Communication Tip: The Power of Named Chats
In many organizations, natural communication pathways start to form. Something happens or information needs to be sent out or a decision needs to be made, an...
All Posts
- 2024 15
- 2023 7
- 2022 5
- 2021 14
- 2020 35
- 2019 18
- 2018 11
- 2017 4
- 2016 7
- 2015 18
- 2014 8
- 2013 15
- 2012 57
- 2011 35
- 2010 12
2024
ICMYI: Featured on Microsoft Learn Contributor Stories!
Microsoft was kind enough to feature me in a Microsoft Learn Contributor Story!
How to Run Docker-based .NET apps in JetBrains Rider Without “Fast Mode”
In most cases, containerized .NET apps run just fine “out of the box”. IDEs such as Visual Studio and JetBrains Rider provide a helpful experience called “Fa...
How To: Test Logging when Using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging and Serilog
There are a lot of different ways to test logging, and quite a few opinions about how to do so. I recently found what feels like a very pleasant approach for...
Beautiful .NET Test Reports Using GitHub Actions
I know some folks who would like to move to GitHub Actions from Azure DevOps, but would really miss the “Test View” that Azure DevOps provides. Let’s see if ...
Tips for Getting Un-Stuck on a Blogging Journey
…if I may be so bold as to offer those.
How to Write a Successful Job Description for a Developer Role
I got a surprising amount of positive feedback on a job description I wrote recently, both internally and from candidates. So, I figured I’d write up my proc...
Shrink Your Meeting “Feedback Loops”
How I committed to making meetings better.
How to Set up Netlify Deploys for Docfx using GitHub Actions
We currently use docfx to publish the NUnit docs, because it has a lovely capability of generating docs for our API reference in addition to all our articles.
I Built a Tiny Tool for 1-on-1 Meeting Topics!
Just a quick announcement: I built https://1on1.help as a tiny tool to help source questions & topics for one on one meetings.
A Reflection: 6 Months in my New Position
Taking stock.
Creating and Modeling “Sensible Happy Paths” for Software Team Success
Happy paths compound over time.
My Current Approach To Software Delivery
As I prepare to onboard two new developers today (exciting!), part of the conversation will inevitably be around orienting them to my current philosophy of d...
Tips to Help Yourself Stand Out During a Tech Job Search
I recently just powered through a bunch of applications for some roles I had open. As a hiring manager, I want to mention some simple things that can set you...
How I Created an Automated (and Humane!) Hiring Process Using Jira
My employer, SCT Software, is a small company of around 50 people. We needed to hire 2 developers, and we wanted to do it all in-house. Beyond the economics ...
2023
The Power of Thinking About “The Thing After the Thing”
I’ve long been a fan of The Phoenix Project, and grateful for the ways its introduced so many to DevOps culture and practices. One of my favorite personal “a...
How I Use Trello as a “Continuous Travel Packing List”
We recently got back from a big trip, and that reminded me I’ve been meaning to publish a tip on how Trello has saved me a lot of time and hassle around trav...
My Next Adventure: Joining SCT Software as VP of Innovation & Products!
I’m very happy to announce that starting today, I’m joining SCT Software as VP of Innovation & Products! 
My Process for Reviewing Pull Requests
I often do a lot of code reviews and pull request reviews. As a follow-up to my article on submitting pull requests, I wanted to talk about how I review them...
On Moq and our Part in the OSS Sustainability Social Contract
Let they who are without OSS sin cast the first stone. Let’s look inward on OSS sustainability issues.
My Process for Submitting Pull Requests
I’ve been asked a lot of times about my process for submitting pull requests, so I figured I’d write it up!
How To Specify Pairs of Items in GitHub Actions Matrix Strategies
Came across this and wasn’t aware of it (though it makes total sense in retrospect), so I figured I’d pass the tip along.
2022
Introducing TF WhatsUp, a Tool for Better Terraform Notes
Scratching a development itch to make Terraform provider upgrades easier.
My #hacktoberfest Theme: Adding Spellcheck to Docs. Join Me!
Systematizing OSS contributions, and steps for you to jump in.
Extracting VA Townhall Comments on Youngkin’s Reversed School Protections for Transgender Students
Analyzing Reactions, and providing a little of my own.
.NET OSS Maintainer Support Survey – The Results!
The results are in. Where do we go from here?
Hot off the Press: The .NET OSS Maintainer Support Survey!
Learning what maintainers need most, so we can take action.
2021
Ensuring Santa’s Success With Automated Tests (C# Advent 2021)
An exploration of TDD in the spirit of the season.
Santa Sleigh: xUnit Edition
Solving our C# Advent 2021 challenge using the xUnit framework.
Santa Sleigh: NUnit Edition
Solving our C# Advent 2021 challenge using the NUnit framework.
How to Keep a VM / Desktop “awake”
A little AutoHotkey goes a long way.
How to Use a Macro to Shorten Link Text in Google Sheets
Google Sheets is a phenomenal tool for group collaboration, but occasionally I wish it could do a little bit more. Recently, I had 400+ links with their ful...
How to Disable GitHub Actions in a Forked Project
Some GitHub repositories have GitHub Actions with helpful automation. Because actions are stored in the .github folder within a codebase, they come over alon...
How to Use GitHub Codespaces With Your docfx Project
A little over a year ago, we re-launched the NUnit docs site using the docfx project. Since then, we’ve built out the workflow a bit – adding spell-checking,...
How To: Use Azure AD Powershell to Work With Extension Properties (User Attributes)
Recently I worked on a project that involved working with Azure Active Directory B2C. As part of the Azure AD set up, we had created some extension propertie...
How To Automate AWS CloudFront Distribution Folder Changes When Deploying a Static Web Site
I was working on a project that deployed its UI, an Angular site, to an S3 bucket that was then placed behind CloudFront.
How to Use Custom Comparers in NUnit
Occasionally, you may need to compare objects in an automated test. Perhaps you have a complex sort of comparison that you’d like to check, or adding the com...
Announcement: Introducing FlavorsOf.NET!
I’d received more than a few questions about the naming and differences between .NET Framework, .NET Core, .NET 5, Mono, Xamarin, etc.
Solved: .NET 5 “SEC_ERROR_INADEQUATE_KEY_USAGE” in Firefox
Ran across an issue I had to fix where a .NET 5 application, which happened to be running in a Docker container (this ended up being irrelevant), couldn’t st...
Adding Spell Checking to my Blog’s Build Process with GitHub Actions and cSpell
I’m always worried I’ll have a typo in my blog posts, and I suspected I had a few lying around in these pages. I don’t like that, so I decided to fix it and ...
How to Force git to Prompt You For a Password
A fun git challenge! I had to make a request against a remote repository in git. The only issue is that only a shared GitHub account had access, not my own a...
2020
Adding Markdown Linting to my Blog’s Build Process with GitHub Actions and markdownlint
I’ll confess, reader. My markdown formatting was messy. I don’t like messy, so I decided to fix it and automate it.
How to Clean up a Messed up MP3 Library With Metatogger
Metatogger is my favorite .NET app of the week after it helped me recover my Mother-in-Law’s MP3 collection. I figured I’d talk a little bit about how I used...
Utilizing Bogus with the Builder Pattern for better Mocks
I was recently working with the excellent Octokit.NET library for working with GitHub, and like many developers, I needed to write a test.
Solved: Chromecast “Source not Supported” Error When Attempting to Cast
A Chrome flag does the trick.
What does the “runs-on” machine type of a GitHub Action mean?
Received a really good question recently and I thought I’d post the result here.
Using Calendly to Run Remote Coaching Sessions
A little while back, as part of a client assignment, I ran some remote one-on-one DevOps coaching sessions for a group of about 30 people. This was newer ter...
Quick Tip: A Keyboard Shortcut to Start a Taskbar App as an Administrator
I can’t believe I hadn’t come across this yet! Posting in case you can benefit from it, too.
Cool things I learned about NUnit while re-launching the docs
While porting the NUnit docs to a new, modern web site I had a great opportunity – to actually read a ton of the docs!
Getting Started With PowerShell Core in Windows Terminal
I believe in scripting and automation, and I have come to love PowerShell for its eloquence, especially in a Windows environment.
How to Contribute to OSS Projects When You’re Unfamiliar With Their Code
It can seem daunting, but there are some ways in.
From the AMA: “How do you find/make time to stay productive?”
I run an ongoing AMA (ask me anything) on GitHub where folks can drop questions. Give it a try! Occasionally I’ll post topics here that I think a wider audie...
Random Thoughts: Considerations Around Web Scraping
It’s risky, and you need to know what you’re doing.
Announcement: I am Now the Lead for the NUnit Docs Project!
An OSS journey with a fun result.
When does it make sense to use containers in a development workflow?
Inspired by Immo Landwerth’s tweet:
Building my Jekyll blog with Ubuntu on WSL2
The steps weren’t entirely obvious to me so I thought I’d write about it here for others who are newer to that ecosystem.
From the AMA: “How did you become a Microsoft MVP?”
I run an ongoing AMA (ask me anything) on GitHub where folks can drop questions. Give it a try! Occasionally I’ll post topics here that I think a wider audie...
Solved: Blazor IdentityServer 500.30 Error (ANCM Issue)
Ran into this this issue while hacking on a problem with my Dad, Jim Killeen. (Side note: looking at tech stuff with my Dad remains one of my great joys in l...
How to: Move Azure Resources into another Azure AD
I recently completed some work for a client. The work had been done within my company’s Azure org, but I wanted to ensure the client had full control of thei...
Solved: .NET Core Azure AD in Docker Container Incorrectly Uses a non-https redirect URI
I’ve hit this problem several times and only recently figured it out.
How to rename your default branch away from master while using GitHub pages
There’s been some discussion lately about the term master for a branch as insensitive and a term that can make others feel uncomfortable and rise to the leve...
Thoughts on the .NET Foundation’s Revised Election Process
Updated: This post has some updates to include responses from Claire, which were helpful and clarifying in several instances below.
Announcement: Now on Twitch!
I’ve been starting to stream on Twitch.
Fix: Azure DevOps “An image does not exist locally with the tag”
I was working on a livestream recently when I ran into an issue attempting to push a docker container to a private registry in Azure DevOps.
How to: Use AzureSignTool to sign files with Azure DevOps using a certificate in Azure Key Vault
Automated code signing for fun and (hopefully someday) profit.
Fix: Logitech Touchpad T650 not Working on Windows 10
Logitech is probably my favorite peripheral maker of all time. Recently I remembered that I had a T650 touchpad that I hadn’t used in a long time and I decid...
How to: Create a PowerShell alias with parameters
I was recently asked how to create a PowerShell command alias that accepts parameters.
How to: Set up a new Windows laptop quickly (with some prep and tooling beforehand)
I recently got a new laptop (which is incredible! and which I’ll do another post on shortly.) Shout-out to my employer, Excella, who picks up 80% of the cost...
Jekyll Two Ways on Windows: Installing & building Jekyll / GitHub Pages blogs with Ruby on Windows 10
I wanted to write up these steps as I took the time to get my blog up and running on my new laptop, in case it helps someone else get started. Today, we’ll ...
Avoid the Blue/Green Deployment Blues: Watch out for these 10 Pitfalls
I’ve seen organizations make some …interesting decisions around the concept of “blue/green deployments.” In some cases, these changes can lead to some pretty...
How to: “warm up” an environment using PowerShell and TeamCity
Prior to running some tests on a .NET web application, we wanted to send a request to the environment to “warm it up” – so that the initial start of the appl...
How to: Show Jasmine test results in TeamCity
A colleague wanted to surface their jasmine tests in a TeamCity build system. Wanted to document the steps I used to help them solve their problem. Setting ...
How to: Call a TeamCity build from OctopusDeploy
We have an OctopusDeploy deployment that deploys our code to an automated acceptance test environment. And we have a TeamCity build that executes our automat...
How to: Deploy GitHub Pages on a Schedule to Publish Future Posts
I have a Jekyll-based blog that is deployed via GitHub Pages. Because Jekyll is a static site generator, you can’t release future posts unless you trigger a ...
Help Me Help You: How your RFPs are setting you up for failure before you begin
Are you someone who has a hand in crafting Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for your company? This article is for you, and is based off of some things I’ve seen...
Quick tip: NTLM / Windows pass-through authentication with Selenium and ChromeDriver
Challenge I was on a project for a web application that used Windows Active Directory authentication for internal users. We had some automated acceptance t...
2019
Better Technical Interviews: Part 5 – My Common Interview Questions
This post is part of a series I’m writing on better technical interviews. I’d love your feedback in the comments!
Better Technical Interviews: Part 4 – My Opinions on Various Techniques
This post is part of a series I’m writing on better technical interviews. I’d love your feedback in the comments! Part 1 - What’s the Point? Part 2 - P...
How to: Check your Jekyll-based blog for dead links
I thought someone might find this quick tip useful, so I’m writing it up.
Better Technical Interviews: Part 3 – The Interview Itself
This post is part of a series I’m writing on better technical interviews. I’d love your feedback in the comments!
Better Technical Interviews: Part 2 – Preparation
This post is part of a series I’m writing on better technical interviews. I’d love your feedback in the comments!
Better Technical Interviews: Part 1 – What’s the point?
This post is part of a series I’m writing on better technical interviews. I’d love your feedback in the comments! Part 1 - What’s the Point? Part 2 - P...
Adventures in Azure Architecture: A Home Desktop Setup
I recently connected with someone on Twitter who had some questions about architecture for a personal setup in the cloud. I thought the challenge was interes...
Automagically Update Your Package Dependencies With Dependabot – For Free!
With the news that Dependabot has been acquired by GitHub, I thought it was a good time to explain what a phenomenal help I find this tool to be, and how you...
Agile Survival Guide: Retrospective Safety
I’m considering a series called “Agile Survival Guide”, designed to muse on / attempt to tackle some common things I’ve seen happen on projects that are atte...
What I Learned From Taking a Two-Week Vacation for my Honeymoon
My wife and I recently took our honeymoon a year and a half after we got married. It was the longest vacation I’ve ever taken, and probably the first one I c...
Software/Solution Architects: The Sommeliers of the IT World
I recently had a colleague ask me about how to describe the difference between an great software architect and a mediocre one, or how to deal with “ivory tow...
That Time I Almost Got Elected to the .NET Foundation Board of Directors
The .NET Foundation Board elections recently took place, and I was the last one eliminated, one of my proudest accomplishments to date (the link, unfortunate...
How I Combine my Work (Outlook) and Personal (Google) Calendars
This came up in a conversation and I realized my methods might be helpful for someone. I figured I can write it up with step-by-steps here.
Adding public CI/CD to a Node project with Azure Pipelines
I recently created ’unanet-summarizer’, a small utility to give my colleagues some additional summary information on their time sheets. It got a little more ...
I’m Running for the .NET Foundation’s Board of Directors!
I’m excited to announce my candidacy for the .NET Foundation’s Board of Directors!
Tutorial: An Automated reading list with Feedly and Azure Functions
I’ve been a fan of RSS feeds for a long time. I love curating a collection of knowledge that streams to me at my pace, and I consider feeds to be a fundament...
Announcement: Sharing my Reading List in Real-Time
A quick update: you can now find an OPML export of all of the dev/tech feeds I read at https://SeanKilleen.com/reading-list.
How to Forward to a Long Conference Number Using Twilio
I have a client where we use Zoom meetings which require dialing and then extra digits. We use these meetings all the time.
2018
New Year, New Look!
This blog, as it turns out, has been around for a little bit. 
The UI was feeling its age, and I thought: what better time to update things than...
Updates coming (RSS feeds may break)
FYI, there are some changes coming that may impact this blog’s RSS feeds.
Quick Writing Tip: Content and Perception
I’ve had this quick tip sitting around for a while in my drafts, and figured I really need to publish more of these things, so here it is.
Why I keep an ‘Accomplishments / Good Stuff’ List
I was reviewing my year recently, and one of the biggest parts of that is looking back at my “accomplishments / good stuff” list for the year. I’ve been in t...
My Tenets of Operational Support
I had this drafted for a while as notes I’d sent to a colleague, and I figured I would write it up here.
How to Start Blogging When Faced with Imposter Syndrome
I had this drafted for a while as notes I’d sent to someone who is faced with imposter syndrome and not sure they have something to add, and I figured I woul...
2018: Year in Review
I liked doing this recap last year, so I figured I’d make it a tradition. :) 2018, like most years, held a lot, so I’m trying to jot some of it down here.
Using Windows Subsystem for Linux and Ruby with Jekyll
The Goal / Problem
Quick Tip: How to Test Timer-Based Azure Functions Locally
I’ve been digging into Azure Functions lately and it’s pretty great. I hit a small stumbling block so figured I’d document it here in case anyone else had th...
VSCode Tip: Watching Files
File this under VS Code Can do That?!
Preparing .NET Projects for Business Trips
I have the the good fortune to take some interesting business trips occasionally. However, there are few business trip feelings worse than being mid-flight a...
2017
2017: Year in Review
What a year, what a year! So much was packed into 2017 that for the first time I felt like a recap post actually makes sense, if only so I can keep it all st...
What Makes .NET Fringe Different
I recently attended the .NET Fringe 2017 conference in Portland, OR – in fact, I’m on the plane back now as I write this.
Casting a Wider .NET – my #dotNetFringe Debut!
I’m very excited to release a talk that has been percolating in my head for a bit. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share this with the world via the .NET...
How to Get Started with Jekyll and Github Pages on Windows
Github Pages has become a great place to host content on the web. You can host HTML and JavaScript files there and even map them to domain names for free. As...
2016
Introducing: My Toolbox!
Figured I’d write a quick post here to announce the new Toolbox section on SeanKilleen.com!
Avoiding Primitive Obsession in Configuration: My Approach
I woke up this morning and saw a great blog post by Arialdo Martini that inspired me to blog a little bit (thanks, Arialdo!)
Now Running On CloudFlare! Here’s How I did it.
As of a few hours ago, this site runs on https by default and likely pretty darn fast. That’s all thanks to CloudFlare, and to my brother Ryan, who showed me...
On Excella: 5 (6!) Reasons I’m Excited for the Upcoming dotNetFringe Conference
In a few days, I’ll be lucky enough to attend the dotNetFringe conference in Portland, OR. While there are about a million reasons I’m excited about the conf...
How (and Why) to Lobby Companies to Support .NET OSS
Update: I’ve purchased http://AWider.NET (empty right now) to take this project further. I’ve created a GitHub repository and I hope you’ll join me for some ...
How can we Accelerate the .NET OSS Ecosystem?
A brief update: To keep this conversation going, I authored an additional post: How (and Why) to Lobby Companies to Support .NET OSS
2015
A Running Checklist for Software Team Leads
I’m fortunate enough to be starting my first position soon as a software team lead. I’m very excited – and a small bit terrified. 
Great Tool Spotlight: Animate it with ScreenToGif
On this blog, I often use screenshots to illustrate tutorials. This leads to long blog posts and I never feel like the full context is there because they’re ...
How to: Apply Per-Row Conditional Formatting across rows in Excel 2013
I really appreciate conditional formatting in Excel. It’s a great way to highlight critical pieces of information, provide quick visual distinctions, etc.
Why I Prefer xUnit over MSTest
I was recently asked to explain1 my preference for xUnit over something like MSTest. To my surprise, while I felt very strongly – and have for some time – I ...
Quick Tip: When Testing with Moq, Try Lambdas for More Flexible Tests
Mocks are invaluable to the art of testing. For those who are unfamiliar, mocks are essentially a way to fake a component and have it do exactly what you wan...
Tutorial: Easily Using Azure CDN with ASP.NET MVC Projects
Happy June, readers! I recently helped design a AlliesForACure.com, a web site for a charity contest (Ed. note: unfortunately the link has been lost to time)...
How to Leave a Company Well
I recently had lunch with the owner of a company I’d moved on from. Besides being a general catch up, it served as a sort of check-in/reflection point on con...
Making Outside Work Work For Everyone: Guidelines for Success
I’ve been doing some thinking lately on policies surrounding outside work for employees and companies.
Validation Fail of the Day: WebEx
When joining a WebEx conference, it’s nice to have an e-mail address be optional – easier from a user experience perspective.
Some Thoughts on Corporate E-Mail Signatures
Corporate e-mail signatures are normally those oft-mandated extra bits appended to the end of our e-mails. Whether you’re an employee with full control over ...
Excel Tip: Generate a Defined Name from a Table
Sometimes you may have a need to treat a column of data in an Excel table as a list – for example, to use the contents of that list as a drop-down somewhere ...
2014
A quick test (Happy Thanksgiving!)
Happy Thanksgiving!
Web site fail of the day: Intel RST Community Forum
The Intel RST Community Forum is a tough club to get into!
My Newest Backup System / Process [Lessons Learned]
With all my bellyaching about Backblaze lately, it only stands to reason that I should pick a better system.
“It’s the (Backblaze) restores that fail.”
Folks involved in systems administration may likely be familiar with the adage that ‘Backups always work; it’s the restores that fail.’
Quick tip: Chocolatey + Powershell + Dropbox for package management and backup
So it’s been a long day and night rebuilding a system from scratch (Motherboard issue + Hubris + Bad decisions). But on this go ‘round, I decided to install ...
Quick Tip: The “shell:” prefix in Windows 8.1 dialogs (Finding the Startup Folder in Windows 8.1 quickly and more!)
Every once in a while I’ll Google for something relatively straightforward to see if there’s a better way to do it.
2013
A Quick Regular Expression (Regex) to Pull Colors From a CSS Stylesheet
This one’s mostly for my quick personal reference. It wasn’t hard by any means but figured someone else might find it useful.
Touched by a Peripheral: Logitech T650 Review [A must-have]
Summary: I thought this device would be inconsequential, but it makes a world of difference. The T650 is a top-notch device so far, and between the great exp...
UI/UX Joy of the Day: ContinuousTests.com Visual Studio Add-In
When you don’t have code coverage for a number of tests in a class:
Using JSHint with Underscore.js in Visual Studio 2012 [Field Notes]
Since my new gig has me diving into Javascript quite a bit, I’ve really been loving JSHint integration (brought to us lovingly by Mads Kristensen and the tea...
Plaintext Password Offender: Jitbit Helpdesk
Just signed up for the Jitbit Helpdesk support site so that I could report an issue with their product.
Problem Solved: Windows 8 Windows Update Freezes on KB2760600, “Security Update for Microsoft OneNote 2010”
Ran into this today; thought I’d document it for others.
Minecraft Tekkit Lite Earth Map as a Service [Nerd Fun]
I have a little time to kill this holiday weekend and wanted to try something fun (at least before it gets warm enough to go outside for the rest of the day)...
Mr. Rogers: Can you say hero?
Update: As promised, I’m updating this to include Tom Junod’s response. He notes that the profile is available in the Esquire collection of profiles entitle...
Crystal Reports Gotchas: Spinning Wheel Forever? Check for Hidden Error Messages. [Field Notes]
Problem
Chrome Tip: Add a Keyboard Shortcut to a Bookmarklet
I use Google Chrome for a lot of browsing, and I’ve been getting into Delicious for archiving content that I know I might want to find again but don’t want h...
2012
Reclaiming my Brain: My Upcoming Social Media Hiatus
“Who am I in the midst of all this thought traffic?” -Rumi
Bad UX Experience: MD MVA (2 for 1 deal!)
I know this comes as a shock to nobody, but MD’s don’t-call-it-the-DMV “Motor Vehicle Association” isn’t the easiest to get around.
How To: Stop “Access Denied” errors in MVC Intranet Applications VS 2012/IIS Express [Field Notes]
Using Visual 2012 and IIS Express, when building an MVC4 Intranet project, I get an ‘Access Denied’ screen on every page.
Latest First-Hand WMATA Fail: SMARTripoff cards!
OK, technically second-hand; this story comes to us courtesy of the lovely Caroline.
When using Twitter Bootstrap LESS with IIS, don’t forget to create the MIME Type [Field Notes]
Problem:
A Lesson From My Father
When Father’s Day rolls around, for me it’s often accompanied by the fact that I’m not sure how to properly honor my Dad. I’m lucky enough to still have him ...
An Open Letter to Eidos
(Cross-posted on the Eidos Facebook page. I really hope they get themselves together over there.)
Quick Tip: Run Multiple NUnit Assemblies with one Exec Command in MSBuild [Field Notes]
This is mostly a reference post for me, but I figured somebody else might find it useful.
Building a Build Process: CruiseControl.NET Preparation
This is part of a larger series in building a proper build process. For more information and additional series links, check out the introductory post.
Building a Build Process: Installing CruiseControl.NET
This is part of a larger series in building a proper build process. For more information and additional series links, check out the introductory post.
Building a Build Process, Part 6b: MSBuild Integration With Cassini and Visual Studio
This is part of a larger series in building a proper build process. For more information and additional series links, check out the introductory post.
CruiseControl .NET, VisualSVN, and SSL Certificates [Field Notes]
This is a quick post for my reference. Let me know if details would be helpful and I’ll be happy to turn it into more of a tutorial style.
CruiseControl .NET Gotcha: Moving Microsoft.WebApplications.Targets to the server [Field Notes]
Problem:
PSA: IBM Maximo 7.1 User Guide is Now the Product Reference Guide [Field Notes]
Subject says it all.
Building a Build Process: Creating a Custom MSBuild File
This is part of a larger series in building a proper build process. For more information and additional series links, check out the introductory post.
Quick Tip: Need a User to Take Screenshots of a Problem? Try Using Win7’s Built-in Tool [Tips and Tricks]
I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this before. There’s a neat tool that ships with Windows 7 called the “Problem Steps Recorder” tool (psr.exe)
Quick Tip: Maximo 7 – Location of Work Order Status Information [Field Notes]
A quick note for myself an anyone else who might be interested:
Building a Build Process: TortoiseSVN Client Connection and Repository Layout
This is part of a larger series in building a proper build process. For more information and additional series links, check out the introductory post.
Building a Build Process: Securing Subversion’s Connection via TLS
This is part of a larger series in building a proper build process. For more information and additional series links, check out the introductory post.
Pure Joy: Setting up a cloud on my desktop [Nerdgasm]
I am currently running the following setup on my beast of a desktop:
Bad UX: Schwab’s Check Deposit App for iPhone is Broken
Ed. Note: I wrote this when I was quite annoyed, and unfortunately I left out the larger context that this is actually one of the best checking accounts I’ve...
Building a Build Process: Source Code Management via Subversion and Apache on CentOS
This is part of a larger series in building a proper build process. For more information and additional series links, check out the introductory post.
Building a Build Process: OS Setup
This is part of a larger series in building a proper build process. For more information and additional series links, check out the introductory post.
Building A Build Process: Groundwork – The VMs
This is part of a larger series in building a proper build process. For more information and additional series links, check out the introductory post.
Chkdsk on Windows 7 is one memory-leaking Sonofabit, Uses 30 GB of RAM
My desktop PC has 32 GB of RAM. It’s ridiculous in that way, by almost any standard. I assumed that when I hit full usage of memory it would be because my en...
Outlook 2010 Tip: Easily produce e-mails to event attendees [Field Notes]
Just a quick tip – one of the things I used to be frustrated with in Outlook was the difficulty to simply send a message to a number of people on an event. S...
Why I Signed the Petition on the Murder of Trayvon Martin
I was happy to sign this petition to attempt to have the case of Trayvon Martin’s killer brought before a Florida court.
Templated User Communication With Microsoft Word and Outlook [Field Notes]
As part of my job, I have to send a lot of e-mail communications to users. I like them to be as standard and repeatable as possible.
SQL Tricks: The Not-Equals Join [Field Notes]
The Problem
February 6, 2012 [The Grocery List]
Stopped by Giant and picked up:
How To: List all Dates for sysdate +/- 30 in Oracle
Discovered an answer to a StackOverflow question I’d posted, and wanted to share.
How To: Swap Views/Tables Within the Same Database Using Crystal Reports 2008 Designer [Field Notes]
Background
January 31, 2012 [The Grocery List]
A new tradition where I keep myself honest by posting the things I buy at the grocery store.
Crafty, Google+. Very Crafty.
A quick observation: on most social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) you’ll see the option to connect with folks that you know.
New Tradition: The Grocery List. [The Grocery List]
Ed. Note: This is a post category I’m trying to start, as a form of public disclosure, listing items I bought at the grocery store, available publicly for yo...
Some Things I’ve Been Bad at, and What I’m Going to do to Change it.
Ed. Note: This is one of those weird public-disclosure blog posts. If you only come here for tech stuff, then move along; nothing to see here. :)
A Metaphor for SOPA / PIPA
I just thought it up – taken from an e-mail response I just wrote to Al Franken:
WMATA lies! (Or: “In which I make a mild deal out of nothing”)
(Ed. note: I’m very much aware that this is not a big deal. Just having some fun with observations.)
2011
Plaintext password offender: Yankodesign.com
I recently created an account at Yanko Design (they have some neat stuff I wanted to further explore).
How To: Toggle Fields in a Crystal Report Based on Whether Records are Returned [Field Notes]
Problem:
A brief video on the dangers of SOPA / Protect-IP
And this barely begins to cover it. There’s a lot beyond this, too.
Another Underwhelming Experience With UPS MyChoice
UPDATE: This is entirely my fault. I leave the text below only as a reference and to shame myself. The issue is that UPS sent me an e-mail at 12:07 saying a ...
Building a Build Process: Introduction
This is part of a larger series in building a proper build process. For more information and additional series links, check out the introductory post.
Tip: Does your workplace block Google Chat? Use Google+ to talk to people in your circles
[Ed. Note: For the record, I discovered this by accident, and don’t particularly intend to use it unless absolutely necessary.]
Tip: When presenting, ALWAYS have backup formats [Field Notes]
A brief anecdote:
Fix: Notepad++ Tabs From Your Last Session
Just found myself doing this again on the new setup; figured it might be worth posting.
Fix: VirtualBox doesn’t allow to re-name a registered drive and readd to a VM [Field Notes]
Problem:
Fix: CentOS 5.x hangs during VirtualBox install [Field Notes]
Technology Involved
Update on the New Desktop Setup
Benchmarks
Notes on Sub-Reports in Crystal Reports 2008 [Field Notes]
For starters, in CR 2008, you can’t create two separate groups of data in one report (for example, all labor for a work order and then all materials for a wo...
New Desktop Rig! [Nerd Toys]
Recently, I decided to invest in something that would meet two very important criteria – something that would help me advance my career and knowledge, and al...
Tip: Always Write Out Your SQL Queries in Plain English First [Field Notes]
I recently ran into an issue where constructing a SQL query took me much longer than I would have liked. While my need to dust off some cobwebs and my lack o...
Fix GMail 707 error by disabling Background Send in Google Labs
For anyone who has had an issue with a GMail 707 error in the browser recently, a potentially useful tip via Brad Feld over at FeldThoughts:
No Professional Should Ever Be Without a Tide To Go Pen [Field Notes]
Dressed up nicely today for a big meeting with the head of our division at work.
Crystal Reports Error: “A subscript must be between 1 and the size of the array.” [Field Notes]
Problem:
iPhone 4S / iOS 5 battery issues? Turn off time zone settings
The excellent folks over at Lifehacker have a tip that seemingly works to resolve iPhone 4S and iOS 5 battery level issues.
From GMail to Outlook: Making it Feel Like Home for GTD [Field Notes]
I recently started a new job at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD. It’s a great gig so far, but one of the pain points I hadn’t expe...
Robocopy: “You do not have the Backup and Restore Files user rights” [Field Notes]
In Windows 7, using Robocopy with the /B or /ZB switches I see the error ‘You do not have the Backup and Restore Files user rights’.
What’s Next?
End of an era.
A Birthday Gift to the World: Let’s Give Others Clean Water!
I’m a lucky guy, and I’ve had by all standards a great and fantastic 25 years so far. I’ve got most things I could want in life, and everything I need.
Troubleshooting: HP PhotoSmart B-209a Wireless Printer Driver “Fatal Error During Installation”
I recently re-installed Windows 7 x64 on my laptop due to purchasing an SSD. I expected fantastic speed & performance, more productivity, etc.
Free Million Dollar Idea: Package Carriers + B2B = Success
I’ll try to keep this post brief or see if I can sketch it out in bullet-points.
2010
Who Watches the Watchmen?: Google Apps Governance to Protect Private Docs from Administrators
My Company is currently in the process of moving a good deal of our documents over to the Google Docs interface from the various places within our on-line HR...
SunTrust is Awesome.
I wanted to let the world know about some great experiences I’ve had with SunTrust Bank lately. I only have an auto loan through them, but after these intera...
Uncle Tommy
(Updated with some corrections from Mom.)
Tip: apt-get can’t find any package in Ubuntu Maverick 10.10? Rename Your Repositories.
It appears that the shipped version of Ubuntu Maverick 10.10 (at least the server version) comes with repository server URLs that are incorrect – or at least...
Truth in Advertising
Looking over a post I recently made about restricting IP access with Tomcat server, I noticed the following banner ad (highlighting is mine):
Politics: Extremism Cannot be Fought With Censorship
I received this e-mail from a campaign that I’m somehow subscribed to:
How To: Allow only Specific IP Addresses in Tomcat 6.0
This one’s not exactly under-documented, but I wanted to post here as a reference and in the hopes that someone else might have to not dig around.
A Tale of Two Platforms: From iPhone to Android and Back Again
After trashing Apple and making a long-anticipated switch to Android, two weeks later I was back on an iPhone 4. Why was my Android honeymoon so short-lived ...
I was featured on the Charity:Water blog!
I was featured on the Charity: Water blog!
How To: Enforce TLS Encryption on Tomcat Server 6.0
[Note: I should begin this post by saying that I’m no expert on SSL or TLS encryption or the “handshakes” and negotiations that browsers and servers go throu...
Site Rebirth
Hello, everyone! Since redirecting the SeanKilleen.com domain name to WordPress, I’ve been trying to invest more time into revamping the look and content of ...