Welcome to the Cloud Native DevOps Newsletter, #41. I'm not just a geek in tech, but also a geek in the kitchen. Below are some of my favorites that I'd recommend for gifts (or yourself).
Uffizzi provides a multi-tenant Kubernetes-native foundation for platform teams. Every engineer gets self-service, sandboxed virtual clusters. It runs on our infrastructure or yours.
Spin up your cluster in under a minute on the Free Starter Tier at uffizzi.com
🎙️ New releases last week
🔴 Learning Docker and Kubernetes: Live Q&A
This last week's live show was my monthly Q&A where I take your questions related to my courses.
🎧 Podcast: KubeCon Live with Friends
Ep 148: KubeCon Live 2023
In this podcast episode, I'm joined by Nirmal from the floor of KubeConNA in Chicago, IL. A host of friends drop by to talk about the latest news and goings-on at KubeCon.
🗓️ Thanksgiving and gift shopping!
It was Thanksgiving week here in the U.S. We have some traditions. My mother-in-law visits, and we eat turkey, mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows, and many more delicious dishes. We have a great farm stand nearby, and my wife loves to buy their autumn pies, including apple, pumpkin, and rhubarb. I'm in charge of the meats, she does the sides, and we both make a few holiday cocktails.
It's an excellent time to reflect on our blessings. We were talking today about how this holiday is not related to any religion, so it's a holiday everyone can enjoy together here in the States.
Another tradition for Thanksgiving in recent decades is early Christmas shopping. Since Black Friday is always the day after Thanksgiving, the weekend is often filled with trips to the outlet malls and lots of online deal hunting for early Christmas shopping. That brings me to this weeks topic:
🎁 Gift Guide for Mobile Tech and Kitchen Geeks
Inspired by Wes Kao's Newsletter this week, here are some of my favorite things.
Mobile Chargers
I travel for fun and conferences around North America and Europe and usually take everything with me for remote work and remote audio/video recording. A few recent favorites include a trio of chargers that I always pack. The Anker 633 Magnetic Battery for MacSafe wireless charging is always in my backpack and even fits on my iPhone Max while both are in my pocket at conferences.
Also, the GanPrime line is full of fantastic chargers like the Anker Prime 100W GaN Wall Charger (the smallest 1ooW wall-wart I've ever seen) that's always in my bag and the Anker 615 USB Power Strip 65W version I use in my hotel.
While not very mobile, the Belkin 3-in-1 desk charger for Apple people is fantastic, and I want more of them. They are expensive, but they come with the wall charger, the cable, and they support the newer Apple Watch and iPhone faster charging speeds. I do not regret buying these "luxury chargers."
Phone Accessories
I was gifted a Pocket Tripod this year, and I love it. It stays in my "money-band" rubber band wallet (which I've been using over 10 years) and the phone stand works as advertised on any phone with a custom-fit grip.
I love macOSs "continuity camera" feature and it's my primary way for live streaming and Zoom meetings when traveling. I no longer use the built-in webcam and I carry with me the Belkin MagSafe continuity camera mount for laptops and for tripods and big monitors.
If you're curious about the rest of my A/V gear, check out my various "kits" on my kit.co/bretfisher page.
Kitchen Gear
I'm also into kitchen gadgets. I don't like single-use tools (see Alton Brown's hate of them below), but a few have become essential to my love of cooking.
First, Sous Vide forever changed how I cook, and I've cooked this way weekly for a decade. I've been using Anova cookers ever since. I only cook meats this way, and my guests typically rave about its reliably perfect tender and juicy results.
Andrea Buckett
Last year, we moved a lot of our stovetop cooking to induction cooktops (pans heat super-fast through electromagnetic waves!) using the IKEA portable cooktop or this bigger one from Duxtop. I'm addicted to induction cooking as it doesn't heat up my small-ish kitchen and heats pans so much faster.
IKEA
Do you love salt? You should. It's my primary ingredient in increasing the flavor of any food. Samin Nosrat, creator of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (the book and the Netflix show), changed the way I use salt, and I now have 4+ different salts on hand for different reasons. She's all over YouTube and has a great summary of her book, and also explains when to use salt, and how to spread it. I love this salt bin and this pepper grinder, and they make great gifts. Also, get this super-flaky Maldon salt (and the smoked version) and put it on everything as a finishing touch when serving, and people will think you're a pro!
👀 In case you missed last week's newsletter
Did you miss last week's newsletter? Read it here.