The majority of information out there, including tutorials and blog articles about others' successful deployments, comes in the form of very high-level overviews. Everything I've found is an introduction to getting a basic docker instance running. There is very little useful information out there as to how to run a proper multi-host cluster.
There is core Docker. Tack on docker-machine, docker-compose, Swarm, and the dozens of 3rd-party cluster management abstractions such as Rancher - and the intensity of the headache never stops growing.
It sounds wonderful, but there is so much to learn to be able to tackle a full production stack. It's one thing to successfully launch a working cluster after hours of manual tinkering. It's a separate beast altogether to fully automate setting up a new cluster by issuing a single command, taking into account consistent configuration of: secure networking, persistent volumes with backups, deployment of container configuration and VCS codebases (ex: nginx vhosts and your code itself), etc.
My goal is to set up an entire project in such a way that there is a single suite of automation that can deploy all environments: development VM, staging, and production.
Start slow, and work your way up. I started with docker early, so I can see how its ecosystem can seem intimidating now, with all the different "tools" and "workflows" to know about. So my recommendation would be to go bottom up. Start with just plain old docker - learn what containers are, what makes them work, then see how to manage containers in a single host with compose. Then move on to clustering with swarm, and then move on to other cluster-mgmnt projects like k8s. Try to make your containers more space-efficient by basing your images on Alpine. Make your host more robust by using CoreOS/Rancher, and so on. You won't need all the steps (or even in the order) I've listed here. But once you've started with a base, you'll have some idea as to where you want to proceed next.
If you need any help, you are free to ping me with any queries at the email in my profile. My authority on the subject: having written a book [1] and a Udemy course [2]
My advice for container orchestration: pick Kubernetes and don't look back (or at least give it a solid try). It falls at the right layer of abstraction and gets so much right. You get automatic container scaling (by CPU usage for now), container composability, service discovery, configuration and (kind of) secret management, portability, it's open source, and really a whole lot more. It's spearheaded by Google, RedHat, CoreOS, and other organizations, so it's fairly safe to say that it won't completely disappear a la Google reader if it's abandoned.
I recently migrated a whole microservice stack of a half dozen services to OpenID connect and Kubernetes in two weeks. This is with about a year of casual familiarity and playing with Kubernetes, and the same migration to OpenID connect would have easily taken me 5 or 6 weeks to do in Amazon ECS, which is what we currently use in production.
Not to mention I can run a cluster on my three computers at home at no extra charge beyond electricity and play around for free. (See, dear, I'm not a hoarder!)
Setting up a cluster is even simpler now with tools like kops and kubeadm. Or just get one provisioned for you by Google or Red Hat with GKE or OpenShift.
I would highly recommend at the very least making it one of the solutions you try.
As a self-taught programmer without much in the way of "official" pro experience (I have another job and program just to increase capabilities in that role), Docker was a revelation to me. I've programmed lots of tools at home, but getting anywhere in production is a nightmare of trying to wrangle managers and sysadmins into helping me translate my vision into a full-blown, deployed app within the business's stack. This year was the first time I was able to throw something together, Dockerize it, and have it deployed by a sysadmin with one or two minor code changes to work through our proxies. There are a lot of things that make me nervous about containers (persistence for example), but that was a game-changing experience for me and opened a whole new window of possibility.
This is also one of my goals for 2017. I've been using Docker on my project at work for about 8 months, but only in development and CI. I really want to start a push to begin testing usage in production, but have no idea where to begin. It's hard to find information that strings everything together. I feel comfortable with using it in development, but production seems to be an entire different beast.
Are you looking to automate infrastructure-as-code in there, as well? I've lost many a night to trying to get Rancher to play nice with Terraform, especially in high-availability mode. Luckily, it appears that the process has been vastly simplified in recent rancher-manager releases.
Absolutely same, I really want to get into it. I already tried to do so, but for some reason I was out of luck finding good resources for learning.
Can someone recommend some great resources for beginners?
TBH, would like a free resource. :D
Beside that I want to get around HashiCorp tools, especially Vault for storing and Consul for service discovery.
I'm going to learn it as well, a fair few jobs seems to note Docker as a requirement, or suggestion. I've never used containers before, so it should be fun.
A bit meta, and will probably get lost, but I would strongly encourage anyone answering this question to also include: "and this is how I plan to do it"
Firstly, because if you don't have some kind of plan, there's no hope, so try and work out what that is now; second, you'll give people who already know that skill a way to advise you.
I want to be more socially active in 2017. I graduated in 2013 , got a dev job and since then been living in a virtual world w/o any interaction whatsoever with people outside of professional environment.
In 2017, I want to break this trance, get to know the real world and probably get a girlfriend. :)
One of the better ways to do this is to to take the lead. Be a leader, not a follower. That can be interpreted multiple ways: organizing events, inviting people to things, asking what you would like, not what you "want", even taking dance lessons (something like Salsa), not caring about the outcome so much...
Some wisdom from a book from the Ask HN Books thread [1]
> - choose carefully what you give a f*ck about, but when you do, do it right
> - there will always be problems, deal with them and move on, it's your own responsibility.
> - the constant pursuit of a positive experience is in itself a negative experience, acceptance of a negative experience is a positive experience
I spend thousands of hours learning Japanese. If you not live in Japan, it is a totally waste of time. My wife is from Japan, why I learned the language. But because of still living in Germany, I regret learning it. I could learn so many other things.
I'd like to learn Japanese. I'm hoping to travel there in June after I graduate from college, and I figure it would help if I could talk to people (or try, at least).
I'd also like to get better at Rust. I've written a few small projects in it at hackathons, but I've yet to get to the point where I'm comfortable writing in it. I'd like to get close to that.
I'm taking a class prior to graduation in abstract algebra, which I'm excited for. I'm hoping to be able to continue to learn in this after graduating, I've thought about continuing to take math classes at a college by Seattle after I start working.
I'm hoping to lean more about machine learning and how it can be applied to problems, a project that I'm hoping to do in advancement of this is to learn to predict cloud cover in some future interval based on the history of some things (maybe pressure and current cloud cover?)
I want to write a real, hand-holding example for using GenStage and Elixir for a real tangible feature.
The official documentation sucks and does nothing to illustrate how to use it in a real setting. I've tried to understand what it does and how it works about once a month for the past four months but I still don't get it.
Hopefully I can understand it soon, and further cement my understanding by writing a real example for people to learn from. It sounds very powerful and useful but damned if I know how to use it lol.
Confidence - never thought it would be an issue when you're leading your own company. I quit a great job on the east coast in 2012, went to grad school and moved to Silicon Valley after graduation (2014) to work on my startup. I've been learning and building constantly for the past 4 years. I would rather my work speak for me, so I don't draw any attention to what I'm doing or to myself until I have great results to report. I don't have a co-founder because the people I would ask are not financially independent enough to take the risk without a salary. I'd rather make some money and hire them with as much equity as they can handle.
My first project stalled because of poor architectural decisions that overlapped with not-yet-profitable product-market fit (and too much networking instead of product work) and a baby. I learned that lesson and turned into a hermit to rewrite it completely - the market is there, but not immediately lucrative. I'm also writing something that makes money first. I'm hammering day and night with nothing else in my life but my family and the product. My second project is written in GO, wonderfully cheap to run, and about to be ready for launch. Not sure how to turn on that swagger button yet.
Selling to customers is one thing, but how/when do I start selling to investors and employees when few people know me in SV because I've been hammering instead of networking for almost 2 years straight.
I was in the mindset of letting my work speak for me. Then I quickly learned why technologically-inferior products can often get more sales than other superior products in my field(b2b).
Without accurate product presentation or inspiring sales effort, I can watch companies with clueless devs outbid my product with their all-powerful sales people.
My tip for selling a product you are perhaps too close to is to explain it to ordinary people.
I mean any random person, your Dad or Grandmother. Work out in layman's terms what problems your products solves, and how it is going to be a business.
Investors and even customers may not be at all interested in how GO is very quick at garbage collection...They want to know how your product will make them richer. Practice on laymen, practice a lot
Lol - welcome to the club! (the confidence) find yourself a good business coach. You may burn through a few but that's all part of it.
I can relate to your comments, I was there about 18 months ago. You would be surprised just how many people talk about confidence (or lack thereof). Also, look for a good mentoring group. Find people that are on the same path (family / business / financial).
I'm in a similar position. We should create a group for the subset of solo founders who are inclined toward product and not sales. It is a tough position to be in for sure (though I imagine the inverse has its own problems).
The more you practice, the more you can, the more you want to, the more you enjoy it, the less it tires you.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
How to spend more time with my family, friends, work out, learn how to cook and less spend time plying with a new framework without a real business idea behind it.
Amen! Plus I want to finish all the books I bought this year.
About programming/work - I want to learn a little bit of Haskell and want to change my company, I also should make sure the code I write from now on should be Test Driven to some extend
How to effectively market my consulting skills. I've been a web developer for over a decade now and I'm still not confident in my ability to bring in consistent work. The work comes, but I'd like to have more potential clients knocking.
From what I can tell, the best way to achieve that is by consistently offering to help others with my skills. So I'm making it a point in the coming year to make blogging a part of my work routine.
Are any of you facing the same dilemma? I'd love to hear your insights!
I have a hard time breaking into the consulting/freelancing world. I really like the idea of working part-time during off hours for extra cash, but it's proven to be quite difficult for me.
I think part of it is that I'm not loud enough, and I think it comes from being an introvert. I'm confident, I'm not shy, and I know I'm skilled enough to work on lots of stuff, but when it comes to marketing myself, networking, small talk with strangers, or anything else like that, I just have the hardest time.
It also doesn't help that a lot of opportunities to meet potential clients are found in non-professional settings, and those events are usually centered around the consumption of alcohol in the presence of loud music. I cannot stand loud music and I don't drink alcohol, so the difficulties for me just seem insurmountable.
Diving deeper into Rust. It strikes me how this language is exactly what I want in the future. From building Webapps/services (good libs/frameworks will arise) to codify algorithms as efficient as possible, and so on.
I have some libraries that I tend to rewrite for every new language I learn, but once I wrote something in Rust, its written once and for all, highly efficient and considerably safe, and I can use it from all other languages (node, elixir, ruby, ...).
And I have high hopes for webassembly to replace the brittle and overcomplicated frontend stuff in the next years, Rust should be the ideal candidate to write enterprisey stuff which must not fail.
I want to learn how to even start a side-project. I've been out of university since 2012 and have done basically nothing in my free time CS-related. Every time I start to even think about doing something, that "why are you working while on your free time" feeling comes up and I immediately do something else. Not sure if it means I really don't love programming and Computer Science after all (entirely possible) or if it means I'm just lazy. My goal is to find out one way or another.
I'd like to learn how to sell a SaaS product[1] to businesses. I'd also like to explore content strategy and marketing. As a software developer joining a new 2-person startup, this is uncharted territory for me. Looking forward to the experience.
1. Rust. As a DevOps engineer with a lot of experience and interest developing and operating distributed databases, I have so many ideas and Rust is perfect for them.
2. Everything about building and using FPGAs to their potential.
3. machine learning / deep neural networks. I feel we are getting to a point where they are becoming more practical for a business to invest in.
4. How to survive parenthood, with #3 due in May, my son is 3 and my daughter is 2. I've been making it up as I go, but wow is it a lot of work!
GIS. I've been using PostGIS a ton at work in the past year, and I've read _PostGIS In Action_[1], but I've really just scratched the surface. I want to play around with making my own projections.
I want to learn and play with LoRa. It's a 'IoT' technology that allows you to communicate over long distances using amateur (unlicensed) radio bands. Some of my friends have achieved distances of over 40km, and I'm curious to see what I can do with it.
So far I've been able to get a ping between two modules over a 10m range. Next up I'd like to transmit some useful data over longer distances (temperature for example), and then move on to devices that provide useful data (eg when a train passes a certain point to see if it's on time).
I'm coming 20-30 years late to the "biology is the future" mindset.
In my case, personal health has left me no choice.
Some poor medical advice and treatment, combined with my adversity to the whole topic -- yes, strong squeamishness combined with fear/observation that thinking about adverse events seemed (seems!) to instantiate them. That all has left me with a substantial health burden.
Meanwhile, in my experience the current U.S. health care system seems to be -- technological "miracles" aside -- making getting effective treatment ever more difficult.
So... As with everything else, it seems, you can't rely on expert consult -- even when you can afford it -- but rather have to learn and do -- or at lease prescribe and manage -- everything yourself.
So... biology. In other words, I need to belatedly read up on the owners manual. And find some hacks that help me.
As an aside, we're about to the point of molecular programming. So, maybe this will coincide with the current leading edge in technology, anyway.
Docker, rkt, LCX/LDX, and Kubernetes. I use some of this stuff already but want to see whether I can set up a Heroku-like multi host cluster that will be more stable for running production projects than my current setup of running things on "bare" EC2 instances.
Swift and/or React Native. Mobile apps are good.
How to use some basic ML in practice. TensorFlow based NNs would be good.
How to use the ShopBot at my local hacker space. Also how to use the laser cutter to make cooler shit than I already do.
How to sew. I want to make some one-off items but really don't know much about sewing beyond the real basics.
How to use a bullwhip India Jones-style.
Surfing.
Bonus: welding, how to change brakes on a car, how to rebuild a carburetor, how to make kombucha, how to keep bees.
This is really easy. In fact it's the easiest non-trivial repair there is on a car, because unlike other parts it's actually designed do be replaced as a wear part.
You'll need a jack, jack stands (pair), and a set of good socket wrenches (make sure you get 3/8 and 1/2 size - you'll need the larger sockets). A breaker bar and torque wrench are a nice bonus. You can get all of that at harbor freight for less than $100 (they do ship if you don't have one nearby). And considering the parts for a brake change cost around $100, but a shop charges closer to $600 it's a no-brainer financially.
I learned by checking out a chiltons repair manual from my local library and following the instructions. That works very well, and you can supplement by watching some youtube videos (not an option when I first started). (I would not do just youtube - you never know if they are skipping a step.)
Disk and drum brakes are all very similar within their type, so it hardly matters which model year chiltons book you get.
Like you, I'd also like to learn how to weld :) but the cost of the machine is too high to justify.
Ask grandma! My mom taught me, but it was an even more common skill with the older generations. Or I guess there's always YouTube.
Does your maker space have a 4th axis for the laser? You can buy clear pint glasses and etch designs onto them. Combined with a custom etched coaster it makes an easy, inexpensive gift.
[+] [-] developer2|9 years ago|reply
The majority of information out there, including tutorials and blog articles about others' successful deployments, comes in the form of very high-level overviews. Everything I've found is an introduction to getting a basic docker instance running. There is very little useful information out there as to how to run a proper multi-host cluster.
There is core Docker. Tack on docker-machine, docker-compose, Swarm, and the dozens of 3rd-party cluster management abstractions such as Rancher - and the intensity of the headache never stops growing.
It sounds wonderful, but there is so much to learn to be able to tackle a full production stack. It's one thing to successfully launch a working cluster after hours of manual tinkering. It's a separate beast altogether to fully automate setting up a new cluster by issuing a single command, taking into account consistent configuration of: secure networking, persistent volumes with backups, deployment of container configuration and VCS codebases (ex: nginx vhosts and your code itself), etc.
My goal is to set up an entire project in such a way that there is a single suite of automation that can deploy all environments: development VM, staging, and production.
[+] [-] shrikrishna|9 years ago|reply
If you need any help, you are free to ping me with any queries at the email in my profile. My authority on the subject: having written a book [1] and a Udemy course [2]
[1]: https://www.packtpub.com/virtualization-and-cloud/orchestrat... [2]: https://www.udemy.com/mastering-docker/
[+] [-] andrewstuart2|9 years ago|reply
I recently migrated a whole microservice stack of a half dozen services to OpenID connect and Kubernetes in two weeks. This is with about a year of casual familiarity and playing with Kubernetes, and the same migration to OpenID connect would have easily taken me 5 or 6 weeks to do in Amazon ECS, which is what we currently use in production.
Not to mention I can run a cluster on my three computers at home at no extra charge beyond electricity and play around for free. (See, dear, I'm not a hoarder!)
Setting up a cluster is even simpler now with tools like kops and kubeadm. Or just get one provisioned for you by Google or Red Hat with GKE or OpenShift.
I would highly recommend at the very least making it one of the solutions you try.
[+] [-] ellius|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cutety|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JBerlinsky|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xMudrii|9 years ago|reply
Beside that I want to get around HashiCorp tools, especially Vault for storing and Consul for service discovery.
[+] [-] laithshadeed|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] overint|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] echlebek|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peteretep|9 years ago|reply
Firstly, because if you don't have some kind of plan, there's no hope, so try and work out what that is now; second, you'll give people who already know that skill a way to advise you.
[+] [-] rcdmd|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] theweirdone|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wallflower|9 years ago|reply
One of the better ways to do this is to to take the lead. Be a leader, not a follower. That can be interpreted multiple ways: organizing events, inviting people to things, asking what you would like, not what you "want", even taking dance lessons (something like Salsa), not caring about the outcome so much...
Some wisdom from a book from the Ask HN Books thread [1]
> - choose carefully what you give a f*ck about, but when you do, do it right
> - there will always be problems, deal with them and move on, it's your own responsibility.
> - the constant pursuit of a positive experience is in itself a negative experience, acceptance of a negative experience is a positive experience
Also, Systems Not Goals
http://jamesclear.com/goals-systems
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13243705
[+] [-] kamekame|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Etheryte|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] derrzzaa|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] foota|9 years ago|reply
I'd also like to get better at Rust. I've written a few small projects in it at hackathons, but I've yet to get to the point where I'm comfortable writing in it. I'd like to get close to that.
I'm taking a class prior to graduation in abstract algebra, which I'm excited for. I'm hoping to be able to continue to learn in this after graduating, I've thought about continuing to take math classes at a college by Seattle after I start working.
I'm hoping to lean more about machine learning and how it can be applied to problems, a project that I'm hoping to do in advancement of this is to learn to predict cloud cover in some future interval based on the history of some things (maybe pressure and current cloud cover?)
[+] [-] sergiotapia|9 years ago|reply
The official documentation sucks and does nothing to illustrate how to use it in a real setting. I've tried to understand what it does and how it works about once a month for the past four months but I still don't get it.
http://elixir-lang.org/blog/2016/07/14/announcing-genstage/
Hopefully I can understand it soon, and further cement my understanding by writing a real example for people to learn from. It sounds very powerful and useful but damned if I know how to use it lol.
[+] [-] davedx|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] enraged_camel|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] slashdotdash|9 years ago|reply
[1] http://teamon.eu/2016/tuning-elixir-genstage-flow-pipeline-p...
[+] [-] d7z|9 years ago|reply
My first project stalled because of poor architectural decisions that overlapped with not-yet-profitable product-market fit (and too much networking instead of product work) and a baby. I learned that lesson and turned into a hermit to rewrite it completely - the market is there, but not immediately lucrative. I'm also writing something that makes money first. I'm hammering day and night with nothing else in my life but my family and the product. My second project is written in GO, wonderfully cheap to run, and about to be ready for launch. Not sure how to turn on that swagger button yet.
Selling to customers is one thing, but how/when do I start selling to investors and employees when few people know me in SV because I've been hammering instead of networking for almost 2 years straight.
[+] [-] juiyout|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jimnotgym|9 years ago|reply
I mean any random person, your Dad or Grandmother. Work out in layman's terms what problems your products solves, and how it is going to be a business.
Investors and even customers may not be at all interested in how GO is very quick at garbage collection...They want to know how your product will make them richer. Practice on laymen, practice a lot
[+] [-] cpayne|9 years ago|reply
I can relate to your comments, I was there about 18 months ago. You would be surprised just how many people talk about confidence (or lack thereof). Also, look for a good mentoring group. Find people that are on the same path (family / business / financial).
If I can help, my email is in my profile.
[+] [-] superplussed|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] late2part|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alexchamberlain|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DigitalJack|9 years ago|reply
I'd like to:
-Build a lisp that targets LLVM IR
-Build an HDL out of lisp that can be compiled into a simulation, as well as be compiled to a netlist for synthesis.
-Build a testbench toolkit out of that same lisp.
[+] [-] deepaksurti|9 years ago|reply
Digital Electronics using [1] Operating Systems using [2] Functional Data Structures using [3] Graphics Algorithms [4]
Any recommendations for these subjects sincerely appreciated. Thanks.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Design-Computer-Architecture-... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Operating-Systems-Andrew-Tanen... [3] https://www.amazon.com/Purely-Functional-Structures-Chris-Ok... [4] https://www.amazon.com/Graphics-Visualization-Principles-Alg...
The more you practice, the more you can, the more you want to, the more you enjoy it, the less it tires you.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
[+] [-] eranation|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sravan_ess|9 years ago|reply
About programming/work - I want to learn a little bit of Haskell and want to change my company, I also should make sure the code I write from now on should be Test Driven to some extend
[+] [-] botverse|9 years ago|reply
The key is to learn to eat.
[+] [-] apineda|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] teejayvanslyke|9 years ago|reply
From what I can tell, the best way to achieve that is by consistently offering to help others with my skills. So I'm making it a point in the coming year to make blogging a part of my work routine.
Are any of you facing the same dilemma? I'd love to hear your insights!
[+] [-] grardb|9 years ago|reply
I think part of it is that I'm not loud enough, and I think it comes from being an introvert. I'm confident, I'm not shy, and I know I'm skilled enough to work on lots of stuff, but when it comes to marketing myself, networking, small talk with strangers, or anything else like that, I just have the hardest time.
It also doesn't help that a lot of opportunities to meet potential clients are found in non-professional settings, and those events are usually centered around the consumption of alcohol in the presence of loud music. I cannot stand loud music and I don't drink alcohol, so the difficulties for me just seem insurmountable.
[+] [-] anonyfox|9 years ago|reply
I have some libraries that I tend to rewrite for every new language I learn, but once I wrote something in Rust, its written once and for all, highly efficient and considerably safe, and I can use it from all other languages (node, elixir, ruby, ...).
And I have high hopes for webassembly to replace the brittle and overcomplicated frontend stuff in the next years, Rust should be the ideal candidate to write enterprisey stuff which must not fail.
[+] [-] Ocerge|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] silvaben|9 years ago|reply
I'd like to learn how to sell a SaaS product[1] to businesses. I'd also like to explore content strategy and marketing. As a software developer joining a new 2-person startup, this is uncharted territory for me. Looking forward to the experience.
[1] https://www.metriculator.com
[+] [-] jonaf|9 years ago|reply
2. Everything about building and using FPGAs to their potential.
3. machine learning / deep neural networks. I feel we are getting to a point where they are becoming more practical for a business to invest in.
4. How to survive parenthood, with #3 due in May, my son is 3 and my daughter is 2. I've been making it up as I go, but wow is it a lot of work!
[+] [-] jchmbrln|9 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.manning.com/books/postgis-in-action-second-editi...
[+] [-] xrjn|9 years ago|reply
So far I've been able to get a ping between two modules over a 10m range. Next up I'd like to transmit some useful data over longer distances (temperature for example), and then move on to devices that provide useful data (eg when a train passes a certain point to see if it's on time).
[+] [-] pasbesoin|9 years ago|reply
In my case, personal health has left me no choice.
Some poor medical advice and treatment, combined with my adversity to the whole topic -- yes, strong squeamishness combined with fear/observation that thinking about adverse events seemed (seems!) to instantiate them. That all has left me with a substantial health burden.
Meanwhile, in my experience the current U.S. health care system seems to be -- technological "miracles" aside -- making getting effective treatment ever more difficult.
So... As with everything else, it seems, you can't rely on expert consult -- even when you can afford it -- but rather have to learn and do -- or at lease prescribe and manage -- everything yourself.
So... biology. In other words, I need to belatedly read up on the owners manual. And find some hacks that help me.
As an aside, we're about to the point of molecular programming. So, maybe this will coincide with the current leading edge in technology, anyway.
[+] [-] parthdesai|9 years ago|reply
Right now my life consists of Commute->Work->commute->gym->sleep. I actually don't look forward to weekends since there is nothing to occupy my mind.
[+] [-] Razengan|9 years ago|reply
Once you like something you'll look forward to continuing it in peace on the weekends.
[+] [-] hota_mazi|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IgorPartola|9 years ago|reply
Swift and/or React Native. Mobile apps are good.
How to use some basic ML in practice. TensorFlow based NNs would be good.
How to use the ShopBot at my local hacker space. Also how to use the laser cutter to make cooler shit than I already do.
How to sew. I want to make some one-off items but really don't know much about sewing beyond the real basics.
How to use a bullwhip India Jones-style.
Surfing.
Bonus: welding, how to change brakes on a car, how to rebuild a carburetor, how to make kombucha, how to keep bees.
[+] [-] ars|9 years ago|reply
This is really easy. In fact it's the easiest non-trivial repair there is on a car, because unlike other parts it's actually designed do be replaced as a wear part.
You'll need a jack, jack stands (pair), and a set of good socket wrenches (make sure you get 3/8 and 1/2 size - you'll need the larger sockets). A breaker bar and torque wrench are a nice bonus. You can get all of that at harbor freight for less than $100 (they do ship if you don't have one nearby). And considering the parts for a brake change cost around $100, but a shop charges closer to $600 it's a no-brainer financially.
I learned by checking out a chiltons repair manual from my local library and following the instructions. That works very well, and you can supplement by watching some youtube videos (not an option when I first started). (I would not do just youtube - you never know if they are skipping a step.)
Disk and drum brakes are all very similar within their type, so it hardly matters which model year chiltons book you get.
Like you, I'd also like to learn how to weld :) but the cost of the machine is too high to justify.
Edit:
http://www.harborfreight.com/64-pc-14-in-38-in-12-in-drive-s... http://www.harborfreight.com/12-in-drive-18-in-breaker-bar-6... http://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-half-inch-drive-click-type-... http://www.harborfreight.com/3-ton-steel-jack-stands-61196.h... http://www.harborfreight.com/4-ton-hydraulic-bottle-jack-664...
Total: $95.95 (including coupons, the home page has the coupon codes)
[+] [-] peller|9 years ago|reply
Ask grandma! My mom taught me, but it was an even more common skill with the older generations. Or I guess there's always YouTube.
Does your maker space have a 4th axis for the laser? You can buy clear pint glasses and etch designs onto them. Combined with a custom etched coaster it makes an easy, inexpensive gift.