Personal - Dreaming in DevOps

Thinking about Remote Year? My thoughts halfway.

Thinking about Remote Year? My thoughts halfway.

Published by Martin Smith on September 15, 2016

In terms of days, Battuta is now over halfway finished with Remote Year. We’ve visited at least 6 countries, taken flights and buses and ferries, spent $12,000 Dollars on housing and a workspace, made new friends and had to say goodbye to a few remotes along the way. At this point, what do I say to someone who is thinking about Remote Year? I’d recommend it, but it’s more complicated than a simple yes or no.

Montevideo, Uruguay: Two weeks later

Montevideo, Uruguay: Two weeks later

Published by Martin Smith on February 18, 2016

After writing about our amazing coworking space, Sinergia, during my first week, and publishing some photographs of street art in the city in Uruguay, I haven’t been able to find more time to put my thoughts down, “on paper.” I feel as though time has sped along back in the United States – that I’ve been gone for months and missed so much; at the same time, my having so many new experiences away in South America has led to a feeling of life passing by slow motion. It’s like time passes slower in Uruguay than the U.S. I’m only now reflecting on the last two weeks and writing this update as I sit on a plane between Montevideo and San Francisco, where I’ll be speaking at Elastic{ON}^2 this week.

First day working in Montevideo

First day working in Montevideo

Published by Martin Smith on February 1, 2016

Today was the first real ‘work’ day that we’ve had in Montevideo. If every workspace is like this one, the workspaces alone will be a huge high point of the Remote Year adventure. This month, we’re at Sinergia Co-work. This place is truly the whole package when it comes to coworking — a team of strong women at the helm, an amazing physical space, an active community of participants, great programs and amenities; and every person there is out to change the world.

Start monitoring your home internet connection

Start monitoring your home internet connection

Published by Martin Smith on November 8, 2015

NewRelic quietly released a new product called Synthetics earlier this year. While services like Pingdom have been around for a while, New Relic’s Synthetics has been the first option that made me actually shut down my own personal monitoring systems.

For the last five years or so, I’ve been monitoring everything, from websites I run to internet services at rental property. I generally used Nagios, and configured it to alert me via email when things go south. The data has always been a help when dealing with power companies, ISPs, and hosting providers. You feel empowered when you can say things like, “I had packet loss 24 times yesterday,” or, “The power has been surging every 2 hours for 30 seconds.” In fact, I’ve discovered I generally have better data than the customer service folks I’m speaking with.

Category: Personal

Thinking about Remote Year? My thoughts halfway.

Montevideo, Uruguay: Two weeks later

First day working in Montevideo

Start monitoring your home internet connection