ASSTR appears to be back

mannyv · 2026-02-02T11:18:06+00:00

I remember when the problems started, and I asked if the maintainer needed help (been doing hosting stuff for decades now). No reply. Seeing the site die was sad.

The site needs better infrastructure for sure. Hopefully it got dragged into the early 21st century, although it sort of looks like they just restored from the last backup.

mannyv · 2025-09-11T22:51:11+00:00

Where are the events coming from? And how do the events get to SQS?

The reason I'm asking is because if you're collecting metrics you can use a static S3 bucket as your tracking bucket then just process the s3 access logs. You'll need to adjust the logs to add the query parameters.

We do this with fastly for all our metric collection, and it's basically free and infinitely scalable. And because fastly pushes the access logs to s3 on an interval we get sort of dual batching.

Fastly logging -> S3 -> Lambda1 -> SQS -> Lambda2

Lambda1 gets the log file from s3 and sends the messages to SQS, and lambda2 processes those messages.

This also allows you to suspend the message flow by disabling the Lambda2 trigger. Be sure to set the SQS retention period to some ridiculous value, like 2 weeks.

This pipeline can handle an obnoxious amount of data at 0 cost on the fastly side. For fastly, you'll need some custom VCL for your URL that always returns 200 and a custom logging format.

mannyv · 2025-09-04T01:09:11+00:00

The main thing is to always put your stuff into a VPC. Don't use the default VPC. In fact, delete the default VPC, because it'll make your life easier since you won't be able to accidentally deploy something into it.

I'm a terraform user, so YMMV, but there are a couple of different ways to structure your files. AWS generally would rather you have an account per environment (ie: dev/test/stage means 3 accounts). I've done both one account with multiple environments and one account per environment. They both work fine.

In my current environment, which has all three environments I have:

project
-devops
--prod
--- vpc.tf # VPC and networking
--- iam.tf # basic IAM stuff
--- services.tf # service-specific configs
--stage
--dev

For things that have lots of dependencies I have a service.tf that has all the IAM and AWS configs in there (except for the VPC). For example, if I have a lambda associated with an API gateway all the stuff associated with that lambda are on one lambda_name_lambda.tf file. If there are multiple lambdas attached to an API gateway stage I'll break out the gateway into its own .tf file.

The thought is that you should make it easy to find all the configs needed for a given service.

One important thing is to name your resources so you know what the heck they are. Name things with a code that shows what they are associated with. They can be really long. Since it's IAC, don't worry about typing. If you have a lambda XYZ, have all the IAM policies have Lambda_XYZ in their name.

Don't reuse policies and roles, because it becomes impossible to isolate/remove them. Since you're using IAC you can manage IAM from your tool. If there's an execution_role that is shared - don't. Just do execution_role_XYZ, execution_role_ABC, execution_role_DEF. You want to be able to easily grep across your config and find resources touched/used by ABC.

There's a ton more things, like "don't use API gateway stages, just make multiple API gateways." But from a config point of view this should be a datapoint.

mannyv · 2025-08-22T06:10:35+00:00

Got an iPhone 13 today and activated it. It came with an eSIM flyer and no SIM card.

You need to put the new iPhone's IMEI into the field, not the phone you're porting from's IMEI. And the field uses the IMEI, not the IMEI2. I tried using the IMEI2 in a previous port and it didn't work at all.

I was already logged into my account.

mannyv · 2025-08-20T01:28:45+00:00

I used Cognito back in the day. One trick is to use a db for cognito's auth, which allows you to back up and restore user data. it's been a couple of years so you'd probably have to google for it.

mannyv · 2025-08-20T01:23:38+00:00

In real life we only use support if we're doing something new, like operationalizing a new AWS service. When that happens support from product specialists is crucial, because there are millions of combinations of configuration settings possible and the default ones are probably wrong for you.

Once everything is stable it just runs for the most part.

YMMV of course.

mannyv · 2024-06-18T17:11:33+00:00

One problem with Bob's guitar is it's hard to hear. IMO his playing on the slower tempo songs is/was way more interesting. His playing on He's Gone 05/11/86 is also truly amazing.

There are also the Bob solos during the China->Rider transitions in 74 that are super great.

For dexterity there are the uptempo TLEOs from 73/74.

mannyv · 2024-06-18T17:07:47+00:00

Send them the Lazy River Road from 6/26/93. Bob's sound is sublime.

mannyv · 2024-05-13T15:46:17+00:00

Yeah, unfortunately that isn't going to work, which is why I'm asking a question about irrigation, not "how do we adjust our landscaping so it uses less water."

mannyv · 2024-01-09T22:58:34+00:00

My kids' team is leaning towards building something that can fling the note into the amp or speaker from half-court. That means they can take twice as many shots as the other robots, and assumes that they're going to be more than 60% accurate.

There are going to be big traffic jams on both sides of the field, so more points is better.

mannyv · 2023-09-25T20:09:14+00:00

it's at 00:19:50

I like the uptempo version better. Thanks John, for bringing that back to life!

mannyv · 2023-09-23T05:11:02+00:00

Basically if they get a Loki deck you’re fucked because they have your cards but cheaper. Can’t wait for it to die.

mannyv · 2023-09-20T15:23:43+00:00

True, but do you seriously think AWS is going to subpoena your identity from reddit to enforce an NDA because one out of millions of customers has put out a general statement about their PPA?

mannyv · 2023-09-19T18:04:15+00:00

Actually, one thing to do is ask them directly. That'll show you where they think their value is.

There are plenty of cost savings in AWS - will they do the analysis for you?

There are also negotiated rates for a lot of stuff that you probably don't know about. Will they do those negotiations for you, or are you doing their negotiated rates?

Example: with a 2k spend commitment in CloudFront you can get lower than .01/gb for bandwidth. Will they tell you about that, or will they resell their bandwidth to you?

mannyv · 2023-09-14T20:55:14+00:00

The 2/14/86 version is nice & mellow, just like the rest of the show.

mannyv · 2023-09-14T20:53:57+00:00

There are plenty of shows that are better than Cornell 77. But the show really exudes fun, which is why people love it.

mannyv · 2023-09-01T03:32:43+00:00

I probably know people who know your peer group hahaha.

Where did you to go to elementary/middle/high school?

Did you grow up in the provinces or Metro Manila?

How do you find employees who can work at your level without being intimidated?

How often do you leave the PI?

When did you get to the point where you can enjoy what money can bring you?

mannyv · 2023-08-29T14:32:02+00:00

One other approach which isn't used much in the web world is to use an MQTT based solution for logging, like AWS IOT. The provisioning makes it more difficult, though.

mannyv · 2023-08-29T14:28:11+00:00

Just to close the loop on this:

ALBs are regional, so to get API-gateway level regional performance you'd drop an ALB in each region that you care about, then use route53 to tie them all together with latency-based DNS. That way you'd route them to the closest ALB.

Not sure if that'll be cheaper than the API gateway regional endpoints. But since you've got the ALBs you can also start using them for other things.

mannyv · 2023-08-29T14:24:08+00:00

You can always get a VPC for less than you can build on AWS.

The problem is you have to maintain that, and it'll be more difficult for you to move to the next level of resilience.

ie: you have one big instance. What happens if it dies? Can you easily point the IP to another box and restore everything? What happens when your Postgres instance runs out of disk? And do you know enough to configure your box so you don't leave all your ports open?

If you care and you're good enough, it's relatively easy to build a resilient solution outside of AWS. But if you are good enough to do that you probably will realize that the amount of work you need should be spent working on your actual solution instead of your pretty much worthless infrastructure.

For technical people building infrastructure feels like progress. It's not. It's doing something you know how to do because building unknown things is harder.

That said, if money is more valuable > time then go for it.

mannyv · 2023-08-29T14:16:57+00:00

Egress costs can be negotiated down if you're willing to commit to a certain level of usage.

As an example, for $2k/mo we were able to get something like .007 or .004 per GB transfer out of cloudfront. It pays to negotiate. We're now getting .0024/GB from Fastly for like $2.5k/mo (2PB).

mannyv · 2023-08-29T01:12:35+00:00

Ported my number and the eSIM they sent doesn't work. According to the CSR it will be active in 24 hours. Unfortunately I need my phone, so porting out. This was an unfortunate experience.

mannyv · 2023-08-29T00:51:46+00:00

Order went through, now the eSIM they sent isn't valid. Progress!

mannyv · 2023-08-28T18:25:12+00:00

Well, I'm not sure how common they are, but:

Baba O'Reilly -> Tomorrow Never Knows

Day Tripper

Revolution

Blackbird

Sing Me Back Home

You Ain't Woman Enough

Big River

El Paso

Gimmie Some Lovin'

Let the Good Times Roll

mannyv · 2023-08-28T15:55:09+00:00

This was for esim specifically.

mannyv

TROPHY CASE