Armory empowers software development organizations to accelerate their innovation and time-to-market while reducing risk to their customers’ experience. Developers can easily, reliably, and securely deploy new versions alongside live versions, incrementally scale up new versions, enable time-saving automation, and effortlessly rollback, all with one out-of-the-box Continuous Deployment solution. Armory Continuous Deployment features: • Integration with your existing SDLC and CI tools • Flexible GitOps and declarative workflows • Multi-cloud and multi-environment orchestration • Developer-first experiences trusted and loved Benefits of Continuous Deployment with Armory: • Improves developer experience and productivity • Accelerates time-to-market • Increases innovation • Improves customer experience • Empowers focus on your competitive advantage • Improves day-to-day DevOps velocity • Assures security at runtime • Scales your business efficiently and grows your bottom line Commit. Deploy. Repeat. Learn More: https://www.armory.io/

Armory

The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Chapter II The Outlaw of Torn Chapter II South of the armory of Westminster Palace lay the gardens, and here, on the third day following the King’s affront to De Vac, might have been seen a black-haired woman gowned in a violet cyclas, richly embroidered with gold about the yoke and at the bottom of the loose-pointed sleeves, which reached almost to the similar bordering on the lower hem of the garment. A richly wrought leathern girdle, studded with precious stones, and held in place by a huge carved buckle of gold, clasped the garment about her waist so that the upper portion fell outward over the girdle after the manner of a blouse. In the girdle was a long dagger of beautiful workmanship. Dainty sandals encased her feet, while a wimple of violet silk bordered in gold fringe, lay becomingly over her head and shoulders. By her side walked a handsome boy of about three, clad, like his companion, in gay colors. His tiny surcoat of scarlet velvet was rich with embroidery, while beneath was a close-fitting tunic of white silk. His doublet was of scarlet, while his long hose of white were cross-gartered with scarlet from his tiny sandals to his knees. On the back of his brown curls sat a flat-brimmed, round-crowned hat in which a single plume of white waved and nodded bravely at each move of the proud little head. The child’s features were well molded, and his frank, bright eyes gave an expression of boyish generosity to a face which otherwise would have been too arrogant and haughty for such a mere baby. As he talked with his companion, little flashes of peremptory authority and dignity, which sat strangely upon one so tiny, caused the young woman at times to turn her head from him that he might not see the smiles which she could scarce repress. Presently the boy took a ball from his tunic, and, pointing at a little bush near them, said, “Stand you there, Lady Maud, by yonder bush. I would play at toss.” The young woman did as she was bid, and when she had taken her place and turned to face him the boy threw the ball to her. Thus they played beneath the windows of the armory, the boy running blithely after the ball when he missed it, and laughing and shouting in happy glee when he made a particularly good catch. In one of the windows of the armory overlooking the garden stood a grim, gray, old man, leaning upon his folded arms, his brows drawn together in a malignant scowl, the corners of his mouth set in a stern, cold line. He looked upon the garden and the playing child, and upon the lovely young woman beneath him, but with eyes which did not see, for De Vac was working out a great problem, the greatest of all his life. For three days, the old man had brooded over his grievance, seeking for some means to be revenged upon the King for the insult which Henry had put upon him. Many schemes had presented themselves to his shrewd and cunning mind, but so far all had been rejected as unworthy of the terrible satisfaction which his wounded pride demanded. His fancies had, for the most part, revolved about the unsettled political conditions of Henry’s reign, for from these he felt he might wrest that opportunity which could be turned to his own personal uses and to the harm, and possibly the undoing, of the King. For years an inmate of the palace, and often a listener in the armory when the King played at sword with his friends and favorites, De Vac had heard much which passed between Henry III and his intimates that could well be turned to the King’s harm by a shrewd and resourceful enemy. With all England, he knew the utter contempt in which Henry held the terms of the Magna Charta which he so often violated along with his kingly oath to maintain it. But what all England did not know, De Vac had gleaned from scraps of conversation dropped in the armory: that Henry was even now negotiating with the leaders of foreign mercenaries, and with Louis IX of France, for a sufficient force of knights and men-at-arms to wage a relentless war upon his own barons that he might effectively put a stop to all future interference by them with the royal prerogative of the Plantagenets to misrule England. If he could but learn the details of this plan, thought De Vac: the point of landing of the foreign troops; their numbers; the first point of attack. Ah, would it not be sweet revenge indeed to balk the King in this venture so dear to his heart! A word to De Clare, or De Montfort would bring the barons and their retainers forty thousand strong to overwhelm the King’s forces. And he would let the King know to whom, and for what cause, he was beholden for his defeat and discomfiture. Possibly the barons would depose Henry, and place a new king upon England’s throne, and then De Vac would mock the Plantagenet to his face. Sweet, kind, delectable vengeance, indeed! And the old man licked his thin lips as though to taste the last sweet vestige of some dainty morsel. And then Chance carried a little leather ball beneath the window where the old man stood; and as the child ran, laughing, to recover it, De Vac’s eyes fell upon him, and his former plan for revenge melted as the fog before the noonday sun; and in its stead there opened to him the whole hideous plot of fearsome vengeance as clearly as it were writ upon the leaves of a great book that had been thrown wide before him. And, in so far as he could direct, he varied not one jot from the details of that vividly conceived masterpiece of hellishness during the twenty years which followed. The little boy who so innocently played in the garden of his royal father was Prince Richard, the three-year-old son of Henry III of England. No published history mentions this little lost prince; only the secret archives of the kings of England tell the story of his strange and adventurous life. His name has been blotted from the records of men; and the revenge of De Vac has passed from the eyes of the world; though in his time it was a real and terrible thing in the hearts of the English. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Edgar Rice Burroughs (1995). The Outlaw of Torn. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/369/pg369-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

South of the armory of Westminster Palace lay the gardens

Any visit to the Fallout 4 Nexus will reveal a staggering number of incredibly detailed, high quality weapon mods. The Halo Mod, Misriah Armory brings Halo’s iconic weapons into a new light. Taking advantage of the game’s inherent ease of modding and its weapon customisation system, a team of modders have implemented custom models and animations to create one of the best Fallout 4 Halo Weapons mods out there. Named after the fictional company that produces the UNSC’s arsenal, the mod brings eight weapons into the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, the mod’s Nexus doesn’t fully outline what this mod does in its entirety. It doesn’t cover how expansive the weapon customisations are or how they handle in gameplay. With luck, this article will explain why this mod should be in a Halo fan’s load order at least once. page What the Misriah Armory Mod brings to Fallout 4 Picture Credit: TheMemeMan1982 This mod brings eight fully-realised weapons to Fallout 4 in stunning detail and a deep respect for Halo’s expansive lore. SMG-M7/Caseless Submachine Gun Magnum-M6 PDWS Pistol Shotgun-M45 Tactical Shotgun Assault Rifle-MA5D ICWS Assault Rifle DMR-M392 Designated Marksman Rifle Grenade Launcher-M319 Individual Grenade Launcher Sniper Rifle-SRS99 Anti-Material Sniper Rifle M99 “Stanchion” Special Application Service Rifle The M99 Stanchion - Picture Credit: NovaFinch on the Nexus Misriah Armory’s familiarity with Halo’s lore can be reflected in its weapon list with each weapon using the name the UNSC gives it. While flavour text has been tweaked to fit Fallout’s setting, much of its art style fits Halo: Reach’s. The M99 doesn’t even exist in the Halo games. It’s an outdated weapon present only in books but has been carefully crafted and implemented in the game. Misriah Armory in Gameplay Picture Credit: SpiffySkyTrooper To state the blindingly obvious, Fallout 4 plays very differently from Halo. In Fallout, players can aim down sights, don’t have to worry about energy shields, or deal with a carefully curated weapons sandbox. Naturally, the guns in this Fallout 4 Halo weapons mod are used differently. These guns fill their own niches and have modifications that suit certain playstyles. Each weapon deals different amounts of damage per round and the types of ammunition used. The Magnum and Sniper Rifle each chamber the .50BMG round that they use in Halo canon, limiting how often they can be used while providing a justification for their heavy damage. The SMG uses 10mm rounds as a stand-in for the caseless ammunition it is supposed to use, allowing it to function as a low-damage bullet hose. Other weapons, such as the Assault Rifle and DMR allow the player to choose the ammunition the weapon will fire, allowing for tradeoffs between ammo availability and damage, an element of choice that works well in Fallout’s post-apocalyptic context. It should be noted that the weapons deal significantly more damage than vanilla weapons, especially at lower levels. While this is offset by the proportionally high crafting costs and scarcity of the weapons, they are enough to trivialise much of the game. The mod accounts for this by allowing players to increase or decrease the damage the weapon deals to tailor the Fallout 4 Halo Weapons mod to their own mod list. While a common feature in many mods, it’s always welcome as it reduces the need to find compatibility patches for gameplay overhaul mods. In-depth Customisation with Fallout 4 Halo Weapons Mod The shotgun modified beyond common sense Picture Credit: NovaFinch As mentioned above, this mod makes full use of Fallout 4’s weapon modification system and is one of the best parts of the mod. In line with Fallout 4’s customisation options, these weapons can have their barrels, magazines, receivers, sights and stocks changed with both real-world and fictional modifications to recreate weapon variations from across the Halo games and even extended fiction. For example, the Magnum’s smart scope modification allows it to imitate the famously overpowered Halo: Combat Evolved Magnum. The suppressed variant from Halo 3: ODST can be achieved by using one of the barrel modifications. Modifications for the receiver can also be applied to make the gun fully automatic. These modifications can alter the ways each weapon handles and can make them more effective in different situations. The DMR can be used to clear out a subway almost as well as the Assault Rifle if the player mounts a reflex sight on it. Conversely, the Shotgun can be lethal at longer distances with slug rounds and a scope and the Sniper Rifle can take a shortened barrel and iron sights to function as a DMR with excessive stopping power. Some modifications are wholly unique to the mod. One allows the Sniper Rifle to fire in two round bursts, noted by the mod’s own description to be impractical in most contexts except that it can demolish a deathclaw at close range. Some introduce much-needed depth to a weapon. The traditional Assault Rifle lacks iron sights which isn’t an issue in Halo but troublesome in Fallout. The mod takes inspiration from Halo 5: Guardians’ attachments to attach scopes in Fallout 4. Final Thoughts on Fallout 4 Halo Weapons Mod: Misriah Armory Picture Credit: NovaFinch Overall this Fallout 4 Halo Weapons mod allows is a must-have for anyone who enjoys Halo’s world and lore. It draws on classic weapons and puts them in a new context by placing them in Fallout 4’s combat system and expanding on how the weapons operate through a fantastic range of customisations. The high-resolution visuals are just the icing on the cake. Other Gaming News and Guides: Fallout 4 Project Valkyrie: Depravity and the Thuggyverse Doom 3 Gets Revived with New PlayStation VR Release Is Virtual Reality Still a Niche Within the Games Industry?

Fallout 4 Halo Weapons Mod: Misriah Armory

This interview was done for our Microservices for Startups ebook. Be sure to check it out for practical advice on microservices. Thanks to Isaac for his time and input! Isaac Mosquera is the CTO at Armory , which helps software teams ship better software, faster. For context, how big is your engineering team? Are you using microservices and can you provide a general overview of how you’re using them? Our current team is quite small — only 5 engineers — but we work on an open source deployment tool called Spinnaker that was open sourced by Netflix in 2015. Netflix uses it to deploy over 2,000 microservices roughly 4,000 times a day. We help enterprise customers achieve that velocity with microservices and Spinnaker. We see deployments as a critical component to obtaining the value of microservices. If the overhead of deployments is high, breaking up a monolith into smaller components only increases overall complexity. Having the right strategy and approach to tooling, including deployments, is critical to success Did you start with a monolith and later adopt microservices? If so, what was the motivation to adopt microservices? We see many Fortune 500 customers already on the path to microservices by breaking up existing monoliths. The value to many of these organizations is flexibility to add a feature to one component without affecting another. The assumption is that the software development life cycle per feature is reduced. At this time, it’s hardly an argument as to whether to move to microservices but instead which services will be migrated and when. How did you approach the topic and definition of microservices as a team/engineering organization? We see constant discussions regarding microservices, and what they mean within an organization. Because every organization is moving toward this type of architecture each company is at a different understanding of microservices and best practices regarding them. Additionally, any instance of a microservices is constantly changing such that we’re brought into organizations to help them deploy their microservices with best practices in mind. Did you change the way your team(s) were organized or operated in response to adopting microservices? This is almost always the case and becomes the inverse of Conway’s Law, “organizations which design systems…are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.” Instead of communication driving software design, now software architecture drives communication. Not only do teams operate and organize differently, but it requires a new set of tooling and process to support this type of architecture, i.e. DevOps. As monoliths get broken into smaller components, smaller teams and their roles become much more apparent. Engineers best skilled for or who have a strong desire to work on a distinct type of problem can now be assigned to those microservices. How much freedom is there on technology choices? Did you all agree on sticking with one stack or is there flexibility to try new? In almost all cases engineering teams can operate with autonomy but at the same time have a “paved road” which has the supported set of tooling. The main set of tooling is typically set for legacy reasons specific to that company. We typically see a set of JVM languages and one scripting language (Python/Ruby/JavaScript) for some flexibility in coding styles. There is no strict requirement to use these languages but it’s known within the teams that these are the languages that work at scale and have the best tooling support. Have you broken a monolithic application into smaller microservices? If so, can you take us through that process? The first step is to include the people (or the team leads) that contribute to the application and to start discussing what are the groups of functionality. Over time, this becomes obvious and less controversial [despite the fact that] there is always tension when re-architecting an application. After discussing with influential people who work with the code, we begin discussing how the different components will be split. The next step is to create a plan. Breaking up a monolith into microservices doesn’t happen overnight. Starting with the easiest non-controversial components is a great place to start. Then we execute the plan. We start deploying the new service as quickly and iteratively as possible to show success. Demonstrating success to the non-engineering organization is critical because the support for this change must come by sacrificing product and features for additional stability and flexibility. We commonly measure steps to deploy, SLA/SLO and number of deployments to production as KPIs to demonstrate value outside of the engineering organization. What were some unforeseen issues and lessons learned when breaking a monolith into microservices? Some functionality and code becomes redundant within microservices. For example, services that communicate with the user-registration service will need to deserialize the user object. While this might be duplicated in a few code bases, that’s okay if the logic is simple enough. A particular issue we’ve seen is where two microservices were responsible for a schema in a database. It was deceiving at first since one service was for read and another for write. This type of problem really slows you down when a deployment for one service required a deployment for another and defeats the purpose of microservices. How do you determine service boundaries? What that discussion like within your team? At first these conversations about where the groupings of functionality would live seemed obvious. But as time goes on, where new business logic will live become more difficult. In its own service, or would some logic be duplicated in two services? For example, we had a service which maintained user events and then shipped to a log. We had introduced functionality that processed those events and made runtime decisions. Should the decision live with the event engine itself or create a whole new service that handles this business logic? Ultimately our decision was to include it in the same service and if the product team requested additional functionality over time we would decide to move it later. How you want data to be accessed is critical to determining these boundaries. At one customer site they maintained significant user data. But some data is more sensitive than others by law. For instance, email, address, and real name had to be split out into a different services so the data can be managed by one source only. What lessons have you learned around sizing services? The smaller the better, but it takes a disciplined approach to reusing much of the tooling. Containerizing everything helps because it internalizes application specific details and allows for the server environment to stay consistent across different devices. Build tooling, monitoring, alerting, etc. should be put into a common set of tools that reduces the overhead of developing, but more importantly operationalizing a micro-service in production. If you notice your microservices are still quite large it is likely due to lack of tooling. Investing in tooling vs “more features” was a common change we see within these organizations. How have microservices impacted your development process or your ops and deployment processes? What were some challenges that came up and how did you solve them? We had some challenges in the following areas: dependency management, deployments, monitoring, alerting, SLA/SLO, security, inter-team communication, logging, and debugging practices. The way we solved many of these with our customers is to turn operations in a true DevOps shop. The reason this is critical is because microservices brings overhead in the form of duplication in many of the areas listed above. Building great tooling is the only way to make microservices work. Secondly, it’s important to treat the application developers, the users of the tool, like customers. The result of doing so will not only improve the tooling for the internal developers but it’ll also motivate your team towards a success metric. For one of our customers we measured tooling/service adoption as a way to measure success. Simply asking “are they using the internal tool?” was a good enough metric to drive better internal tooling. Auditing data sources has become significantly easier since the footprint of code that needs access to a datasource has become a lot smaller. How have microservices impacted the way you approach testing? Integration testing is very error prone and costly, in terms of man-hours. The ROI just isn’t there. Each individual integration test brings a small marginal coverage of use cases. If you consider all the code path combinations to your application coupled with another application’s codepaths, the number of tests that need to be written easily explodes to a number that is unachievable. Instead we instruct our customers to focus on unit test coverage, a handful of integration tests that will demonstrate total failure to key areas of the application, additional metrics such as SLA/SLO, additional alerting, canary deployments and one-click rollbacks. Inter-service integration tests defeat the purpose of microservices. If you’re testing how the system works as a whole, then conceptually you’ve done something wrong since these services should be loosely coupled. Instead, building in a “contingency plan” into the code when a sub-service fails is a better path. For example, Netflix uses a service to predict what you will see in your feed but when that service fails it falls back on a cached version of the feed so that no failures exist. How have microservices impacted security and controlling access to data? Security to data has significantly increased because teams only have to give access to data on more discrete datasets. Data can be segregated by service so that a password isn’t stored with other sensitive user data like PPI. Depending on the size of the organization this differs greatly, as the other service requesting access to your service’s data may be in another part of the country. We’ve found that there are three ways to solve this problem: Mutual TLS: this is very secure as it depends on certificates being granted to the service accessing the data. The downside is managing certificates for both parties. Netflix created a service called Lemur to help with certificate management. Token Based Authentication: this has the advantage of being simple to implement Security Groups: these are more difficult to implement since it becomes harder to implement across VPC and account resources in a security group. Have you run into issues managing data consistency in a microservice architecture? The important thing is that you don’t have multiple services managing a data model. We had this issue where we had one microservice control the schema version and writing to the tables and another microservice reading directly from the database. This meant that whenever we deployed one service it required us to deploy the other service, therefore coupling these two “microservices” together, which defeats the purpose of the architecture. Thanks again to Isaac for his time and input! This interview was done for our Microservices for Startups ebook. Be sure to check it out for practical advice on microservices. . This article was originally published at buttercms.com . It’s part of an interview series for the book Microservices for Startups Sign up to get new chapters emailed to you as soon as they’re released. If you’ve enjoyed this article, please help it spread by clapping below! For more content like this, follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our blog. And if you want to add a blog or CMS to your website without messing around with Wordpress, you should try Butter CMS .

Microservices for Startups: An Interview with Isaac Mosquera of Armory

DevOps is hot right now. It seems like every software engineering job posting requires DevOps experience and expertise regardless of the actual job title. When a tech company breaks up its monolith into microservices, each of its engineering teams now owns their portion of the application from start to finish. Software engineers no longer just build the application; they also own repo maintenance, set up continuous integration, configure build pipelines, and deploy their application. In this world of cross-functional teams and microservice architecture, DevOps skills become increasingly important, and that starts with understanding CI/CD (continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment). In this article we’ll talk about best practices for CI/CD and how platforms like Armory can help manage some of the complexity involved. Continuous Integration (CI) is the “practice of automating the integration of code changes from multiple contributors into a single software project.” Continuous integration (CI) As multiple developers are merging code into the master branch daily, it’s important to have automated checks in place to ensure that the code is always in a good working state. This means that code formatters, code linters, and unit tests should be run prior to merging new code. Rather than relying on developers to remember to use these tools locally, CI pipelines help automate running each required job, preventing bad code from being merged into the master branch. Good CI pipelines should be fast. That means running pipeline jobs in parallel when possible and having a fast test suite. Good CI pipelines should also be reliable. If the build is broken, engineers should work to fix it immediately, as a build failure would block all open merge requests from being merged. If a test is flaky, it should be temporarily disabled and fixed as soon as possible. The app should be built once near the beginning of the CI pipeline, after any formatters, linters, and unit tests are run. This way, the build artifact is ready to be used anywhere in subsequent stages of the pipeline. The build artifact can then be deployed in a containerized environment and used as a review app for code reviewers to quickly validate changes when needed. When CI pipelines are successfully set up for a code repo, developers can commit to the master branch daily (or even several times per day). No more long-running feature branches that live for months waiting for the day that they can finally be merged! Following these CI practices helps keep everything in the master branch clean and in a deployable state at all times, which leads us to the second half of the CI/CD acronym. Continuous Delivery and Continuous Deployment (CD) As a brief aside, let’s talk about the Continuous delivery is a natural result of generating a build artifact as part of continuous integration. This build artifact is a working copy of the app that can be deployed to an environment. That means, you’re ready to deploy to production anytime! As an engineering organization, you can decide whether to deploy daily, weekly, every two weeks, and so on. In continuous delivery, while you’re prepared to deploy your app at any moment, a human still needs to kick off the process to start the deployment. differences between “continuous delivery” and “continuous deployment.” Continuous , however, goes a step further than continuous delivery in that every change that gets merged into the master branch will immediately begin the deployment process without any further human interaction. This is exciting because developers can see their code in production just minutes after they’ve merged it! (Assuming, of course, that the deployment isn’t blocked by any failing automated checks which would prevent the new build from being released into the production environment.) deployment Whether your organization chooses continuous delivery or continuous deployment, the intent of both practices is the same: deliver value to your customers as quickly and as frequently as possible. No more big quarterly releases! This is what being agile is all about. One of the most important things to get right with continuous delivery is that the app should be able to be deployed with the click of a single button. In other words, the deployment process should be automated. If this practice isn’t followed, and there are multiple complicated steps in the deployment process that must be carried out by a human, the deployment process becomes more prone to error. After all, we are human, and humans make mistakes. Another key principle of both continuous delivery and continuous deployment is that you should use multiple levels of environments in which the app can run. For instance, you might have a development environment, a staging environment, and a production environment. The build artifact can then be promoted from one environment to the next during the deployment process. The infrastructure in these various environments should be as similar as possible so that you don’t run into major surprises once the app gets into production. Deployment Strategies can vary, but some commonly used techniques are canary deployments, blue/green deployments, and rolling blue/green deployments. Deployment strategies In a , you first release the new version of your app to a small subset of users. Once you are comfortable that the changes work properly for those users, you release the changes to the rest of your users as well. This is considered a cautious way to release code as you don’t initially apply the changes for everyone all at once. canary deployment In a , you use two production-grade environments. One environment is actively used in production and contains the current version of the app. The second environment is on standby and has no traffic routed to it. You deploy the new version of your app to the standby environment and then route all traffic to this environment, which makes it the new production environment. The old production environment then no longer receives traffic and becomes the standby environment. This makes it very easy both to deploy a new release and also to rollback a release when needed, because both processes are as simple as redirecting where the user traffic goes. blue/green deployment A can be used when you have multiple instances of your application all running in the same environment. For example, if you have six nodes used in production, swap out the first node with another node that is running the new version of the application. So, now you have five nodes running the old version of the app and one node running the new version of the app. Then you do it again so that the ratio becomes four old and two new. After four more node replacements, now all six of your nodes are running the new version of the application. rolling blue/green deployment The rolling nature of the deployment is both a pro and a con. The deployment is less risky as you don’t deploy everything at once, but it also takes more time to complete the full release since it’s done one node at a time. Various deployment strategies (Source: https://spinnaker.io/concepts/) How Tools Can Help with CI/CD Now that we understand best practices for CI/CD, what tools can we use to help us? For CI, there are many good open source options like or . You can even use the built-in features of GitHub (with ) or GitLab (with ). Most of these tools specialize in the CI part of CI/CD but also include some features for CD. With these CI tools, you can create pipelines that take care of running your linters and tests on every new merge request. Travis CI CircleCI GitHub Actions GitLab CI When it comes to CD, one of the most popular open source tools that helps automate deployments is . Spinnaker was originally developed internally by Netflix before it was released to the broader developer community. One of the best things about Spinnaker is its flexibility in supporting just about every cloud provider from AWS to Azure to GCP. Spinnaker can be integrated with your CI tool of choice and can deploy your app using your chosen deployment strategy. (I already mentioned that it’s flexible, right?) Spinnaker An example pipeline for a canary deployment using Spinnaker might look a little something like this: Canary deployment strategy pipeline (Source: https://spinnaker.io/concepts/) In this workflow, we see the build artifact deployed to a small cluster of server groups for the initial canary deployment. After the functionality changes in the canary deployment have been manually reviewed and approved, a blue/green deployment is done (or red/black deployment as Netflix calls it) by deploying a new prod cluster and using the load balancer to direct traffic to this new group. The canary cluster is then torn down, and — after everyone is comfortable that the new prod cluster is working well — the old prod cluster is destroyed, too. Armory is a platform that takes this idea one step further by providing an enterprise-grade offering of Spinnaker for better visibility, developer empowerment, and resilience . Armory’s dashboards, logging, and live metrics help give developers more visibility into their app deployments. With much of the complexity abstracted away into a nice GUI, deployments and rollbacks can be executed with the click of a button. This enables even those developers without much DevOps experience to own their app from start to finish. And just to give you an added measure of confidence, Armory’s Policy Engine allows you to configure guardrails to ensure that every deployment follows your company’s best practices and agreed-upon rules. Conclusion So, what have we learned? First, developers need to be acquainted with CI/CD best practices. Second, engineering organizations need to provide their developers with the right tools to help increase productivity and reduce errors. As we’ve seen, one of the best tools used for CD is Spinnaker, now enhanced by Armory. By working together to implement these DevOps principles, engineering teams will have greater confidence in their code and will be enabled to deliver value to their customers faster.

DevOps Practices for Software Engineers to Learn

I think it is a fair statement to convey that software engineers in 2021 are not only working hard but working smart. Building upon lessons learned over the last five years, applications and services are now created as dynamic as possible and are designed to meet laser-focused business needs. This same approach has found its way into the DevOps spectrum, where what I often refer to as “* as code” allows components to be created declaratively. The approach leverages the same git version control system that feature developers have been using for over 15 years for their source code. DevOps engineers have also made tremendous strides at delivering continuous integration (CI) pipelines that provide packaged software that is ready for delivery. However, to this day, the continuous delivery (CD) aspect still presents challenges. Challenges which expose gaps that often get in the way of a successful deployment. A couple of those challenges which I often see firsthand are: No easy way to pre-check deployments, which can cause a successful deployment in one environment to fail, while not failing in other environments. Rolling back to a prior deployment is not really a rollback, but a redeployment to an earlier version of a provided commit—not a rollback to a prior state of the full application or service. These gaps need to be addressed to fully complete the software development lifecycle. Why Spinnaker is Great is an open source solution that focuses on multi-cloud continuous delivery and deployment, targeting all the major cloud service providers (AWS, Azure, Google).  Focusing on the CD aspect of CI/CD, Spinnaker works with all the industry-leading CI tooling. Spinnaker Spinnaker shores up the gaps noted above by performing automated pre-checks for planned deployments. Once the pre-check stage is complete, Spinnaker deploys a canary and then monitors the telemetry emitted by the canary, keeping an eye out for variation between the canary and the existing fleet. If successful, Spinnaker will utilize blue/green deployments for the remainder of the application landscape. Using Spinnaker, rollbacks can be automated and actually revert the entire application or service back to the prior state. This is in contrast to simply re-deploying an existing version as a new version. Taking the true rollback approach yields a less disturbing impact on the application ecosystem overall and reduces the potential for external impacts associated with simply redeploying an older version as a new version. Spinnaker is trusted by a who's who list of IT household names, including Adobe, Airbnb, Comcast, Netflix, SAP, TransUnion, and Salesforce. However, the biggest challenge to Spinnaker is that it is a very complicated platform that presents a hefty learning curve. Below, is an illustration of the Spinnaker design and architecture: How Armory Can Help was created to not only simplify the Spinnaker solution, but to actually extend the value of the multi-cloud continuous delivery and deployment platform. Some of the key features that Armory introduces into the CD aspect of the application lifecycle are noted below: Armory Introduces sophisticated pipelines as code, taking things a step further by allowing centralized pipelines. Facilitates scaling options to easily add/remove elements like: Development environments, Application instances, Changes to the deployment landscape, and Cluster sizing Better Kubernetes Management using the Armory Agent for Kubernetes Policy engine which allows for custom policies These enhancements open up what DevOps engineers can do with Spinnaker without the requirement of a hefty investment in time to build similar options in the native product. How Armory Provides Value The prior section provided some high-level features of how Armory can assist the CD aspect of the application lifecycle. There is perceived value in these features, but the biggest challenge is to get from “zero to Spinnaker” without consuming a sprint’s worth of time. Below are some key aspects in how anyone can see value early in the assessment process of an Armory trial. Minnaker Armory’s open source project is designed to take the confusion out of Spinnaker by automatically creating a fully functional environment in approximately 10 minutes, including the latest version of Armory, too! Yes, zero to Spinnaker and Armory in 600 seconds.  In fact, using my MacBook Pro I was able to follow these instructions without any issues: Minnaker https://github.com/armory/minnaker#installation Once finished, I was able to access the Spinnaker installation using the following instructions: https://github.com/armory/minnaker#accessing-spinnaker Those interested in the finer details can access the “Get Started” page offered by Spinnaker themselves: https://spinnaker.io/guides/user/get-started/ Totally Declarative Design With Spinnaker and Armory running, it is possible to start building out the intended design using a declarative approach via the (YAML Ain't Markup Language) data serialization language using Dinghy. Below, is an example of a Dinghyfile utilized to deliver “Pipelines as Code”: YAML { : , : { : }, : { : { : { : [ , , , ], : [ ]
      }, : [ , ], : [
        { : , : , : , : }
      ]
    }
  }, : [
    { : , : , : [
        { : , : , : }
      ]
    }
  ]
} "application" "helloworldapp" "globals" "save_app_on_update" true "spec" "appmetadata" "dataSources" "enabled" "securityGroups" "loadBalancers" "executions" "serverGroups" "disabled" "canaryConfigs" "cloudProviders" "kubernetes" "aws" "customBanners" "backgroundColor" "var(--color-alert)" "enabled" true "text" "Your custom banner text" "textColor" "var(--color-text-on-dark)" "pipelines" "application" "helloworldapp" "name" "my-pipeline-name" "stages" "name" "one" "type" "wait" "waitTime" 10 The results of the YAML design can then be included in git-based repositories, which can then be used in the implementations from sandbox all the way through production. Honorable Mention There are several other items that I would classify as honorable mentions to keep in mind when considering the value that Armory brings to the table: Deployment Prechecks: With the underlying Spinnaker implementation, the fear of a missed configuration or dependency is eased with deployment prechecks. Developer-Focused Enablement: Armory makes it possible for the most-knowledge team to own a given service, from end to end, leveraging the declarative design. True Rollback: With the Spinnaker/Armory design, it is 100% possible to roll back a given service, including its dependencies. The rollback design can even be automated via observables monitoring the landscape. Application-Centric Dashboard (add-on Product) Customers utilizing can create an application-centric dashboard, which provides an overall view into the Armory/Spinnaker implementation. Below, is an example of what can appear in the Continuous Verification tab: Splunk Those interested in Accelerate or DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) metrics may recognize the mean time to recover (MTTR) analysis which is included in the example above, which is part of the Splunk integration and not part of the Armory product. Conclusion Starting in 2021, I began focusing on the following mission statement which I feel can apply to any IT professional: “Focus your time on delivering features/functionality which extends the value of your intellectual property. Leverage frameworks, products, and services for everything else.” - J. Vester The Armory solution certainly falls into the classification of a service which allows feature teams to continue to focus on delivering business value, while simplifying a somewhat complicated continuous delivery (CD) solution. Armory provides additional value such as: Declarative design using Dinghy and YAML Minnaker allows quick start in just 10 minutes Application-wide scaling options True rollback functionality Anyone seeking a CD solution targeting the major cloud providers should include Armory to the short list of products and services to evaluate. The manner in which Armory extends the proven Spinnaker solution will simplify the delivery aspects of the software development lifecycle, providing additional features along the way. Have a really great day!

Simplified Spinnaker is Possible: I Never Thought About it

Safeguarding Your Digital Realms with OWASP's Arcane Security Practices 🛡️🌟 (Along with Gandalf the Grey🧙‍♂️) In every developer’s saga, genuine might lies in their unwavering commitment to , as resilient and watchful as the Elves of yore. This chronicle imparts upon thee, the true guardians of the code, the sacred and guarded tutorials to shield your containers from all that lurk in the digital shadows. 🛡️🌟 mastering the arcane security practices bestowed by OWASP In the silvery domains of our servers lies the heart of our craft: the containers, akin to the One Ring in their significance. And just as Gandalf the Grey mustered the Fellowship, —to safeguard these vessels as Gollum guards his treasured ‘precious’. OWASP unites developers under a singular banner "My Precious! 💍" - The Art of Container Protection with OWASP's Secret Runes Evoke the treasures hidden within the deep mines of OWASP, ensuring that not a soul taints your digital 'precious.’ Here's the enchanted armory awaiting thine summoning: 1. Defensive Spells & Potions 🧙‍♂️🧪 (Best Practices) These are tried and tested methods that provide security for your containers. Some of the best practices include: Implementing to prevent common vulnerabilities like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS). secure coding practices to address known security vulnerabilities. Regularly updating and patching your container images and dependencies to protect sensitive data. Enforcing strong authentication and access controls Implementing secure communication protocols, such as HTTPS, to ensure data privacy and integrity. , such as using secure configurations and hardening Implementing secure deployment practices container runtime environments. : 2. Alerts of the Citadel 🚨🏰 (Vulnerability Alerts) These alerts notify you about emerging security threats and vulnerabilities. Stay informed and prepared by: Subscribing to to receive timely updates about new vulnerabilities. security mailing lists and vulnerability databases from relevant software and container image repositories. Monitoring security advisories and alerts for known vulnerabilities using security scanning tools. Regularly scanning your container images and dependencies Establishing a to quickly identify and remediate vulnerabilities in your containers. vulnerability management process : 3. Sword and Shield ⚔️🛡️ (Security Tools and Techniques) These tools and techniques provide additional layers of security for your containers. Consider using: that provide runtime defense mechanisms, such as container isolation, access control, and behavior monitoring. Container security platforms that analyze container images for vulnerabilities and provide recommendations for remediation. Container image scanning tools Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS) that monitor and protect containerized applications from malicious activities. that centralize log data and provide real-time threat detection and response capabilities. Security information and event management (SIEM) tools Elven Enchantments 🧝✨ (Advanced Prevention Techniques): To further enhance container security, consider implementing the following advanced prevention techniques: Utilizing to detect and mitigate vulnerabilities that are unknown or have not yet been patched. zero-day protection mechanisms Implementing sandboxing mechanisms to within the container environment. isolate and restrict the execution of untrusted code Utilizing to secure the interfaces and endpoints your containerized applications expose. API protection measures Remember, implementing these technical details in your container security practices will help fortify your code against potential threats andprotectf your digital assets. At the Council of OWASP: Where the Wise Converge 📜🔍 Even as the wise of Middle-earth gathered in solemn conference to safeguard their realm, so too does the Council of OWASP bring forth a grand conclave of security loremasters. In their united prowess lies the salvation of code and container alike, as they bestow upon us their sacred knowledge: Scriptures of Power (OWASP Top Ten): is a widely recognized and regularly updated list of the most critical web application security risks. It serves as a comprehensive guide for developers, security professionals, and organizations to prioritize and address common vulnerabilities. The top ten risks include: The OWASP Top Ten : Involves malicious code being injected into an application Injection : Flaws in authentication and session management Broken Authentication : Failure to properly protect sensitive information Sensitive Data Exposure : Disclosure of internal files and denial of service attacks XML External Entities (XXE) : Unauthorized access to resources Broken Access Control : Misconfigurations that lead to vulnerabilities Security Misconfigurations : Injection of malicious scripts into web pages Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) : Remote code execution Insecure Deserialization : Using outdated or vulnerable third-party components Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities : Hinder detection and response to security incidents Insufficient Logging and Monitoring Guiding Maps (Cheat Sheets): are invaluable resources that provide . They offer concise information, tips, and code examples on various security topics, including: OWASP Cheat Sheets practical guidance and best practices for secure coding Input Validation Authentication Session Management Secure Communication Secure Deployment By following the recommendations outlined in these cheat sheets, developers can significantly reduce the risk of common security vulnerabilities and strengthen the overall security posture of their applications. Congregation of the Stewards (Community and Conferences): is a vibrant and inclusive network of developers, security professionals, and enthusiasts who are passionate about application security. Engaging with this community provides developers with valuable opportunities to learn, collaborate, and share experiences. serve as platforms for knowledge exchange, where experts in the field share insights, present research findings, and discuss emerging security trends. By actively participating in these gatherings, developers can: The OWASP community OWASP conferences, meetups, and online forums Expand their network! Stay updated on the latest security practices! Gain practical insights from real-world experiences! The collective wisdom and collaboration within the OWASP community contribute to continuously improving application security practices and developing innovative solutions to combat evolving cyber threats. With the guidance of OWASP's mighty council, developers become Embrace their wisdom, for it is through their teachings that we shall prevail against the ever-looming darkness. May the fellowship of developers unite, armed with the knowledge bestowed by OWASP, and together, we shall forge a secure future for the realms of code. guardians of their code and protectors of their digital domains. https://hackernoon.com/the-7-pillars-of-zero-trust-security-a-developers-zero-trust-christmas-carol?embedable=true Within the cavernous belly of Moria dwell the multifaceted securities of your Docker quest. Traverse each layer with caution and strategy: 1. The Beacons Are Lit: Foresight of the Threat Landscape 🔥✨ To anticipate the ever-evolving cyber threats, staying ahead of the game is crucial. , developers can receive timely notifications about emerging security risks. These signals serve as a signal flare against the encroaching dusk of cyber dangers. Developers can ensure that the darkness shall find no purchase in their container environments by heeding these calls and promptly addressing the identified vulnerabilities and threats. By closely monitoring the warning lights of Gondor, which represent the alerts from OWASP 2. The Tragic Flaw: Anticipating the Mortal Blunders of Man 💔🔮 Just like Boromir's fall in the saga of Middle-earth, every developer has the potential for missteps regarding Container Security. Recognizing this inherent humanity, By doing so, they can weave their protections all the stronger, ensuring the resilience and integrity of their containerized applications. developers should proactively anticipate possible mistakes and implement robust security measures. https://hackernoon.com/rbac-the-bouncer-with-a-code-of-conduct-in-the-devops-dance-hall?embedable=true 3. Vision from the Great Eagles: Supervision with Advanced Spellcraft 🦅🔍 To achieve a comprehensive view of the container environment, developers should trust OWASP's higher sight, which is facilitated through . Like the great eagles of Middle-earth that have a superior vantage point, these methodologies allow developers to detect even the slightest rustlings in the shadow. By employing threat modeling techniques and leveraging automated security tools, developers can gain valuable insights into their containerized applications' vulnerabilities and adopt proactive measures to safeguard against potential threats. and threat modeling automated security tools 4. Coronation of Order: The Return of Regulation to the Digital Realms 👑⚙️ Just as the rule of Elessar brought order to the Age of Men, developers should ensure that their . Developers can enforce secure deployment practices by implementing robust governance mechanisms, maintaining proper access controls, and adhering to regulatory compliance requirements. By upholding order in the digital realm, developers can ensure the integrity and security of their containers and the applications they support. governance of container environments adheres to established security regulations and best practices Conclusion - The Dawn of a Secured Age: Ensuring the Sanctity of Middle-Internet 🌅🔐 In a riveting conclusion, it is essential to emphasize the significance of securing containers to protect the dominion of code. Developers can fortify their container environments against ever-evolving threats by implementing a multi-layered approach to container security. It is crucial to remain vigilant and avoid the twin traps of inattention and hubris. By continuously monitoring, updating, and strengthening container security practices, developers can safeguard their digital assets and ensure the sanctity of the “Middle-Internet”. Fellow developers, the journey's end for our tale is nigh, but thine own adventure is just at the dawn's edge. OWASP will be your guiding star and steadfast companion in the quest to fortify the sacred containers. So gird up your loins, take up your tools, and into the fray you march—silent watchers over the vast realms of code. For indeed, "not all those who commit to code are lost"; some are graced by the guiding hand of OWASP, ensuring the sanctity of our digital Middle-Earth against the ever-looming darkness. Tread carefully, code bravely, and 🌟🎇 may the light of the Eldar shine upon your pathways. "In every line of code, the light of OWASP; protecting, guiding, unyielding in the digital quest." 🧙‍♂️💻 Lore of Frequently Asked Questions: Q: Is absolute security attainable for my containers with these scrolls from OWASP? A: Alas, in absolutes, the wise do not deal. Yet, adhere to OWASP's scripts, and your containers shall be as guarded as the fortress of Barad-dûr—close to impregnable. 🏰 Q: As time's river flows, how often must I return to the enchantments for updates? A: As the seasons change in a perpetual cycle, so too must you revisit and renew your defenses. Reforge your incantations to strengthen your fortifications with each new moon or upon news of updates from OWASP's sages. 🌒⏳ Q: Do not some counsels of OWASP seem too burdensome for my humble code? A: Fear not the breadth of their wisdom. In truth, their counsels, though vast, are but shields overlapping to cover every flank. Their strength lies not in their individual weight but in their unity. Embrace them wholeheartedly; let no Orc's blade pierce through. 🛡️🧝

"Not All Those Who Commit to Code Are Lost": Strengthen Your Containers with OWASP🧝‍♂️

Scientific American, Volume XXXVI., No. 8, February 24, 1877 by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Patent Matters in Washington, D.C. here Patent Matters in Washington, D.C. To the Editor of the Scientific American: From the report of the Commissioner of Patents, just issued, it appears that its surplus revenue for the past year amounts to over one hundred and five thousand dollars, and that there is nearly a million dollars in the United States Treasury to the credit of the Patent Office; and yet, notwithstanding that this enormous amount is lying idle, our pseudo-economists at the Capitol refuse to grant the Office sufficient of its own funds to carry on its business promptly. So much is the work behindhand in some of the departments that, as the Commissioner states in his report, some of the attorneys who require certified copies of papers have been obliged to employ their own clerks to do office copying, and then had to pay the full legal rate of ten cents per hundred words, the same as though the Office had done the work. This style of , by making inventors pay two prices for their work, may be "reform" in the eyes of the average Democratic Congressman; but speaking for myself, as one of those who have had to pay twice, I would prefer to dispense with this style of "retrenchment and reform," and therefore ask you, Messrs. Editors, in behalf of the inventors of the United States, to so stir up our legislators that they will allow the Office sufficient of its own funds to do its work properly, and not delay the work of the inventor—work that he has to pay for in advance—and so prevent the discouragement and trouble which these delays always cause. economizing As the Patent Office has been doing a good business lately, there appears to be some attempt at rivalry at the Capitol, as the following list of applications for extension will show: LIST OF APPLICANTS FOR EXTENSIONS OF PATENTS NOW BEFORE CONGRESS. —— Reynolds, power loom brake.
Strong & Ross, scales.
Wm. & W.H. Lewis, photographic plates.
T.A. Weston, differential pulley.
S.S. Hartshorn, buckles.
H.A. Stone, making cheese.
N. Whitehall, cultivator.
J.R. Harrington, carpet lining.
H.L. Emery, cotton gins.
J. Stainthorp, moulding candles.
Walter Hunt's heirs, paper collars.
A.B. Wilson, sewing machines.
S.A. Knox, plows.
Rollin White, firearms.
Aikin A. Felthousen, sewing machines.
H. Woodman, stripping cotton cards.
L. Hall, heel trimmer.
J.A. Conover, wood splitter.
J. Dyson, carding engine.
G. Wellmann, card strippers.
E. Brady, safety valves.
Jearum Atkins, harvester rakes.
John Thomas, re-rolling railroad rails.
Thomas Mitchell, hair brushes.
Stephen Hull, harvesters.
T.R. Crosby, wiring blind slats.
G.W. Laban, mitre cutting machine.
T.A. Whitenack, harvesters.
J.J. Vinton, furnaces.
A. Fuller, faucets.
D. Baker, pitcher spouts and lids.
G.F. Chandler, refining sugar.
G.H. Nott, boiler furnace.
William Hall, lightning rods.
B.F. Rice, paper bag machines.
S.D. Nelson, shovels.
E.T. Russell, car springs.
Hubbell & Conant, steam pumps.
C.A. Chamberlain, shovels.
C.A. Adams, locks.
E.A. Leland, paint can. In addition to the above, I find the following names as applicants for extensions, but the inventions covered by the patents sought to be extended is not mentioned: S.S. Turner, Arculous Wyckoff, De Witt C. Cummings, Moses Marshall, J.W. Fowler, and Holloway & Graham. Many of the applicants have apparently given up their cases for this session, but they may be only lying back to its close in hopes that in the final rush their "little bills" may slip through easily. Several bills tinkering at the patent laws are before Congress, and one of these (House Bill, No. 3,370) passed the House on the 30th ult. It has one section that may be made to work great harm to inventors, as it prevents infringers being sued for more than one year's damages previous to notice of infringement being given. By this bill, if it is allowed to become a law, a person will be able to build and use patented machines or processes for years in some out of the way place where the inventor cannot easily find him; and should he be discovered, he can only be sued for one year's damages. There are other sections in this bill which will bear ventilating. Another bill, introduced into the Senate by Mr. Paddock, provides that all appeals from the Board of Appeals shall be direct to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, instead of to the Commissioner as heretofore; and that the fees shall be the same as now paid to the latter official. Mr. Sampson has introduced into the House a bill changing section 4886 so that it shall read as follows: "SEC. 4886. Any person who has discovered any new or useful art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, or any new or useful improvement thereof, not known or used by others in this country, and not patented or described in any printed publication in this or any foreign country, before his invention or discovery thereof, and not in public use or on sale for more than two years prior to his application, unless the same is proved to have been abandoned, may, upon payment of the fees required by law, and other due proceedings had, obtain a patent therefor: ." The change is the addition of the words in italics. Provided, That the manufacture or composition of drugs as a medicine shall not be patentable The Smithsonian Institute has sent to Congress a memorial setting forth that the present Institute building is already too small for the vast amount of articles already placed there on exhibition; that at the late Centennial Exposition the Commissioners of various countries presented their entire collection of exhibits to the United States, which had delegated their care to the Smithsonian Institute, and they had no place for them; that the armory building was being fitted up for the reception of the United States Centennial collection, and they therefore asked that a building be erected for the foreign collection, which could be used as a national museum, or otherwise we should have to offend the donors by keeping their valuable gifts stowed away in cellars and other rubbish receptacles. Mr. Eads, who is now here on the lookout for his pay for his work on the South Pass of the Mississippi's mouth, has received intelligence from the resident engineer at the jetties that the channel through the shoal at the head of the South Pass is now twenty-two feet deep, and that the least width at which twenty feet depth is found is one hundred and ten feet. The principal works to improve this shoal were constructed during the last six months. The low stage and feeble current of the river has delayed their effect until the recent flood from the Ohio reached them, and the problem of deepening the shoal has been fully solved by the rapid scouring away of the obstruction. It is stated that the channel is quite straight and is deepening rapidly. The channel through the jetties at the mouth of the Pass is twenty-one feet deep. The entrance from the sea through the jetties is one thousand feet wide, and through the works at the head of the Pass eight hundred feet. A recent telegram from Nevada states that the Sutro Tunnel (of which I gave you some particulars in one of my letters) has now progressed a total distance of 15,565 feet and has fairly entered the mineral belt, and will soon help to increase the already vast products of the Comstock lode. While on the subject of mining, I will state that the amount of quicksilver produced in California has increased so immensely during the last two years that it has attracted the attention of all interested in the article throughout the world. The receipts for the year have been 63,928 and the exports 48,010 flasks. In addition to the receipts there, probably about six thousand flasks were shipped direct from the mines to Nevada, thus bringing up the total production to over 70,000 flasks, a gain in round numbers of from twelve thousand to fifteen thousand flasks over 1875. The exports in that year were 34,844 flasks, or 13,666 less than in 1876. Occasional. Tyrian Purple Ink For Marking Linen.—Von Bele gives the following method for preparing an ink for marking linen and cotton: Neutralize 75 grains of carbonate of ammonia with pure nitric acid, and triturate 45 to 60 grains of carmine with the solution. Mordant the fabric with a mixed solution of acetate of alumina and tin salt, and write upon it, when it is perfectly dry, with the ink. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Various (2006). Scientific American, Volume XXXVI., No. 8, February 24, 1877. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19406/pg19406-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

Patent Matters in Washington, D.C.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim has become the modern-day equivalent to classic in that it can seemingly or platform you can think of. Now, not every platform supports mods on their port of this particular game. Case-in-point would be the Nintendo Switch port, for obvious reasons related to potential hacking and piracy on their platform. It’s - on a related note - also one of the first titles I can think of that has the devs support player mods on their game. DOOM run on just about any console One of these types of mods are the Clothing mods. These are the mods that change your characters’ strengths, carrying weight, etc. They also provide some benefits. The Necromancer outfit increases efficiency in Destruction-based magic attacks, for example. : This guide will go over the following questions in detail and attempt to answer What are clothing mods? How do you apply them in / Skyrim Skyrim Special Edition? What are the best clothing mods for this game? For those not in the know by now, Skyrim and support mods on all consoles (except Nintendo Switch) officially. its’ Special Edition Let’s start answering these questions in order. The first question we’re gonna answer is “What are clothing mods?” What are Clothing Mods in Skyrim? Clothing mods are, generally speaking, simple to complex modifications that add new clothes, armors, rings, etc. into the world of and its’ special edition. They can be found in the wide world of Skyrim, or be crafted at the tanning racks if one isn’t good at finding things. One example is Geralt, and another example is The Flash. Skyrim How to find the Tanning Racks in Skyrim This resource ( ) has a list of all the locations in Skyrim that features a Tanning Rack. A Player character/NPC will do this by crouching and using a knife to scrape a hide. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Tanning How to apply clothing mods in Skyrim/Skyrim Special Edition? Applying clothing mods to Skyrim or Skyrim Special Edition can enhance your gameplay experience by introducing new and exciting outfits for your characters. These mods can add variety, improve immersion, and let you customize your character's appearance. Below, I'll guide you through the process of installing and applying clothing mods step by step: Choosing the Mods: Start by browsing modding websites like or the Steam Workshop for Skyrim. Look for clothing mods that suit your taste and are compatible with your game version (Skyrim or Skyrim Special Edition). Nexus Mods Creating a Backup: Before installing any mods, it's essential to create a backup of your game files. This ensures that you can revert to the original state if any issues arise during the installation process. Install a Mod Manager: To make the process smoother, it's recommended to use a mod manager. The most popular one for Skyrim is "Nexus Mod Manager" (NMM) or " ." For Skyrim Special Edition, "Vortex" is generally the go-to mod manager. Vortex Install Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE) (Only for Skyrim, not for Special Edition): Many advanced mods require SKSE to work correctly. Go to the official SKSE website and download the latest version for your game. Follow the installation instructions provided on their website. Download the Clothing Mods: Once you have your mod manager set up, download the clothing mods you want from the modding website of your choice. Usually, mods are downloaded in the form of ".zip" or ".7z" archives. Installing Mods with Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) or Vortex: Click on the "Mod Manager Download" button on the mod page. NMM will automatically handle the download and installation process. In Nexus Mod Manager: Click on the "Mod Manager Download" button on the mod page. Vortex will manage the download and installation process. In Vortex: Activating the Mods: After the mod manager installs the mods, you'll find them listed in the manager's interface. Ensure the checkboxes next to the clothing mods are selected to activate them. The mod manager will take care of the load order and ensure that the mods are correctly placed in the game's data folder. Load Order and Compatibility: Managing load order is crucial, especially if you have multiple mods installed. Certain mods may conflict with each other, causing glitches or crashes. Mod managers usually help sort the load order, but it's good to double-check for compatibility patches if you encounter any issues. Launching the Game: Start the game through the mod manager to ensure that all the installed clothing mods are functioning correctly. If everything is working fine, proceed to the next step. Finding the New Clothing in the Game: After installing the clothing mods, you can find the new outfits in various ways. Some clothing may be added to existing merchants or chests, while others might require crafting at a forge. Refer to the mod's description or the mod author's instructions for information on how to acquire the new clothing in-game. Enjoying the New Clothing: With the mods successfully installed and activated, you can now enjoy the new clothing options for your character. Dress them up in stylish armor sets, elegant robes, or any other outfit you desire. Troubleshooting: If you encounter any issues with the clothing mods, check the mod page for troubleshooting information. The mod author and the modding community often provide solutions to common problems. And Remember, modding is an ongoing process, and updates to both the game and the mods can always affect compatibility. Always check for updates and keep an eye on the modding community for the latest information and support. Enjoy your enhanced Skyrim experience with the new clothing mods! Some of the Best Clothing Mods in Skyrim The world of Skyrim Modding offers a vast array of possibilities to enhance and customize the gaming experience. Among the countless mods available, the best clothing mods for Skyrim truly stand out as they bring a whole new level of immersion, beauty, and practicality to the game. Throughout this exploration of the top clothing mods for Skyrim, we have witnessed the ingenuity and creativity of the Modding community. From the elegant and regal designs of to the weather-appropriate and realistic outfits of these mods go beyond merely changing the appearance of characters. They add depth and authenticity to the game's atmosphere, making it feel more like a living, breathing world. "Immersive Armors" "Winter is Coming," The introduction of advanced physics with mods like and has revolutionized the way clothing behaves in the game. The realistic movement and interaction of garments with the environment make the characters feel more lifelike and believable. Players are now able to witness the swaying of capes in the wind or the flow of skirts as characters move, creating a more immersive and visually appealing experience. "HDT Physics Extensions" "Cloaks of Skyrim" Additionally, the inclusion of practical and functional clothing mods such as "Bandolier: Bags and Pouches" and "Warmonger Armory" not only adds to the realism but also enhances the gameplay. These mods provide the player with storage options, allowing them to carry more items, and offer a wider selection of gear, enabling more strategic approaches to combat and exploration. Furthermore, the versatility and customization options that the "Apachii Divine Elegance Store" brings to the table are unmatched. With an extensive variety of outfits and accessories, players can truly define their characters' style and persona. This mod has expanded the role-playing aspect of Skyrim, allowing players to embody their characters fully and express their unique personalities. The and mods have addressed the long-standing issue of gender representation in Skyrim. These mods provide female characters with armor and clothing designs that are both practical and stylish, avoiding the impractical and sexualized portrayals that were prevalent in the base game. This focus on inclusivity and authenticity is an essential step forward for the modding community and the gaming industry as a whole. "UNP Female Armors" "UNP Minidresses Collection" However, it’s worth mentioning that mods do come with potential drawbacks. The installation and management of multiple mods can be a daunting task for less tech-savvy players, and conflicts between different mods can lead to crashes. Additionally, as the game continues to receive official updates from the developers, some mods may become incompatible or require constant updates to remain functional, which can be frustrating for players who heavily rely on them. Final Thoughts In conclusion, the best clothing mods for Skyrim have significantly enriched the game, pushing the boundaries of what players can experience in this epic fantasy world. From awe-inspiring armors to practical clothing options and diverse styles, these mods have transformed the way we perceive and engage with the game. The dedication and talent of the modding community continue to impress, making Skyrim a timeless masterpiece that evolves with the creative minds of its players. Whether you seek a more immersive role-playing experience, enhanced aesthetics, or practical gear for your adventures, the world of Skyrim modding has something to offer every player. As we eagerly await future developments and expansions, the clothing mods discussed here will undoubtedly remain as some of the most outstanding contributions to the Skyrim modding community, leaving a lasting impact on the game's legacy for years to come.

ARMORY

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ARMORY

armory.io

51-200 employees

Since 2016

COMPANY RANKING

ARMORY

EVERGREEN INDEX #871

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