I'll never forget when I first started working with SQL Server. After the initial excitement of diving into something new I launched SSMS and then just sat there looking at a blank query window, with no idea what to do next. I see a lot of questions online regarding how to get started as a... Continue Reading →
My Journey to Better Privacy (Part 3: Social Networks and Messaging)
Intro I'm on a journey to improve my online privacy. Search engines and web browsers have already been covered in previous posts. What discussion on this topic would be complete without Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc)? I'm also going to include messaging along with them because they often go hand in hand (ie Facebook... Continue Reading →
My Journey to Better Privacy (Part 2: Browsers)
TLDR My Recommendation: Firefox, with the extensions HTTPS Everywhere, uBlock Origin, Firefox Multi-Account Containers, and Cookie AutoDeletePrivacy Simplified: If you just want privacy out-of-the-box and don't care that it's based on Chromium, go with Brave.(Update 04/07/2020: I've been using Brave a lot and see great promise in it. I might do a full post about... Continue Reading →
Administering Azure from PowerShell Core
Introduction Not long ago Microsoft proclaimed to us that they love Linux. And while many remain skeptical of that assertion (and not without reason), the tech giant is continually pouring more time and resources into the open source world. One of the really exciting products of this (to me at least) is PowerShell Core. Not... Continue Reading →
My Journey to Better Privacy (Part 1: Search)
Introduction The subject of privacy, for me, is one I've been more or less dodging for a long time. It's something I feel strongly about. I make half-hearted attempts at improving it now and then. But overall I've mostly let it go by the wayside. It's really easy to retweet statements by privacy-focused groups or... Continue Reading →
My First Mobile App
Over the last several months I've been on a journey to a) learn Swift and b) create my very first mobile application. And I'm proud to announce that it is complete! Named "The Simple Workout", it is exactly that. Just a simple, randomized workout using bodyweight exercises. It's based loosely on the card deck workout,... Continue Reading →
App Privacy Policy
Privacy Notice This privacy notice discloses the privacy practices for apps developed by me. Information Collection, Use, and Sharing Data is not collected, used, or shared. Your Access and My Security Measures No data is collected, therefore no access or security is needed.
Life in the Key of E
Many years ago, sometime during high school, I set out to learn guitar. This was in the days before YouTube, so all I had to work with was an antique book of my dad's. Utilizing that, and eventually the internet, I picked up four or five chords and was feeling pretty good about myself. E... Continue Reading →
Quickly Copy AD Group Memberships To A New User
I recently moved into a new role and needed to to be added to a number of AD groups. An often-used method for this is to model a new employee's permissions after someone already in the same role. For one or two groups it is relatively simple to just do this manually, but as you... Continue Reading →
SQL Server “Failed to open loopback connection”
TLDR: If you have the SQL Browser Service disabled then you must also have Shared Memory enabled, otherwise SQL Server can't communicate with itself. While setting up a sandbox Always On Availability Group cluster recently I ran into some unexpected behavior. The first sign of problems was that SQL Agent would not start. The service... Continue Reading →