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Education

Using Course Authoring Software to Improve Training

On a regular basis I write technical documentation for IT systems. These documents consist mainly of text and images. I also put together training sessions from time to time, which are useful when introducing concepts that are more complex and don’t follow a standard process like something that would be documented. While in-person or even video conferencing can work for these types of training sessions, … Continue reading Using Course Authoring Software to Improve Training

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Opinion

Engineer Systems, Not People

There’s been a problem that I’ve been seeing more regularly that needs addressing. When people want to change how things are done, especially in the workplace, they tend to believe that the way to do so is by retraining people. The reality, however, is that this is rarely the case. Instead, they should consider reengineering the way systems operate rather than trying to reengineer the … Continue reading Engineer Systems, Not People

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Technology

Starting Plex Automatically After a Reboot Without Signing In on Windows

Has an automatic Windows update ever broken your connection to your Plex server? For some reason Plex runs under a standard user account and not under a service user. This means that if you reboot your computer the Plex service will not run until you log back in with the user Plex runs under. This is a problem if you’re not at home to sign … Continue reading Starting Plex Automatically After a Reboot Without Signing In on Windows

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Technology

Exploring AWS Glacier Deep Archive Costs

Last month, I wrote about using AWS Glacier Deep Archive for archiving data I didn’t expect to need to ever recover but wanted stored in a safe place just in case. At the end of the article I mentioned that I was already overrunning my expected costs, which should have been something like $3.50 per month for 3.5TB of data. Within a few weeks my … Continue reading Exploring AWS Glacier Deep Archive Costs

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Technology

Using youtube-dl on Android

Updated March 12, 2020 Youtube-dl is a useful command-line tool that can be used for downloading videos from all sorts of websites. It’s a very useful tool, and runs on Linux, MacOS, or Windows. Useful Links Here’s what it does: http://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/about.html Here’s how to download it: http://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html Here’s the GitHub project page: https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/ Android Installation While youtube-dl works great on PC, you can actually install … Continue reading Using youtube-dl on Android

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Opinion, Technology

Fast 5G Cellular Networks Don’t Matter if People Can’t Afford to Use Them

If you’re like me, you’ve been inundated with ads for the “revolutionary” “amazing” “innovative” new 5G cellular networks that are being brought online by all of the major carriers. While I remember being bombarded with advertising when 4G was new, it wasn’t to the same level. Back then it was all about speed boosts. The 4G networks were “blazing fast,” but they weren’t marketed as … Continue reading Fast 5G Cellular Networks Don’t Matter if People Can’t Afford to Use Them

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Technology

Backing Up Data with AWS Glacier Deep Archive

After recently surpassing the capacity of my external backup disk, I had a decision to make: Should I buy a bigger one or try something else? An 8TB external hard drive currently costs about $140, which isn’t too bad, but comes with a number of downsides: Upfront cost Needing to remember to plug it in and back up my data All of my data is … Continue reading Backing Up Data with AWS Glacier Deep Archive

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