A number of people I know have asked me why I feel so strongly about particular tech issues that I feel compelled to take action. A number of those people have also informed me that my practice of maintaining a ban list of companies and products that I refuse to patron is objectionable to them. They don’t always say it directly, but once you get used to hearing it implied, it becomes easy enough to recognize it. ...
Earlier this year in January, Google publicly toyed with making some changes to its Extension WebRequest API that would effectively kill off reputable ad-blockers. This announcement was met with much sound and fury and Google appeared to fold after a few weeks of controversy and a bit of research on the part of the community. However all of this ultimately signified nothing as Google announced plans to move forward with nearly the exact same plan this week. ...
So for this month’s blog post, I’ve decided to tackle a bit of tech drama that has been brewing for awhile. In case you didn’t know, the Chinese telecom/tech company Huawei has been repeatedly accused by the US government of spying on their customers at the behest of the Chinese government. No supporting evidence has been released to the public. Despite this lack of evidence, this week the Trump Administration has banned Huawei from doing business with any US based entity using an executive order. ...
In today’s irregularly scheduled pontification, I’m going to be addressing a subject that I have been personally struggling with for the majority of my career. When it comes to expectations in software development, I have recently realized that holding oneself to insane standards is not only ill-advised but potentially career ending. If you are a regular reader (which is impossible as I’m never going to be a regular poster) then you have likely already figured out that I am a software developer on the verge of burnout. I’ve been tip toeing along the edge of that chasm for the last five or six years now. In response I have been exploring a variety of possible solutions to the problem. For the most part these solutions have proven to be nothing more than temporary band-aids. Given enough time I always end up longingly gazing into that chasm of ill-repute where ex-software developers congregate. ...
Over the last few years I have chronicled my struggle to maintain my privacy while maintaining an effective online presence. If you are an avid reader, you know that I believe that I am fighting a losing battle. Today marks the beginning of a new chapter as I have finally realized that most people just don’t care and nothing that you or I can do will ever be enough to make them care. ...
People who know me and talk with me, know I’ve been making this claim for years. That means that this post has been years in the making. That is true both in terms of the argument I’m about to make and in the actions Microsoft has taken to create the situation. The reality is that if I had made this argument ten years ago, most people would’ve laughed and stopped reading by the end of the first paragraph. ...
This post is really going to be just a random collection of random updates and thoughts. If you are looking for an overarching theme, I’m sorry to disappoint but there isn’t one. Nevertheless, this might be worth reading anyway. Your call. So yesterday was a painful and stressful but ultimately fruitful day for me in terms of tech. You see I received the parts required to complete my small server project. By some miracle Fedex delivered the parts early in the morning rather than later, so I ended up spending a huge portion of my day on this. However since this final server was meant to act as my file/print server, I decided to deviate a bit and buy a CloudShell2 NAS case for the ODroid XU4Q SBC (Single Board Computer). What a mistake that turned out to be. As it’s first order of business the embedded RAID Controller decided to mirror my backup drive onto my live drive despite the fact I had configured the jumpers to turn off RAID in favor of presenting the two six terabyte drives as separate volumes. ...
So as I’m sure my readers have noticed, the rate at which I’ve been producing content here has slowed. The reason for that is simple: I don’t have as much to say as of late. However I have been saving up yet another classic rant and today I’m ready to unleash it upon you all. Proprietary Software is a plague and today I’m going to explain why. Before I get going I want to address the elephant in the room. I’ve spent my entire career writing proprietary software, haven’t I? Yes I have. I am part of the problem. However because I’ve spent the vast majority of my career writing custom software for clients which is used internally, I am able to absolve myself of most of this. The reality is that when I write custom software for a client the ultimate choice of whether or not that software is distributed and under what license it’s distributed is up to them. For the most part these are internal tools, and distribution isn’t even a factor. In addition my clients retain full rights to the source code I produce. It belongs to them, not me. In that situation the client ultimately maintains the control and power that will benefit their business in the long run. ...
So I’ve taken a bit of a break from writing over the last few weeks. Honestly while I kind of needed one, the reality is that I also didn’t really have anything interesting to say. Nevertheless, I’m back and I’ve decided that I’d like to spend a few minutes convincing you that the world’s most popular operating system, Android, is a steaming pile of dung. I can already hear you saying, “Oh no here comes another pro Apple diatribe.” But let me put your fears to rest and tell you up front that I’m not planning on pushing iOS as an alternative as I believe that it is also a steaming pile of dung. ...
Late last year I reiterated some principles which I intended to keep in mind for the year of 2018. More than six months into the year, I thought it would be good to publicly reflect on how all of that has been going. If you’ll recall, there were three principles. I’m going to go through each of them one by one and enumerate my progress and setbacks. If you haven’t read it yet, you might want to take the time to read my original post “Notable Principles for 2018” before continuing. ...