tag:wt.gd,2014:/feedWhat’s This Guy Doing?2023-02-22T03:48:50-08:00Joe Kappushttps://wt.gdSvbtle.comtag:wt.gd,2014:Post/writing-session2023-02-22T03:48:50-08:002023-02-22T03:48:50-08:00Writing Session<p>A year? Yeah, I think it’s been a year. <em>(It’s been 3 now)</em> I’ve been stuck not publishing or really writing much because I don’t know where to begin. I do write a lot in chat and 1-in-1 interactions. 1-to-many I’m more uncomfortable with.</p>
<p>Let me be clear: I don’t fear the consequences of what I publish, it’s the not publishing anything that’s killing me. I am a generalist that understands how to constantly shift my perspective to analyze ideas and issues. This makes it incredibly hard to write to write on topics where I do have a specific viewpoint, but I see the other perspectives. I’ve been wrong in my writing before and sometimes to get a good discussion/argument going I’ll just take a position even if I know I’ll abandon it later. Sometimes I have to issue retractions or corrections as new information comes in. Issuing corrections isn’t a big deal, it’s dealing with negative audience feedback that’s a pain.</p>
<p>Do I write about communications technology? I know a ton about wireless/cellular tech. I have been considering making a small series showing some old wireless tech that’s about to go extinct.</p>
<p>Do I write about music? I slumped a bit last year on collecting, but towards the end of the year I’ve started to pick up the hobby again of curating a large collection. It’s probably a better fit for Twitter to just throw music picks up in a weekly thread or something. <em>Update: I dumped twitter, on Mastodon now, not as active</em></p>
<p>Do I write about the state of the country/world? Ideas range from the garbage politics both domestic and international. I’ve held back on these topics because they are incredibly polarizing and it’s not the place. If I do write on these topics, it needs to be on an actionable focus, something to understand. Think tearing down a machine to describe the history and why it works as it does. It needs to be like that. </p>
<p>I guess the real plan right now is to push out some of my old drafts, this is an old draft I’ve added to. Next one will probably be on Gentoo Linux stuff, I’ve been contributing on that. I have to update all of my company’s pages too, and finally finish another company website, which will likely be my last commercial website build…. if it ships. I’ll write about some of the bad things too that lead to that delay. Yeah, until next time…</p>
tag:wt.gd,2014:Post/negotiating-traffic-tickets-in-nj2020-01-25T15:05:01-08:002020-01-25T15:05:01-08:00Negotiating Traffic Tickets In NJ<h2 id="background_2">Background <a class="head_anchor" href="#background_2">#</a>
</h2>
<p>I wrote this a year or two ago when moonlighting at a small taxi company. It’s based on my experiences with NJ traffic court and my study of the state’s Title 39 law. All research is current as of 2019, but laws change so if you’re reading this later, it might be a good idea to read up on the things I cite. I am not a lawyer (and lawyers wouldn’t sanction a post like this as they’d rather you retain them).</p>
<h2 id="who-is-this-for_2">Who is this for? <a class="head_anchor" href="#who-is-this-for_2">#</a>
</h2>
<p>You or someone you know may have received a ticket for speeding, cellphone use, window obstruction any other common thing covered under Title 39 (the most common traffic laws officers cite from). This short guide will help you minimize your out of pocket expense, points, and you won’t need a lawyer. I <em>do</em> recommend a lawyer if you are facing over $500 in tickets, but really only in that case. This guide is also only for NJ, every state handles this stuff radically different. </p>
<h2 id="mindset_2">Mindset: <a class="head_anchor" href="#mindset_2">#</a>
</h2>
<p>It’s important to remember that traffic courts run as a revenue generator for municipalities. Your goal isn’t usually to fight this system but rather negotiate with it. NJ is a difficult state to get a ticket thrown out by the judge as the one prosecuting you is a trained lawyer and not the officer that wrote you the ticket. The approach I describe won’t work if you act arrogant to the prosecutor or dress like a slob to court. A suit is a good idea, even in 2020. If you know local lawyers or have retained some in the past it may be prudent to name drop to prosecutor, they all know each other. If you don’t, google some that are nearby but don’t regularly practice in that court (for SEO reasons, the traffic court lawyers almost always list the towns they practice in). They will usually ask who you know when you request a statute # to plea to. <strong>Always be polite and professional through this!</strong></p>
<p>Remember this point! <strong>It really pisses off the prosecutor if you threaten to bring the case to trial as it wastes a ton of their time.</strong> So only do this if they are being a real pain about negotiations. They will counter-threaten you pretty hard if you try this, but it’s a bluff. They cannot take your license, that’s up to the judge and/or NJ MVC.</p>
<h2 id="about-points_2">About points: <a class="head_anchor" href="#about-points_2">#</a>
</h2>
<p>Points get assessed by the NJ MVC, not by the court. If you plead guilty to certain offences, points will be assessed. The list of those point amounts for a conviction (conviction meaning anything you plea to or the court finds you guilty of) are here: <a href="https://www.state.nj.us/mvc/license/points-schedule.htm">NJ Points Schedule</a></p>
<p>Additionally, insurance companies run their own point system that usually assign 1 insurance point to NJ premiums for non-point stuff. This usually has an effect for 3 years, every year of that it goes down a bit. You can often take a $12 online defensive driver course to lower it a bit, but this is company dependent and they will usually only discount you if you do it before renewal. Insurance points systems are proprietary, so I can’t give you a guide on how every company will handle non-point pleas. I can tell you that NJ only allows them to look back 5 years for penalizing you based on driving abstract and most only look back 3 years.</p>
<h2 id="strategy_2">Strategy <a class="head_anchor" href="#strategy_2">#</a>
</h2>
<p>A good amount of Title 39 is literally nonsense. Some of it’s poorly and ambiguously written (windshield obstruction 39:3-74 I’ll write about below). Most legislators are lawyers so they leave things in here for attorneys to use when plea bargaining. If you already got a weird low fine ticket that doesn’t carry points I’d usually say to pay it. If it was a failure to update address ticket or renew something, fix immediately, bring proof to prosecutor and ask them to drop and waive court cost if possible. They often will. If they disagree, get up and pay the court clerk before it goes in front of judge (saves $30-some in court cost)</p>
<p>So we know we don’t want points. NJ got wise to this, so they came up with a way to generate more money: add a mandatory surcharge of $250 for unsafe driving ($100-150 fine) or cellphone operation ($200-300) plea arrangements. If you or your lawyer plead to the latter it only makes sense if it wipes out a stack of tickets. The law also limits how many times you can plea to this, or the fine increases substantially. For most people this is the wrong choice. I provide 2 scenarios for better alternatives.</p>
<h3 id="2-point-strategy_3">2 point strategy <a class="head_anchor" href="#2-point-strategy_3">#</a>
</h3>
<p>A small 2-point speeding ticket or careless driving carries a modest fine. Unless you already have accrued points, a plea bargain to unsafe operation is a poor deal. When prosecutor offers it politely say: <strong>“Would you instead let me plea to 39:4-67?”</strong> This is a $54 fine for obstructing traffic. If they say yes you go in front of judge, plea guilty to it, and walk out paying slightly less than $100 with no points on record. If they are uncooperative and you have no MVC points on your abstract, I recommend just paying the ticket or try the plea below this.</p>
<h3 id="4-point-strategy_3">4 point strategy <a class="head_anchor" href="#4-point-strategy_3">#</a>
</h3>
<p>Prosecutor won’t like the above suggestion usually. It’s too much to ask to pay under $100 to fix a $200 or so ticket when they’d usually get around $400 for a plea arrangement. <strong>In this case ask for a 39:4-215 (failure to obey signals, signs, or directions).</strong> This is a $100 non-point fine so you walk out paying a little under $150 with costs for what was certainly a worse ticket. They will likely ask how the hell you knew about this plea. This is a good time not to be cocky and instead mention a lawyer they might know. Say you worked with them in the past. </p>
<h2 id="conclusion_2">Conclusion <a class="head_anchor" href="#conclusion_2">#</a>
</h2>
<p>You can ask to change violation to anything under Title 39, and the judge will most likely allow whatever the prosecutor agrees to. The above are two common suggestions, the first most people are familiar with. The second is junk left for traffic attorneys to make a living on. None of this advice is guaranteed to work because quite a bit of it depends on how the court perceives you, and what kind of mood they are in. Tread carefully.</p>
<h3 id="a-word-on-windshield-obstruction-tickets_3">A word on windshield obstruction tickets: <a class="head_anchor" href="#a-word-on-windshield-obstruction-tickets_3">#</a>
</h3>
<p>I mentioned this statute 39:3-74 is written in such a way that anything non-standard attached directly to dash or windshield can get you cited (including car wash or maintenance reminder stickers). However, you cannot be cited for having stuff hanging off your rear-view mirror unless the officer proves it ‘unduly interfered’ with your sight to the front or sides. This likely goes for anything stuck to the dash like dice or an air freshener, but not things stuck to windshield. It’s so poorly written that the attorney general issued a directive exempting EZ-Pass from being stuck to windshield, else half the cars in NJ could be ticketed. Cops mostly use this as an excuse to pull you over and get around that pesky 4th amendment. </p>
tag:wt.gd,2014:Post/happy-new-year-90-day-sprint2020-01-01T21:03:40-08:002020-01-01T21:03:40-08:00It's a New Year: 90 Day Sprint<p>Happy New Year everyone!</p>
<p>In 90 days I’m going to Japan for a little over a week. I’m doing it because I want to go there and it gives me a goal to work towards for the first quarter of the year. There’s a lot to do. <strong>My resolution is to not have a zero day.</strong> A zero day is a day where a primary goal isn’t achieved. Primary goals to me are stuff that moves my knowledge forward, improves my life, and/or turns more business. This is compared to normal stuff like keeping house supplies stocked, doing business bookkeeping/site maintenance, bills paid, e.g. stuff I need to survive.</p>
<p>So regarding status: I didn’t hit the rate of outputting content how I wanted to last year. Nor did I expand out my business as much as I’d like, but I’m alive and in good health so I can’t complain. There’s two work opportunities awaiting me if keep pace this year. I’m going to post small stuff like this if I don’t have anything notable, there’s a draft pile of technical and assorted posts that are much longer that I should complete and fill on days that there’s not much other stuff to write about.</p>
<p>There’s not much to post today as I took advantage of the holiday. I don’t have a hangover and I’m going into ketosis for the quarter, so we’re off to a good start!</p>
tag:wt.gd,2014:Post/microsoft-office-365-home-semiannual-slimmed2019-10-15T13:00:00-07:002019-10-15T13:00:00-07:00Microsoft Office 365 Home Slimmed Out (with less updates)<p>I mentioned I went back to mostly using Microsoft stuff on the desktop. It works but I’ve had some big problems that should have simple solutions. Unfortunately nobody wrote about this anywhere else on the web and as is often the case, there’s no easy answers. Let me explain:</p>
<h2 id="what39s-microsoft-office-365-home-about_2">What’s Microsoft Office 365 Home About? <a class="head_anchor" href="#what39s-microsoft-office-365-home-about_2">#</a>
</h2>
<p>Years back Microsoft used to ship boxed editions of Office. You paid once, got a license (or 3) and that was that. Microsoft Update, which was built into WIndows, was supposed to cover security updates. A few years back they switched to an annual subscription model, which wouldn’t be a great deal except they include a terabyte of OneDrive storage per user, and each user gets to install Office on as many systems as they want. For around $100 (or less in school) for 5 users it’s a solid deal. </p>
<h2 id="what39s-wrong-with-it-why-i39m-writing-this-p_2">What’s wrong with it? (why I’m writing this post) <a class="head_anchor" href="#what39s-wrong-with-it-why-i39m-writing-this-p_2">#</a>
</h2>
<p>So, subscription software kind of sucks as it lures you into paying money constantly. That’s not the complaint I hear and experience (because it’s a silent problem until the company decides to drive their quality into the ground or turn up the cost). No the problem here is that, by default, Office updates <strong>monthly</strong> and installs apps most people will never use with no option to remove them. I had clients who clung to Office 2003 until just a few years ago. Almost a solid 15 years with those versions and the main issues come down to security risks, Outlook 2003 not supporting modern mail servers, and issues with syncing files (for Onedrive users). If you took those issues out, it mostly worked fine. 15 or so years vs 30 or so days between updates. </p>
<h2 id="trying-to-solve-the-above-problems_2">Trying to solve the above problems <a class="head_anchor" href="#trying-to-solve-the-above-problems_2">#</a>
</h2>
<p><strong>I have not had universal success with the below, but if you want to try, let me know how it goes. You can always uninstall and use the regular installer to get this back to normal. Your settings should be retained.</strong></p>
<p>Larger businesses have an IT department that handles deployment of employee accounts and manages the installation of Office using volume license keys. Microsoft provides much better options for this class of user because businesses don’t tolerate systems having downtime because Microsoft wants to install an update on a whim.</p>
<p>The tool used for Office deployments is the Office Deployment Toolkit. Reading over Microsoft’s documentation, they do support the Home & Office Retail editions of Office 365 with it, they just don’t document much about it for this use case. I even went out of my way to frequent a few sysadmin channels and ask about using it for a home install, nobody tried it.</p>
<h2 id="getting-the-odt-tool-to-work_2">Getting the ODT tool to work <a class="head_anchor" href="#getting-the-odt-tool-to-work_2">#</a>
</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/overview-of-the-office-2016-deployment-tool">Overview of ODT</a> page talks mostly of ProfessionalPlus, which isn’t what I’m usually working with. You need to dig down to their <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/troubleshoot/administration/product-ids-supported-office-deployment-click-to-run">Product ID Page</a>. Notice on here that:</p>
<pre><code class="prettyprint">The following Office 365 product IDs are supported by the Office Deployment Tool in Office 365 deployments:
O365ProPlusRetail
O365BusinessRetail
VisioProRetail
ProjectProRetail
AccessRuntimeRetail
LanguagePack
</code></pre>
<p>Yeah no, none of those are things we’re using. Look down the page a bit more:</p>
<pre><code class="prettyprint">In addition to these product IDs, the following non-Office 365 product IDs are supported by this tool:
etc
etc
etc
O365HomePremRetail
etc
etc
etc
</code></pre>
<p>I’m no expert, but that one product ID sure looks like an Office 365 product ID for the Home edition. It looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, but Microsoft doesn’t consider it a duck. Oh well, whatever the tool is supposed to support it.</p>
<p>With the above in mind, grab the ODT from the Overview page above, it’s going to be a small zip file with some xml files and a setup.exe. Don’t run the exe. You want to work with the x64 XML unless you have an old system with no ram. <strong>If you are coming from a 32-bit version to a 64-bit version you may want to investigate using MigrateArch.</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Unzip everything into C:\ODT.</li>
<li>Open the desired XML file with Notepad or your preferred text editor. </li>
<li>Delete the Vizio product block</li>
<li>Change the ProductID to O365HomePremRetail, - Anywhere it says Monthly change to Broad.</li>
</ul>
<p>This last step will ensure that Office 365 is set on the semi-annual channel. You could stop here and follow along on next steps, but there’s more to be done with this file. </p>
<h2 id="cutting-the-crap_2">Cutting the crap <a class="head_anchor" href="#cutting-the-crap_2">#</a>
</h2>
<p>Office 365 comes with a lot of things many people don’t use. I don’t use Outlook, I use Onenote but not the old ass 2016 version Office includes on top of my system version, and I’ve never once used Access. With ODT’s XML file and the ExcludeApp options we can configure it not to install these things. The full list of programs is found on the <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/configuration-options-for-the-office-2016-deployment-tool#excludeapp-element">Configuration Options Page</a>.</p>
<h3 id="my-file_3">My File <a class="head_anchor" href="#my-file_3">#</a>
</h3>
<p>You can use what I have as a reference. It works for my laptop to install only Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.</p>
<pre><code class="prettyprint"><Configuration>
<Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="Broad">
<Product ID="O365HomePremRetail">
<ExcludeApp ID="Access" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Groove" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Lync" />
<ExcludeApp ID="OneNote" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Outlook" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Publisher" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Teams" />
<Language ID="en-us" />
</Product>
</Add>
<Updates Enabled="TRUE" Channel="Broad" />
<Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />
<Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="1" />
</Configuration>
</code></pre>
<p>Once you have your file configured we can now install Office:</p>
<ul>
<li>Open a cmd or powershell as admin (win + X, then A). </li>
<li>cd C:\ODT</li>
<li>setup.exe /download configuration-Office365-x64.xml</li>
<li>Wait a bit, it’s downloading the installer in background.</li>
<li>setup.exe /configure configuration-Office365-x64.xml</li>
<li>This will install in background, you’ll get confirmation when it completes.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="problems-to-look-for_2">Problems to look for <a class="head_anchor" href="#problems-to-look-for_2">#</a>
</h2>
<p>For new systems the above seems to work fine. For systems that had a previously installed Office, I’ve seen problems.</p>
<ul>
<li>Google Suite uses a crappy plugin to sync with Outlook <a href="https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync">found here</a>, it’s possible you’ll need to reinstall this and copy the .dll files for it from the 64-bit “Program Files” directory to the 32-bit “Program Files (x86)”.</li>
<li>Word and Excel might crash while trying to open some OneDrive files. I can’t find the exact cause, but renaming the files then renaming them back will make them work again. </li>
<li>If you install Outlook, it might fail to print. Outlprnt is missing. There are guides around the web that explain how to rebuild this file. I did not try them, at this point the system was causing too many issues for my user so I reverted their install to regular installer.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="final-thoughts_2">Final Thoughts <a class="head_anchor" href="#final-thoughts_2">#</a>
</h2>
<p>Office is a big piece of complicated software. Microsoft doesn’t recommend the above method because it obviously lacks substantial testing. I’m unhappy that they don’t provide a update preference and application selection step in their retail installer, there’s literally no good reason they can’t do this. </p>
tag:wt.gd,2014:Post/technology-time-loss2019-10-12T01:45:57-07:002019-10-12T01:45:57-07:00Technology Time Loss<p>(This post was written a long time ago, I just tidied it up and putting it out now. It was so long ago that I am feeling bad I haven’t had a chance to visit my friend in many months.)</p>
<p>I spent last weekend up in Montreal with my friend. He’s a good friend and we’ve shared interest in technology over the years.</p>
<h3 id="some-background_3">Some background <a class="head_anchor" href="#some-background_3">#</a>
</h3>
<p>I guess it dates back to 2002 or 2003 we met when I was troubleshooting Linux issues on IRC. I was introduced to the IRC channel when seeking help compiling a kernel. Most of us there were Gentoo Linux users as this distribution was good to test emerging (pun intended) new software, drivers, and essentially provide early QA. </p>
<p>Anyways, we built up a neat little community and some of us maintained a few Linux kernel patchsets for new features and to work on CPU interactivity patches. The latter I became interested in because I had issues with music skipping on my system. Eventually I even got a patch merged into mainline and had recruiters hitting me up in high school. However, I wasn’t interested in relocating and for me this was a hobby. </p>
<p>That was a long time ago. I guess 15 years or so since I stopped working on patchsets.</p>
<h3 id="projects-now_3">Projects Now <a class="head_anchor" href="#projects-now_3">#</a>
</h3>
<p>One of the things my friend built was a custom access point for wifi. It basically runs a custom image he built on a Raspberry Pi. This is then hooked up to an external wifi adapter. It’s quite nifty and theoretically very secure and if I recall he firewalls out many things. Another thing he does is has a whitelist of MAC addresses and generates a different passphrase for every address. It takes a long time to provide guest access because the initramfs must be edited. Anyways we tried for my 2 phones and laptop and all but one phone worked.</p>
<p>There are similarities and differences toward our approach to things. We have had the same Macbook Pro. I got mine after him because he had the tenacity to work out the broken/weird stuff when using it on Linux. So I followed his base when building my system, and feel quite confident in knowing I had very good local security. (OpenPGP smartcard to unlock LUKS key for encrypted SSD).</p>
<p>However, I sold my MBP, went back to using a Thinkpad (and later a GPD Pocket), but this time on Windows.</p>
<h3 id="why_3">Why? <a class="head_anchor" href="#why_3">#</a>
</h3>
<p>Why indeed. I left Windows because it honestly sucked ass for my use case previously. One of the first times I went up to Montreal another friend from the IRC channel was visiting at the same time. He had a tiling window manager up on his Linux system. It blew my mind, I had to have it. So, I set up my system to have all my primary applications show at once without being covered by any other window. It was little stuff like this, Windows didn’t have. So I build really customized systems to do what I wanted them to do.</p>
<p>Using different stuff than the majority of the population causes problems. I was able to overcome most format interoperability issues without much trouble, but I would deal with format compatibility issues in going between Microsoft Office and LibreOffice, so my company eventually used Google Suite, which was great for having multiple people edit a file at once. However, it ran terrible on the browsers. Similarly, I chose Quickbooks Online to do our books, and it was the worst vendor choice I’ve ever made. Terrible, slow, expensive software that got worse with every passing year. </p>
<p>What do problems cause? Loss of time and money. Nobody wants to be stuck debugging crap constantly. I liked the repairability of Linux, but I’m stuck always tinkering. Windows I’ve had my long share of issues with, but I almost always know I’ve no chance of fixing the issues…. so I get a quick workaround and get through the day. Additionally since my clients also have similar problems I can make money telling them how to fix them. I can also spin up a new Windows system a lot faster than a heavily customized Linux system today. So that’s where I’m at, all my servers run on Linux, but my main system is currently Windows. I’m not happy with the lack of knowledge on what information is scraped from me under the surface but it works with multi-monitor setups, has a large amount of commercial and FOSS software, and works on my hardware. Additionally, finding ways to wrestle it into place is a lot more useful to others and it helps me make a living. </p>
<h3 id="plan-forward_3">Plan forward <a class="head_anchor" href="#plan-forward_3">#</a>
</h3>
<p>I have heard good things about KDE these days on Linux. I have a Raspbery Pi 4 I could use as a KDE desktop device. It’d likely work well, so it’s very possible I’ll move to using that as my new ‘desktop’ for focused work.</p>
<p>Focused work is something I’m going to strive to get closer to doing. Just practicing writing and putting out stuff is good for me. I ditched a lot of crappy vendors in the past few months and I have been streamlining my personal and professional workflows. I am intending to write about the ways I’ve done this on both my personal and company blog. This blog will be the more prolific, and less formal outlet. Please subscribe and share the content you like, I’ll adapt my writing to what gets the most kudos or whatever svbtle is doing these days.</p>
tag:wt.gd,2014:Post/writer2019-07-12T14:19:29-07:002019-07-12T14:19:29-07:00Writer<p><em>“So when’s your book coming out?”</em> Dave, a rando at the local pub asks.</p>
<p>I guess must show through that so much swirls through my head every day that should be put to down to text. There’s been a nagging feeling that I have to write, and I’m encouraged to do so by people that know me well. A book isn’t in the cards yet, I’m not well positioned enough to bang one out, though I’m likely qualified to write at least a few on some domain topics. </p>
<h3 id="where-have-i-been_3">Where have I been <a class="head_anchor" href="#where-have-i-been_3">#</a>
</h3>
<p>So it’s been probably very apparent that my goal to post a blog post or piece of writing every day starting in January wasn’t being achieved. There are reasons, some of them couldn’t be helped, that have been resolved recently. But I don’t want to run before I walk and writing in many ways, just like learning a language, is an exercise that improves by doing it regularly. </p>
<h3 id="i39m-a-generalist_3">I’m a generalist <a class="head_anchor" href="#i39m-a-generalist_3">#</a>
</h3>
<p>This is not a label I’ve come to accept easily and it comes with a lot of baggage. Basically, due to how my brain’s wired and what life has thrown at me, I adapted by being adaptable. I gathered as much knowledge across different topics as I could and never completed a specialized degree. I view every day as a learning experience and take on challenges that might be outside my comfort zone quite regularly. It’s good for solving weird problems that don’t fit a course curriculum, less good for building a traditional career. To survive, I have presided over a small technology consultancy for over 6 years and occasionally picked up side work from time when I needed a change of pace.</p>
<p>As time continues, I may continue to post about whatever I’m doing now, the thoughts I have about past experience, and whatever I think is going to come. I will do my best to make each post remain on a topic and I don’t think I will be releasing any sort of blog series for now. </p>
<h3 id="so-where39s-that-leave-the-content-of-this-bl_3">So where’s that leave the content of this blog? <a class="head_anchor" href="#so-where39s-that-leave-the-content-of-this-bl_3">#</a>
</h3>
<p>This is a personal scratchpad of things I can’t publish elsewhere; either because I know they’ll get buried and remain inaccessible or it just wouldn’t make sense to post in any other community or place (like my work blog). I want this to remain linkable and as minimal as possible. Right now money’s a little tight so I am in need of time conservation and a more intense focus on my income sources. By not having to spend my day stuck in discourse, I should be able to take on more work. </p>
<p>I hope to create things that are informative and interesting. Feel free to hit me up on Twitter if you stumble on this blog and have any questions/suggestions. I have come to view Twitter as an ephemeral medium, so I set my tweets to purge out monthly. Subscribe to the blog if you want updates on when I release new posts.</p>
<p>So please, walk with me down this path of words and we’ll see where the journey takes us. </p>
tag:wt.gd,2014:Post/writing-stuff2019-05-04T13:07:42-07:002019-05-04T13:07:42-07:00Books I’ve Read (for 2018)<p>In mid-2018 I began making an effort to expand the number of books I read. Phone and computer screen time I don’t count though I read a substantial amount of documentation and articles. List follows:</p>
<p>(Last updated November 4, 2018)</p>
<h2 id="for-2018_2">For 2018 <a class="head_anchor" href="#for-2018_2">#</a>
</h2>
<ul>
<li>Mikhail Bulgakov - Master and Margerita</li>
<li>Andy Weir - The Martian</li>
<li>Aldous Huxley - Brave New World</li>
<li>Kiril Yeskov - The Last Ringbearer</li>
<li>Frank Herbert - Dune</li>
<li>Dave Eggers - The Circle</li>
<li>Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five</li>
</ul>
<p>I probably read some more, but what was just what I remembered.</p>
tag:wt.gd,2014:Post/house-calls2019-02-01T22:55:04-08:002019-02-01T22:55:04-08:00House Calls<p>Ugh, February is here. Draft pile still growing, but I’m behind on my publishing commitment. Today I’m writing about me doing computer repairs. </p>
<h3 id="background-doing-repairs_3">Background Doing Repairs <a class="head_anchor" href="#background-doing-repairs_3">#</a>
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<p>I’ve told the story a few times, but when I was in grade school we had a computer class (as most schools do). One day in third grade I saw a system open and was interested in how it worked, so the teacher demonstrated it and invited me to work on some of the systems. My school was a small private one, and the equipment they had was hand-me-downs from local businesses, so we were around 5 years behind public and components broke a lot. To give you an idea, we were running Windows 3.11 on a Tokenring network (a predecessor to Ethernet) in 1997. </p>
<p>Before long, anytime a printer didn’t work or a system crashed and needed a new drive (and clone), I could work on it. The computer department gave me a hall pass I could use between classes and during recess, which was good because I fought nonstop with a bully and the school’s administration was not siding with me. If I didn’t have the pass to go work on computers, I likely would have been facing suspension. My bedroom started to look like an early 90’s computer store because I was allowed to take home computers to fix, basically any of the surplus I had free reign on.</p>
<p>I didn’t work a job in high school, so I didn’t have money to buy software. I ran Linux and when I needed to I figured out how to pirate anything commercial. This came with the added benefit of infecting my own systems a bunch of times and learning how to spot fake things, debug system issues, etc. I basically hung out on IRC and </p>
<h3 id="kept-doing-it_3">Kept doing it <a class="head_anchor" href="#kept-doing-it_3">#</a>
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<p>At a home-run web consultancy, I worked to build and maintain around 50 websites. We had 5 workstations in the office and my boss at the time really didn’t understand basic security protocol. We built things fast and only spent time maintaining sites if they frequently broke or the client complained enough. This meant that not only were sites getting infected, but the office workstations would get things like Vundo and TDSS, and I had to figure out how they worked and how to clean them up.</p>
<p>I kept working on reviving dead equipment and making systems work that people tossed as I moved into working at a startup. We wanted to limit expenditures that weren’t necessary to app development, so we cobbled together all sorts of systems for use as dev servers and workstations. It helped that I would occasionally contract in with a small MSP to do new system deploys. The companies getting new workstations would want the old systems to be disposed of, so we donated a ton to an internet cafe in Columbia and kept a bunch for our office. </p>
<p>Finally in 2015, I co-founded a MSP and worked to help develop and implement the initial processes for data management, disaster recovery, and customer support. I would leave the company in 2017, but still occasionally consult for difficult jobs. So, understanding how to make things work and how to provide for customer’s needs is something I am well versed in.</p>
<h3 id="brings-me-to-today_3">Brings Me To Today <a class="head_anchor" href="#brings-me-to-today_3">#</a>
</h3>
<p>I took a house call for a computer repair today. This isn’t a service I have advertised much of because it was never really something I intended to do fulltime. I take a few a year, generally for people really in need or ‘botched-job recoveries’. The job I took on today was for my childhood neighbors across the street. They were always cool to me, so I wanted to help them out.</p>
<p>In short, they had a system infection and called the first computer repair business they saw in the phone book.</p>
<p>Bad move. This was a sketchy nationwide franchise that fielded out local techs.</p>
<p>The guy showed up, did no assessment of what data needed to be saved. (for example: new techs assume cloud backups of things like email, but plenty of elder users rely on Outlook for management of old emails and their address book, it is critical this gets backed up). He then initiated a system reinstall from the factory disks, reformatted, and clean installed the system. My former neighbors had a secondary drive with ample space for an quarantined backup, he didn’t even save the Documents folder.</p>
<p>For this “service” he charged nearly $500, did not provide any details of the service he performed, and left them trying to pick up the pieces of their deleted digital existence. I have Piraform’s Recuva running overnight and hopefully I’ll be able to recover more than the handful of documents I was able to find before. I’m not feeling very confident it will find their pst file for Outlook or their address book. The entire thing leaves a real sour taste in my mouth because I don’t like to tell people ‘it’s unlikely I can help much’, but them’s the breaks I suppose. I’ll update this part tomorrow with how successful I was. **UPDATE 2/2/2018: Recovery was not successful. Fortunately they had their old computer in a closet, so I was able to recover their files up to December 2016. </p>
<p>A tech should inform the client whether the files were not recoverable (cryptolockers can cause this situation), their options. Some clients are totally cool with a ‘quick and dirty’ wipe system and reinstall. Others have irreplaceable family pictures and will pay the additional cost of a meticulous backup and data recovery. In all cases, I wouldn’t leave without at least implementing a backup strategy (ideally one offsite and one onsite). In my old neighbor’s case, they have a spare HDD in the system that everything could be set to backup to. I usually recommend OneDrive as a supplement for documents just in case they get hit with a cryptolocker (or house burns down).</p>
<p>Anyways, there are a lot of garbage techs out there that border on running scams. It’s decent money doing house calls and running MSP’s, I know. I’ve done it. But I’ve also interviewed a lot of really shitty people that talk about sleeping with their clients and <strong>actively setting up systems to fail</strong>. I’ve also seen what large brands charge for a ‘do everything for me’ service. Most aren’t willing to pay that. If possible, deal with someone local that has a storefront and either isn’t a franchise or is a localized one. Don’t hire randos from the phone book.</p>
<p>Oh well, until next time I guess. </p>
tag:wt.gd,2014:Post/revisiting-the-past-two-years2019-01-02T14:22:20-08:002019-01-02T14:22:20-08:00Revisiting the Past Two Years<p><em>I’m still catching up on posts. This is nonconsecutive and I wrote it on the 20th, but I’m going to publish this as it was on the 2nd, because future posts will add context.</em></p>
<p>Now that I’m in 2019, it feels like I’m looking for something different. I am not a salaryman, even though I draw a salary. Instead I’ve chosen to run a small company and for most of the decade that’s been fine. Looking back at the past two years I feel like I should begin offering different things and trying something new. </p>
<h3 id="2017_3">2017 <a class="head_anchor" href="#2017_3">#</a>
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<p>This was the year that changed things.</p>
<p>I ended up losing two friends in unrelated accidents. The first was my salesman Tristan. He passed away after having an accident doing lawn work. He was just beginning to branch out and was also interested in selling houses (he studied and received a realtor’s license). He was also active in government. I believe he was a week or two off from completing a bachelor’s degree. He was a member of the town’s school board since the age of 20 or so, once of the youngest elected people in the state. And all of a sudden, gone.</p>
<p>It was a complete surprise because out of people that knew him, he was one of the most lively people I’ve ever met. Tons of potential, lots of plans. We used to joke he’d have a yacht and a beautiful wife and would still be bubbly as all hell. In the end, all I could do was offer to build a site to remember him to his family, but as for making a post or a statement it didn’t feel like I had the authority to do it. I think about it a lot, and I am not sure whether it was correct to do that.</p>
<p>The other friend passed away a month later in a car accident. He was someone that realized change in his community like no other. There was a time when the majority of police officers could be trusted and he exemplified it. The guy wouldn’t even swear, he wanted to maintain that much of a positive image. He was one of the first friends I made in high school and while we ended up parting ways due to life leading us down different roads, we ran into each other a few times over the years. Even after we stopped running into each other I’d hear about him through police officers that did academy with him, talking about him being goofily ‘by-the-book’</p>
<p>Anyways, after these losses I stopped aggressively bidding on contracts for the company. Tristan was the opener on many new client contacts and I no longer felt like making a push for new services. I began to spend time trying to step back to do simpler work, because when you consult you always have to think about solving someone else’s problem, ultimately making their problems your own, and complicating your life for some money. </p>
<p>One of the real BS things I had to resolve this year was nonpayment from a client that happened to be an officer. It happens that clients run out of money or need extra time. Most tell us and we work with them. This guy just fell off the face of the earth. I mentioned before that my friend was something you don’t see anymore. I mean it. The industry has no oversight, good behavior is punished, and bad behavior is acceptable. He wanted to start a side company, which is something many officers do in NJ to supplement their pension money. Since he ghosted me, I took it to court and he resolved it. </p>
<p>A local taxi company contacted me as I was wrapping up a retiring client’s contract. I began to drive part time for them. Maybe it was that I don’t mind driving and had an insane level of driving experience for someone in my age range, maybe I just wanted away from the laptop for a bit. Perhaps it was the dilution of my company’s trademark by a certain ‘rideshare’ service that provided the inspiration. Regardless, I picked up doing it a few nights a week. </p>
<h2 id="2018_2">2018 <a class="head_anchor" href="#2018_2">#</a>
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<p>I don’t have too much to say about this year. Kept doing the same services with my company, Andrew stepped back a bit more to focus on a salaried position. I really only performed a handful of builds for the year, and supported existing applications on B2B clients. </p>
<p>I burned out sometime in Q3. </p>
<p>It was honestly a combination of things. My company has been under a constant onslaught of unemployment scammers filing claims they worked for us for the past 3 years or so. Most of the time I lose an hour and a stamp disputing the requests for separation but this year one of the unemployment offices approved claims being paid out to scammer. To get around this, I basically need to either create a new company and lose my credit contracts with Google or convert the company to a sole proprietorship and change its name (abandoning my trademark). The state has been less than helpful, and even the appellate court clerks tell us this sort of thing shouldn’t be possible. I really should write an in-depth guide in scamming NJ’s unemployment, because they don’t check anything and the consequences are minimal of caught. You too can ruin a small business owner’s life!</p>
<p>I had also co-founded a managed service provider in 2016. But by the end of 2017 I decided to terminate my minority ownership, as the president was going a bit ‘fast and loose’ with the books and the company was not heading in the direction we decided was mutually good. It was a mostly amicable break. 2018 I continued to consult with him to try to help him either sort it out or create a new organization, but he’s now in arrears with me so </p>
<p>Also, the first year Uber Motif was in business, our largest site build was this nightmare project Steve, the original CEO, managed. He resigned from the company with short notice and really intended us to fail due to the cost and time-frame of the project. We shipped it almost on time at a great cost to Andrew and I. It would ultimately be shelved some years later due to changing conditions with Google’s search algo. Our client decided to unshelf it around the same time everything was going down with me. It was just not good. </p>
<p>My physical health also took a nosedive around the same period of time, I finally thought I sorted my health insurance situation out, chose a doctor, and went to discuss an ADHD diagnosis and some pain I felt in my side. The doctor’s office wouldn’t process my insurance, the receptionist stole my credit card number, and the doctor diagnosed me with appendicitis and suspected absence seizures. I’m still trying to get a reimbursement out of my insurance co from August for this. ‘Murica, am I right?</p>
<p>I did finally manage to take a short break and went to Iceland with Katie I wrote about that a few months ago. That was a good trip, and the hope was that it would cure my issues around this time. Long story short, it did not. October I collapsed on supporting some of my existing clients, and it wasn’t for about a month that I could return to contacting existing clients. I was running things alone through this period and lost sight of keeping things simple.</p>
<p>I ended the year in the hospital due to the abdominal pain. I wanted to make it through Christmas with family, and I did. Hospital ruled out appendicitis and there was never a serious concern that I had absence seizures (I have about a half million miles of driving experience and no at-fault accidents since I was 17).</p>
<p>Once I got out of hospital, I picked up some sickness that Katie would later get, that kept us in and out of work for the next 2 weeks into 2019. Bad cold year I guess. We’re better now. There’s just a lot of cleanup that needs to be done. </p>
<p>Upcoming post will be about resolving some of the above.</p>
tag:wt.gd,2014:Post/a-blog-a-day2019-01-01T17:47:17-08:002019-01-01T17:47:17-08:00A Blog A Day<p>I set a bar for myself this year. Most years I pick difficult New Year’s Resolutions that I can at least follow in spirit, if not precisely. The goal this year is to publish a piece of writing per day. It’s just past two weeks in and this will be the first post I publish. I’m going to publish it as a New Year’s blog as it’s my blog and I can do whatever the fuck I want with it. </p>
<p>The goal here is not to obsess over quality, I expect there to be crap. This is an exercise for me to improve on per-topic posts and begin the discipline of regular posting. I do not intend for all of these posts to be published on my personal blog. A good number will go up on my company blog, and some may be released to other blogs/media. The point is to release it public. </p>
<p>Normally I wouldn’t make excuses for why I didn’t get this started within a few days of the New Year, but I had a good reason this year with being sick for around 3 weeks. The first illness put me in the hospital and I really didn’t get back to <em>work</em> until the second week of January, with much to catch up on. Future blogs will describe more of what’s going on, I expect the next couple to go up on my company blog at <a href="https://ubermotif.com/blog">https://ubermotif.com/blog</a></p>
<p>By putting this out there it will be a kick to get me to catch up and do this. </p>