it depends of the mood of the engineer, if he is trying to solve a difficult problem then you could share his interest in case you are in the same roof for the problem, but he may be tired or thinking there are barrier that he will never be able to jump over and you could exacerbate that sensation if you don't know about the problem.
Perhaps that person has a blog and you can understand what he is doing and what are his goals, that should be interesting. The impression you give depends of what the other person expect from you, are you ready for the work you are supposed to do?
I think you should have a fixed position (perhaps you are eclectic) and try to convince someone, then try to change the position and think otherwise. To convince someone is to know about what they expect, some psychology required.
The best thing is to have something interesting to say. Why do you want people to read you? Do you have something interesting to say? Are you going to write a book?
Thanks for the link; To answer your question as to why i want to write, first i love beautiful text. I read almost exclusively non fiction books and on a pretty wide variety of subjects. So by beauty here i am not so much referring to the aesthetic style, but more to the way some authors seems to have such a clear flow/structure in the way they present their material, that it almost make me feel smart to read them. It happens very often that i would reread a page or a section of a book, simply because while i remember the point made and the arguments used, the flow between the arguments was so natural that it's a joy to read.So part of wanting to write is just me trying to understand that mechanic.
Secondly i think there is level of insight that one can only reach by writing consistently on subject. So i want to write first to refine my own thinking and also write well enough so other people want to read and criticize/engage my ideas. I want to use writing as a way to develop my ability to communicate complex ideas better, and also to synthesise new perspective from a related web of ideas (booth of which i think are what make a good author/writer).
I should like to learn to use AWS without risking being overcharged (a guy went from 200$ to 50000$ next month). You could make a web like try AWS anonymously without risk.
Long time ago I read a post by Mathew Flatt about LLVM and gcc and how mini optimization and selling points were important not able to find the post, but it was a interesting read.
I think a mini browser with only the capabilities required to make a secure transaction should be used when sensitive information is to be transmitted. A full browser with add-ons is a very heavy piece of work to be secure or to be tested. Banks and other actors should use that piece for secure transactions and a full browser for ads and animations.
I do something like that by using different browsers. My main browser on OS X is Chrome with some extensions, but I do all my online banking in Safari where extensions are completely disabled.
Unfortunately the word free is a little ambiguous since it can be free (as in beer) but suddenly you are charged because you make something stupid (or someone hacked your account and created a zillion services)
Which is why you enable Multi Factor Authentication beforehand and make sure the roles you assign the instances you create don't have write access except for the one bastion, which you make sure doesn't have root login or even access to the public internet except for your IP but still have access to your private servers via VPCs.
Has that been a common problem for AWS users? I'm not asking to be snide, I honestly don't know. I just haven't heard a lot about that happening.
Something else to keep in mind... Amazon have a reputation for being pretty good about issuing refunds in situations where people rack up large bills due to various kinds of accidents. There are a number of such stories in old HN posts, and my own experience was very favorable: I setup a couple of big instances for a demo at a conference, and then a week or two later had a heart attack, and didn't get around to shutting down the instances until about 3 months later. I wound up getting billed several thousand dollars, but Amazon had no problem issuing me a refund. YMMV, of course.
The problem people have is that when they generate an API key they grant that key "everything" even account management stuff. Instead of giving it the least privilege needed to accomplish whatever it is that it does.
Then they'll inadvertently upload it to e.g. GitHub or similar in some source code and bad guys have bots which will steal it then make use of your account for all kinds of evil purposes.
Having things like 2F on your main account (which you should) won't save you from this. And if you go to bed, by the time you wake up the account charges could be in the tens of thousands even with billing alerts.
Then they'll inadvertently upload it to e.g. GitHub or similar in some source code and bad guys have bots which will steal it then make use of your account for all kinds of evil purposes.
OK, yeah, that was the one scenario I was thinking about. I just didn't know if there was some other AWS hack being employed commonly.
For this, there is at least a solution, even if people don't use it, and that is to use IAM roles. Create your root account and never (or almost never) use it, except to create IAM users with more limited permissions, and then use the AIM user for all your day to day stuff.
Well, if you are hacked, you're not liable for the fraudulent charges anyway (in the U.S.... mileage may vary elsewhere). Your CC company will charge it back, in the unlikely event that Amazon didn't take care of it on their own initiative (which they almost certainly would... as another poster noted, they have a good reputation in that area).
I interpreted "doing something silly" as "firing up 10,000 instances and forgetting to shut them back down", rather than fraud.
My idea of a secular community. Every member put 100 dollars on the table, then people decide what to do with that money, REPL. That force people concentrate on actions and look for directions or goals.
Perhaps that person has a blog and you can understand what he is doing and what are his goals, that should be interesting. The impression you give depends of what the other person expect from you, are you ready for the work you are supposed to do?