Author: Malcolm

  • This is not my most recent blog

    Hi there, any visitors. Just a note: This is by no means my most recent blog. It’s old and quiet and mostly archived. Occasionally I’ll respond to a 404 from an incoming, ancient link by reviving the content that used to be behind it. But for my most recent content, see my geek blog, which…

  • Activities of Late (Spring 2015)

    With April came a change in my working patterns. No longer associated with my previous employer of almost 8 years, I’m left with some much-needed independence and down time. I am applying for job roles that are specifically not in in Ops or DevOps. I may change my tune depending on how things go, but…

  • Scope of my Engineering work

    Especially when talking with local professional/paid UNIX/Linux admins, I often get dismissed because I work with Windows. I think that kind of attitude is lamentable. I’ve been a professional systems engineer with Windows servers 75% or so of my life, and while I’m not as good at UNIX/Linux, I get was trained up with (in…

  • Cloaking Engaged!

    Since I’m on a job search, I’m going to cloak all but the most utilitarian and objective posts on this blog. I also may tweak the sign-up rules or something. But anyhow, just a little bit about the job search: I’m a 20 year IT professional, most recently an all-hats wearing Ops guy for the…

  • Mason Bees

    I learned about and saw my first Orchard Mason bee this weekend, helping friends/neighbors put up a bee house as part of just hanging out. They are cute, green and fuzzy! They look like houseflies in their greenness but they are fuzzy like the bees that we’re used to (but that are apparently not native…

  • Subtitles in Netflix on Apple TV

    This is so seriously unadvertised it’s almost criminal (and is it, under the ADA? I don’t know.). Anyway, for titles on Netflix that support it, with Apple TV’s newest 4.4.2 update (I don’t know if it was supported earlier than that – I just figured it out), you start playing the title, then you press…

  • How to eat: Lychee and Longan (Updated AGAIN)

    There are some other blog and industry posts about this, certainly, but I figured I’d better take photos and make notes about it from my own perspective of selecting, peeling and eating longan and lychee at my household. Update Below: Notes on selection and spoilage. Update even more Below: Pictures of spoilage (with notes).

  • Inspiron 1521 – Total makeover!

    Please read the Update 2 at the bottom for how this finally turned out (poorly). The guidance I give is good, I think, in general, but for this platform, not so much. The hard drive issues continue to this day, no matter which drive I use. I have decided to abandon the laptop entirely and…

  • Nitrous Oxide (dental procedure) and insufficient Vitamin B12

    A not good time was had by me. I’m not writing about this so I can get pity or sympathy, but so that at least if someone on the Internet talks about it then someone else who runs into it and can’t figure out what happened might learn an explanation for it. Also, I’d like…

  • Two recipes

    One recipe: mixology (virgin), the other: a recipe for relaxation.