The Raspberry Pi organization announced Raspberry Pi 4 just a few weeks ago. I had to get one, and after placing an order, I received my RPi4 in only a few days. It’s a powerful little computer, with 4 GB… Read More »Building a Raspberry Pi 4-based weather monitoring solution using Ruuvitag sensors, Azure IoT Hub and Azure Functions
I’m currently running my blog (the one you’re reading, thanks!) in Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform. For the longest of times — which is maybe five years — I ran multiple WordPress sites in Azure using the PaaS offering. This includes… Read More »Running a static site in Microsoft Azure using WordPress for content management
I’m renewed as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional today, for the sixth time in a row! I started my journey in 2014, and I’m again honored to be chosen as part of this elite community of enthusiasts and professionals around… Read More »I’m renewed as a Microsoft MVP!
By now, if you’ve read any of my posts in the past few years, it should be obvious I’m a geek, nerd, and techie by heart. I love building and learning new stuff – be it a custom connector to… Read More »Doing sales as a techie: Efficient strategies for sales
In my role as an architect, I’m often faced with limited time, scarce resources, and considerable expectations on how I deliver my services. It isn’t uncommon that within a single day working with a customer we work through Microsoft Teams… Read More »Learning quickly as a consultant: Efficient learning strategies
Almost exactly a year ago I blogged about building a simple and secure DNS updater for Azure DNS using PowerShell. If you didn’t read that post, it’s a solution for keeping my dynamic IP updated with a static DNS name… Read More »Building a simple and secure DNS updater for Azure DNS using Raspberry Pi and Azure Functions
It’s been a few very busy months for me, and instead of writing a deeply technical article on something esoteric I thought I’d update you a bit on what’s going on. I wrote earlier about starting school to eventually graduate… Read More »What’s up?
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… Read More »Five indispensable gadgets I use in my home office
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… Read More »I’m renewed as Microsoft Regional Director
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… Read More »Is it worth going to large, international tech conferences anymore?
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… Read More »Windows 10 19H1 (1903) update: Top 5 new features
I’ve worked in IT for almost three decades — I started young. So young in fact that I quit school perhaps a bit too early and abruptly. It never bothered or stopped me as I loved and still love what… Read More »What’s next for me: Starting the Executive MBA journey
[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… Read More »[Updated] Making Remote Desktop fun again: Dynamic resizing and resolution changes while connected
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 –… Read More »…But I like email!
I grew up with Perl, tcsh, bash, sh, awk, sed, grep, pico, vi, command.com and cmd.exe. Building scripts, batch files and little automation here and there was the norm for me and many others of that era. I’m especially proud… Read More »Mastering Azure CLI
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… Read More »Anonymizing and masking sensitive data in SQL databases before migrating to Azure SQL
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.… Read More »Be better – or how to consistently succeed as a techie
I think I’ve written once or twice I’m a great fan of building Proof of Concepts and prototypes. This allows me to rapidly learn without fear or risk of failing in front of an important customer. And all customers who… Read More »Tracking, resolving, storing and presenting AKA.MS short links from social media using Serverless capabilities in Azure
In my previous blog post, I wrote about the Oura Ring and how it tracks my wellness and activities. As part of the service Oura provides there’s also a comprehensive API that can be leveraged for your own purposes. As… Read More »Building a custom connector for Power BI that supports OAuth2 to visualize my wellness data
Late last year I decided to place an order for a Oura Ring, the smart wellness and activity tracking ring from the Finnish startup. It took a few months to arrive, as they seem to be in high demand. While… Read More »Living with Oura Ring – the smart way to track wellness and activity