Blog

In-depth tutorials, guides, and thoughts about infrastructure and automation.

Loading config files in Python

Brett Weir 9 min read

May 29, 2023 — Application configuration isn't the most exciting part of your stack, but it's surprisingly hard to get right. I present a recipe for loading config files that is clean, easy to implement, and grows with your application.

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Six reasons to start a business

Brett Weir 6 min read

May 22, 2023 — If you've ever wondered if starting a business was right for you, here are some reasons, taken from my own experiences, that you may not have thought of.

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What is Terraform?

Brett Weir 15 min read

May 15, 2023 — Terraform is all the rage nowadays, but what is it exactly? And what problems does it solve? Let's dive in to the exciting world of infrastructure automation.

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Confessions of a document generator

Brett Weir 6 min read

May 1, 2023 — A tale of how easily a project can be derailed by attempting to automate things that maybe don't need to be automated.

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Building a static site with Eleventy and Tailwind

Brett Weir and Claire Nguyen 14 min read

Apr 17, 2023 — Eleventy and Tailwind are two popular tools for front end development, but making them work together is non-obvious. We'll explore these tools for the first time and work on getting them to play nicely together.

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Crossing the uncanny valley

Brett Weir 10 min read

Apr 3, 2023 — Lately, I've been feeling a lot of anxiety about my role in the post-AI future. Without many answers, I decided to see what ChatGPT had to say.

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Installing things with style

Brett Weir 8 min read

Mar 27, 2023 — The install command is profoundly useful and profoundly underrated. Learn how this tiny unassuming command can save a ton of scripting and make your installations cleaner and more robust.

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How to remove Rook from a Kubernetes cluster

Brett Weir 5 min read

Mar 20, 2023 — If you're installing Rook for the first time, it'll probably take a few tries, but fully removing it from your cluster is more difficult than it looks. We'll walk through a simple procedure to restore your cluster to a Rook-free state.

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All the ways to write a string in YAML

Brett Weir 6 min read Part of the YAML survival guide series

Mar 13, 2023 — There are multiple ways to represent a string in YAML, but it's not easy to know why you'd choose one over another. Here's a primer on YAML string syntax and why and when to use each one.

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The apt sandwich

Brett Weir 5 min read Part of the Dockerfile idioms series

Mar 2, 2023 — Learn how to make your Debian-based containers dramatically smaller without having to switch to another base image.

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