Google announcement regarding egress fees:

Starting today, Google Cloud customers who wish to stop using Google Cloud and migrate their data to another cloud provider and/or on premises, can take advantage of free network data transfer to migrate their data out of Google Cloud. This applies to all customers globally. Source: Eliminating data transfer fees when migrating off Google Cloud | Google Cloud Blog

This is major. I often see clients forget to consider the exit costs of any hyper-scaler in the TCO calculation. Getting into the cloud isn’t cheap. And up until today, getting out of the cloud wasn’t either. Now, for those on GCP, it is. I expect the others (looking at you, AWS, and Azure) to follow, maybe not this year, but they will, either by their choice or they will be forced. This is an anti-competitive measure to charge for egress fees.

Someone at work sent me a text to get feedback. After reading it, I had this vague impression that ChatGPT was involved in the process. Out of curiosity, I openly asked the author if it was the case. And sure enough, the answer was yes. 8 out of 10 times, the outcome is the same when I ask that question. Gen AI usage is becoming pervasive in my world at work. Is it the same for you?

Scrolling through my LinkedIn timeline today. It always gives me weird feelings when I see people I work with announcing their retirement. These posts are reminders that, eventually, everyone will cross that gate. Me included. 😔

Monday. A new work week begins. To celebrate, I created a new category for my work-related posts (RSS feed). I plan to share more about my work life in 2024 and beyond. 👨🏻‍💻

Micro.Blog — How Can I Help?

A serene yet dynamic sky filled with a blend of fluffy cumulus and towering cumulonimbus clouds, illuminated by a soft, diffused sunlight.

Following the publication of “What If” by Maique, an avid blogger on Micro.blog, his post prompted me to write my own. But before, here’s a summary of his post (thanks ChatGPT):

Micro.blog has been hosting maique.eu for years, but there have been some technical issues. Despite some annoyances, the community and features make it worth the cost. However, there are also cons such as lack of proper notifications and support. Moving away would be a hassle.

I do share most of his views on the current state of Micro.blog because I did experience some issues with the service myself. I won’t repeat it here. That being said, I love Micro.blog, and I certainly want it to thrive. I’m a believer. I’m a supporter of the ideas behind the service. I subscribe to the premium tier. I love it so much that I created a series of videos about Micro.blog so that others can take full advantage of its features set. But I want to do more. In fact, I can do more. How can I help? Where do I enlist?

As an IT guy for more than 30 years, I know how hard it can be to run such a service. I don’t know the technologies behind it, but Micro.blog seems to need constant nurturing. Sadly, I cannot help here. I’m not a full-stack developer in any way.

But there this help.micro.blog support site. I did tech support in the past. I do pay a visit from time to time to gather the mood and the subjects that people care enough to submit posts. Maybe I could help there? I don’t know. Could I do a first screening of the posts and direct level-2 requests to Manton for further investigation? He would be freed somewhat from glancing at all the incoming requests and focus on the hardest ones. I don’t know. Oh, and this feature requests topic contains more than a hundred of them. I could create a real Micro.blog feature requests board, like this one I built from scratch for Craft?

Then, there is this Discover section: I do pay a visit from time to time. I’m not sure how it is being maintained or how often. Can I help there? I don’t know.

What else? I could do podcasting, too! Maybe I could help Jean to revive the highly respected Micro Monday podcast! I have my own podcast; I’m not too bad because I have eight listeners, according to Podcasts Connect!

As you can probably see, I have many ideas. I’m creative. I do have some time to spare for my passions. Micro.blog is one of them. But, as much as I want to help, it means nothing if the doors are closed. I’m not saying that I received a “no thank you” from Manton or Jean. I didn’t ask, actually. Now, I’m officially asking: how can I help?

GuruShots Is Still a Thing, Apparently

I just visited the photography challenge site GuruShots, where I used to play quite a lot a few years ago. I even wrote a few articles about this game ("GuruShots Tips, Tricks and Cheat Sheet","Tips & Tricks 2021 Edition, Part 1", “Tips & Tricks 2021 Edition, Part 2” and “How to Become a Guru at GuruShots”). I had a friend who was playing with me. He still does. Apparently, he is so advanced that there is only one explanation: he has a serious addiction. Personally, I stopped playing because it was too time-consuming. I wish I could update my articles because the game evolved quite a bit with new features. But, no, I don’t have that time at my disposal.

Is Buying a Car Easier Than Buying an Apple Vision Pro?

If Mark Gurman is correct, the rumored sale process for the Apple Vision Pro is rather complex and lengthy. Watching a 20-minute video to learn about a product indicates many things: Apple is nervous, and the product has a novel approach requiring potential customers’ education or training so that they fully “get the experience” before deciding to put the money on the table. Also, I guess someone willing to pay the high price merits some special attention, too.

I’ll have to update my calculations on how many demos can be run in the first 10 days.

It’s time for the first edition of 2024 of the weekly creative summary newsletter! Lots of stuff related to projects, writing, articles, etc. Fun fact: putting this summary together takes about two hours per week. This version was created in Craft, which offers the best experience, the email version is coming later to my dear subscribers! Past editions are available on my main website by following this link. Enjoy.