Category: Personal

In football there are free-kicks so superbly taken that commentators will say the goalie had no chance. The ball was so perfectly arced into the top right corner that there was nothing the hapless keeper could have done to stop it. What brings me to this? A trouble-shooting scenario where the issue was so deviously constructed – albeit not on purpose – that it felt […]

Long ago, I used to work on DEC OpenVMS systems. VMS was an elegant, logically constructed operating system which made the messiness of Unix and Linux a shock when I encountered it. For example, I can still remember the commands to check the disks, system and memory on VMS. When you see what they are you realise it’s not a great feat of recall on […]

I have worked with many IT engineers over the years and they’ve all been delightful, engaging people. They’ve told me about the types of engineers they’ve encoutered and I’ve passed on their descriptions below: The Unengaged Engineer Often an intelligent individual with wide-ranging interests from Sumerian numismatics to hot air ballooning but none whatsoever for doing the job they’ve been hired to do. They will […]

Most commercially available stories we read, hear or view are of exceptional or fantastical events but few of us experience these regularly. In contrast to this, I have been reading ‘The Wrench’ by Primo Levi which celebrates the day-to-day work experiences of a rigger: a man who assembles cranes and bridges. My everyday work is in IT and this is an area that does not […]

I was taking the SCS-C01 – AWS Certified Security exam today using Pearson Vue’s Online Proctoring . Beforehand, I used their tool to check my machine was to their liking and everything was looking hunky-dory. Following the process outlined in the program I’d downloaded from their website I did the following: cleared the room of any materials that may have unfarily assisted me in my […]