This series will explain the key differences between AWS and Azure services, in part 1 , tried to cover the key terminologies used and where the infrastructure services/servers are actually hosted
If you are looking for what cloud computing means(this article is not for you!) -anyways, here is a quick summary for you from AWS:
What is cloud computing?
Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources over the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing. Instead of buying, owning, and maintaining physical data centers and servers, you can access technology services, such as computing power, storage, and databases, on an as-needed basis from a cloud provider like Amazon Web Services (AWS).
State of the Cloud
AWS is #1 – AWS is a clear Leader, as a first mover it still leads the pack
Azure is #2 : Azure had a lot of catching up to do , but using its enterprise strength and strong office 365, they were able to quickly catch up and become a almost close second
and Google or GCP is #3 : GCP is at a distant third, though they have way more knowledge on how to run a highly scalable and fault tolerant architectures, given the fact that they never had a strong enterprise thought process and their history with shutting down projects , the word on street is that their support is not so great and they come in distinct 3rd!
There are other players like Oracle and regional behemoths like alibaba who are playing catch up games!
So for the first part of this series, we will get started with where the top two contenders are located and how their infrastructure is setup!
So lets get started..
Typically cloud providers operate across the world! and both AWS and Azure have grown to a place where they have services almost everywhere..
It has 24* regions and it almost covers every corner of earth! each and every region almost surely has at least 2 availability zones all connected via dedicated networking..
AWS has something like
Regions
Availability Zones
Edge Locations
Key Terminologies
Regions are places where AWS has at least two or more availability zones – Each AWS Region is designed to be isolated from the other AWS Regions
Availability Zones or AZ’s or datacenters are the actual physical locations where the servers are hosted
Edge Locations : To deliver content to end users with lower latency, Amazon Cloud Front uses a global network of 217 Points of Presence (205 Edge Locations and 12 Regional Edge Caches) in 84 cities across 42 countries
A Local Zone is an extension of an AWS Region that is geographically close to your users.
Along with these there are many other services that AWS provides..
Also all these information tend to change every day, for example, look at the above picture , there are 3 announced regions and many more might be in the pipeline.. also there are additional zones like a local zone or a even a wavelength Zone etc!
Now lets move over to Azure!
Azure Infrastructure
Azure follows almost the same structs as AWS however differs in some areas!
Now if you compare it with AWS, you can see that there are additional layers on azure network , so lets see everyone!
Geographies: This can be tagged under , the continent the regions lie in (or An Azure geography defines an area of the world containing at least one Azure region), for example, Azure has 4
Americas
Europe
Asia Pacific
Middle East and Africa
RegionalPairs : A regional pair consists of two regions within the same geography
Regions: An Azure region consists of a set of data centers deployed within a latency-defined perimeter and connected through a dedicated low-latency network.
AvailabilityZones: Availability Zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region.
Availability Sets: allows workloads to be spread over multiple hosts, racks but still remain at the same data center;
If you are wondering whether Anime is cartoon , well , the answer is Yes, and NO… Cartoons are mostly 2D and Anime can be 2D , 3D. But the main difference is that , Unlike cartoons , Anime are made for Adults. So you will most probably see variety of genres in Anime. Most of the Anime Fit into these main categories, Action, there are a ton of Action based Anime, and then there is Mystery, Thriller, Suspense , History etc etc..
Now , this list is totally based on my opinions, and entirely based on Netflix’s US collection of Anime..
Without further adieu, lets go and see the TOP 4, Anime, in Netflix
First and foremost is a series called, One Punch Man. its based on a character named Saitama, who is bald, lean looking , but can kill a person,.. wait for a second.. in One Kill! yes, that is his super Power..
How he got his super power is by going through the following training.. for a year and a half , he did, 100 daily push-ups, sit-ups, and squats, plus 10 km daily running.. if you do this, you will also get it .. this is an interesting series , especially when you consider a hero who can kill the opponents in one Punch…
Attack on titan
Next is a famous Manga.. If you have a stomach for watching Zombie gore, then this could be of your interest. The series is aptly called , Attack on the titan.. so the story revolves around Eren and Mikasa and how they live in a walled city , to protect themselves from 100ft monstrous human zombies.
Attack on titan
Its also about the power , how the different military units work etc etc. Its based on one of the best selling Manga in Japan, with more than 100 million copies sold! This series starts with base structure, and as the seasons expand we get to know more about the , titan, military corps, and how the characters change..
Love , Death & Robots
Next is not based on Manga, and heck, it might not even be an Anime, but its worth watching.. The series is called Love, Death & Robots.. This is a mini series , or an , Anthology as they call it.. It has 18 episodes each with a different genre, all dystopian, some definitely 18+…
The best thing about this is the type of animation varies per episode and you don’t have to commit anything, when you start. Each episode is less than 20 minutes. I would suggest you start with this, if you haven’t watched any Anime , anywhere..
Naruto
Ok, drumroll, we are going to talk about the final and my favorite only .. Its called Naruto..
So , Naruto is based on another famous Manga, or the most famous Manga as per Me.. This story, or this series is all about a ninja whose name is Naruto Uzumaki.. I will try to contain my excitement and not to reveal anything. So once upon a time there existed a nine tailed fox, whose chakra is unlimited, and the leaf village , who Naruto is based , confronted the nine tailed fox and put that inside Naruto.
Cut.. now without realizing this nine tailed fox’s chakra inside his body, Naruto tries to become a Ninja warrior, and there are many who wants his power.. This series is all about the techniques and ways of doing it.
There is Ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu, which are the types of techniques , A ninja uses while fighting.. .. There is Chunin, Jonin and Sainin , that are the levels of a Ninja .. then there is the hokage, the village chief. And then , there are different villages, like leaf village, sand village etc, etc.. there are a ton of episodes and the background music will make goosebumps..
This is my most favorite Anime till date .. the Netflix series ends and then , there is a new series called Naruto Shipuden.. And there are a ton of movies as well..
So what are your favorite anime? Leave it on comment box..
Amazon is running a huge deal on Apple AirPods, the brand new is only $128 and thats $30 less than elsewhere!
But here is what no one else will tell you! If you look at the used products session, same amazon is selling one for just $98, its used but comes with a guarantee!!!
Go grab one from here – look for used section
You can read a quick review here – https://www.techradar.com/reviews/audio-visual/hi-fi-and-audio/headphones/apple-airpods-1328292/review
OUR VERDICT
The Apple AirPods are still a perfectly respectable pair of true wireless earbuds – even now that the upgraded AirPods (2019) have replaced them. With decent sound quality and seamless device pairing, all you have to worry about is if they fit your ears and if you can deal with the lack of an in-line remote to control your music.
Where is Google’s Pixel 4A? Sitting right on the company’s online store, as it turns out. Google seems to have mistakenly published an image of the Pixel 4A on its Canadian store. The text says “Nest Wifi,” but uh… that’s no Nest Wifi. The phone has already leaked extensively over the last few months, but this is a marketing render direct from Google — and it suggests that the 4A might finally be coming sometime in the near future.
There were quite a few leaks of Pixel phones in the past years, and it ended up Google revealing its phone months before its show event. Looks like this year is going to be more entertaining..
If you are an infrastructure engineer or a hosting admin , or work anything remote , you might love these tools which will make your life easier.. [Part I]
DNS
There are many DNS checkers out there, but here is what i use..
NSLOOKUP – is a network administration command-line tool available in many computer operating systems for querying the Domain Name System to obtain domain name or IP address mapping, or other DNS records. – usage
DIG – is a tool for querying DNS nameservers for information about host addresses, mail exchanges, nameservers, and related information – usage
Whatsmydns.net – whatsmydns.net lets you instantly perform a DNS lookup to check a domain name’s current IP address and DNS record information against multiple name servers located in different parts of the world.
mxtoolbox – mxtoolbox lets you search all of your MX record, DNS, blacklist and SMTP diagnostics in one integrated tool. Input a domain name or IP Address or Host Name. Links in the results will guide you to other relevant tools and information. And you’ll have a chronological history of your results.
Redirects/Rewrites
Rewrite Checker – want to check whether there is a any redirect between a source and destination, here is a simple tool
Ok, this is the second part of the series how to save money and live within the minimum wage.. You can access Part I here
In this part, i will try to share some of the tricks that i use while shopping for anything and how to make use of various websites/tools to get the lowest price and highest return and make every day as your Black Friday
First thing: DO NOT IMPULSE BUY
Impulse buying usually results in overpaying for something that you never need in the first place. Lets say for example, you are casually going through Instagram posts and a beautiful necklace or a stylish shoe or a modern gadget appears. 9 out of 10 times these are ads and usually they “say” that there is a “limited time offer” or “a deep discount” or “just for today” and we causally click through to see what they have to offer..
Well Stop there!
Before you go any further, close Instagram or any other app and close your phone as well for a minute., Just for a minute. It could save you a lot of $$$
Now usually after a few mins, we might lose interest in that product and we start doing something else! If not, there is a chance that a string of impulse purchases will push you towards addiction! But let say you saw an ad with a stylish shoe with a limited time offer and you really want to buy it. My First advice would be to wait for 24-48 hours before you buy this, but if you are in need of a shoe then dont click buy there.
OK, so no impulse buying, but you want to buy something , well i have listed a few sites that offers a lot of deals..
This post is not for the top 1%, heck it’s not even for the top 50%, this post is specifically for those who try to live the american life earning $7.5 per hour and anyone who tries to cut down expenses and save $$$. This post will cover in detail a few areas and contains follow up posts.
First let’s calculate your income:
So, let’s start with your income, a typical american earns about $1500 a month with a single job, with another gig and it improves by $1000. Though retailers like target, Amazon pay twice the minimum wage, For simplicity we will take the below calculation.
Working Hours per Day
10
Earnings per hour
7.5
Work days in a month
~24
Total
24*10*7.5= ~$1800 (without taxes)
Example income
The total pre tax salary comes to around 1800 which is lesser than what Jeff Bezos makes in a second.. IN A SECOND. But lets not go into the capitalism and the top 1% problem, for now we will leave it up to Bernie.
At $7.5 , you will not save what it requires to run a year in retirement even when you keep earning for the rest of your life. With current salary, it roughly translates to $21,600 per year which is way below the median US salary of ~$31000. But if you can plan well enough you can live within $21600 and anything that comes above can be used for savings(in case if you earn above $7.5) .
Expenditure.
I tried listing the major expenditure areas where most of your income goes .
Some Stuff that can help you save money (supports this site)
Before you can dive in, this post is only for
Singles who works on Low wage (insurance covered)
Those who have no financial commitments like Student Loan (will address this in another article) etc
Just got out of college and no other jobs apart from Low wage..
Starts working on a low wage job due to Covid-19 job loss.
Ok, so, You are single and fits either of the above said parameters and below is how you should be spending your salary and IF you can do it, then we can optimize it further.
If you are married, or has a mortgage, dont worry, i will cover you in next posts..
Expenditure
Amount
Rent
$800
Grocery
$240
Food
$140
Car + Insurance
$200
Misc/Credit card bill
$200
Internet
$60
Gas
$80
Cell
$30
Total
$1750
Proposed Expenses
Savings : $50
Looks sweet and easy isn’t it? Well this might be the toughest thing that you might have done yet! some of these like cellular bill at $30 may look ridiculous, but i will share as much as details as possible on how to achieve this (i have achieved this) . Also, you can use the trail programs available everywhere and make use of it , without spending a PENNY, like one below (affiliate link – supports this site)
Now let’s delve into the details on how to achieve this!
Finding the right place
Majority of your expenses would be incurred by rent unless you stay with your parents. A typical minimum wage worker works for a retail company like Walmart or Dollar Tree ,which most probably is located in a city or suburb. A typical american works 44 hours a week,so it’s understandable that you might want to live near by, but usually those are mostly expensive , i.e greater than the median rent. So the trick here is to find a nearby suburb.
The main thing is to set the expectations , what are the things that I *really* need from a home. The basic need goes like
1 Bedroom
1 Bath
Car parking
Central Heating/AC
Carpet / hardwood
Washer/Dryer (optional)
So it’s safe to assume that you need all these and let’s be honest, a single shouldn’t need more than a single bedroom. The other alternative is for friends to stay together by sharing a 3bhk home, but it comes with its own disadvantages. So we have the list of needs ready, the next is to find the apartment? NOPE..
The next is to find the right suburb to live in, and there are three main things that you need to consider
Crime rate
Travelling time
Amenities available..
Crime rate determines the livability of the environment so be stern about this. Travelling time should be a variable , rather than a constant, so anywhere between 45 mins to 1 hour should be fine 1 way. Amenities include, the grocery stores, gyms, theaters, eat outs etc. You can visit big name stores, banks on weekends.
OK, now you have found the almost perfect suburb to live in, but the rent is exceeding the $800 figure, what to do? Well we have few links provided below for you to find the next right suburb. Now this may not be as easy as it seems, however you need to spend hours of time to find the right place and even then in places like California or NY this may not be possible. I will try to address few of these in upcoming posts..
Some Stuff that can help you save money (supports this site)
In next set of posts we will go through each of your expenditure line items and discuss in details. Meanwhile, you can reach out to me for any queries.