Jimmie Lightner

Technology, Truth, and Common Sense

Category: Technology

  • How to host WordPress without it being a SNITCH

    I hate companies that make users think they’re getting something for free but then have these hidden functions that report back to the mother-ship what users are doing with them. WordPress’s parent company, Automattic, doesn’t have the best reputation as of late (check out the deal they made to sell your data to OpenAI). Just…

  • Why Linux?

    Because Windows and MacOS both suck. I’ve dabbled with Linux since I was a kid. I remember asking my uncle to buy a copy of Red Hat Linux (I think it was Red Hat 5?) on CD from eBay for me when I was just a middle-school aged nerd. We had painfully slow dial-up internet…

  • Disable Azure CLI Telemetry Collection

    Pfffffffft! No thank you, Microsoft. That’s getting #disabled right now. (See Microsoft official documentation)

  • Writing systemd User Timers

    Why am I writing this? I omitted installing the cron package on my Linux box since systemd provides a timers function. Who needs two packages to do one thing? Heh… for a moment I thought maybe I do because some of the documentation out there is a little confusing. Or I’m just dumb. Or both.…

  • Parallels Desktop VM Isolation

    I’m fascinated by the logic here. Why is this experience not inverted? Why is the user only prompted for confirmation when ENABLING isolation (because: why would I want said VM to be able to read the contents of my clipboard?) but not when disabling it? Isn’t the isolation the entire point of the VM? 🤔

  • Holiday Time Off Shenanigans

    What do you do for time off? Home improvement? Technical skilling? Visiting family? Hang out with friends? I’m off work until January 3rd! I need some things to keep myself busy: Seems like enough for a while. It’s a rough work in progress, but check out https://www.communityreeftank.com

  • Cleaning Azure File Shares with Azure Functions

    One of the complaints I have about using FSLogix to store AVD User Profiles on Azure File Shares is that there’s no native way to clean up the stale / unneeded VHDs once users move on. If you search the web, you’ll come across some curiously misleading examples that discuss setting up an Azure Function…

  • Azure Cloud Challenge: Lime Survey

    Last week I worked with a team in Germany to deliver an Azure Hackathon. During the hackathon, we decided to create a cloud challenge for the team to work through. These challenges are difficult and require independent critical thinking. The requirements below were developed with the attendees, after which we worked at the whiteboard to…

  • Mother’s Day Blast From the Past

    Firstly: Happy Mother’s Day to all you Moms out there. While visiting my Mother today she unloaded what amounted to a time capsule into my car! She had three big totes of stuff from as long ago as my first baby shoes to as recent as High School graduation. I’m so tickled she kept all…