Thoughts on many things

  • Use browser profiles for more efficient operations

    One of the complicating factors of my job is that I need to use the same tools, with different user credentials, often at the same time. For example, most of the companies I and my colleagues support use services that have some sort of integration with Microsoft Azure. As a result, I need to log…

  • Hide recipients in Outlook meeting bookings

    Like so many of you, I arrange a fair number of meetings for various purposes. Among these are the ones I arrange for the members of my union local in my capacity as its head. Now, EU – and thus also Norwegian – data protection law clearly categorizes union membership as one of the numerous…

  • Free text search in ADUC

    A critical component to successfully closing a lot of the tickets I handle at work is the ability to search for – and find – Active Directory User, Computer, and Group objects. In about eight of ten instances, I’m able to do so using the standard search types (searching for Users, Contacts, and Groups or…

  • Use a password manager

    Like so many other technologies, IT – Information Technology – has the potential to make a substantive difference in our lives. Sometimes it offers something entirely new, something it reinvents something that may or may not need reinventing in the first place, and sometimes it solves an issue created by IT in the first place.…

  • Low-skill recruiting requires dishonesty

    Some time ago, I wrote about how low-skill recruiting is spam – an assertion I stand by wholeheartedly. Among the expectations I have for any recruiter contacting me is that they actually read my profile, and evaluate whether it appears my skill set is applicable to the proposed position. For your edification and entertainment, I…

  • Implementing security.txt

    Two and a half months ago, I checked another item off my ever-growing todo-list; writing and uploading a security.txt-file. I honestly don’t expect it to do much of anything, but at the very least, something now exists. I think having a way to easily contact me about potential issues is important enough that I don’t…

  • A better way of finding users’ group memberships

    More than six years ago, I wrote a post, detailing how I could identify users’ Active Directory group memberships. While the method I detailed certainly works, it isn’t as simple as it might have been. Having recently found myself needing to perform that very same task again, I decided to revisit this topic, to show…

  • Favorite things in 2021

    As has become my tradition, I like to start the year off with a little look at the things that made last year better for me. This time around, it’s mostly tools. Here we go: Big Idea Design – TPT Slide The TPT Slide (Titanium Pocket Tool) is a minimalist pocket tool. At its core,…

  • 2021 roundup

    The year is very nearly over, and it is time, as I usually do, to look back at the year. Like 2020, it’s been a challenging year. Some of it is down to the Covid-pandemic which continues to plague the world, though that is certainly not the entire picture. Working, as I do, for a…

  • Pricing should be transparent

    From time to time, I see a sentence that quite simply pisses me off. What’s that sentence? “Please contact us for pricing”. It’s dismissive, it’s arrogant, and it leaves me with the impression that you are looking to get as much money as possible from any prospective clients. If all you do is customised to…

  • I love IM tools, but email isn’t going anywhere anytime soon

    I’m sure you, like me, have seen the articles over the years. They come around every so often, with headlines saying “<IM TOOL> is THE email killer”, “Death of email spelled by <IM TOOL>”, and “<GENERATION WHATEVER> says no to email, yes to <IM TOOL>”. I’ve seen these headlines for the better part of two…