While discussing an update with a colleague via Microsoft Teams about an Excel file he doesn’t have access to—an email referencing a tangentially related conversation in a channel he doesn’t have access to arrived—it struck me how fragmented our digital communication has become. Information is dispersed across emails, chats, and channels, making it increasingly difficult…
About 6 months ago, I played a bit with large language models. It was interesting. The responses were like a middle school kid didn’t read the book, but tried to summarize the Cliff Notes. The past couple days, there has a been a problem in another IT area affecting my ability to do my work.…
I was sent a script to run by an analyst who advised to verify the MD5 hash. This is good advice to ensure that I receive the correct content. And happens to be the advise I gave the DBA manager before restoring backup files that was going to take hours to download. The idea is…
I got Office 2016 at work, so I am struggling through moved cheese. The big change for me is the To-Do appointments. In 2010, it showed several days worth of items. Which is ideal for me. I do not have a ton of meetings, but I like to see a list of what is upcoming…
I work to integrate systems. So, when I learn about things, I guess my mind drifts into how would we use it. And then into how would tie together this with other things we have to make them better. Last week news dropped about Microsoft (MSFT) buying LinkedIn (LNKD). The big deal people seem to…
By default Outlook adds “stop processing more rules” to message filters. Eventually I run into the error: The rule has a condition the server cannot process. The action ‘stop processing more rules’ will prevent all remaining server rules from being carried out. Are you sure this is what you want to do? Well… That is…
A pain in my side over the past year finally forced me into addressing it. Windows Module Installer runs as TrustedInstaller.exe and for most cases just does its job which is to keep in touch with the Windows Update service and apply the updates sent to it. Occasionally they develop a memory leak and consume…
Guess Drive made me think about happiness at work more. How can we get people more engaged, more productive, and happier at work? Is technology part of the problem — and could it also be part of the solution? Dave Coplin, Chief Envisioning Officer at Microsoft, imagines what might be possible if more organisations embraced the…
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple My rating: 4 of 5 stars The format is a form I enjoy: A collection of emails, letters, and notes. They form the clues as to why Bernadette disappeared. Microsoft corporate culture and its effect on Seattle prominently features in the story. Work recently gave us little glass…