Thursday, May 31, 2012

AWS Diagrams



Update! Now you can download my first collection of AWS Diagrams Objects to use them on your own diagrams. Check this out!




Some months ago I've discovered the AWS diagrams design at the Architecture Center and I immediately felt in love with them. Those graphics were so... fresh, clear, logical and nice. So distant from my traditional work with LanFlow and Microsoft Visio. I've printed one of them, pinned it next to my desk and said out loud: "One day all my architecture designs will look like that".
I thought they were created using a Network Diagram tool. Some tool that was unknown for me so I'd spend some time searching for that tool. After a while I realized that there was no edition tool, no plug-in or on-line drawing service for that. They were created drawing. Old school method. And my suspicions were confirmed after realizing that the PDF files were created using Adobe Illustrator.
And here I go. After 20 years since the last time I used this program I decided to learn again how to draw vector graphics. With the original AWS Architecture examples in one hand and some patience in the other I've started to use this drawing style for my projects related to Amazon Web Services.
Here I show you some examples of my work. I hope you enjoy them. Has been refreshing for me to spend some time "drawing" instead of dealing with computers and costumers for a change :)
I've read a couple of times the original drawings without noticing and copyright limit. And there goes my question: Do you know if I'm allowed to use this drawing style for my work related with AWS without falling into any copyright issues?






















Update! Now you can download my first collection of AWS Diagrams Objects to use them on your own diagrams. Check this out!





Thursday, May 17, 2012

Netflix Chaos Monkey




5 Lessons We’ve Learned Using AWS
http://techblog.netflix.com/2010/12/5-lessons-weve-learned-using-aws.html

.NET Chaos Monkey
https://github.com/simonmunro/ChaosMonkey


Amazon Web Services World Domination


I've started this Google Maps map as a supporting material for a conference and I'm still maintaining it. I do not intend to cast a shadow over the official resource ;) but I'm having fun. I'm tempted to create some crawling code and bring it to life with some real time information. Will see...


Amazon Web Services Google Maps Map

Google Maps link:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=203213363347378376100.0004b53ce9cb9115c54a6&msa=0


Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Back to the future

Almost eight years have passed since experimenting with Software Defined Radio (SDR) was my main interest. I'd invest some time on my first (and so far my last) web page www.domenech.org and it worth it. My experiment to hack a very common and cheap video acquisition card for PC based on the chip BT878A was a shock for the gnuradio community. Since then, the only way to approach to 1M samples/second was to spend some money in a pseudo professional PCI card. I got feedback from amateurs from around the world (and I still receive it) and this tool was a way to begin the exploration of the amazing world of SDR with a budget.
Since then, nothing has moved on my side about that. Like many other things my focus moved elsewhere and this hobbie became just a nice reminder that I could have fun surrounded by electronics and playing to be a mad scientist.
But recently, my old friend brought to my attention a recent shock. Another hack happened and this one is awesome. A USB TDT (Terrestrial Digital TV) chip receiver has been used to plug up to 3.2M samples/second into gnuradio. The RTL2831U is cheap and widely available and it promises hours of fun for old SDR enthusiast and the birth of need tools to break hard barriers: GSM, TETRA, who knows? New tools... for everyone.
The King is dead. Long life the King!

Note: I've decided to bury my old work with SDR and leave my main web page just for current projects. For future reference:
Analog to Digital Converter with 16 bits and 448000 Samples per second based in the Bt878A (English)
Convertidor Analógico Digital de 16 bits y 448000 muestras por segundo basado en el Bt878A (Spanish)
btaudio.c module modification to get 896000 Samples per second with the Bt878A ADC (English)
Modificación del modulo btaudio.c para la obtención de 896000 muestras por segundo con el ADC del Bt878A (Spanish)
My First Software Defined Radio (SDR) Receiver (English)
Mi primer Receptor "Software Defined Radio" (SDR) (Spanish)
ALSA support for the Bt878a and Fedora Core 4 (English)
Soporte ALSA para el Bt878a y Fedora Core 4 (Spanish)
Interface the ICOM R7000 10.7 MHz IF output to the Bt878a ADC (English)
Conexión salida IF 10,7 Mhz del receptor ICOM R7000 al ADC Bt878a (Spanish)