powerful distributed streaming platform, manages and delivers data. Just like how Joshua relies on the postal system to receive his appointment letter, modern data systems depend on Kafka to ensure that critical information reaches its intended recipients quickly and reliably. ...

A few weeks ago, I got a task from my manager that seemed straightforward at first: set up a development environment for one of our upcoming projects. The catch? It needed to be accessible over HTTPS, just like our production sites. Now, getting a certificate from a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) for a development environment didn’t make much sense, and we certainly didn’t want to incur extra costs or deal with the complexities of a CA for something internal. ...

I remember the first time I encountered YAML—it was during a seemingly regular workday when a Kubernetes task landed on my desk. I had been managing infrastructure the traditional way for years, but suddenly, here was this new ecosystem that used a format I hadn’t seen before: YAML. It was frustrating at first. The simple indentation of a line could break everything, and I was far too comfortable with JSON and XML. But as Kubernetes became indispensable, and Ansible, Docker Compose, and other tools followed suit, it became clear that YAML wasn’t just a passing trend—it was the new standard. ...

In the high-speed hustle of modern professional life, we often find ourselves chasing time, trying to grasp every fleeting minute. Productivity isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a lifeline that keeps us afloat in a sea of deadlines, meetings, and endless tasks. If you’re like me, a busy professional always on the lookout for the best way to streamline your day, you know that most productivity systems seem to add more to our plates rather than taking off the load. ...

The early days of the internet were marked by a sense of freedom and innovation. Platforms like Twitter, founded by Jack Dorsey and others, were initially open-source ecosystems where developers could contribute, leading to features like hashtags and trending topics. This era was characterized by decentralized protocols, like email, allowing for diverse applications and innovation. However, as platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google grew, they started organizing this vast information, turning social media into centralized repositories. This shift was efficient but led to the accumulation of power in the hands of a few companies, creating ‘walled gardens’ where user data became a commodity for advertising revenue. ...

Hello there! If you’ve ever wondered how to make your computer tasks faster and more efficient, you’re in the right place. This blog post is all about Batch scripting - a simple yet powerful way to automate tasks in Windows. Whether you’re new to programming or have some experience, “The Batchology Handbook” is designed to be easy to follow and understand. We’ll start with the basics, like setting up your workspace, and gradually move into more exciting stuff, like automating file management and using cool commands you might not know about. ...

In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, it’s easy to let moments slip by without much thought. The idea of journaling, while appealing in theory, often feels daunting in practice. After a long day, the last thing many of us want to do is reflect on our experiences and plan for the next. But what if I told you there’s a way to reap the benefits of journaling in just five minutes a day? Enter the 5-Minute Death Journal. ...

Yes, you read that right. The port you’re trying to use is already occupied by another application. If you’re a system or network administrator, you’ve likely encountered this frustrating message more times than you care to remember. It’s challenging to pinpoint which application is hogging the port (though it’s not as hard as it seems, as I’ll show you 😉). These ghost messages can leave you in quite a pickle. ...

In a recent YouTube video, a former WhatsApp engineer shared his insights on success in the tech industry and the key lessons he learned during his time at the company. Here are the main takeaways from his experience, formatted with lists and paragraphs: Key Lessons Learned Influence and Likability: Influence in the tech industry is about being likable and credible. People who are dependable and pleasant to work with are more likely to be sought after for new opportunities and promotions. Focus on building a strong reputation by being a good team player and delivering results. 👍 ...

I’ve had the privilege of navigating through a wide array of technical landscapes. Yet, the recent endeavor of configuring a Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC) for SQL Server AlwaysOn presented a learning curve that was both steep and enriching. In this piece, I hope to share my experiences, the challenges encountered, and the lessons learned, with a spirit of humility and the intention of contributing to our collective knowledge base. ...