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
Last week, I finally received my new laptop. It’s the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (9th generation). I’ll write a separate post on that soon, and once I’ve had some time to use and experience the laptop in different situations. I… Read More »My experience using Windows 11 with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 9)
On most devices that I frequently use, I use a solution to block excessive ads. Firefox on mobile and desktop is super easy as the same ad blocking extensions work on both. Many of my friends have been praising Pi-Hole… Read More »Goodbye telemetry and ads – running Pi-Hole in a home network
This week, we published the 91st episode for our podcast show, Ctrl+Alt+Azure. It’s about Azure updates, and with Tobias Zimmergren, we talk about the latest announcements, updates, and changes in Azure in the past month. You can listen to the… Read More »Episode #91 is out for our Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast
When you work in IT, numerous little things could or should be automated. One of those is the monitoring of expiring SSL certificates. Quite often, the process of monitoring for SSL certificates is calendar-based. When someone orders a new certificate,… Read More »Using Azure Application Insights to monitor for expiring SSL certificates
I’ve used Google Photos since 1969. Err, no, wait – that’s what the image metadata is telling me, but actually, my earliest photos stored in Google’s cloud are from 2009. I’ve paid the 1.99 €/month fee to ensure I have… Read More »Self-hosting memories: Migrating from Google Photos to Synology Photos
This week, we published the 90th episode for our podcast show, Ctrl+Alt+Azure. It’s titled Managing virtual machines with Azure Automanage, and with Tobias Zimmergren we talk about this feature (that is currently in preview), and if it’s useful or not.… Read More »Episode #90 is out for our Ctrl+Alt+Azure podcast
For years, I’ve used the Logitech BRIO 4K as my primary webcam at home. I use it for Windows Hello to unlock my PC, and I use it for each meeting. It’s pretty great – but it’s also just a… Read More »Using a DSLR as a webcam
It seems each quarter, and I wrote a quick recap on what I have been up to lately. This time it’s no different. The weeks go by at a rapid pace, and I’m now taking a long and (I like… Read More »So, what’s up?
Today, I needed to move some resources from one Azure subscription to another Azure subscription. You can use scripting, a REST API, or the Azure Portal to achieve this. I wanted to start with a script, as it often teaches… Read More »Quick fix: Moving resources in Azure fails
Last week, Microsoft held a special online event to announce the next version of Windows: Windows 11. It looks nice in the sizzle video: Of course, one has to look beyond the fancy covers also. The first preview bits for… Read More »A look at TPM and Windows 11 hardware requirements
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
Today, I’m building a locally hosted (“On-Premises,” if you will) Kubernetes cluster that runs on three Raspberry Pi 4 devices. The goal is to get Kubernetes working and being able to deploy WordPress and MySQL on the cluster. But why?… Read More »Building a Kubernetes cluster using Raspberry Pi 4
During Microsoft Build 2021, there was an announcement on more dev-focused tools for Power Platform. The first bits of Power Platform CLI have now landed, so I wanted to take a look what they capable of. Installing Power Platform CLI… Read More »First look at Power Platform CLI: Command-line tools for developers
Does anyone use the term ‘snail mail’ anymore? Anyway, I still use it to refer to regular posts and mail I seem to be getting each day through my door. We have a sticker on the door to avoid getting… Read More »Building a mailbox sensor solution using Raspberry Pi and a wireless sensor
This week I’ve been working with a set of Linux virtual machines hosted in Azure. They are all Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, so relatively new – but not the latest release (which at the time of writing this is 21.04). Once… Read More »Securing your Linux VMs in Azure with Azure Disk Encryption
This is a short one, but something I couldn’t figure out without testing it first. Let’s assume a scenario where a company has a single Azure subscription. They also then have a single Azure tenant (meaning, a single Azure AD).… Read More »How to lock down a single confidential Resource Group in Azure
This is one of the more enjoyable projects I’ve done recently during my spare time. I run Azure Sentinel in all of my Azure environments – it’s a SIEM solution, which stands for Security Information and Event Management. In essence,… Read More »Building an integration between Azure Sentinel and Unifi infrastructure for a proper SIEM solution
At home, I’ve had many network devices, a varying number of servers, and other gear running for a few decades. After each move, I get rid of a lot of the stuff that I don’t need. Then, over time my… Read More »Building a homelab – moving to rack-mounted gear, and refreshing the internal network (Part 1)