Reqiuem

I originally wrote this as a Facebook post, assuming it would be meaningful to friends who have known me a long time.  On further consideration, it can be seen as an extreme professional statement as well, even if I believe it's painfully obvious.  The TL/DR summary is I dumped extremely senior level expertise in the Microsoft technology stack, pretty much any concept of serious processing that doesn't live in the cloud, and a lot of beliefs based on many things that are younger than my son, the definition of a vanishingly small period of time for any parent.  The world has changed, and if you want to survive, you're going to need to change with it.
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Requiem

• At 10:40 AM, Saturday, December 12th, VitalStatistix shut down for good (primary file server) -- RIP
• At 1:30 PM, Saturday, December 12th, Getafix shut down for good (primary DB server) -- RIP
• At 1:45 PM, Saturday, December 12th, UbuntuServer (virtualized Unix system) shut down for good -- RIP
• Pluto and Hades had shut down earlier (virtualized source code repositories) -- RIP
• Hecate, Andromeda, and Galen shut down earlier (experimental service host machines) -- RIP
• At 1:30 PM. Sunday, December 13th, Obelix shut down for good (secondary physical host server) -- RIP
• At 8:15 PM, Monday, December 14th, Asterix shut down for good (primary physical host server) -- RIP
• Perseus is spooling the last files off and will shut down for good (primary Windows workstation) -- RIP

All local network DNS and authN/authZ services are now terminated, as well as firewalls etc (don't get too excited, every machine that's left only talks when it's happy with the ssh key it got)

And with that the internal network collapsed and reformed as an extension of the Amazon and Google clouds. -- may my credit card never fail to pay the bills!

All Microsoft licensed products are but a memory

The only thing that lives here is a fast network connection, Mac and Ubuntu portables, and IoT devices.

I dropped a $300/month power bill and picked up a comms plan that needs 15GB/mo mobile and an upgrade to ComCast business grade internet. My first world problem is that I now cannot leave the first world (not that I ever could). All of what I got is less than the power bill I used to pay.

And so a world passes........

I had lunch last week with my friend Julia, where we mourned that the same is happening with Mr. Gutenberg's products. A stream of words on paper was much better than figuring it out for yourself, but now.... my entire technical library went into recycling, and my personal library of the purely written word went to the RiverRun Bookstore , where I hope it helps postpone the inevitable, for as much time as it can buy.

Mr. Turing's creations, on the other hand stayed true to form and did not go gentle into that good night, they went kicking and screaming every inch of the way. That said, they will be reborn under the tender care of Charley, and I think that's a hell of a lot better than the scrap equipment pile for them.

Folks, if you haven't noticed, the world is changing again - if you thought the internet showing up with the web was a game changer, you need to seriously stretch your imaginations........... Really..... trust me..... "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

In closing, for a life that up to now has always involved houses, offices, and labs stuffed full of a stunning amount of hardware and software, I offer a final requium. These machines, and the infinity that came before them, worked hard to show me worlds I could barely imagine, and worked harder to put every coin into my pocket that ever passed through it. I may have access to more, better, and cheaper now, but I will always have a fond memory for when this world was tangible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOHAdeCgvCQ