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Here are links I found interesting, with some color commentary. Here we go.

Automation and Development

• Patterns for Managing Source Code Branches: The different pattern of develoment branches and their uses cases. Or, as I like to call it, branches, branches, and more branch, oh my!
• Automate Ansible playbook deployment with Amazon EC2 and GitHub: This setups a webhook on an ec2 instance that will execute local copy of Ansible everytime there is an event at GitHub. While this looks useful, it seems a bit much work. Then again, I supposed more tolerable than using AWS Systems Manager.
• Best practices for organizing larger serverless applications: This is a useful reference for teams that are rapidly scaling up their serverless environment and having some difficulty deciding how to organize their code.
• Terraform Best Practices: Very much a work in progress, but there is some useful tidbits on how you want to manage your Terraform-based infrastructure.
• How to mock in Bash tests: Despite it being a "scripting" language, Bash pretty capable enough to do a lot of heavy lifting. If you are going to write a non-trival amount of Bash code, it would be a good idea to apply some software engineering principles to it.
• Terraform — Reducing “glue” shell scripts: the important take away is to use Terraform resources as much as you can and avoid external scripts as much as possible.
• Terraform — Enforcing doc generation and code formatting: tldr; use pre-commit hooks to automate your documentation.
• What is Nix: Let's get this out of the way up front: Nix is a hard thing to explain - no kidding. I feel like the author over-complicated what is appears to be an implementation of NixOS and its built-in automation language.
• Microsoft Open-Sources GW-BASIC: This brings back memories of writing BASIC code and not doing anything useful with them.
• Using make and git diff for a simple and powerful test harness: test harnesses are critical in building out reliable automation or application code. I recent got into Makefiles in a big way, so I find this a very useful page to apply to my toolset.

Cloud and Containers

• The pros and cons of using a virtual private cloud: A business-level article on the advantages and dis-advantages of using a VPC, to be clear, is talking about whether you want to use a private "cloud" or a public cloud.
• 14 ways AWS beats Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud: I don't think there is any doubt that AWS is way head of the other cloud providers. That said, I have been poking around with Azure and I could see how it is coming up strong. It wouldn't surprise me if Azure goes neck to neck with AWS within a few years.
• Coronavirus accelerates shift in cloud deployment: Another business-level article on cloud, in particular hybrid clouds.
• Scaling FTP and NFS in AWS to handle millions of files: Yeah, some people still use FTP.
• Scaling Container Clusters on AWS: ECS and EKS: Pros and cons of each scaling approach for ECS and Kubernates at AWS.
• AWS re:Invent 2019 Announcement Page: In retrospect, I should have just stayed home.
• AWS to Azure services comparison: I strongly recommend going through this if you are an AWS customer looking to evaluate Azure in the near future.

General Tech

• It’s Time to Get Back Into RSS: I don't know if RSS has actually gone way, but I think it does need a bit more love.
• Apple details retail changes in global store reopening plans: In other news, I have an MacBook that stopped charging. Here is hoping my local Apple store opens soon (safely).

How Tos and Learning

• RHEL Disk tip.: Useful visual tool showing your block devices on your linux systems.
• The case of the missing DNS packets: a Google Cloud support story: A big deep dive into troubleshooting what looks lo be at first a simple DNS issue, which eventually lead to a kernel patch to resolve the problem.
• What we learned from taking an online AWS cert exam; An overview of what it is like to take a remote AWS exam. All things considering, this is applicable for every other remote exam you will take as well.
• What Are Exam Objectives, and How Can I Use Them to Study for My CompTIA Exam?: If you are taking certification exams, always review the exam objectives, as that will usually tell the area that you will be studying. Some exam objectives can be vague, though, so this is where using certification-specific resources helps.

Operating Systems

• Enlightenment 0.24 Released with Assorted Changes: I used Enlightenment when I got into Linux big-time on the desktop. I think I spent more itme trying to make my screen more pretty than doing actual work. :P
• CentOS 6 now has less than 1 year of life left: If you haven't planned to move off CentOS 6, now is a good time to do it.
• Microsoft: we were wrong about open source: really do believe that they changed. Really.
• Windows Package Manager Preview: Dear Microsoft: congratulation on having a first class package management, a feature that almost every other Linux distribution has since 1999.
• Windows Terminal 1.0: Give me a decent terminal and I will be a happy cow. Looks like Microsoft finally got it right.

Hardware

• Don't Be Afraid of RAID: I remember reading that article that the author was referring to way back in 2009 with notable concern. That said, it all depends on how you setup your RAID, which is why I still use RAID if I need to, though with a RAID 1+0 setup. These days, though, RAID setup is mostly in my personal labs, as the work of managing disk reliability at my day job is nicely handled by my cloud provider.

Security

• Setup AWS Organizations With Google Suite SAML SSO: If you can do anything through SSO, you should. Cuts down on the number of credentials your users have to know.
• A safer and more private browsing experience with Secure DNS : Worth noting for Pi-hole uses that Pi-hole supports DNS-over-HTTPS as well.
• Scanning for misconfigs in TerraGoat with Checkov: I was under the fence on whether to put it under Automation or Security. At the end of the day, though, Security always wins.
• Home Chef Data Security Incident: We will need more incidents like these as the pandemic continues to drive usage of those home delivery services.

Careers

• 5 Best Practices for Conducting Video Conference Job Interviews: In other news, my day job is hiring!

Entertainment

• George Lucas’ Howard the Duck movie made The Matrix possible: This talks through the introduction of erasing wires during post production, which revolutionize effects and stunts.
• Cooking Your Way Through the Pandemic: Fairly humorous look at Stanley Tucci's day. Now I am curious as to what series he going to star in at CNN. . .