December 2016
Hi!
Gosh, it's been over two years since I've written anything here! Can you believe it? I was almost not sure how the blog software worked any more. Happily my browser still remembered the password to the admin console, so that was nice. Anyways, since I've been working for Amazon Lab126 for a few years now (doing product management mostly, but also dev for the Fire tablets and Fire TV, among other duties), I figured it was time to finally move my web server over to the Amazon Web Services cloud for hosting. I've been using a dedicated Sever Matrix box for years, and I really like them, but I need to learn more about AWS and hosting my server there is a good start.
The problem is that it's not just the blog that has to move - I also need to move my custom RSS news reader I wrote years ago. Though I never published it for the general public, I've been using it daily since. It's written in PHP, which I still have a fondness for, but as a result of being focused on HTML5 and JavaScript since I joined Amazon, I barely even know how it works any more. I much prefer NodeJS instead for server-side stuff and love not having to context-switch when writing the front end. (I finally trust Node both because of AWS Lambda and because PM2 has finally proven to me that NodeJS servers can stay up for more than a day without dying. It's probably been this way for a few years now, but I've been wary...)
So this means that I need to rewrite my blog software, my feed, my news aggregator back-end and convert the front end to use it... It's a lot of work! How long have I been planning and avoiding this? Well, as I went to my server to do some backups before moving, I found that I had already started the process... in December 2015. And I'm sure I was contemplating it long before that. I can write a back end news reader in my sleep, but I'm worried about all the little things I'll forget as I move servers. I've got a decade of redirects, .htaccess rules, domains, security stuff, etc. set up on this server that I can't even begin to remember... it's going to be interesting to see if I can get everything converted like I hope (and hopefully reduce my monthly hosting bill while I'm at it).
Maybe all this effort will spur me to blog more... Hehe Probably not. That's like saying, "LET'S GET THE BAND BACK TOGETHER!!" in a vain attempt to relive some glory days. But hey, it could happen. :-)
-Russ