My phone rings, I glance at it and contemplate answering. It rings a second time and I reach for the handset, then, just as suddenly as it began the ringing stopped and I was left in peace. I smiled to myself and continued what I was doing. No robocalls today! Bringing my phone into the Matrix Those of you who are regular followers of this blog will know that I have fully embraced Matrix as my chat platform of choice. While Matrix is a fantastic standalone product that offers exceptional features like federation, end-to-end encryption and the ability to self-host; Continue Reading
technology
Fun with FAXes
In my years of working in IT and technology I’ve never heard of anyone who considered dealing with FAXes “fun.” Most of the time my fellow sysadmins react to FAX tickets with either terror because they’re too young to have experienced the technology, or with absolute disgust as they remember the old-days of troubleshooting with buttsets, tone generators and termination blocks. Nevertheless, one day when digging through a box of old electronics I found a USB FAX modem, and decided to see if I could resurrect this old technology get it working in a modern environment. So what is a Continue Reading
Shenanigans with Servers in the Middle of the night
At an hour when any reasonable person should have been asleep, I found myself sitting in front of a closed gate at a datacenter on the outskirts of Vancouver. While I waited for my friend to return with access cards, I heard a beeping sound, almost like an alarm, and the gate began to move. It was about 1:30 in the morning and I was sitting in a car with my roommate outside the Cologix datacenter in Vancouver helping a friend move servers. Why? Because, well, I’m not really a “normal” person and this is what passes for entertainment in Continue Reading
Getting Chipped – The Story of my NFC Implant
I climb the concrete steps of the parking garage and walk the 100 ft length of the second floor to the Western wall. About halfway along I find myself in front of a metal door, a card reader to my left. I wave my hand in front of the reader and smile as the LED turns green and the door clicks open – no badge required. NFC Implants The door opening trick wasn’t a slight of hand, nor was it a faulty sensor. It was the end result of a high tech upgrade my body had received days prior; an Continue Reading
Running Linux on the Desktop
“Have you heard the good news?! 2021 is the year of the Linux Desktop!” This is, of course, the line that I have been hearing for more then a decade; ever since Dell started shipping laptops with the option of having pre-installed Ubuntu in 2007. Since then, Linux affectionadios have been shouting from the rooftops about how “this year will be the year that Linux breaks into the consumer desktop market.” While Linux has thus far failed to break into the consumer market in a large way, it has been steadily gaining device share over the years. With Steam announcing Continue Reading
Review of the Iridium GO!
Have you ever found yourself out in the middle of nowhere, just wishing you had an Internet connection to the outside world? Well, if you’re at all normal, the answer is probably no, but if you’re like me then the prospect of being out of touch for any length of time is actually quite terrifying (Yes, I know. I have a problem). Recently I found myself planning for a camping trip in the mountains of British Columbia, one which would likely take me off grid for a length of time. While a lot of people might relish the thought of Continue Reading