Goodnotes 5

February 2 2019 Greg Fina Leave a comment

Goodnotes 5 was released last week. Goodnotes is my favorite stylus note taking app on the IPad. I’ve tried most of the competitors at least once and revisit them when they release new features. I’ve been on Goodnotes for years and have been using it daily.

Let’s move to the topic of this blog, Goodnotes 5 is a bit buggy. There were a ton of negative comments on Twitter towards the release. The development team has released 7 updates as of the writing of this blog. Goodnotes 5 is not a forced upgrade from version 4. While I’ve not seen all the problems described on Twitter, I’ve seen a few of the issues. I knew installing the initial release, and there were going to be some bugs.

However if you think about the DevOps model release, fix, release, fix, release, fix. The model is built for this type of release and user feedback.

However, many of the twitter complaints, where why was buggy software released. So it made me think about when is software ready for release in the DevOps model? Typically there is a release once code passes, unit tests, integration tests, load tests, functional tests, and GUI Tests. However bugs do reach production and the users, there is no fool-proof plan.

App store doesn’t allow releasing of beta software. However does offer TestFlight, so maybe GoodNotes could have leverage 10,000 of its customers to beta test the software and avoided the negative backlash on Twitter.

Let’s move...

Technology

Jekyll

January 29 2019 Greg Fina Leave a comment

Decided to try an switch from Wordpress to Jekyll. While Wordpress provides a ton of features, the interface for creating blog entries is overly burdensome. Also, Wordpress continues to announce security vulnerabilities. Jekyll uses a markdown file which provides for a pure editing experience. However, most anything in Jekyll requires modification of layout and include HTML files. Jekyll uses some Liquid to provide development capabilities inside the HTML files. Jekyll combines the templates with the markdown into static HTML files.

My two favorite things are that Jekyll can be run on a local workstation so you can preview changes and everything can check into a Git Repository

This is the initial release, aside from some minor issues, content is showing up. Next release of this blog will include comments and search functionality.

Amazon,AWS,Certification

Cloud Practioner

January 8 2019 Greg Fina Leave a comment

Passed the AWS Cloud Partitioner Certification Exam. Given I have 7 of the 9 certifications before sitting this exam, I didn’t study. The goal before taking the exam was 100% in 20 minutes. I missed 3 questions and took 16 minutes. I took the exam at some point I am going to complete the Big Data Speciality, which will give me all the AWS certifications for a brief moment. The Machine Learning AI beta completed last month and the Alexa Skill Builder just completed its beta. This means by March there could be 10 or 11 AWS Certifications.

Amazon,AWS,Certification

DevOps Pro Links

January 2 2019 Greg Fina Leave a comment

I posted to Github a list of links I found valuble when studying for the AWS DevOps Pro certification exam.

The original blog article about passing the test can be found here AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional

I posted to Github a list of links I found valuble when studying for the AWS DevOps Pro certification exam.

The original blog article about passing the test can be found here AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional

Amazon,AWS,Certification

AWS Certification SME

December 23 2018 Greg Fina Leave a comment

AWS Certification SME program helps AWS Certification team, develop the certification exams. It’s a complicated process which as many steps, but I won’t get into now. However, I have now done two workshops on two different steps, one an item writing workshop back in November and now a Standard setting workshop.

The most interesting aspect is fellow partitioners create the exams with certifications, there are people to facilitate, validate and review the information.

The questions are designed to have you apply AWS experience and knowledge of situations. Someone asked if labs would be a replacement, maybe running thru a hundred labs would be the equivalent of real-world experience.

Doing the course, reading all the FAQs and whitepapers and watching all the 400 reinvent videos would be the minimum.

Technology

Master's in Computer Science

December 13 2018 Greg Fina Leave a comment

I completed my Master’s in computer science through Georgia Institute of Technology. It took 3.5 years, and hundreds of hours each semester. Normally I would take 2 classes per term. Saying it was hard would be an understatement. The hardest part are hours lost studying and away from my family. It was like having a second full-time job. I feel honored to be part of the 5th graduating class. I’ve met some great people along the way. Whether it was my first group in CS6310, only 3 of the original 5 made it thru that class. The other group from CS8803 Cyber-Physical Design and Analysis who happened to be in the on-campus class. I had the privilege to meet in person when I opened a retail store in Atlanta. There were groups in other classes too. The work taking a class two times to graduate.

I know the program is not meant to be easy, as the brainchild of and Dr. Zyi who will retire later this year. He and faculty created something special, and the unbelievable amount work of my fellow students spent as TA’s. I hope this program continues to educate the masses and continues to grow and develop. I know it has made a positive impact on my life and hopefully, with time I’ll find ways to give back to the program.