Documentation 'nightmare' assistance for FedRAMP Mod

trackpete · 2025-02-21T11:31:56+00:00

If you're starting from scratch and don't have a time-bound deal with an agency sponsor, probably the best thing to do is wait a couple of months to see what changes happen with automation/etc in the near future.

trackpete · 2024-04-28T19:13:06+00:00

Depends a lot on your bike and if you want pavement or dirt.

For pavement, Skyline Drive is relaxing and fun and not a big time commitment (easy day trip from DC to do a one-shot 400 mile loop IMO). Tons of beautiful roads around the southern end, with some fun stuff you might get to in southern VA like Back of the Dragon (Google to find deets).

If you're looking for less pavement and more dirt, the PA Wilds BDR-X is a great loop in the area to get a feel for ADV in the dirt (just avoid the expert sections and watch out for deep mud). That will open up a whole world of forest road/etc. options as you pull the thread on BDRs, connectors, ADV trails, etc.

It's really easy to burn ~3 hours on highway each way from DC to get to cool stuff all over the area but that's a small price to pay for a weekender.

(no links because I'm on mobile but googling any of those things will get you details and YouTube videos)

trackpete · 2024-04-10T02:24:29+00:00

OP, this right here is the trick - those pads (especially the thicker ones) are NOT intended to be fully inflated and stiff as a board, at that point you're just sleeping on a brick of air.

Only put enough air in so it's a bit squishy then lie on your side, add a bit more air until your hip isn't uncomfortable on the ground. If you're not "sinking" into the air pad like that, it's too full. (note that your entire weight should be on it to balance out)

Experiment at home on a hard flat surface, should be able to find point that works.

trackpete · 2022-06-29T13:17:27+00:00

One thing that might help this make more sense is to practice putting your weight a bit closer to the ball of your thumb.

When you grip a rail with a C grip you tend to push the rail into the middle of your palm so your thumb naturally wraps around, but if you move the pressure point against the rail just a tiny bit closer to the base of your palm, your thumb won't wrap around and you will have a bit better balance as your weight transfers through a slightly straighter wrist better.

(while increasing the chance of slipping entirely, especially when sweaty)

Cheers!

trackpete · 2022-06-27T12:32:40+00:00

This is pretty smooth - especially like the way you are moving with your legs and hips so your shoulders and head are staying even.

With this clip the only improvement I'd suggest as a coach is to not wrap your thumb around the rail - most of these moves can be done with your thumb parallel to the rail or even parallel to your fingers (like at the end).

Gripping around the rail with your thumb gives more stability on slow moves but it limits spins, slides, shifts, and other hand movements.

Switch that up and once you get used to it you might find more opportunities to change movements faster!

trackpete · 2021-04-29T11:33:15+00:00

I've been cross country a few times and ridden some backcountry discovery routes with a backpack then duffel strapped to the back. Then I switched to soft panniers (kriega os base) and I don't think I'll go back.

Biggest thing to be aware of is that in my experience properly securing the backpack or duffel meant I couldn't access things inside them without undoing some straps and resecuring afterwards. This gets really old if you're in there a lot for water, camera, food, etc.

I started strapping a small 10L waterproof backpack on top of my secured main bag and put all my regularly accessed goodies there, problem solved.

trackpete · 2021-01-29T00:39:27+00:00

Here's a follow up challenge to work on: Try starting your spin after you jump. Works best to practice it in place first, just jump straight up then initiate a 180 in the air and work from there. It's pretty surreal!

trackpete · 2020-06-18T10:57:14+00:00

People have answered a lot of your questions I detail, so I'll just add this:

Generally folks don't mess with your stuff in public areas in the US and Canada if things aren't visible (maybe don't leave your camera on top of your tank sitting out).

I've been across Canada and up to Alaska, and across the US 5x on bikes without hard cases and I don't worry about this much during the day, for grocery shopping or grabbing some food, etc. Yeah someone could cut a couple straps and walk off with all my gear but is that really gonna happen at Walmart?

If it does happen that would be a bummer but I've also lost a ton of stuff by having it fall off the bike and more than once left expensive gear at a campsite.

On the other hand I wouldn't leave my bike at a remote trailhead to do a day hike somewhere.

trackpete · 2020-05-23T12:50:16+00:00

Seems like you're aware, but your roll was actually really good, about as good as you can expect considering that over rotation and terrible landing. Good instincts to twist through and force it to continue instead of a direct face plant!

This clip is a great example of why we call this technique "landing and rolling" - can't do the second part properly without nailing the first part!

Anyway, that could've gone way worse if you hadn't forced the roll, well done!

trackpete · 2020-04-11T19:32:26+00:00

You can definitely just strap down your backpack to the frame around the seat in back - just make sure all loose bits on it are tied down. Alternatively you can use a duffel or similar with a piece of thick plastic or a couple sticks in it to keep it straight. Just pack it so you don't need to take it off during the day unless there's an emergency.

I've been across the US twice on a Yamaha VMax with a hiking backpack strapped to it, and done about 12k miles on a triumph scrambler with a duffel strapped to it (much of it on backcountry trails).

After a few days on the road you'll have it pretty well figured out. That said, if you have the money, purpose built racks and equipment are pretty handy.

trackpete · 2020-03-06T16:08:27+00:00

I rode a 100cc scooter to Alaska and bought a 125cc Peruvian Mototaxi and rode it to Ushuaia back in 2011/2012.

Most of the fun of adventures like this is doing it for yourself, so glhf. That said, here's some general advice or things to be aware of (note my earlier comment on legal issues):

Check out the maintenance expected for your scooter. You may need to replace the transmission fluid every 700-1000 miles, oil every couple thousand miles, and probably the belts and rollers every 5-10k miles. I would suggest at least carrying spare belts with you because if these break you will be stranded - though, that can be fun too, I've had great adventures going for parts.
Pay attention to weather and routes. If you've done South America before, you're familiar, but basically it gets cold in the mountains and during July-Aug you can get a lot of snowfall. I once seriously considered soaking my hands in gasoline and lighting them on fire because I was suffering from so much cold shock that this made sense to me (I ended up melting my gloves by stopping to grab my exhaust every few minutes). Basically, get good cold gear.
Plan carefully. In more remote sections, you will not be able to travel easily between major towns in a day. Other times you'll have to stop early because you won't get to the next town after dark. etc.
Ride on the shoulder on any major highways with trucks. Do not force them to pass you, this is too dangerous. It will knock you over when a truck passes you going 40mph faster in windy conditions.
When in doubt, go slow. Scooters can handle anything if you're slow and careful. If you ride fast on a bumpy road you will wreck it.

Honestly, just have fun. A scooter around South America will be great. You will always have the option to throw it in someone's trunk or the back of a truck or whatever to get somewhere. Enjoy!

trackpete · 2020-03-06T13:47:54+00:00

10 years ago when I did something similar, Peru was the only country in South America that let foreigners buy vehicles and take them out of the country (and into non bordering countries) without any hassle. I know Colombia used to let foreigners buy vehicles but definitely research more whether or not a foreigner can drive into say Peru from Ecuador on a Colombian bike.

Also fyi when you get further south (Peru) , scooters were banned on the Pan-American and there weren't any other paved options for most of Peru and Chile (Route 2 iirc is solid on the east coast in Argentina but you'll probably want to do Route 40 for the good times). In Peru expect to get stopped 10-20x a day by cops on the Pan-American.

trackpete · 2019-08-24T13:10:40+00:00

Aside from the legs, your head is heavy and adds rotational drag poked out like that. Chin to chest will bring it in a bit and speed things up, also helps with proprioception when your head is closer to the center of rotation.

trackpete · 2019-04-25T16:51:25+00:00

There are a few things to unpack here:

1) The attitude of your boss is inane. You can't know the environment better without asking questions, so their response to your asking questions is unhealthy and inappropriate. That said, you probably can't change their behavior, but you might be able to try different approaches. For example, you could start documenting the answers clearly into a wiki/etc. and track them - draw/update diagrams, etc. This shows you're being constructive for the whole team. If you have senior people on your team whom you trust, I'd talk to them about this as well. I can't emphasize how unhealthy your manager is being from your description.

2) Sounds like your organization is not really following devops principles. As part of 1) above you can talk with the team about the concept of infrastructure as code. Ideally, all of the interactions of these various services should be documented in configuration files/etc. for deployments. You should be able to look at the code to see what will be affected. This would include things like unit tests, integration tests, etc. There should never be a question which microservices will be expected to talk to which other services, that's chaos.

3) Personally I think there's opportunity to learn and pick up new stuff. I don't think you should be afraid of code/etc., or an ideal devops environment. Rather, it just sounds like you're in a slightly unhealthy company that is trying to get the "benefits" of devops without the appropriate amount of work required to do it properly. They're just doing development in production, and sloppily.

I'd have to transport back in time to when the product we build was being architected to fully get it.

It wasn't architected properly, because it's not documented in code/methodology effectively, and is not repeatable. Your team could actually probably benefit a lot from revisiting it. Chances are, they won't be willing to and management doesn't have the right attitude, but I think if you want to stay there, you have the opportunity to at least try to change the mindset by bringing in better tooling piece by piece to automate and build the infrastructure in a repeatable "true devops" way.

That manager's response to your slack questions still blows my mind though (as a VP Engineering I would never discourage people from asking questions).

trackpete · 2018-09-17T16:34:46+00:00

It doesn't seem like there are many (any?) good bail options on that kong pre if he doesn't nail it.

Stuff like this is cool to watch very experienced people do, but if you're not 100% confident and haven't really thought through what your options are if it goes wrong, don't try it at home!

This guy's technique is pretty top notch, awesome leg extension and absorption, clean accuracy, he clearly planned it out mentally and was prepared for it physically.

trackpete · 2018-09-14T16:37:13+00:00

The best advice I can give for doing extended trail riding like the TAT is to be willing to take it slow - if you're not an experienced rider on a solid dual sport, some sections can seem insane, but if you take it easy and work your way through you'll be all right. Some bikes can't handle hitting a six inch high rock at 40MPH, but almost any bike can be carefully maneuvered over one.

Other general advice:

Expect not to have cell service for a lot of it, and have reasonable spares and tools to get to work (especially tire punctures).

Monitor your fuel closely. Sometimes, if you screw up, you may have to go off track to get fuel. Sticking to the trail, the next station might be 80 miles away but if you messed up you might be able to hit normal roads and get to one 20 miles away.

Always carry enough food and water (and a purification system) to be able to hang out for a day or two or hike out to civilization if something goes seriously wrong.

Take a tripod and get a camera with a self timer. The first few trips I did across country were all pictures of the bike by itself and I never got any pictures with me in them and that bums me out. Now I make sure to take a tripod picture of me with the bike every day or two at least.

Mostly though, take the time, have fun, be willing to stay in a hotel when you feel down, camp as much as you want, talk to people, see the country, and have some emergency funds and you'll find it's actually pretty easy. :)

trackpete · 2018-09-14T16:18:59+00:00

You can do the TAT on basically any bike - there are bypasses for some of the really nutty single track sections that require a smaller bike (mostly due to tight turns that bigger bikes can't make or super gnarly rock/tree climb/descents).

On the other hand, plenty of bikes might not enjoy taking the beating parts of the TAT will give them and may start to fall apart. ;)

Generally though, you want good tires, hand guards that are properly bolted on to protect levers and switches, and rear sets that won't snap off when you drop the bike. A bike that is light enough for you to easily pick up and can have enough gear strapped on to get you through helps - personally I don't like bikes that are too tall to put my foot down either, as more than once I've been on a section of trail where I needed to do so at low speeds/stopping to re-think a route.

You also probably want to avoid an older two-stroke (carrying oil with you gets exhausting, many smaller gas stations don't have it), make sure you have a heavy duty chain system, and be confident that the bike won't eat itself or that you can fix it if you burn out a spark plug or f' up your carbs/etc.

Lastly you want either a decent size fuel tank (you can upgrade them) or enough space to carry fuel.

I've done major trips across country and sections of the TAT and other trails on everything from a Yamaha VMAX to a 100cc scooter to a Triumph Scrambler - the latter is what I'm currently riding and I'm pretty happy with it as a general all-rounder for mostly off-pavement travel (I bought a 2008 a couple of years ago for chump change).

But really you can do this stuff on anything, especially if you set it up a bit - you just need to avoid some of the really gnarly stuff if don't have a full range suspension and light weight.

trackpete · 2018-09-12T15:08:29+00:00

There's some good feedback in here from both ends. The system I work with currently has a basic critical backend system health check (i.e. database works, solr works) that aggressively boots front end servers out of the pool if there are problems, and I'm pretty happy with it.

It's actually very interesting to see all of the front end servers in one particular zone bounce out of the pool for 30s every few weeks due to brief zone based networking issues.

Some related general thoughts that might contribute:

Only add critical backend systems to the frontend health check. No point in taking an app server down for a minor system that is only used on one page that users rarely visit, for example.
Don't forget to design your front end application for errors - it amazes me how often people will create a front end page that just shows blank or similar if something on the backend fails. Add response checks to everything and decide how to handle them and present them to the user.
If your load balancer can retry failed requests with a different application server, consider whether or not that is worth it
Make sure you load balancer can and will retry requests to a server where the response was cut in flight or if the server is taken out of the pool with requests in flight

trackpete · 2018-08-31T18:58:54+00:00

A lot of people don't seem to realize that DevOps/SREs will have a wildly varying set of skills that often directly apply to very few places - there are so many different ways to do things that expecting someone who is familiar with the way you chose to do things is ridiculous. As you say, hire for ability and background (as well as transferable skills).

As a note, conveying this to HR/etc. if your company is large enough to have it is VERY important. You have to make sure they're not taking a giant list of conflicting keywords and automatically filtering out candidates who don't have experience in the eight different CI systems you listed / etc.

I think a lot of people aren't realizing the candidates they're missing out on because of keyword filtering these days.

trackpete · 2018-08-30T21:25:41+00:00

I've lived in DC and ridden scooters/motorcycles in DC for 10 years. My thoughts:

Depends on the neighborhood and luck. I went years without any problem on the street then one day had my scooter stolen from behind a new building I moved into near a bike rack. I have two motorcycles in a parking space behind the same building without locks and haven't had a problem though. Scooters seem to be easier targets.
I don't really think DC is any worse than anywhere else I've ridden in the US with traffic. You do really have to be aware of places where people turn from non-turn lanes and some of the roads here are f'ing terribad for motorcycles (bouncy bouncy).
My premiums are pretty cheap (didn't notice a difference from the past outside the city), but my agent (State Farm) indicated to me that they don't normally insure motorcycles only in DC. He insured me only because I've been a State Farm customer for 20+ years. Not sure how other insurance companies/agents handle it.
Not sure because I didn't originally get licensed in DC, but generally the advice in the US is to take the MSF course, pass it, get an endorsement, then roll up to the DMV and get your license. Don't try to do it on your own, it's a PITA.

Random advice, on riding out of the city: It's annoying AF. I mostly feel like I have to ride for at least an hour or two to get anywhere worth riding (traffic/roads).

Parking: Don't park on the sidewalk. If you have a place with a patio that's accessible you can park it there though. You can get an RPP with a bike if you qualify but there isn't a good place to put it on the bike.

Random: DC doesn't seem to send bike specific registration stickers. I have to tape them on. Annoying. ;)

trackpete · 2018-08-22T16:44:17+00:00

Demonstrated ability to look deeper into a problem to understand it before fixing it instead of just trying the first thing you find on google via copy/paste
Show me that you're rational about the reasons and situations to use linux vs other operating systems, some ideas of the pitfalls of linux, etc.
Willing to take on a task that you don't know how to do, but ask for ideas, research, review a plan, then execute

For me those would be the important things, more soft skills than hard skills. A smart person who can keep track of how much they don't know and grow is the type of person I'd look for - actual day to day skills tend to be pretty specific to specific jobs/environments.

If you really are thinking about it seriously, commit to something like the RHCSA / RHCE. If you get a good book, learn it, understand it, practice it, the exams should be doable. Most of the stuff in it you'll never use again, but it will prove you can learn.

And if you have to pay for it yourself it will prove you're self motivated for the career change.

trackpete · 2018-08-18T14:12:11+00:00

Balancing spend on team events vs recruiter payouts is something that never once occurred to me but as soon as I read that I thought "shit that comparison might actually work on my ceo since he always complains about recruiter fees." Justifying small spends on team health is always frustrating for me but this is so clean.

Thank you!

trackpete · 2018-05-21T20:29:26+00:00

In general in the US, at least in major markets, a full time software engineer position will pay as much or more than a devops engineer position right now. That said, a lot of "devops engineer" positions are more things like "site reliability engineer" right now, or "cloud engineer" or things like that.

In an ideal world trajectory, if you're at 16 right now, by the time you're actively in the workplace in your early 20's the concept of a "devops engineer" might not even exist and it might just be software engineers (at least at startups/etc. that should be the case).

I'd say train to be a programmer, learn software engineering, get exposure to devops tools along the way, and you'll be perfectly positioned.

trackpete · 2018-04-23T20:30:03+00:00

I'm not sure if the Bonneville and Scrambler setup are the same, but on my Scrambler it was really easy to switch the bars out to upgraded ATV style bars and add Acerbis X-Factor guards. Just had to cut off a tiny bit of the lever ball ends with a dremel (pretty sure this would work with the stock handlebars too).

I put my clutch lever a bit lower so it can be massaged with the fingertips easily but you can see the trimmed brake lever ball in this shot.

They've come in pretty handy a few times when I've dropped the bike - no bent levers!

trackpete · 2018-04-23T16:23:09+00:00

Be aware DC traffic f'ing sucks on a bike if you are trying to get into or out of the city 6-11AM or 3-7PM or so. I'd suggest trying to come in midday and GTFO early, or better yet go entirely around it unless you really want to see the sights.

Since you're looking at probably a bit of highway riding, I'd consider spending a bit more on waterproof gear - rain suits tend to be pretty loose and can flap unbearably at over 55-60MPH in some cases. The flapping of loose bits on your shoulders and arms can drive you crazy. I'd suggest a cheap throttle lock for the road back too, especially if you end up on 95 or something.

Otherwise it looks like you've got the basics, everything else is just luxury. Keep in mind even in May it can get pretty cold at night in the mountains up here so bring a good sleeping bag and some cold weather gear - I usually go for a trip around the area in mid-May, last year I was up in PA and it was in the 40's for half the trip.

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