Todays ride was my longest so far this year, only 56k so not a monster one but the fabulous weather definitely encouraged me to keep going. In a change from my normal approach I also decided to just point in a direction and ride instead of following my usual routes. I intend...
Enjoying the evenings in the UK while the current period of unseasonably warm weather continues. Happened across Neal.Fun and found an hour had passed very quickly… You have been warned.
Today marked the end of the main programme of work I was originally employed to work on in my current job. After three and a half years we have finally completed the transition to a single M365 tenant, a single IT support partner and a common Enterprise network (albeit that part is still two seperate infrastructures built to the same standard on the same Fortinet kit.)
After starting with half a dozen outsourced services we are now managing our IT service internally with the support of a primary IT partner, a field services partner and a managed security partner.
Now starts the next phase of our journey to build on this base layer and start to leverage what we have to get us through Cyber Essentials+ certification.
A moderately warm and sunny Sunday at the end of February and perhaps a light at the end of the Winter tunnel ?
The rain and chill of the last few weeks broke for a short time today providing a tempting glimpse into the not too distant future of warmer days as we head towards Spring. Can’t come soon enough
Mac Mini Upgrade
I have just ordered a new external NVMe dock as my current Beelink Mate mini has started making a fan noise which is annoying me. I have ordered a UGREEN Fanless enclosure which should of course be silent… Will see how it compares.
The modern web is a souless place. Henry suggests a better alternative, an alternative some of us who have been here a long time recall and aspire to… The personal blog site…
Aerospace is my new favourite macOS app….
My daily work involves a LOT of open browsers and applications (Word, Excel etc) and finding a way to navigate the many browser windows/tabs and applications has been an ongoing journey. Along the way I have used BetterTouch Tool, Ke...
A new favourite utility app for MacOS is Moves by Mikkel Malmberg. Moves is a very simple app that allows you to move and resize windows without mousing to the corners of the app or the top of the app window. Just point anywhere in the app window and press the move or re-size hotkey set in the app (I am using Command+Shift for Move and Option+Shift for resize) and move the mouse to drag or resize that app. Simple but really nice.
Today is the final day of my week long training course (CISSP) with The Knowledge Academy. It has been a bit of a slog to be honest, 750 slides over five days means not an awful lot of time for interaction with fellow students. Add to that the fact that of the 14 candidates ...
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As much as I would love to be an expert in web design and publishing I have to admit I am not. The outcome of which is that I fairly regularly run into issues with this site as I did last night. The last two posts (before...
The frustration of being an Apple enthusiast that doesn’t live in the UK means often missing out on the latest features, or getting them months or years after Americans do….
Car parking payment apps are the worst… Or at least most of them are.
APCOA Connect is the latest example of crapware that I was required to register with earlier today. Arriving in Letchworth for business the only suitable car park I could find was outside the train station...
Came across this annoying bug with Calendar sync on macOS today. I use the excellent utility Dato on my MacBook to ensure I don’t miss any meetings, but this afternoon I noticed a meeting in my Outlook calendar that wasn’t appearing in Dato.
At first I assumed this was a rep...
I am in Scarborough today for a site visit to one of our new services to spec out the requirements for their network. I arrived last night after a four hour drive and will probably be on site for half an hour today before starting the return four hour drive home. A long way ...
Today we had a day at our local National Trust property, Dudmaston Hall. The weather was pleasant for a change and combined with the Easter Holidays it meant that the grounds and the house were pretty busy.
New Macbook day
After much deliberation I finally ordered a new M3 MacBook Air from Amazon last week after I spotted a 16Gb/512Gb version going for £100 off list price. I am not sure why this model was available as Amazon typically only have the 8Gb versions available. There...
12th Jan means my birthday and another year under the bridge of life…
Today started with a walk to the Hundred Acre Kitchen for coffee and sausage and egg sandwiches with Vel. This evening we are going to the Red House for more food and probably a few drinks too. Tomorrow I ...
Ending 2023 with a longer ride and another route completion (Sugar Cookie in Watopia).
According to my Veloviewer account (which I had fogotten I had and noticed just now that it runs out in 3 days) this year was back to my 2019 levels which is to say the worst it has been for 4 years. Nothing I didn’t already know but it does show that I have been lax this year and need to make more of an effort in 2024.
My first event of the year is now booked. I have a target to aim for, 2nd June and the 100k (Medium) Poppy Ride starting at Lilleshall. My event page is here if you would like to donate to a really good cause.
Whether you’re taking your first spin in the cycling world or you’re a seasoned pro, Poppy Ride offers three professionally designed routes - each catering to different skill levels.
Tinkering today and I noticed that while my MacBook is asleep with power off the battery is draining pretty quickly. I have to admit that I did spot this a while ago but clearly didn’t do anything to trace the issue or try to resolve it. Today I am going to run a test and wi...
After all the effort and cost another christmas is now all but done and before you know it we will all be back at our desks into another year of work. Feeling over indulged I am starting to think about new years resolutions and in particular how to get back to regular exerci...
Finished sorting my office today and am really happy with how it looks now. I spend a lot of time in here so its important for me that I have a nice environment to work in. The addition of a few led light strips and a clear out of some of the clutter has improved the aesthet...
Morning Run
First longish run for a long time this morning. Dropped Vel’s car at the garage for a service then run home. Felt pretty slow but looking at the total time and distance it actually wasn’t too bad. I enjoy running when I am doing it regularly and I can get to a de...
I am taking a few days leave for half term this week so today was busy busy busy…
This morning started with a quick ride on stage 5 of Tour of Watopia (Canopies and Coastlines). This route started with the Titans Grove KOM reverse before taking in the new Watopia coastal roa...
This afternoons Zwift ride was a toughy… At the start or the current Zwift Portal Climb for La Laguna Negra my estimated time to summit was hovering between 42 and 45 minutes. With that in mind I started spinning my way towards the top at a fairly consistent rate but with an eye on the segment details which showed the average gradient of the last segment as 10.1% !
As I approached section 10 I was feeling a little less than fresh but still on track for a time of around 43 minutes but this last section really was tough. In my lowest gear and standing up on the pedals I was slowed to crawl but at this point being beaten was not an option.
Its fair to say I was very pleased to see the summit banner and the pool of sweat on the floor was a good indicator of how hard this climb was.
Glad to have another portal climb in the bank though.
Yesterday the Online Safety Bill was taken through the House of Lords for the final time. On this reading the contentious requirement for companies such as Apple, Meta, Signal to provide a “backdoor” into the end to end encryption of messages that would allow the government ...
TriRig are an American company who specialise in aero parts for triathlon bikes but in this video they show off an amazing looking machine that weighs just 3.6kg. Quite a feat especially when you consider this is a fully functional bike, although I think that saddle looks a little less than comfortable.
Over my years working in IT I have enjoyed dabbling with building web sites, starting way back in the early days with Dreamweaver through the early days of Wordpress, Drupal and a few other CMS’s and more recently with static site generators such as Jekyll and finally Hugo w...
Last weeks ride couldn’t have been more different from todays. I wasn’t sure I would get time to go out this afternoon but when the opportunity of a quick hour circuit raised its head I didn’t wait for it to pass by.
I know I am really lucky to be near enough to quiet country lanes that I dont need to plan ahead to get my bike in the car and drive to a starting point and the North Shropshire countryside has some really enjoyable cycling.
My route today was only 40K but this was enough enough to blow the cobwebs away and get me ready for a week at the home office.
Gallery
Traws Eryri is a new 200km off road across the North of Wales through the Snowdonia National Park. It starts at Machynlleth and ends in Llandudno and includes 4,000m of climbing. It looks fabulous and I would love to find the time to do this.
A wet ride
I should have gone with my gut this afternoon when I was planning a short ride. Just before I set off the clouds opened and it poured down. I had just checked on my weather app and it did say no rain so I decided it was just a short downpour and I should go for it...
