September, 2012

Episodes / Interviews / Reviews — Comments Off
18
Sep 12

A Conversation with Mark Burgess

Episode 6 represents a milestone for The Ship Show: our first guest!

When it comes to configuration management frameworks, CFEngine is always part of the conversation. We talk with the father of the configuration management tool and the CTO of CFEngine Mark Burgess and CMO of CFEngine, Mark de Visser about CM, CM tools, where CM intersects business needs, and the trends affecting CM today. Join us for:

A Conversation with CFEngine’s Mark Burgess

Join J. Paul Reed, aka @SoberBuildEng, Youssuf El-Kalay, aka @buildscientist, Sascha Bates, aka @sascha_d, and back with us again, EJ Ciramella, aka @eciramella for a chat with Mark, plus coverage of the last couple of weeks in News & Views and a review of “The Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering.”

Or, download Episode 6, or any of our previous shows!

Show Links/Notes

  • 1:38 – News & Views
  • 9:29 – Main Segment: A Conversation with Mark Burgess
    • 9:55 – What Mark has been up to…
    • 13:55 – Promise theory?
    • 18:08 – Specifyingconfiguration in domain-specific languages vs. the implementation language
    • 21:29 – Operating system and CM?
    • 22:24 – Thoughts on other CM frameworks
    • 23:30 – CFEngine and open source
    • 25:39 – CFEngine’s unique open source community
    • 28:53 – CFEngine User groups
    • 29:23 – Mark’s take on DevOps
    • 32:14 – The shifting focus toward developers and its impact on CM
    • 40:04 – The impact of cloud on CM
    • 43:54 – Exotic CFEngine deployments
    • 48:10 – Why is CM still so hard, even with all the tools we have?
    • 52:35 – How to not “live in fear” of your systems
    • 54:00 – Mark’s response to Michael de Haan’s criticisms of complexity
    • 58:00 – We go all Inside the Actor’s Studio with Mark, as he takes The Ship Show’s version of the Proust Questionnaire
  • 1:00:45 – Review

Review

Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering by Robert L. Glass.

Find it on Amazon!


Join Us!

Where do you think configuration management is going? And what role does CFEngine play?

Join the discussion!

devopsdearabby / Episodes — Comments Off
5
Sep 12

Too Much… Automation?

Our topic for episode 5 attempts to answer a question that seems like it should have an obvious one: is there such a thing as too much automation. Many would say “Of course not,” but is it that simple? Is blindly automating everything in sight the best use of time and resources and, more importantly, the best way to manage risk in the release process? Join the conversation as we try to answer:

Is There Such a Thing as “Too Much Automation?”

Join J. Paul Reed, aka @SoberBuildEng, Youssuf El-Kalay, aka @buildscientist, and Seth Thomas, aka @cheeseplus, and our newest co-host, Sascha Bates, aka @sascha_d, as we discuss the above, plus review the last couple of weeks in News & Views and answer listener questions in our new “DevOps Dear Abby” segment.

Or, download Episode 5, or any of our previous shows!

Show Links/Notes

"Dear Abby for DevOps"

@cwebber asks "Why is it so hard to get people to talk about the culture aspect of #DevOps instead of the tools?"

@drakino asks "What are good questions to ask during an interview towards a potential employer. to gauge their current devops health?"

Join Us!

Is automation always the way to go? What "automation horror stories" do you have?

Join the discussion!