As much as we might want to prevent them by policies, odds are that a shared user account will be created at some point. In order to mitigate the potential issues with such accounts (lack of accountability, lack of control, account available to just about anyone to mention a few), there are a number of steps we can take, including limiting what network shares can be accessed, logon hours, and what computers the account may log on to. By default, user accounts can log on to all computers in Active Directory. This can be limited on a per-user basis. Here is how: (more…)
Blog
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BitLocker hangs during encryption of drive
There is an encryption policy in effect, limiting writing to flash drives to those drives that are encrypted with BitLocker. From time to time, a user will call in, reporting that the encryption process has stalled, and does not seem to want to continue. Invariably, this occurs on drives that already contain data, and the encryption stalls when the process starts encountering actual data. A workaround is easy enough to enact, if a bit fiddly. Here’s how: (more…)
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On gender identity and power of definition
Some time ago, one of my friends posted a link to an article called “6 Reasons Why Being Called a Cis Person Is Not ‘Oppressive’“, which made me think. In general, I think that the author is getting things mostly right, but their conclusion seems to me to be off the mark, and badly so. I will freely admit that I am of two minds here. One part of me is “well, cisgender is not hate speech”, whereas the other part is “offense is defined, not by the offender, but by the person who is being offended”. I would like to expand on that.
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Countering a YouTube copyright claim
When I edit videos, I keep meticulous notes on where any third party content comes from, and note it in the description of my video. Even so, I have had copyright claims made against my videos, mostly regarding the music I use. These claims can be obnoxious, though I don’t necessarily agree that there’s any merit to claims that they are scams. At any rate, when a claim is made, you need to file a dispute, detailing where the music is sourced from.
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An alert for old posts
As some of you may have noticed, my old posts now feature the following notice:
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Revoking access to your Google account
To transfer notes from GMail to Google Keep as demonstrated last week, I had to grant access to my Google account to a third-party application. While I was happy to do so to accomplish what I wanted, once that had been done, I no longer saw any value (and indeed quite a bit of inherent risk) in allowing the application continued access. Call me paranoid if you wish, but I prefer it that as few people as possible have access to my accounts. Luckily, revoking access is simply achieved: (more…)
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Transferring notes from GMail to Google Keep
While I have a number of software tools that I use and like, I do like trying out alternatives. Sometimes the alternatives supercede the tool I used to use, sometimes I revert to the old tool, and sometimes I go forward using both. Back in November, I started using Google Keep, wanting to see if it did what I needed it for. The first thing I noticed, was that there was no way for me to import stuff from my GMail, where a number of my notes were stored. Luckily, the internet had the answer – simply install a plugin in Google Chrome and run the import. Here are the detailed instructions, by Jimmy Patrick on Quora: (more…)
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Newly created folder does not show in Outlook
A user called in, complaining that they were unable to create a new folder in a shared mailbox. The error message they got indicated that the folder already existed. I started troubleshooting the issue, and it transpired that they had created the folder already, though it did not show up. I tried a number of fixes, including restarting Outlook, removing the mailbox from account settings, and even deleting their mail profile altogether. It was this last attempt that would lead me to the correct solution.
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How I blog – software
A few weeks ago, I wrote about my process around blogging, and how I get from ideas in my head to finished posts. A reader emailed me, asking what software I use, other than WordPress. The truth is, I don’t use a single piece of software, for a number of reasons. First, different software serve different purposes. Second, not all the software I use run on all platforms (I use both Windows and Mac, as well as using my iPhone for notes. The result is a rather messy collection of software and storage formats: (more…)
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My posting schedule
Constraints that liberate
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How I blog
I write words into WordPress and set a date to schedule them for publishing. End of story, right? Well, not quite.