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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…
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Kyoto: The Ancient Capital
The last time I was in Japan I did not leave Tokyo. This time I vowed would be different. Before I left Canada I bought several Japan Rail passes, and I was ready to explore. After consulting with my peeps over here, and with Simon’s help tracking down a room (it seems autumn is a…
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Five Years Of WordPress: A Celebration?
It honestly doesn’t seem like that long ago… and of course it seems like forever. Of course I have been blogging for well over a decade, but I seem to remember sometime in 2010 when Cory Fowler started telling me I should migrate my blog from Community Server over to WordPress. I was pretty happy…
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Warning: The Tax Department Is Not This Efficient!
I received what on the surface looked like a very welcome e-mail today from the Government of Canada, Specifically from the Canada Revenue Agency. Specifically, it looked like this: I was thrilled… and then I remembered that anything that looks too good to be true probably is. The e-mail address it came in from bears…
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Weekend in Tokyo… What to do! :)
Later this evening I will likely write about what I did yesterday, but today is a gorgeous sunny day, and I am heading out om the town. I am taking with me my Nikon camera, along with my 18-105mm lens, which so far I find to be the most versatile. I have not decided yet…
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Sushi & Cigars: Welcome to Japan Mitch!
No matter how you fly, getting from Toronto to Tokyo is a long flight. Sitting in the window seat of Row 62 probably makes it that much longer… especially when you are my height and size. Since Friday was going to be a regular working day for me, my real first relaxing evening would be…
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Using External Storage to Simplify Windows Installation
I have been searching for hours on how to use a SD card as a hard drive to install win10. The laptop I am trying to upgrade gives a message you need to add at least 9GB to continue. Can I use the SD card to finish the install or will it not work? I…
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Virtual Machine Snapshots: The useful tool that will drag you down.
Note: Once again I accidentally scheduled a technical article to publish on a holiday. In honour of Canadian Thanskgiving I am republishing this article on Tuesday. -MDG The Story: One of my clients called me and asked me why some of their servers were running so terribly slow. Actually, that’s not entirely true… they told…
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Lemons and Laurels
I don’t generally do this, but I had a great experience with a computer store’s service department last week… and a lousy one. I want to give credit where credit is due. Firstly I am not going to badmouth the store that treated me poorly. I was not impressed, and suffice it to say I…
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Going Away…
When I leave town for two or three days my preparation depends on two factors: How am I going (by car versus by air or train), and what will I be doing (business versus pleasure). My usual MO is to pack two bags: Clothes and sundries in one, electronics (photography and computers) in another. Depending…
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Pay Attention!
Last week I received a company wide e-mail at one of the companies that I consult for. The gist of it was that anyone whose cell phone disturbed a meeting – whether it be a ring, an alarm, a text, an e-mail – would be donating $10 (per incident) to the charity that this company…
The World According to Mitch
The day to day ramblings of an IT Professional (and so much more…)
The World According to Mitch 