Category: Uncategorized
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Dickens Had It Right…
Ok, not about everything… It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… This is certainly one of the most familiar opening lines of any book written since Genesis (which, it should be noted, was not a book at all). The opening sentence from A Tale of Two Cities can certainly describe…
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ChargeTech Deals
As you know, I have worked closely with the team at ChargeTech recently to tell you about some of their products. Well it may be a little late, but they sent me a Black Friday / Cyber Monday coupon for you to use to get incredible deals off their Portable Power Outlet! From now until…
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BYOD: A Fairy Tale
Recently I wrote an article called Free Will… about people using their computers as they want. I mentioned I had written a piece that was to be my introduction to a presentation I was going to do on BYOD, and I promised I would look for it. I found it, and here it is. I…
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Free Will…
I am in Montreal this week, working on a friend’s computer. After twelve incredible years of service, the laptop is being replaced. But before that happens I must transfer the data to his new computer… a task made infinitely more difficult by the utter and complete infestation of his computer with malware. Aside from being…
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Canadian Politics…
A month ago I sat down with my Member of Parliament, the Honourable Karina Gould. Ms. Gould is a member of the Liberal Party, and is a very nice young lady who despite knowing I did not vote for her was happy to meet with me and listen to my issues. I should mention that…
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Applying Hockey Rules to Elections…
In hockey, before a face-off, if the two players can’t settle down and play nice the referee kicks them both out of the circle and the teams have to send two different players to start the play again. Who thinks it would be a good idea for someone to tell Hillary and Donald to skate…
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With the American Elections Coming…
For all Americans who say they will move to Canada if one or the other jackass wins the election: 1) The War of 1812 we kicked your asses. 2) You had better be prepared to know and understand our geography. 3) Learn Metric. 4) it is important for the gorgeous women to understand that in…
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Single Sign-On Woes
I love the idea of Single Sign-On. The fact that I can use a single set of credentials when I log on to my laptop, and then not have to keep entering passwords for subsequent actions, is in theory a great idea. However there are four ‘great ideas’ that, when combined (as they so often…
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Why I Need to Be Escalated…
I got a message from a faithful reader yesterday pointing out in rather interesting terms that I have not been posting as much as I should. Sorry about that! –MDG — Recently I noticed that a ticketing system that my client uses was taking an unusually long time to apply updates. Every month it would…
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Work from Anywhere: The gold standard PPO
There are days when I love being a blogger. A few days after I published my recent article on the ChargeTech ThinCharge case for the iPhone 6, I got an e-mail from the company telling me that they wanted me to try another one of their products, the Portable Power Outlet. They shipped it off…
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I’m Back!
As many of you know I left Microsoft to pursue other adventures when I did my first gig with Rakuten in the fall of 2013. The plan was, according to the managers I spoke with, for me to return to Microsoft when I got back from Japan. That obviously did not happen. I will not…
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Keep it in Your Pocket…
Here’s a tip for travelers going through Airport Security: you are going babe asked to empty your pockets … Everything, including wallet and car keys and passport. It all has to go in one of those plastic bins. Lots of coins? Put em in da bin. Matches? Bin em. You also have to take off…
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Since When…?
Those of us who have been in the IT industry for a while remember the heady days of never having to reboot a server… otherwise known as ‘The days before Windows Server.’ Those days are long gone, and even non-Windows servers need to be patched and restarted. But how do you know when it last happened?…
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Smartphone Etiquette
I have often heard discussions on how rude it is to pull out your smartphone during meetings, during meals, and so on. Personally I am against it, but I understand where there may be mitigating circumstances – sick parents or sick children for example. With that said, there are a lot of people who will…
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A Day In The Life? How about a cycle?
I recently performed an IT Infrastructure audit on behalf of a company in Canada. The client was basically satisfied with what I gave them, but wanted me to elaborate on something. “Mitch, what do you mean when you say we should fully document our processes? What processes? How do we even start? Now, as a…
The World According to Mitch 