Category Archives: Mind

Posts about topics that are focused on mental aspects.

AWS releases new SSD-Backed EBS

Yesterday, Amazon Web Services announced New SSD-Backed Elastic Block Storage. This is cool in many ways, but one really nice feature is the “Boot Boost” which means:

Each newly created SSD-backed volume receives an initial burst allocation that provides up to 3,000 IOPS for 30 minutes.

In other words, boot times can decrease dramatically (especially for Windows images).

At SmartySteets this is good news for us since we are using AWS EC2 technology for many of our services.

To take advantage of this using the Console was easily taken care of the first time we launched a new instance today.

However, the fun part was getting our API-based launch scripts to use the new feature. The main gist of the change is the specification of a volume type of “gp2”. We interact with AWS through boto, so I had to add “block device” specifications to the script as follows:


block_device_type = boto.ec2.blockdevicemapping.BlockDeviceType()
block_device_type.volume_type='gp2'
block_device_type.delete_on_termination='true'
block_device_mapping = boto.ec2.blockdevicemapping.BlockDeviceMapping()
block_device_mapping['/dev/sda1'] = block_device_type

new_image_id = ec2Connection.create_image(
instance_id=INSTANCE_ID,
name='{0}'.format(SERVICE_NAME),
description='',
block_device_mapping=block_device_mapping,
)

Here is the full script for reference in case you need an example of usage.

Be EXCITED About Your Dreams

Today I learned that, being EXCITED about my goals and dreams is a vital ingredient in bringing my dreams to fruition.

All too often I hesitate about being excited about my dreams. What if I fail? What if my dreams do not come true? If I allow myself to get excited, if I allow myself to put my whole heart into my goals/dreams/relationships, I might fail and my heart may be decimated. Would it not be better to just put half of my heart into whatever I am trying to accomplish? That way, if the endeavor fails, I still have half my heart.

Brad Barton failed over and over again, but he kept getting back up, and finally reached his goal of breaking a world record in running.

I just listened to this episode of Live On Purpose radio: Getting Better at Getting Better. Dr. Paul? talks with Brad about the struggles he had while pursuing his dream.