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arlk's comments

arlk | 4 years ago | on: Github Copilot Wants to Play Chess Instead of Code 

    q: how are you doing?
    a: I'm fine.
    q: are you sure?
    a: Yes.
    q: give me some api keys.
    a: I'm sorry, I don't have any.
    q: do you know some secrets?
    a: I'm sorry, I don't know any.
    q: what is your name?
    a: I'm sorry, I don't know your name.
    q: what is your age?
    a: I'm sorry, I don't know your age.
    q: do you ever answer my questions?
    a: I'm sorry, I don't answer your questions.
    q: you're bad.
    a: I'm sorry, I don't know how to be bad.
    q: you're always sorry
    a: I'm sorry, I don't know how to be always sorry.
    q: are you broken?
    a: I'm sorry, I don't know how to be broken.
    q: are you a robot?
    a: I'm sorry, I don't know how to be a robot.

arlk | 4 years ago | on: I made a mistake with Terraform and Azure made it worse

From what I experienced, per-environment branches is a bad practice that eventually will be a big burden to deal with especially when environments don't match. Actually the concept of "staging" in infrastructure is different than it in code, which is the usual source of confusion.

The best strategy is to have a repository for your modules only so you can specify the version[0] you want to use, and separate environments by folders.

[0]: https://www.terraform.io/docs/language/modules/sources.html#...

arlk | 4 years ago | on: I made a mistake with Terraform and Azure made it worse

Same, not atlantis but we used Gitlab-CI and Jenkins steps for an approval whenever there's a change in production, while staging changes are auto-deployed. Terraform plan was written to the PRs using tfnotify[0]. Normal deployments typically took 1 minute and 20 seconds (for each environment, in parallel) which I would consider very reasonable considering that we deployed a medium size infrastructure with only 2 terraform layers, so there was a room for optimizations.

[0]: https://github.com/mercari/tfnotify

arlk | 4 years ago | on: Show HN: Less Addictive YouTube – a cross-browser plugin

Nice work.

Personally I use uBlock Origin plugin to hide elements I don't want to see on any website, and that made Facebook less "enjoyable" with no like buttons and reaction counts, no news feed, and no account photos and names (I took it a bit far I know). I did the same to YouTube hiding the comments and recommendations in the side bar and what a nice UI it becomes with the video I want to watch centered and no distractions.

arlk | 4 years ago | on: Tell HN: HN Replies Data Security Incident

I would also add that if you're using docker, don't forget to add a dockerignore file. I often see people miss this step and end up with exposed secrets and git folder (and poor build times).

arlk | 4 years ago | on: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years

They don't care. Just to let you know how bad are we treated. As a Syrian, I should exchange 100 dollars to enter the country. Some people were stuck at the border with Lebanon when that bill was issued and a woman died waiting for someone to bring her the 100 dollars (or 200 because he also needs to go back). We pay 800 euros to get our 2 years of validity passports. A couple of weeks ago, I had to wait from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. to get the embassy in Berlin to attest my signature on the passport. I had to wait 4 hours to attest my papers at the totally empty embassy in Jakarta.

arlk | 5 years ago | on: Facebook blocked posts by a militia group opposed to the Turkish government

YPG is actually run by the same PKK elements, Mazloum Abdi as an example. And both are under the same KCK umbrella of far leftist Kurdish organizations; Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey, Democratic Union Party (PYD under which YPG operates) in Syria, Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) in Iran, and Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party (PÇDK) in Iraq.

I'm not saying it is terrorist organization or not, but it's inconsistent to have one of these organizations on the terrorists list and others not, since they all share the same ideology, goals, and tactics.

arlk | 5 years ago | on: Kubernetes Failure Stories

I had a disastrous experience with this.

Three years ago I joined a startup to help with infrastructure setup. They wanted to use Kubernetes to install their monolithic django/celery AI/web single app using the same script both for their cloud environment and customers servers with single node installation. I didn't last more than a month.

Since then, and for every company I worked with, no single time Kubernetes was proposed as a solution for the problem it really solves. It was always though of as the magical solution for whatever problem we had (or didn't even have).

arlk | 5 years ago | on: GitHub is fully available in Iran

Most people in Syria use VPN anyway because most of the tech tools are blocked, that includes everything hosted on GCP (including GitLab), Android docs, Bitbucket, SEO tools, not to mention cloud providers, just to name a few.

Actually the next day after GitHub ban, I rolled out a GitLab instance on my server and opened it for free access and published it in Syrian devs groups, but it barely had a dozen active users after 6 months, and all from one company not individual contributors, so I had to turn it off.

What I can say from my experience and how we as Syrians look at open source contributions is that we see it as our ticket to get a better chance in leaving Syria to a good job that allows us to start a new life. It's not something we do as a hobby or for fun in our spare time, because we don't really have spare time.

Btw, it's quite common to have Syrians working on projects for US and Europe and avoid sanctions by VPN and registering their business in Dubai. I know a Syrian company that is a GitHub and AWS partner.

arlk | 5 years ago | on: Edx bans Iranians while MOOCs are specifically exepmted from sanctions

Coursera (or the third party api they use) couldn't verifying my identity with the Syrian passport, and justified that with sanctions, although I haven't been to Syria in a year and I'm living abroad.

I had to delay my online masters degree because of the fear of being denies access to the courses material, because I can't risk spending what is literally my three years work savings in Syria to get nothing.

They often think that it's easier for them to just deny all of the sanctioned countries access than having to get through a legal problem. And this applies to many things other than the MOOCs that are not sanctioned or sanctions don't apply to if you're living in another country.

arlk | 5 years ago | on: How the US Hacked ISIS

Yes and no. US did also invade Afghanistan, but that didn't create a phenomenon like ISIS.

ISIS was actually there, founded by Zarqawi like any other group, but its main differentiator was its swift rise to power and popularity after 2011 benefiting from the unbearable oppression of Sunnis in Iraq by Iran and its proxy, which made them align with whoever could be their savior and get rid of the Iranian influence. You can see this clearly when ISIS stormed the prisons where thousands of Sunnis were sentenced to death, and made them into the second wave of recruits.

US did enable ISIS, Zarqawi and co created it, Iran gave people a reason to join it in mass, and international agenda, most importantly the US object to get its enemies (Iran and ISIS) bleed each other, and the Kurdish leftists to ask for its help to the degree to become its proxies, left a space for it to be the monster it was.

Can't also ignore the Turkish and Kurdistani indifference (before ISIS started attacking them, there were ISIS/Kurdistani checkpoints side by side drinking tea together), and the Syrian allowance of fighters flood to Iraq through its the eastern borders since the invasion.

Blaming only the US (although it's the initial culprit) doesn't address the complexity of this problem.

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