AWS Certified Developer

I got another AWS Certification. A couple years ago I got the AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Associate) certification. See blog post here: http://josephmak2007.blogspot.com/2019/03/i-am-now-aws-certified-solutions.html. Well I went for not the next level (the Solution Architect professional) but for another associate level because I think it should be easier exam... as I already should know a thing or two. I was wrong, this test still require many hours of studying. I am into this because my company wants more people have a certificate like that.

Well, turn out to be this is also a not-so-easy exam... it isn't really testing your programming ability... but another here-remember-our-big-aws-product-catalog exam. Mostly which feature or option do you use if you encounter a certain problem...like do. you use Immutable deploymenet or Rolling with Additional Batch deployment if you want to be quick? Or do you use environment variables or stage variables if you use Lambda or API Gateway, etc.

There are many study tools on the web... I again went for the outdated hefty official AWS book as a starter and regretted becuase the book is big andr bulky and not concise enough. I found this place https://digitalcloud.training/ rather useful. Bought its 300+ page book packed with notes to study from... and again UDemy question packs were helpful.

Passing it does not mean you know everything really well you don't have to use any of the AWS services to pass the test... For example you don't ever have to put a file on S3 to know a few things about it such as you can host a website with it. AWS is huge. Each of my exams focus on a small subset of things.

But let me tell you this: it may not help your career at all. Nobody seem to care at all if you are AWS certified. There are actually very few openings out there. If you see 10 job openings 8 of them may actually point to the same place. Headhunters just want to be be the middleman to collect some $. And if you actually land on a job interview expect to get incredible difficult programmming quiz with interviewers whose sole goal is to humiliate you. And even if you ace your quiz you still may not get further without an explaination. Good luck to you if your are job searching.

Fall of Afghan

It is hard not to gasp at the astonishing ending of the 20-year Afghanistan War. So Biden decided to exit this never ending war, and bold enough to actually make this happen. Look it is senseless to spend huge amount of money and risk American lives for an endless conflict. It is stupid to get into one in the first place. We should blame the guy who started this who does not have an exit plan. Well his successors do not have exit plans either.

Any war conflicts must have a clear objective and should be swift and decisive. I thought world leaders know a thing or two about such basic principle as written in the classic "The Art of War" In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns

But look, you just can't walk out like this.

Look Afghan president (I don't even care your name), you can't just abandon your country like this.

Look Afghan forces, you can't just let the Talibans take over (again) without even a fight. The fact that they don't even fight back means they want to be ruled by the Talibans again and perfectly fine for your girls to be their slaves.

How can the world's mightiest power be humiliatedly defeated like this. How can we trust the US to be able to fight anybody? "We stand with ____" you say? Do you have any actual ability. I am afraid you are an actual "paper tiger".

Is there any success after World War II? Vietnam: lost, Korean: stalemate... (well yes there is, ok you can look it up here).

Yes, we need to leave, but we needed a good plan to leave. Should have avoid an exit scene even worse than Saigon. They grossly underestimated the Talibans and the Afghan's abilities here. Any thoughts about what to do after we leave? Would they plan another 9/11 like event for us? While it really sucks to be in a quagmire, how about jump out... and jump into a fierly burning fire. But would Trump do it better if he actually get another term? He set an even earlier date.

The future is grim as Covid still around and now we have more terrorists around as if the world not have enough problems already.

When a TV cannot watch TV

Nowdays TVs are inexpensive. Huge LED (QLED whatever) screens are just a few hundred bucks with light-weight flat screens with vivid colors as you can see from any electronic stores. Well these are really giant monitors now it can be hooked up to your Wifi and show internet channels and you can cast your computer or your phone to it using things like Chromecast or Apple TV.

Now the problem is this... out-of-the-box you cannot see your local TV stations. You need an antenna. I guess it is only difference between monitor and TV... TV has a port for antenna. Yes, those pulled out "rabbit ears" antennas that you may poke your eyes or with some fish-bone antenna on your roof top (anybody still uses it?). Why TV does not come with this? Feels like buying a car without giving you tires.

Ok, I still have an antenna. Let's try it... ok, navigating through its wacky menus and found the scan stations button. Good. Found most basic stations like 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 32. Ok fine I just need a couple. Then a few days later.. where is my channel 5? gone! rescan. then boom 7 is also gone. What the hell? Scan again boom then 5 came back but not 7? I don't live in a cave where there are no TV signals. Even when channels are here sometimes they just choke! Yes pull the antenna out, attach foil, spin around may help... sometimes.

A trsty old Zenith traditional (not internet-enabled) TV that I had for decades never lose stations and never choke.

Just why the hell basic functionality does not work here.

Found a solution and that is locast.org, it is basically free and only require your email address and want some donations. You can use its phone app to get local TV stations on your phone then chromecast on. your TV. But it only works for 15 minutes and it will nag you to pay. Why do I have to pay for free tV?

There I can do basic stations and when do I have to figure out why that antenna does not pick up some stations?

Someone should figure out how to get stations consistently and include such reliable antenna with the TV. Otherwise don't call it a TV, but rather: giant-LED-monitor-that-if-your-lucky-can-watch-TV-but-you-have-to-pay-extra-for-antenna device.

Origin of Covid

Why is Fauci flip flopping on the origin of COVID? https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/24/politics/fauci-donald-trump-coronavirus/index.html. Sometimes he says the virus could not artificially or deliberately manipulated... sometimes he says otherwise.

Look, we look up to scientists for answers. People actually believe you when you are a top scientist. What should we belive in now?

Now the very fact that China won't allow you go investigate until after a year already says a lot.

The fact that the virus lab is so close to that wet market also says a lot.

And look, Wuhan is a big city not near caves, where do you think the bats come from. Sure enough some Chinese eat wacky wild animals... but they have done that for centuries. It is gotta be that lab. But of ourse you won't be able to find any evidence after it has been cleaned for a year. Fauci himself needs to be investigated.

The result will be a stalemate because no evidence would be found. And just what you going to do if you know it is an accidental leak? what if it is deliberate leak? Are you going to nuke China?

Another Israel/Palestine conflict

Excellent summary of what happened can be found in wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Israel%E2%80%93Palestine_crisis.

Whoa! rockets left and right and the Iron Dome able to counter it.. It is just like the 1980 video game Missile Command. Who's fault is this? The answer depends on what you read. The deeply rooted conflicts will not ever likely to get a true solution. Not even a two-state solution will work (or it would have happened already). Biden claims Israel "has right to defend itself"... for bombing 11 days or however many days Netanyahu feels. No one can stop Netanyahu. Not the US president...not the UN. Not the pope. Nobody. I thought the UN is supposed to make the world a safer place... apparently it seems not very effective at that.

Endless cycle of violence has no solutions. History book goes on. Violence and conflicts on every page continues. How naive do you think "love" can solve all problems. It can, but no one would practice that option when there are lives and properties lost.

Ridiculous prayer

Ok this is a bit old news, Congress opened with this ridiculous prayer that ended with:

"We ask it in the name of the monotheistic God, Brahma, and 'god' known by many names, by many different faiths. Amen and awoman."

See this news: https://www.kmbc.com/article/rep-cleaver-under-fire-for-light-hearted-pun-at-end-of-prayer-to-open-congress/35130614

What??! ?!

This isn't no pun. This is an insult to your so called "pastor" profession. Insult to prayer itself. So are you praying to God or Brahma or anything else. Who needs such prayer. What is this "a men and a women" bull. Do you even know what Amen even mean.

His church should fire this guy immediately. Waita minute, why even have a prayer at all? If you are going to have one, have one properly.

History Page Finally Turned

Biden did it. Sworn in as 46th president. No more attempts to overturn the election results. Biden sworned in with as heavily guarded as you can get soldiers all around him. No rioters dare to come or even say anything. The Trump term's remarkable ending will be forever logged in future history books.

Waita minute, the soldiers had to sleep on the floor? solders need to go to the basement? and a bunch of them got COVID afterwards? Are we treating the soldiers right?

Many people would think this is a sign of relief. It is. Who needs more unrest, especially we are still in the COVID pandemic. And definitely better leadership needed to help end the pandemic.

Now before everyone jump in joy and flip the page. Let me ask this (as many have): is censoring Trump from Twitter, Facebook etc the right thing to do. Are we restricting Trump's freedom of speech? Well make your own twitter platform isn't too hard for a billonaire like Trump... but is there still followers left after the QAnon guy say he has been "duped". Still plenty. What other things would Trump tweet after he is no longer POTUS?

Guiliani still say "You give me one hour. I will prove it to you with pictures, documents, votes and people we can call on the phone in five states.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/24/nyregion/giuliani-election-fraud.html. Was he given the hour? Courts just thrown out the cases? It is better to just give him the hour. and if the so called evidences can be debunked then debunk them once-and-for-all. Then we can totally live in silence from these endless claims.

Now the second impeachment... I think it is totally unnecessary. The goal of impeachment is to remove someone from office and he is already gone! It is like discussing rather or not to give a death sentence to someone who is already dead. No, damn it, the constitution did not say impeachment means bar you from future run. President Johnson was impeached but came back to the Senate! No one bothered to impeach Nixon after he resigned. Look, precious time was wasted on Trump's first impeachment when they should have focus on the virus handling. Now we waste more time in 2nd impeachment.

Now that Biden is elected... is go-to-any-bathroom-you-want a good thing, is $15 minimum wage killing small businesses a good thing? is avanlache of illegal immigrants a good thing. That is just the first week. Well I can worry about those later, but serious COVID handling is what's important now.