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Author here - I haven't updated this in a while, but am always grateful for the appreciative comments and emails I get when it gets rediscovered. There's also

Author here - I haven't updated this in a while, but am always grateful for the appreciative comments and emails I get when it gets rediscovered. There's also usually two other comments: 1. Why isn't it funnier / meaner? (an early version had a couple more pointed descriptions). 2. Why aren't these names more accurate? The answer to both is that I was trying to be help people form a rough mental model of what / how and in what context they would use the services - that they could then take as a jumping off point for doing their own research into. Nobody is relying on my jokey 2 sentence description of these services to make deep architectural choices about their apps. What I have heard many many times though is: "Oh! I didn't realize that's what AWS Service X did."

maximp 8y ago
> I was trying to be help people form a rough mental model of what / how and in what context they would use the services - that they could then take as a jumping off point for doing their own research into. This is exactly what I'm trying to do with Hackterms [1] - would love it if you could check it out and maybe contribute AWS definitions. We're up to 1200+ from hundreds of contributors like you. [1] https://www.hackterms.com https://www.hackterms.com
- byproxy 8y ago
  Reminds of this book I found at a thriftshop, "The New Hacker's Dictionary" : https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/the-new-hacker-s-dictionary-0262680696 https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/the-new-hack... (though probably with a lot less snark)
  - aasasd 8y ago
    The Jargon File was the old ultimate reference: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jargon_File https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jargon_File A lot of old hacker culture can be learned from it. Might be actually a good thing that it's not updated anymore.
skosch 8y ago
I really enjoyed your post, having never used AWS, and always been a bit intimidated by it. Your list maps perfectly onto my existing mental models in a very reassuring way. Thanks for taking the time to write it up.

maximp 8y ago

> I was trying to be help people form a rough mental model of what / how and in what context they would use the services - that they could then take as a jumping off point for doing their own research into. This is exactly what I'm trying to do with Hackterms [1] - would love it if you could check it out and maybe contribute AWS definitions. We're up to 1200+ from hundreds of contributors like you. [1] https://www.hackterms.com https://www.hackterms.com

byproxy 8y ago
Reminds of this book I found at a thriftshop, "The New Hacker's Dictionary" : https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/the-new-hacker-s-dictionary-0262680696 https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/the-new-hack... (though probably with a lot less snark)
- aasasd 8y ago
  The Jargon File was the old ultimate reference: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jargon_File https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jargon_File A lot of old hacker culture can be learned from it. Might be actually a good thing that it's not updated anymore.

skosch 8y ago

I really enjoyed your post, having never used AWS, and always been a bit intimidated by it. Your list maps perfectly onto my existing mental models in a very reassuring way. Thanks for taking the time to write it up.