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Numberwang (all videos)
VMware WorkspaceONE Notifications are a crime against productivity
VMware’s WorkspaceOne has an annoying feature on macOS where every time it does an update you get a notification. This steals my cursor, interrupts my work, and breaks my concentration.
read moreCommonly misused business metaphors
I keep hearing people misuse metaphors, or say them incorrectly. Here’s a list of them.
I’m considering building a website that lists metaphors and their correct use. In the meanwhile, this blog post will have to do.
read moreVim n.n.n.n.n.n.
What does “n.n.n.n.” do in Vim?
read moreHBO's Integration Test Email
You’ve probably read about HBO’s ‘Integration Test’ Email. Just what is an “Integration test”?
read moreDisability Advice
Years ago a co-worker noticed something about our company’s disability policy.
read moreTodoist: First impressions
I’m considering switching to Todoist. Here are my notes as I try to use the techniques in Time Management for System Administrators which are collectively called The Cycle.
read moreI no longer answer customer support surveys
I no longer fill out customer support surveys.
read moreFake panic: How to get customer support to listen
Do you WANT to get paid?
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Stack Overflow Is Hiring Azure SREs
Looking for SRE’s with experience in the Microsoft stack!
read moreISPs Against Fast Internet
This is my webpage for tracking teleco executives trying to ruin the internet.
read moreMy Connection to Alexander Hamilton
Thanks to my MIL’s exhaustive genealogy research, I can now say with certainty that my house was built by Alexander Hamilton’s wife’s third cousin twice removed.
read moreDear Sen. Joe Manchin
Dear Senator Joe Manchin,
read moreShould I run for Governor?
Here’s my thinking…
read moreMy response to the anti-Brexit people
To the person on Redit who called the Brexit plan obviously poorly concocted.
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What Is Yak Shaving?
What is yak shaving?
read moreGOP attempt to add a 'January Exception' to the constitution fails
An attempt to add a “January Exception” to the U.S. constitution failed yesterday as GOP leaders could not muster enough votes to pass their bill. The 44-to-56 vote was a major victory for constitutional originalism, law and order, and other concepts that the GOP used to believe in.
“I’m disappointed in the result.” said Joe Embez, “How could I be convicted of stealing from my employer when I don’t work there any more?” said Joe Embez, who’s embezzlement trial begins next week. Joe stole $5 million dollars from his employer before quitting five days later.
read moreHow should SaaS providers charge for training?
The other day a vendor added $6k of “training” to my quote. Here’s how insulting that is.
read moreBimodal Politics
Politics in the U.S. is bimodal.
read morePrepare for the worst: Part 1, WW1 and Germany
Copied from Facebook. Not written by me. I’ll have commentary later this week.
read moreIt Was Trump, Not Antifa
Dear friends of mine who support Trump:
Your “it was Antifa” claims have all been disproven, but it did buy you an additional 12-24 hours to come up with some other cover.
Good job! Your strategy worked! …but not for long!
read morePowerShell and NAPTR DNS records: Part 2
I think I’ve identified the bug in PowerShell’s handling of NAPTR records.
read morePowerShell and NAPTR DNS records. Help!
I can’t figure out how to
read moreAdd-orRemove-an NAPTR record using PowerShell’s DnsServer module. Can you?Canon Imageclass Scanning to Gmail
Configuring my new Canon printer to scan to gmail was a bit tricky.
read moreSchools should teach more statistics, less calculus
Why don’t (most) public schools teach statistics?
read moreDie Hard is anti-American propaganda
[NOTE: This is a rough draft of a rant.]
Is “Die Hard” a Christmas film? Who cares!
Die Hard is anti-American propaganda. It is full of lies that give people the impression that the U.S. government can’t do anything right. Anyone raised seeing that movie will grow up with misconceptions about the government that are harmful to our society.
read moreLauren Gunderson's advice to actors
When I read this acting advice by Lauren Gunderson it dawned on me how powerful it would be if every tech conference speaker applied it to their talks. Change her word “scene” to “slide” (or section) and it mostly fits.
read moreThe long road to publishing a scientific paper
Here’s an infographic from Kathryn M. Everson.
I didn’t write it, but I want to make it available outside of social media where it is hard to surface. (I hope she doesn’t mind.)
What I love about this is that it explains that real science is slow and takes time. Hollywood movies portray science as a series of overnight miracles; Star Trek shows Jordi inventing entire new categories of science by the end of a 60-minute episode. Real science takes years. Real science is boring 99.99 percent of the time, punctuated by amazing discoveries. Real scientists are underpaid and over-worked.
Having a youtube channel is unrelated to someone’s qualifications.
read moreBillionaires Shouldn't Exist
Here’s a meme that I collected from social media. I didn’t write it, but I thought I’d make it accessible here.
read moreEvading or leveraging macOS's DNS mucking
There are times when macOS mucks with DNS lookups. For example, a corporate VPN client might tell macOS that DNS lookups for certain domains (i.e. domains inside the company) are to be handled differently.
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