I haven’t had to worry about insurance for a couple years now, my current employer had the best plan I’ve ever seen. Found out this week my company is being “merged” with another (aka, we’re being acquired) and our insurance costs are going to sky rocket. 😱😤😭 #Screwed #FirstWorldProblems

Ah, nothing like getting the rug pulled out from under you during the Holiday season @ work.

Burning the midnight oil, trying to hammer out a few more unit tests. 🥱

🔗 Global Microsoft Meltdown Tied to Bad Crowdstrike Update - Krebs on Security // krebsonsecurity.com

A faulty software update from cybersecurity vendor Crowdstrike crippled countless Microsoft Windows computers across the globe today, disrupting everything from airline travel and financial institutions to hospitals and businesses online.

The Crowdstrike issue is striking everywhere, two people on my Team can’t use their computers today…and I’m one of them. 😭😤

Friend of mine encouraged me to see if work offered bereavement leave…and they do, three days for a Grandparent. Rather lucky to have stumbled into working for this kind of company. 😁🥺 #MixedEmotions

Went to the office yesterday, in person, for the first time in over a year. No wonder I’m so exhausted today… 🤣 #WorkFromHome

I have a lovely cold and in the Daily Stand-Up today, the Product Owner suggested I sing “Smelly Cat” after the meeting. 🤣

As my position with my new employer is fully remote, I haven’t met the bulk of my co-workers in person. Truth be told, I’ve only met five other developers, along with one project owner…and to be completely honest, I knew three of them previously. 😆 Still, even with remote work, it’s good to get out of the house to be social with one’s coworker and that’s what I did today; we went for lunch at a local pub.

Of course, I say new but I’ve been with them since the end of June…but then, time is said to be in the eye of the beholder… 🤷🏼

Side note, if you look up in the upper left corner of the photo, you’ll see that my co-worker has Pokemon Go on his phone…the owner of said phone is rather obsessed with that game. 😄

Note: This post is from my old site and was ported over into Micro.Blog when I consolidated from two sites into one. All of the migrated posts can be found here.

Being rather lazy on a Saturday, snuggling with the puppy, watching The Nanny, and finagling with my new/old computer (a log story for another time)…and realized it’s been a rather long time since I posted anything here…

It’s been an interesting six months since my last last post:

• Turned in my notice to my new-ish position (the one I left my old position for, I lasted just ten months; there is a gigantic backstory there…
• Celebrated my Grandma’s 100th birthday (that women’s memory is truly impressive, she was regaling all of us with stories from her early childhood)
• Started a new position with a consulting firm (I’ve been there for a little over a month and it’s been a fantastic experience thus far)
• Went on vacation to Michigan
• My partner tested positive for Covid-19…and thus we spent a week and a half isolating at home, wearing masks as often as able
• Started with a new client and an a truly massive amount of computer issues (they ended up sending me a second computer, the Help Desk techs couldn’t even remote into the first one)

Of course, each of these could be their own post / entry / page…and perhaps they will be some day…

Side-note: The Nanny was one of my favorite television shows as a child. In fact…and I might be dating myself here…but I would watch Fran in the afternoon whenever I stayed home sick from school. 😁

It’s still is one of my favorite shows. 😆

Note: This post is from my old site and was ported over into Micro.Blog when I consolidated from two sites into one. All of the migrated posts can be found here.

It isn’t often you’re able to test redundancy in your home set up but today, my power went out. I was in the middle of a meeting, sharing application support information with my current development team, when suddenly the lights went out in the basement (my home office is in the basement). At first, I was completely confused…all the lights had gone out, but my monitor was still on…? I stopped the meeting, interrupting our business analyst, in compete shock and bewilderment, asking if they could still hear me.

It was only then I realized I had batteries for most of my computers…which is when my power supply started beeping at me.

A long time ago (I’m not going to say when because a lady never tells his age), I bought a battery on a lark from newegg.com and used it solely for my modem and router. Back then, the apartment I lived in suffered semi-frequent power outages (the building was over 100 years old) and didn’t want to be slaughtered in the middle of a raid (we can talk about my World of Warcraft addiction another time, dear reader). The battery turned out to be a smashing success and life / gaming went on.

A few years down the road from the first purchase I bought a new battery; I needed a bit more oomph, as I’d acquired more gear and equipment. The old one was still holding up but starting to show its age: where once it could keep the internet connection alive for a couple hours, by then I was lucky to get 45 minutes out of it. So, I bought a new one and put almost all my equipment on it (including the new server I’d acquired…but that is a story for another time). The original battery was kept for my work set up: computer, monitor, etc.

Back to the present…it turns out the local power company was outside my house, switching out my meter. With no notice and just one knock at the door, they took out the old one and put in a new one. I really would have appreciated some advance notice but why would a monopoly care about its customers? Still, it’s nice to know my batteries are still working!

So, the moral of the story: make sure you have your internet equipment and computers on a battery backup…especially if you’re in constant meetings during the last two weeks of your employment.

Note: This post is from my old site and was ported over into Micro.Blog when I consolidated from two sites into one. All of the migrated posts can be found here.

All good things must come to an end…and thus, I’ve just turned in my two weeks' notice to my current employer. I’ve grown so much as both a person and a developer…and I’ve met some incredible people but it’s time to move on. It’s a rather bittersweet feeling, leaving a place where you’ve spent so much time and energy but as I said, all good things must come to an end.

Note: This post is from my old site and was ported over into Micro.Blog when I consolidated from two sites into one. All of the migrated posts can be found here.

We (my employer) recently parted ways with a development vendor and yesterday I was combing through various repositories, cleaning up the nightmare that was their branching strategy (or lack thereof) when I stumbled across this little gem:

Two thought immediately popped into my head:

• Why would you hard-code credentials into your application?
• Why wouldn’t you have stronger credentials right off the bat?

I have to take some of the accountability here; as the Lead at my company, code quality falls within my realm of responsibility. Thankfully, this commit never made it out of the Development branch…but it’s all to easy to imagine this sort of problem making it’s way up the chain, into Production. Honestly, I never thought I’d have to add “do NOT hard-code credentials” into our guidelines for new developers but then, I’ve been wrong about a lot of things in my career… 😄

On a lark, I took my Mac down the hall to our cyber security expert and asked her to spot the problem. It took her all of ten seconds to start laughing. Once she was able to stop giggling, she offered two bits of advice:

1. Stash this sort of issue in your “this is bad code” file to show to junior developers as a teachable moment.
2. Look into something called SonarQube to help automate the detection of potential security issues in source code.

It’s an old, tired stereotype that developers hate interacting with security folks but every time I talk with our cyber security expert, I get homework…and that’s an absolutely wonderful thing; when we stop learning, we start to degrade.

Note: This post is from my old site and was ported over into Micro.Blog when I consolidated from two sites into one. All of the migrated posts can be found here.