My first post on this blog dates from July, 2006. It’s a rant about how founders in tech companies can just rip the rug out from under people if they don’t like the way they part their hair on Wednesdays. It was directed at a specific person and a company that now longer exists.
In the nearly ten years I’ve been blogging on this site, I’ve used it as a form of online catharsis (which only my friends ever read), a way to lash out at ridiculous marketing and a forum to attack scammers and injustice.
I’ve always felt liberated by the ability to say what I want, how I want to say it — just in case anyone gives a damn. And I’ve loved the fact that hosting the blog myself has taught me more about Linux, Apache, MySQL and php than any course or book ever could.
Over the last few years, I’ve been writing how-to posts that I hope are simple to read and understand on technical topics I love, especially Windows Server, the AWS cloud and PowerShell.
While my personal posts languish in obscurity (I have a fantasy that eventually people will discover what a great communicator I am), my technical posts have become so popular, thanks to Google, that several hundred visitors a day find them.
A typical post of this sort describes using DNS inside an AWS VPC. Just over two years old, this tutorial on name resolution is my biggest “hit”. Recently, a visitor from Sydney, Australia was nice enough to say:
I’m more into software but need to get a hang of network, to be exact VPC networking. I got lost when I got to DNS. Just like million others, I asked uncle Google, and after few clicks, came accross [sic] your site on Route 53. Just awesome.
Mind you, I have checked few tutorials and content lately…none can match the way you explained. Great work mate!
Everyone likes to be helpful — and I am very pleased to have helped H. with his work. It’s a small way to repay the ‘Net for all it has done for me in helping me find answers to technical how-to questions.
My blog’s tagline, “You know you heard it here first” is as much an ambition as a fact. And so, as I enter my second decade of blogging, I am fired-up to write more how-to posts for the search engine crowd. And, as ever, the pithy Alex, for those of you who read my personal posts, will still be here every now and then.
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