Techramblings

Hacking team software used by criminal cartels

Back in 2015, I wrote about the Hacking team data breach. Among other things, I wrote: Police departments are run for public service, Hacking Team is run for profit. Police departments are subject to independent oversight, Hacking Team is not. […} Had they been a company founded in solid morals and ethics, they wouldn’t have found themselves in this situation. Why am I picking this back up?…

Should you start a blog?

A friend recently contacted me through LinkedIn, writing: Hey!I see that you’re posting regularly to your blog, shared here on LinkedIn. I’ve been wanting to start a blog where I write about the things I learn, specifically related to my field of study (removed to protect their privacy), but I find it pretty scary. It might most of all be impostor-syndrome keeping me back. I’m afraid to show how…

State of the Blog 2021

This is the sixth year in a row where I return with a summer retrospective article. These are meant to be the summer counterpart to my end-of-year roundup series. As a result, some information will be duplicated across the two series of posts. We have all been affected by the corona virus pandemic, and I have mostly been relegated to the home office over the past fifteen months. The practical…

How to block everyone who likes a tweet on Twitter

I am a relatively active Twitter user. One of the things I do in order to keep Twitter a fairly enjoyable place, is to actively use the Block feature. I usually leave it at blocking individual users, but some tweets are simply so nasty that I don’t only want to block the user that tweeted (twote?) the tweet, but also anyone who likes it. Luckily, a site exists which lets you do that in a five…

The engineer’s estimate

-A formula for success I try to keep out of trouble at work as much as possible. I do so for many reasons, chief among them being because I far prefer being praised to being yelled at. There is a relatively simple way to achieve this; make your promises rarely and in such a fashion that you have leeway if something should go wrong, and then follow up on it.I don’t mean to say that you should be…

Calculating percentage change in Excel

If you do a lot of work in Excel, odds are you’ve needed to calculate a percentage change. Luckily, Excel does this for you quite readily if you simply apply a basic formula of (New Value - Old Value)/Old Value. There is, however, a pitfall that you’ll not get the values you expect if the cell where you’re entering the value is not set to percentage formatting. Hence, here’s a step to step way to…

One of many things I care about is improving the world around me. That is why I’m a union representative, it’s one of the reasons why I like my job, and it’s why I raise questions to find out if there are good reasons for things being done the way they are – and to change them if there aren’t. Every so often, I’m met with arguments that aren’t really arguments at all, and which really should…

Better documented tickets are better support

Last week, I wrote about the added value that derives from writing longer answers when it comes to giving support. This week’s post is a corollary to that; writing more detailed tickets when sending them on through the tiers is also better support. I like the Kepner-Tregoe red card for these situations. It provides a structure within which to provide information to other tiers. In case you’re…

Longer answers are better support

When working tech support, it is often tempting to give short answers to a ticket, in order to get on to the next ticket. This tendency is particularly problematic when responding in the negative to a request. Though understandable, we should fight this tendency. I have three specific reasons why it’s important, but I would also like to note that this is closely linked to Continual Service…

Reviewed: Horizon: Zero Dawn

One of the PS4-games I picked up relatively early, was Horizon: Zero Dawn. I loved the aesthetic of the trailer, and hoped I’d find it enjoyable. Here are my thoughts: Game: Horizon: Zero DawnPublisher: Guerrilla GamesPlatform: Playstation 4 (also available on Microsoft Windows)Genre: Action RPG In Horizon: Zero Dawn you play Aloy, a young girl outcast from the tribes of the Nora in a…

Unlock your iPhone while wearing a mask

Like many people, I have gone from not having any face masks other than PPE for chemical exposure to having a small collection of the things for use when I’m out and about. That’s all well and good, but wearing them means that I have to use my code to unlock my iPhone, which gets annoying.With the release of iOS 14.5, Apple has implemented functionality to allow you to unlock your iPhone while…

Creating habits to separate work-time from off-time

Since March of last year I have, for the most part, been working from home. While we were able to work out the kinks in keeping connected to the rest of the team relatively quickly, I’ve found shutting off work-mode to be a bit harder. I find myself wanting to check stuff in the evenings, working longer days (and not just because the work needs to get done), and generally being mentally “at…

Tools for account evaluation on Twitter

I am a relatively active Twitter user, and enjoy the many discussions I have with people of varied points of view and experiences on the site. One of the things I don’t enjoy, is the inevitable trolls and bots. Luckily, there are a number of tools out there that evaluates an account or tweet. I have found the following to be particularly useful: Bot SentinelBot Sentinel rates accounts from…

DohPro – Renaming GoPro video files quickly

A few years ago, I wrote about the workflow I have for video editing. One thing I did not touch upon was the fact that a not insignificant amount of my raw footage comes from GoPro cameras. As anyone who has used GoPro cameras will be able to tell you, the file naming convention they use is annoying as heck. As it turns out, I’m not the only one to be annoyed about this. One of the people so…

Reviewed: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

I have had a Playstation 4 ever since we last moved. While it doesn’t see daily use by any stretch of the imagination, it gets used from time to time. I saw people gushing about Jedi: Fallen Order, and decided to pick it up. Here are my thoughts. Game: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen OrderPublisher: EA GamesPlatform: Playstation 4 (also available on XBox One, Microsoft Windows, and Stadia)Genre:…

iOS: Print to PDF from Safari

Safari on iOS lets you screenshot a full website as a PDF. With the judicious use of reader mode, you can also remove extraneous content making these screenshots more useful. Here’s how: Take a screenshot of the page as you normally would, using the Power and Volume Up button (or Power and Home button for iOS devices with a home button)Tap the screenshot popping up in the bottom left corner of…

iOS: Using reader mode in Safari

One of the features in Safari that I use a fair amount is called reader mode. Simply put, it strips an article of extraneous content (such as ads), and allows me to focus on the article itself. Here’s how you use it: In Safari, click the AA iconSelect “Show Reader View” It makes a good bit of difference to the appearance of the article, and I’ve found it helps when you print an article to PDF,…