Military

An edited version of this article was originally written for opensource.com: 5 military phrases for DevOps practitioners The U.S. military is known for quite a few things, including its excessive and fascinating use of acronyms, euphemisms, and colorful phrases to describe certain situations. But many of these terms are applicable to other areas of life, including many non-military jobs. These are a few phrases I think crossover between both DevOps and the armed forces. ...

I was lucky enough to be selected to speak at DevOpsDays Toronto. This was my first trip into Canada and I have to admit, it was amazing! The city of Toronto is a very diverse city teeming with culture. The speaker dinner was at a wonderful restaurant Eastern Mediterrean restaurant, Byblos. If you are ever in Toronto, I suggest you go to Byblos and get the Turkish Manti Dumplings. I don’t typically enjoy eggplant but these dumplings are superb! ...

As part of preparing for my talk at DevOpsDays Detroit, I did a significant amount of research into military failures. It was hard to find a military failure that did not evoke an emotional response or political discussion. But, I was prepared to talk about two: The 1961 Goldsboro B-52 Crash and the failed Iran hostage rescue, Operation Eagle Claw. In the case of Operation Eagle Claw, you can draw a comparison to the old IT silo mentality of Dev and Ops being two different teams with very different objectives. The mission planners (Developers in this example) failed to consider a solid delivery process to production (deployment of operators into combat). The Developers assumed Operations would do things a certain way without much testing prior to deployment. The Operations team (special operations forces) demonstrated that the assumptions made by the Developers (mission planners) were not rooted in reality. ...

As part of a North Carolina State Archives initiative to obtain oral histories of veterans I volunteered to be interviewed for the North Carolina Veterans Oral History Collection. I was interviewed by Matthew Peek, Military Collection Archivist for the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (later referred to as MP). The interview was well worth the time it took to coordinate and conduct it. I would encourage all North Carolina veterans to contact Matthew and provide their unique story for preservation. ...

As part of a North Carolina State Archives initiative to obtain oral histories of veterans I volunteered to be interviewed for the North Carolina Veterans Oral History Collection. I was interviewed by Matthew Peek, Military Collection Archivist for the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (later referred to as MP). The interview was well worth the time it took to coordinate and conduct it. I would encourage all North Carolina veterans to contact Matthew and provide their unique story for preservation. ...