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I’m a problem solver.
I design systems and build solutions.

 

Current featured post: A New Side Quest

Derek++

I have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and I'm sure it will be my undoing. It has resulted in many unfinished projects and unmet expectations. I have come to terms with the fact that it is not possible for me to know everything. However, knowing…

And then there was one

I can't help but feel like I have been inadvertently getting prepared for what happened this weekend. As I gear up for travel, I was running through my checklist of things to take care of. One of these things was my laptop that likes to…

HyperXenBox at home

I needed another linux server ... I needed to test some new hardware to stay up to date ... I wanted to play with a new toy and I may be traveling soon, so it has to be compact. I decided on the Intel® NUC Kit D54250WYKH and ordered…

VPNs and simple mistakes

Quick note here - hopefully this will show up in someone's Google search. I was having issues getting my VPN service to connect. I was about to contact support when I decided I should check the log. I'm glad I did, as the error was…

The Happy (technological) Medium

It seems that in any industry, there are those who want to invent and those who want to commoditize these inventions. One person creates a new technology or service, and another (or sometimes the same person) then quickly finds a way to turn it into profit.

Technology, necessities, and nice-to-haves

It seems there has always been an initial purpose for a technology to be created, and then we find out many other uses for it afterwards. In this technological upswing some call the information age it seems that it can be broken into two main categories:…

Next Steps

Great news! I've been accepted into ADN! It's amazing how overwhelming the possibilities are. I have access to all the software and the ideas just keep coming. I don't know where to start, to be honest. I'm sure I'll do something soon though. I'm still…

Getting Started...

I'm looking to get a jump-start on this whole post-college, world-exploring, idea-generating mayhem. I've found a few programs (which I've applied for) that should help me along the way. Microsoft has a thing called BizSpark for start-ups to get free access to MSDN. This is similar…

Learn to recover your own data - Keep your files and your money!

We all have files we care about on our computers. Maybe it's pictures of your kids, work documents, school documents, whatever. I won't go into too much detail about how you should keep your files backed up. Obviously if you had done that, you wouldn't…

Single Sign-on to JIRA with SiteMinder

So you've been using JIRA, it's going well - and now you want to move away from the default internal directory or the built-in LDAP support. This may be because you've outgrown it, because you want easier sign-on, or because there's been a shift in…