Thoughtsofanidlemind's Blog

Category: Technology

  • A year with a Fitbit Flex

    I have been using a Fitbit Flex for a year. Well, I should say that I have used two Fitbit Flex in the last year, mostly because I lost one while collecting a hire car soon after starting to use this handy little device to track my activity levels. I lost…

  • Should we spend less time discussing software bugs?

    Is there a vague possibility that the technical community spends too much time complaining about software bugs? This rather startling proposition came up during a discussion with Paul Cunningham, of ExchangeServerPro fame. Paul remarked that we seem to spend a lot of time finding bugs, reporting them, checking for workarounds,…

  • Exchange Unwashed Digest – October 2014

    October 2014 was an interesting month for my “Exchange Unwashed” blog on WindowsITPro.com. I had the chance to write about some new technology (Delve), old technology (Exchange 2003 mega-clusters), bad technology (Chrome bugs), and current technology (various posts). All in all, a pretty productive month. Azure beckons for Exchange DAG witness…

  • Some technology updates, some glitches, mostly good

    Since returning from the network wilderness that sometimes afflicted us during our recent trip to France, it seemed like a good idea to complete some technology refreshes that had been on the back-burner during vacation. The first was to remove the Windows 8.1 Developer Preview from my Nokia Lumia 1020…

  • Exchange Unwashed Digest – August 2014

    I spent a lot of August in France but that didn’t stop the constant demand for new content to appear in my “Exchange Unwashed” blog on WindowsITPro.com. Here’s what was published during the month. Exchange 2013 CU6 hybrid and co-existence bugs cause administrators to despair (August 30): Exchange 2013 CU6…

  • The need for a cloud Plan B

    For most important decisions that you take in life it’s wise to have a Plan B. Something that you can do to reverse course should the unexpected occur and you need to revert to a previous position. And so it is with the cloud, an option that is being embraced…

  • Thoughts about Microsoft’s unified technology conference

    As expected, Microsoft’s announcement that they would run an uber-conference focused on the enterprise to replace TechEd and the individual Exchange, Lync, SharePoint, Project, and MMS conferences did not receive universal approval. The new conference takes place in Chicago next May and, if TechEd is anything to go by, should…

  • Exchange Unwashed Digest – July 2014

    Another month has gone by and it was a busy one for my “Exchange Unwashed” blog on WindowsITPro.com. I published thirteen posts covering everything from the thorny question of just how many paid subscribers Microsoft has for Office 365 to some lingering system registry entries for long-departed Exchange 2013 servers. Here’s…

  • GAMME – an unfortunate name for Google’s new migration utility

    I know (because I have visited the Dublin Googleplex several times) that Google employs several thousand people in Ireland. Couldn’t one of them have looked at the acronym for their new Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange (GAMME) service and raised a red flag that perhaps a second meaning can…

  • Recommended: Windows Phone 8.1 update

    It’s been two weeks since I took Paul Thurrott’s advice to upgrade my Nokia Lumia 1020 to Windows Phone 8.1 (the developer pre-release). In that time I have roamed from Ireland to France and Italy and the phone has functioned perfectly, so all I can report is that this is…