No, Public Mobile, It Doesn’t Work That Way

Public Mobile is a Telus-owned low cost and possibly self-service phone carrier in Toronto. Over the lifetime of my interaction with their service for most of this year. I’ve noted a number of failures and difficulties worth thinking of if you’re interested in a phone company or switching. Be warned, Public Mobile is a phone carrier to avoid in 2017.

Apple’s September 2017 Event

Today, Apple’s event heralded a number of firsts. The first to happen that the Steve Jobs Theatre. The first to be almost completely spoiled by leaks, and the first to introduce a phone starting at $999US. Apple was also expected to do but things in augmented reality and include wireless charging. I watched the event and here are my thoughts on what’s coming with Apple. 

Kevin’s Camera Bag

All (or some) of this gear is used for the photographs you currently see on this site. Often I have to borrow to get some of what’s listed, but when I’m fully stocked, I have all of this gear to work with: Main Camera: Sony A7r II (Amazon) – My preferred camera for a number […]

Your Guide to the Confusing Microsoft Office 2016 ‘My Account’ Service and How to Take Control

You might have wondered why licensing Retail versions of Microsoft Office 2016 on Windows has become so cumbersome and clunky and confusing? Why does Microsoft force a login to install and activate Office?  Why is this service so bad at showing information and handling more than one installation? If fact, if you have more than one retail copy of Office to install and activate on the same account, you’re in for serious confusion. I can’t answer all these questions, but I’ll show you how to fix this mess so you can install Office and move on.

The incredible story of a spurned IT consultant

The unusual story of Jim Kubicek, an IT consultant and business owner in Cumming, Georgia captured my attention recently. Due to a disagreement with the Cumming-Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce having unpaid bills, Jim’s company KIT cut off its services. What followed was the local Sheriff charging Jim with “theft by extortion”, “computer theft”, and “computer trespass”. All of these felonies could conceivably see Jim spending 45 years in jail. Incredibly, this is a small town with a population of 5,613, so I’d expect people like Jim are known to a large number of people in his local area. This is becoming a far-too-common cautionary tale we can learn from.

One Year of Newsletters: Lessons Learned

Last year I had an idea: Create a really, really high quality newsletter. Reading technology related news is a daily and rigorous ritual for me, so why not take that effort and synthesize it into a curated list of “What to Read”? Many others are doing this, of course, but I felt the value for readers was to get it from your trusted technical advisor (I manage technology for a number of small and medium sized businesses). For many years this voracious appetite for news and information was only for myself, but I knew it was time to change that. Time to share this with the world.

Building a Better Mousetrap: Can Craigslist and Kijiji be Improved Upon?

The story is all too common: I go onto Kijiji (a Canadian Craigslist clone) and find what I had been looking for: an iPad. I see the post’s price and presume it’s an “anchor” price, so I start off asking if the device is available and if they’d take a lower number. What follows is finding out the iPad posting was misrepresented as a “personal” sale, when in fact it was a business selling the product at a firm price, quoted without tax. Another asshole muddying what’s known as the “grey” market for the rest of us. Too many of these types of experiences, and you start to wonder if this can ever be improved past this level of failed experiment.

Book Review: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

You might remember my mention of a way to help book authors combat piracy. It was an idea borne of a small simple conversation with a friend; and neither of us had read the book. In fact, at the time of writing that book, I had not read a physical paper book in years. This seemed like a great way to exchange ideas and help the author in our own small way (though, frankly as a bestseller, this book doesn’t need the help). Now that I’ve read it, I wanted to let you know what I think.

Watermarking and Captioning Photos

By now you’ve probably noticed the photos I share have two distinct attributes. First, none of them are watermarked with a name, company or otherwise. Second, the photos come with titles and (relatively) long captions. Furthermore, I work to give you access to the highest possible resolution of each photograph. Why? I’ll fill you in on my process, and offer some tips about what you should do both of these very contentious ideas in photography.

Review of the Macbook Pro Late 2016 (Touch Bar)

This 2016 Macbook Pro refresh has been a long time coming. Since May of 2015, in fact. My last computer was a Retina Macbook Pro (2015) with reasonably similar specifications, which stood as the previous model, but due to this massive re-design, a far different computer. Over Christmas 2016, I took the plunge and decided to go with this high quality (but recently beleaguered) line of laptop in my on way (as an I.T. Professional).