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Feeling Lousy
I recently wrote a letter to someone I once considered a friend, explaining why I no longer consider him one. It was among the harder letters I have written of late. In short, he was not there for me in my hour of need. He was only one of myriad ‘friends’ who were not there…
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Why I chose the Pro.
I walked into the Microsoft Store in Yorkdale on a Wednesday evening with money to spend, and I was going to walk out with a new device. The question was… which one? A couple of months ago Microsoft announced two new devices: The Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book. The Pro4 looks a lot…
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Surface Pro 4: First impressions
I must be mellowing as I get older. When I got my Surface Pro (was it really only February of 2013 that they came out?) I was still working with Microsoft, and a colleague at the Microsoft Store in Toronto (back then there was only the one) arranged for me to get in early so…
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Make It Up…
I had to go to a walk-in clinic last week. The nurse at the front desk handed me a clipboard with some pages attached. ‘Can you please fill in your demographics then bring the forms back to me.’ Huh? ‘Your demographics! Just fill them in and give me the form back.’ According to http://www.dictionary.com, this…
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Helping Others… Helping Myself.
Many of you probably think that because I have this great blog that I am smarter than others. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is, sometimes I just research a problem that I am having until I find the solution… I blog about it, and then I usually forget about it. So…
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Another Milestone for TWAM
A few weeks ago – somewhere around the second week of November or so – this blog hit a bit of a milestone. It welcomed its 183,060th visitor of 2015. That may seem like a bit of a weird number to celebrate… but it is significant in that it is the same number of visitors…
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Brown Sugar! No, not the song or any sort of racial innuendo.
Eighteen months ago when I went to work for Yakidoo I was chastised / berated / belittled / nearly shot out of a canon for using artificial sweetener in my coffee. This could have gone any of several ways, but what I did do, partly to appease and partly because I simply didn’t feel strongly…
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Certified!
I just got an email from Microsoft Learning congratulating me on my new certifications… Windows 7 Specialist 🙂 I have not taken a Windows 7 exam in a few years, so it is nice to know they still care. I don’t know what I will do with them, but thanks!
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Are you kidding me?
I have figured out why Godzilla was able to attack Tokyo without any advance warning. It’s because everyone was going about their business, distracted… Either by cell phones or manga books or just generally ignoring their surroundings. If you haven’t met me, let me paint a picture: I am 6’2″ tall (a head taller than…
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Japan: Take 2
The best laid plans of mice… -Slartibartfast When I left Canada nearly six weeks ago it was with the promise that I would be blogging nearly every day. I said that I was going to be traveling around the country on the week-ends, I would be taking a ton of pictures, and I would be…
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Comfort Zones and Older Lessons
In 2003 I joined a small Montreal firm as their Systems Administrator. When I say small, there were four of us in the office. I had just passed my first certification exam, and I thought I was really something. Of course, I wasn’t… but I wouldn’t learn that until much later on. I say I…
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A (Mostly) Boring Trip
I really did have images of going out and having fun every night. I really planned to travel outside of Tokyo and see the country every weekend. That is not what happened. Don’t get me wrong… I have gone out for dinners, if mostly close to home. I have also been spending a lot of…
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Why We Test…
It is Friday morning in Tokyo, and there is a line out the door. If you didn’t know any better you would think that they were lined up to get an autograph from the latest pop icon. However if you look at the sign on the door it does not say ‘Tokyo Arena’ or ‘Tokyo Hilton.’…
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Kyoto is to Tokyo…
I got off the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) at Kyoto Station, which was a hustling and bustling place, just like Tokyo Marunouchi Station where I had embarked. In fact while the layout was different and so were the shops, there wasn’t all that much to differentiate this building from all of the other major ports I…
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Wireless Networks: Know your strengths!
It is not uncommon for me to hear people complain that their wireless network is not stable, is not working properly, disconnects, is slow, and just isn’t good enough. Unfortunately, unless you are a networking specialist, wireless connectivity is essentially a binary state: It works… or it doesn’t work. There are three things I ask…
The World According to Mitch
The day to day ramblings of an IT Professional (and so much more…)
The World According to Mitch 