Over my years as a software developer I have on occasion stopped and asked myself, “What exactly is the point?” I realize that on the surface that sounds a bit depressing, but you have to recognize that over the last forty years virtually every type of program you can think of has already been written. Sure there are a handful of exceptions, but generally most of us aren’t doing anything particularly new. ...
This morning I felt like writing a piece about a subject that is very near and dear to my heart: Net Neutrality. Though as I started I got a feeling of Deja Vu. Oh wait. I already wrote that post, didn’t I? After taking some time to reread it, I’m pretty satisfied with the position I outlined there with the exception of the last couple sentences. So with that in mind, it’s only fair to start this post off with a correction. Tom Wheeler was probably the best thing to ever happen to the FCC. When Obama appointed him, it appeared that he was just going to play the role of yet another industry lobbyist traversing his way through the revolving door of public “service” and I assumed as much. I could not have been more wrong. In this case, that thrills me to no end. Wheeler came down on the right side of Net Neutrality and fought hard to give us all exactly what we needed. He did his job and he did it to the best of his ability. ...
I recently discovered that a virtual Windows server I was running had been hacked. I was being paid to run it as part of an arrangement with a long time client of mine. This server ran Windows Server 2008 R2 and though it was rarely used, it was configured to automatically update when required. The only service it exposed to the internet was RDP over TCP/IP port 3392 instead of the default 3389. ...
This morning I want to talk about something that isn’t quite so serious. I want to talk about the state of video gaming. For those of you who don’t know, I’m a pretty big gamer. I’ve been gaming for over thirty years. I started off on an Apple IIe, Atari 2600 and Colecovision. Yeah I definitely had a blessed childhood. Joking aside, I’m still gaming 32 years later. The platforms and economic drivers have changed but my addiction hobby remains largely intact. Today my primary gaming platforms are x86 Linux, RetroPie and the Playstation 4. Rather than playing twitchy arcade games and adventure games like I used to, I spend most of my time playing single player Role Playing Games, Retro games and Indie games. ...
Yesterday was a red letter day for me. Two decades after using Linux for the first time, I have finally managed to fully convert all of daily driver devices to boot Linux. Any of you who know me, know that for years now I’ve been running Linux natively and in a single boot configuration on whatever primary personal laptop I happened to be using at the time. You might also know that just over a year ago I managed to get my wife using it on her laptop. But I never fully converted to Linux. My dirty little secret was that for years I have run a desktop as my so-called server and that desktop has always run Windows. Once upon a time I even went so far as to run some version of Windows Server on there, but in the last few years it was dialed back to just running client versions of Windows. ...
The other day I got asked by my boss’ boss to share the “secret sauce” behind my productivity at work. This was an odd moment for me as over the last 17 years of my of professional life, nobody has ever asked me to do that. But it did get me thinking about it and that has led to me making a few notes on the subject that I’ve decided to share with the world. ...
The day has finally come. Today I have been forced to dissolve my relationship with Facebook. Why? In a single word: CISA. In a nutshell CISA is a piece of legislation that allows companies like Facebook to more freely share customer data with the government. All data shared with the government (DHS) under the auspices of this law is automatically shared with the FBI and the NSA. Even more importantly, customers have no recourse against this data sharing as the corporations in question will be immune to lawsuits which touch upon activities covered by it and the process itself is specifically exempted from the Freedom of Information Act. ...
As many of you know, I self identify as a retro and an indie gamer. That pretty much means that for the most part, I don’t play many of the modern AAA games out there. Of course as a retro gamer, one must avoid going full hipster (otherwise known as asshole) by at least acknowledging that the retro games of today were once the AAA games of yesterday. As I revealed in my Kryoflux article awhile back, I began collecting physical versions of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Goldbox games from SSI. Today that quest has finally come to an end as I have finally acquired the final game and completed my collection. Prior to obtaining a Kryoflux unit, I wasn’t into collecting physical games with the exception of the original boxed edition of Planescape Torment that I acquired at one point. However once I started acquiring Goldbox games, I really wanted to complete the set. It didn’t take too long to get most of them, though acquiring the final one not only took some time, but it also cost me more than all of the others combined. ...
Anybody who knows me professionally, knows that I despise Microsofts Internet Explorer web browser. What they probably don’t know is why I despise it. Most people likely assume that because I’m a Penguin, I’m also an Internet Explorer hater. The two do tend to go hand in hand. However nothing could be further from the truth. I use Linux a great deal on my own time, but professionally I tend to spend most of my time with Windows. I have a healthy respect for Microsoft products and techs such as Windows Server, IIS and .NET. This respect does not extend to Internet Explorer. The purpose of this post is to explain why that is. ...
So as some of you know, I tend to get a new laptop every 12 to 18 months. Over the years my preferences for laptops have changed drastically however and this has been reflected by my latest purchase, a third generation Lenovo X1 Carbon ultrabook. Long gone are the days where power is king and I’d tolerate any inconvenience to get it. There are a number of reasons for this, the most prominent of which I hope to address as part of this post. ...