I’ve used Grammarly, the semi-intelligent grammar cexcellentr, since 2019. It’s great software for fine-tuning, fixing, and re-writing your text. I’m currently at 3.4 million words checked with Grammarly, with a continuous streak of 209 weeks. I’ve written previously about Grammarly… Read More »Getting started with GrammarlyGO
I’ve slacked a bit on reading books lately. Life, in general, has been hectic, and I haven’t had a decent chance to read an excellent book. I’ve fixed that now, at least for this week, by reading the latest book… Read More »Review: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Cookbook by Sasha Kranjac (Packt Publishing)
I briefly wrote about the EU Sovereign Cloud in March of this year. Fast forward to today, and we have the official announcement from Microsoft – the EU Data Boundary is being rolled out in a phased manner from January… Read More »An early look at the EU Data Boundary
I’ve spent much of my career in Microsoft’s collaboration & modern workplace tools and services. Having started with SharePoint Team Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2001, I had over a decade of fun with both on-premises, hybrid, and cloud deployments… Read More »Back to the roots: A look at the SharePoint Architect’s Planning Guide book (Packt Publishing)
In recent years, I’ve used the Samsung Galaxy-branded earbuds reasonably actively. The latest incarnation, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro, has been excellent. The audio quality is crisp, the battery life is more than enough, and they pair and connect without… Read More »Review: Sennheiser Sport True Wireless earbuds for the gym enthusiast
About a year ago, I got the Corsair K100 opto-mechanical keyboard. You can check my previous review here. I still have it! But as my daily driver, I’ve now switched to using the Logitech MX Keys keyboard. It’s an absolute… Read More »Review: Logitech MX Keys for a typist
A little over a year ago, Microsoft updated their certifications programs’ renewal guidance and approach. I’ve written about my general experience with these renewals (see here). Generally, I like this approach: first, you complete a proper certification through an exhausting… Read More »My experience in renewing the Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification
In 2016, I was driving a nice European car. It was a regular car, nothing fancy. Then we got the idea with my brother that perhaps we could afford to buy a Tesla Model S together. This way, we’d each… Read More »Driving a Tesla: Thoughts after 5 years
When I got my most recent laptop, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 9), I was able to specify the hardware options (see my review on this laptop here). Without much thinking, I also added the human presence detection capability –… Read More »A look at the human presence detection sensor in the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 9)
I’ve used the fantastic Logitech MX Master mice at home and on the road for a few years now. The latest incarnation is the Logitech MX Master 3, which has USB-C support for charging, and a long-lasting battery. However, for… Read More »Review: Wrist-friendly work with the Logitech MX Ergo trackball mouse
Last year, I used a corporate-assigned Microsoft Surface Book 2 as my main productivity laptop. I wanted to separate my work and personal stuff, though, so I got myself a Lenovo ThinkPad T480 about two years ago. I did a… Read More »Review: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 9), the 2021 model
Last week, Windows 365 became available as part of Microsoft 365. It’s a “cloud PC” service – essentially providing a dedicated workstation (as a virtual machine) in Microsoft 365 for a fixed monthly fee. I activated the trial as I… Read More »A look at Windows 365 – the Cloud PC service
For the past decade or so, I’ve worked from my home office. Obviously, I had an office, but I’d work from home whenever I had a chance. But, then, for the past two years or so, I have not had… Read More »Quick review: Elgato Wave Panels for acoustic treatment of the home office
I’m building a new home network, which for me means upgrading certain hardware, and acquiring new hardware over time. The far-reaching plan is to build a solid 10 Gigabit Ethernet-based network, with guest WiFi, proper VLANs, and the ability to… Read More »Review: Ubiquiti Networks’ Unifi Dream Machine Pro (UDM-Pro) in a home network
About a month ago, I decided to remove all Google Analytics tracking, telemetry, and analytics from this site. Initially, I started using GA years ago, when I wanted to see what kind of content seems interesting for my audience, and… Read More »A practical look at using Cloudflare to protect and optimize my site
Today I’ll take a closer look at the Corsair K100 opto-mechanical keyboard. It’s now my main keyboard, replacing my previous Corsair keyboard, the K70 MK.2 low profile I had for several years. When I started working with computers – when… Read More »Review: Corsair K100 opto-mechanical keyboard for a typist
I’ve written about my Synology NAS device once or twice (configuring it for Azure backups, upgrading the RAM, switching from Dropbox to Synology Drive, and if a NAS is actually needed) – the model I’ve had for years is the… Read More »Review: Synology DiskStation DS1821+
This is a quick one, but I wanted to share this as I did not find enough guidance on this previously. I’ve had a three-display setup for several years now: The thinking I’ve had is that whenever I read something… Read More »Altering my productivity with a new display setup
As 2020 came to an end, I knew I’d have to get a new phone. My previous phone, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+, was great, but sadly the contract came to an end as I departed Microsoft. During Christmas, I… Read More »Review: Google Pixel 4a – a smaller phone
I’ve been thinking of getting to a solution to control the presentation lights at my home office (see Part 2 of my WfH series for details). The Elgato Key Lights are fantastic, but they lack a physical on/off switch. The… Read More »Review: Elgato Stream Deck at the home office