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2022 in review
Now that we have started 2023, one can take a look at the year that was 2022. Personally it was a great year (no deaths/cancer in the family so that is new), with a number of stand out moments. The biggest one is that I married, Kelley, the lady of my dreams in the summer. We wedded in our own home, with the ceremony in the front, and the big tent in the back. It truly was perfect. We had our close family come over from the UK, and with our close friends/family here in the USA the time we…
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Compassionomics ~ book review
How a little compassion can transform a whole industry and lift the lives of millions in the process.
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People are leaking their RDS database backups
Researchers discovered incompetence when handling AWS RDS database backups, exposing them on the public network for anyone to take
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The Guard (2011)
Brendan Gleeson wraps himself into the type of role he was born to play, an unconventional, no nonsense, highly amusing Irish man. Gleeson here is a country sergeant in the local police (called the Garda in Ireland) who manages things in his own delightful way. From the opening scene, where he simply lets a car full of joy riders speed past him without any form of chase, knowing they are…
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Apollo 13 (1995)
One of my all time favorite movies that never fails to deliver on one of the most dramatic incidents in the Apollo space missions. Tom Hanks proves he is one of our generations greatest actors as he slips into the character of Jim Lovell, who was also a technical adviser on the movie. James Horner provides us with a breathtaking score, which can be best witnessed when Ed Harris (playing…
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Kill Me Three Times (2014)
This popped up on Netflix and I will confess to not knowing about this Simon Pegg comedy thriller he made last year in Australia. It isn’t the best of his output and one can’t help but feeling he was lending his name and box office draw to this rather low budget local country movie. The gist of the movie has Pegg as a hitman that witnesses a couple who…
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[review] Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World
Bruce Schneier has recently released his latest book covering the use of data in our modern day world. Taking a deep dive into the world of privacy, surveilence and encryption this was a real page turner, resulting in it really difficult to put down. I had to keep reminding myself this was not fiction. This was real life. This is now. We’ve sold our digital souls, yet most have not…
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We Don’t Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy
Just finished the excellent book, “We don’t need roads: the making of the Back to the Future” http://amzn.com/B00OZ0TN6I that was recently published. It chartered the journey from inception right through making of the final film. I am a huge fan of the BTTF and can proudly quote pretty much every line so I was excited to get behind the movies to see if there was something I could learn from this…
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OpenBD – for remote proxying
The standard CFCONTENT tag has had the file=“” feature from the start. This is where you can pass in a local file and have it sent to the client. Extremely handy when you are giving a client access to a file that may not be in the webapp directory or if you want to add extra security or logging to a given file before sending to the client. Why limit…
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I have seen many a multi-monitor setup, but when I spotted one of my team, Trace, with the tiered monitor configuration, I done a double take. Trace has a USB monitor in-between his laptop and his keyboard, low enough that he can look over to see the laptop monitor behind him. Genius setup.
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Tesla Motors: How Elon Musk and Company Made Electric Cars Cool, and Sparked the Next Tech Revolution
The inspiration behind Tony Stark’s Iron Man business man persona, Elon Musk, is truly a fascinating and intriguing character. I will confess that my first impression of Musk, was an eccentric rich play boy, who craved the lime light with no real substance – the technologies Paris Hilton. I couldn’t have been more wrong in my initial view of Musk. The man, immigrated from South Africa, cut his teeth…
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[review] Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!
I am always fascinated at the history of companies, particularly those that we interact with on a daily basis. Yahoo is one of the original pioneering internet companies that seems to be a poison chalice for any CEO that attempts to reform it back to its glory days. This book, contrary to the title, is not all about Mayer and her fight to save Yahoo. It is instead a history…
the legend that is, Alan Williamson
For over 24 years, I’ve shared my thoughts here on this blog whenever the muse strikes.
It’s unpredictable, honest, unedited, and occasionally witty. I’m living the best years of my life, working harder than ever, learning each day and enjoying every second.
