Cloud Collections: A Link Library
Published: 2023-07-09I'm terrible with rabbit holes. I don't go very far down them but I start digging a lot whenever I sniff out something interesting.
My rabbit-hole problem is evident in the number of browser tabs I have open, and this is a problem. Perhaps it's a problem for you as well? Not only does it take effort to navigate between the actual active tabs I am using, when I look at the number of tabs that are open then it can be very overwhelming. The problem is, you don't know which ones are important and which ones are just curiosities.
The solution: if most of these tabs are just for reference, then they should be organised as such. Just like a mind full of jumbled thoughts can be organised by writing them down in a structured way, a browser full of random tabs can be organised likewise, and the mind can be calmed.
So here is a list of categorised links I have come across, for my benefit and for others, along with the lesson: don't overwhelm your brain and your browser.
Cloud stuff
General
Web Developer Security Checklist: An essential read for anyone planning on deploying, or maintaining a cloud-based web application. You will always find something useful.
OWASP HTML5 Security Cheat Sheet: Another essential reference for front-end developers wishing to tighten security. Lots of often-overlooked tips. A bit overwhelming, but comprehensive.
Serverless
Serverless Deployment Best Practices: A specific entry pulled out of the Serverless blogs, because it is worth checking in on periodically.
Awesome Serverless: An awesome list of links (better than this one), with everything from AWS, Vercel and GCP to articles, books and courses. If it's serverless you'll find it here.
Upstash: A serverless data platform for Redis, Kafka and QStash. Backed by Naval Ravikant, they claim to have one of the lowest global latencies for data.
Serverless Django with Zappa: If you are feeling a bit wacky, you can try to deploy popular CMS framework Django on Lambda and Aurora-Serverless to harness the power of both. But not for the feint-hearted.
Cloud and Cloud Services
Buildpacks.io: "transform your application source code into images that can run on any cloud." Standardise your container images.
Free-For.Dev: A collection of services offering free tiers. Full of things to try, with no commitment to trying them.
AWS Guides
AWS Whitepapers and Guides: If you're serious about AWS, you should be reading their whitepapers. If you're interested in it, there is probably a whitepaper to help you. Find them here.
AWS DevOps Blog: Similar to the above, if you want to keep up with DevOps in the cloud (specifically AWS), this is a worthy bookmark to check in on regularly.
AWS Stash: If you like things to be searchable, then this project tries to collate a lot of the AWS information above in a nice interface.
Optimizing Lambda Performance: Getting the most out of your Lambdas.
Analysing S3 Server Access Logs with Athena: If you run a website on AWS S3 like me, it's very interesting to know that you can run your own analytics on your server logs with just a few clicks.
DynamoDB: Single Table Design: If you don't want to wade through Rick Houlihan's amazing video on DynamoDB table design, this is a good summary to begin with.
AWS Step Functions: Human Verification: If you need humans to verify and authorize things in your cloud-native process, this is how you would do it using step functions.
Development Stuff
BDD & TDD
Introducing BDD: Useful for both getting started with BDD and occasionally refreshing what you might have forgotten.
Gherkin Language: There are many syntax guides out there but this one is compact and readable.
Pytest-BDD: Library for implementing BDD in Python with Pytest
DevOps
AWS/Docker/Fargate/CICD Lab: If you want some hands-on practice in doing DevSecOps in AWS, this is a good place to get it.
Development Skills, Libraries & Tools
Build Your Own X: A plethora of small projects to pique your interest in nearly any topic.
ChartJS, Chartist: Simple charting tools for the lean-minded developer.
IPAPI: API for getting geo-information from an IP address, useful for analysing your audience.
Everything to know about using Git in VSCode: The official VSCode guide, full of info and videos.
Docker with WSL2, Docker and WSL2 with VSCode: Something I've been wanting to try for a while, with benefits over running a full VM. Maybe soon I will.
Newsletters and Blogs
Off-By-None: Writings about serverless and modern cloud development
Google Devops & SRE Blog: This is where the "State Of DevOps" (DORA) report is released.
Last Week in AWS: Cloud blogging with a side of snark from Corey Quinn. Taking the boring out of AWS.