The Background From the outset, Apple's HomeKit intrigued me. Over the years we have gradually become great fans of the Apple ecosystem, always appreciating the level of quality and smoothness that they bring to their products. Also, I was just very excited about the smart home trend in general and the possibilities that it brought.... Continue Reading →
My Work From Home Tips
We live in an interesting time where businesses have suddenly been forced into a remote work model in order to stay profitable during the COVID-19 crisis. Because of this, many people have now been thrown into a work from home situation (whether it's something they wanted or not). I've worked from home on and off... Continue Reading →
My Journey to Better Privacy (Part 6: Conclusions)
Introduction Over the last few months I have been on a journey to better privacy. During that time I've gone over search, browsers, social networks/messaging, digital assistants, and email. This is not an exhaustive list of all the areas where online privacy is concerned, but it's the primary ones that had not yet been addressed... Continue Reading →
My Journey to Better Privacy (Part 5: Email)
Updated 02/28/2020 Introduction If you've been following along, then you know I'm on a quest to increase privacy across my digital life. The next stop on that journey is email. This system of communication has become so ubiquitous that we hardly give it much thought. We communicate over it with service providers, friends/family, random blogs,... Continue Reading →
My Journey to Better Privacy (Part 4: Digital Assistants)
Intro Since the time I was a child the idea of robotics and automation has appealed to me. When digital assistants started to hit the scene I was stoked. I imagined myself controlling my home like Tony Stark with Jarvis. I tried to hold out for a good Siri solution, knowing that Apple makes quality... Continue Reading →
Getting Started As A SQL Server Professional
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 →