A year ago I reflected on the upcoming year of 2020. Reading that post now, just 12 months later, feels like I wrote it a decade ago. I think I’ll echo everyone’s sentiments here when I simply say 2020 was… Read More »Hello, 2021! And so long, 2020!
Today, I received a warning from Microsoft stating that some of my Azure Storage accounts were publicly accessible. I wasn’t entirely certain if this was because of a recent change I’ve done, or perhaps I’ve left one or more Storage… Read More »Checking and removing public access on Azure Storage accounts using Azure Cloud Shell
This is a quick post, but perhaps of use to some with an older Synology NAS device. I’ve used my Synology DiskStation 412+ for an eternity now – I think about 8 years and counting. I upgraded the RAM from… Read More »Synology DS412+ NAS device not supported for the new DSM 7.0
In late November, I wrote a brief update on how it seemed professionals could renew their existing Microsoft certifications. As you might remember, the passed exams that form certifications are valid for two years. That time is now almost up… Read More »Another update on renewing Microsoft certifications in 2021
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
Next week is my last day ‘at the office’ while working for Microsoft. I’m then taking a few weeks off, returning my badge on the last day of December, and closing the door for one last time. Now that my… Read More »Leaving Microsoft
I set out to replace and build a new high-performance workstation as my daily driver in July. It has now been about four months (or 120 days) since the build was completed, and I thought it would be fun to… Read More »My experience using a high-performance workstation PC (that I built) for 120 days
I love doing certification exams! I might be in the minority here, but I’ve done something since 1997, and I feel it allows me to learn about new technologies continuously. With the announcement on retiring MCSE, MCSD, and MCSA exams,… Read More »An update on renewing Microsoft certifications
Besides working on my Executive MBA since early 2019, I wanted to deepen my understanding of marketing. The Kellogg School of Management has teamed up with Microsoft to offer full-time employees a selection of courses, so I had a look… Read More »Insights on passing the Kellogg: Modern Marketing program
About two years ago, I decided I don’t need Facebook in my life. In early January 2019, I went through the settings and deactivated my account. I didn’t choose to delete it fully for two reasons – one, perhaps I’d… Read More »Reflecting on my decision to deactivate Facebook two years ago
A few weeks ago, we pushed the 52nd episode out for the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast I produce together with Tobias Zimmergren. We publish an episode per week, so it has been a year since we pushed Episode 001: Let’s talk about… Read More »The first anniversary of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast
I wrote the first blog post in 2014. I’d written plenty before, under several different domains – one was focused on my time living in Dublin, another strictly on SharePoint. This one provides me a bit more creative freedom to… Read More »Opening up for sponsorships
Lobe is a company Microsoft acquired in 2018. It has a visual interface that allows you to label and train images, that can be used to build a deep learning model for your apps. Installing Lobe Lobe is available (for… Read More »Building a machine learning model with Lobe, easily
At home, I run two servers and a separate NAS device. The main server is responsible for Hyper-V based VMs, the Plex service, secondary backups, and some remote connectivity-related services. The other server is mostly for me to play around… Read More »Upgrading the home office with a dedicated UPS
In Finland, we have a ubiquitous and affordable Internet connectivity available. Almost everywhere. At home, I have a 1 Gb fiber, with 500 Mbit upload speeds. On my phone and iPad, I have separate 4G LTE connections, which usually provide… Read More »Building a simple speed test solution using Microsoft Azure
I realize this is awfully specific, but I needed to replicate my current hosted WordPress setup for some tests. I began this by exporting all content of my site using the All-In-One Migration WP extension – it results in a… Read More »Building a local WordPress test environment using Windows 10, Docker Desktop, and WSL 2
I’ve briefly written about my home office chair earlier (here, and here). It’s a regular IKEA chair, and the model is JÄRVFJÄLLET. It looks quite nice, and the mesh texture implies it’s great to sit on. And it was, for… Read More »Insights: First week with the Herman Miller Aeron (remastered) chair
This week, I delivered a virtual session for the European SharePoint, Office 365 & Azure Conference. This year, it’s an online event, and all sessions are pre-recorded and then delivered over Teams Live Events to attendees. Each session is scheduled… Read More »Lessons learned when creating a session for an online event using TechSmith Camtasia
During Ignite, Microsoft announced the public preview of Azure Communication Services. It’s a Platform-as-a-Service service that provides you with a robust back-end and services for building communications services in your apps and solutions. It’s also marketed as “the service that… Read More »Building a custom chat tool with Azure Communication Services
This is part 3 of the working remotely guide (and how not to feel miserable about it). If you missed the previous parts, see part 1, and part 2. Table of Contents Part 1: Let’s define Working from Home/working remotely/remote… Read More »The comprehensive guide to working remotely and not feeling miserable about it (Part 3)