Five indispensable gadgets I use in my home office

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but I love gadgets. There has been a time in my life I accidentally landed with some surplus money, and while many people wiser than me would probably have invested said money in mutual bonds or stock portfolios, I invested in gadgets. One of those was the worst gadget I’ve ever bought – a set-top DVD burner.… Read More »Five indispensable gadgets I use in my home office
Microsoft Regional Director

I’m renewed as Microsoft Regional Director

I received great and satisfying news in early May – I am renewed as a Microsoft Regional Director for another two years (2019-2021)! It’s my second term, as I was initially nominated and accepted to this elite group of people in 2017. Microsoft Regional Directors (RDs) are trusted advisors, but we do not work for Microsoft. I think this is important to mention, as sometimes… Read More »I’m renewed as Microsoft Regional Director

Is it worth going to large, international tech conferences anymore?

Hello from Seattle! This week I am attending Microsoft Build 2019. The weather is nice, as opposed to all the previous times I have been in Seattle during the past 20 years. Note: I wrote compact recaps from all three keynotes from Build – you can view them here (Vision Keynote, Azure Keynote, Microsoft 365 Keynote). For me to get to Seattle it’s a tedious… Read More »Is it worth going to large, international tech conferences anymore?
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Windows 10 19H1 (1903) update: Top 5 new features

I’ve loved – and yes, I really mean it – Windows 10 since it became available back in 2015. I run Windows 10 on all three of my main machines – two laptops and one beefy workstation, and use this setup for rotating updates when major releases become available. You can check out my thoughts from the 2018 update exactly one year ago here. The… Read More »Windows 10 19H1 (1903) update: Top 5 new features
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[Updated] Making Remote Desktop fun again: Dynamic resizing and resolution changes while connected

[Note: Some things have changed with RDP in recent Windows versions so I updated this article accordingly in April, 2019] I remember reading about this feature when Windows 8.1 was made generally available in late 2013, but I didn’t have time then to try this out. Today while being connected to my home server to do some development work I decided to test if the… Read More »[Updated] Making Remote Desktop fun again: Dynamic resizing and resolution changes while connected
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…But I like email!

People – and consultants, a bit like myself – often tell unequivocally on social media and through flashy PowerPoints that email is dead. You must move on. Slack and Microsoft Teams and similar enterprise social tools are the future – a modern way for collaboration and that’s where real work happens now. Okay. I understand all that. I’ve done my fair share of billable work… Read More »…But I like email!
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Mastering Azure CLI

  • Azure
I grew up with Perl, tcsh, bash, sh, awk, sed, grep, pico, vi, command.com and cmd.exe. Building scripts, batch files and little automations here and there was the norm for me and many others of that era. I’m especially proud for a set of .BAT files and VBScripts that connected to one of the very first Logitech USB webcams to retrieve a near real-time image… Read More »Mastering Azure CLI
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Anonymizing and masking sensitive data in SQL databases before migrating to Azure SQL

Many companies I interact with have expressed an interest in migrating their legacy SQL Server databases to Azure. Typically this is due to End of Life for SQL Server 2008 (and 2008 R2) and other times it’s a desire to perform reporting and analytics on existing data in the cloud. (I wrote about migrating to Azure SQL previously here) Mostly this is all documented nicely… Read More »Anonymizing and masking sensitive data in SQL databases before migrating to Azure SQL
Photo by Greg Bakker @gregbakker / Unsplash.com

Be better – or how to consistently succeed as a techie

I’ve had this post — or rather just the title — in my blog as a draft for over a year. Today, I decided it’s time to put my money where my mouth by writing it and making it public. First, some clarification. My intention is not to brag about my professional career. My intention is to provide useful guidance I’ve learned during the course… Read More »Be better – or how to consistently succeed as a techie