Top5 06/23/2014

Every day that I get to write a Top5 post feels like an auspicious day, as it is rather one of my favorite things to write, I must admit. This is partly because I get to dig into all the cool stuff that everyone else has been up to and posting with the ever lively DevCentral community. It’s partly because I get to write about exactly what I want , not that, you know, I’m a control freak or anything. And it’s partly because there is SO MUCH COOL STUFF happening to write about. Pardon the shouty caps and all, but man, technology is just freaking cool sometimes. So, clearly in fan boy mode (and not in the slightest ashamed, athankyouverymuch), I bring to you, with excitement, this week’s Top5: 

 

From the University of the Obvious: Faster Applications are Better

https://devcentral.f5.com/s/articles/from-the-university-of-the-obvious-faster-applications-are-better

With what is very possibly the best title in the history of the Top5, I simply could not resist this piece by Robert Haynes. I’m sure precisely zero of you are shocked by this ground breaking revelation upon which he reflects: Faster Applications are Better. Take a moment to absorb that revolutionary data point. Ready? Okay, now in all seriousness, go check out this tongue in cheek, highly entertaining post. He really does hit a particularly annoying nail on the head. Why on earth are all of these reports out there showing nowhere near enough detail to matter, but rather loudly exclaiming “ZOMGZ! YOU GAIZ! FASTER IS BETTER!!” as if we hadn’t figured that out. I prefer rapid downloads, rapid restaurant service, and the pedal on the right. None of this is shocking, I would think. What it really comes down to is the how. How do you make things faster? How do you get the improvements you seek? That’s the meat you’re looking to chew, and Robert and Dawn are looking to team up to provide just such sustenance. I’m excited to see what they come up with, as there’s a host of accelerating to be done within BIG-IP. Stay tuned to see what they pump out, and rest assured it will be more than “Acceleration is good” advice. At least, it better be, or no more beer for Robert.

 

20 Lines or Less #75: URIs, URIs and More URIs

https://devcentral.f5.com/s/articles/20-lines-or-less-75-uris-uris-and-more-uris 

URIs are a thing. They’re a thing on “the web”. They’re a thing on “the web” that gets mucked with quite a lot, actually. Therefore being able to do said mucking to said thing on said “web” in a rather robust and rapid fashion could most likely be characterized as “a good thing”. This edition of the 20LoL shows three handy ways to do just that kind of thing. Also, in unrelated news, I like “quotes”. This edition of the 20LoL is the first in a targeted attack of hawesome (no, auto-correct, I did not mean ‘awesome’). By focusing on a single type of operation I’m hoping to make these a little more targeted at particular groups of users / community members and perhaps even easier to historically search to find examples of what you’d like to do. Handy? Let me know whether you’re team #singletopic20lol or #randomness20lol and guide my experiment. Otherwise expect to see future installments similarly guided towards a single topic until more data can be gathered. For science!

 

Devops: The Operational Amplifier

https://devcentral.f5.com/s/articles/devops-the-operational-amplifier

What’s this? A post that is a confluence of electrical engineering concepts and Devops goodness? Surely this must be on the Top5! Sprinkle in a little bit of MacVittie goodness and you’ve got a winner. Herein lies an excellent depiction of precisely why Devops is such a powerful and important movement in modern IT driven businesses. I am immediately in love with the term “Operational Amplifier” as an attempt to describe the role Devops can play. Take the resources you have and turn up the gain to the point that your output far exceeds what seem to be the expected limitations. This is imperative in growing businesses rapidly, especially when attempting to support the plethora of applications that most IT departments are saddled with in today’s app-centric world. Lori dives into this topic and has some excellent commentary that is absolutely worth a read. Go take a look for yourself, you’ll get a real charge out of it I’m sure.

 

Security Sidebar: I Can See Your Browsing History

https://devcentral.f5.com/s/articles/security-sidebar-i-can-see-your-browsing-history

You know those stories we all heard growing up? The ones that were part horror story and part parable? Something like “If you don’t eat your peas the gremlins will get you!” No? Your parents didm’t use abject terror as a motivational tool? Oh. Well. Uhh..moving on, then. Anyway, this is the kind of thing that just might help you scare your security reluctant friends straight into a security seminar/book/something useful. It’s easy to forget how much data we’re offering up to the world when we do something as simple as browse the web. John takes a moment to remind (and terrify) us that we are giving nearly as much as we get. Sometimes despite our best efforts to the contrary. Your browsing history is a tasty morsel for many companies out there. If you have a history, meaning you don’t delete it every time you close your browser, you may want to take a look at this post to see just what kind of risk you might be running. 

 

What are you waiting for?

https://devcentral.f5.com/s/articles/what-are-you-waiting-for

In this post Dawn Parzych digs into the many benefits of SPDY and HTTP/2. An acceleration post titled “What are you waiting for?” was simply too good to pass up, and I’m glad I didn’t miss this one. There is a huge list of benefits to properly making use of the features offered in more recent years by implementing technologies such as SPDY. Dawn happens to be an expert in such things and shares much of her knowledge with the community here on her blog. Get a taste here, where she’s diving into the timeline of events since SPDY was introduced 5 years ago, some gains that can be expected by swapping over to the newer content delivery mechanisms, and a very handy graphic showing the logical flow differences between HTTP 1, 1.1, and 2. If you’ve struggled to understand why you should care about these things or what you can expect, this is an excellent place to start. Followed immediately by digging into the rest of Dawn’s work.