January 11 2016 Monday
The 2015 Snarky Review
Firefox started at 34, ended at 43 (which also seemed to break everything).
Chrome started at 39, ended at 47.
IE, 11 and 11 (or Edge depending on your OS).
My browser preference has changed. I'd love to still use Firefox (as they give a shit about privacy) but it's performance compared to Chrome is laughably right now. So Chrome it is (hangs head in shame)...
IBM finally grasped that web security in Domino is important. We got SHA2, TLS1.2, OCSP, HSTS and modern ciphers. Only in R9, but we have new stuff!
Speaking of IBM, what on earth are they doing with (to?) N/D 9.0.2? This is truly a let down of epic proportions. I'll never learn will I?
Speaking of never learning, ConnectED 2015 looks to be both mine and IBM's last ConnectED. It's being renamed (come on that can't be a surprise...this is IBM we're talking about here) to Connect. A bit Deja Vuie but I guess that can reuse all the Connect 2013 signs and merchandise by just using whiteout and sharpie markers. It'll save them a fortune. I used to think IBM renamed things in a time of crisis, but surely, no company can be in perpetual crisis, right?
Speaking of ConnectED 15, it was also last time the conference would be held at the Swan and Dolphin. Hopefully the new location have a 24 hour restaurant and a karaoke bar.
Speaking of ConnectEd 15, it was also my last one, I'm abstaining. Not going. Pulling off the band-aid as it were. I hope any that actually pay for it get huge value for money, but if you don't try MWLUG. (the reason this is on here is that I decided this back in September....)
Speaking of MWLUG, the biggest yet was held in ATL. A great success and a phenomenal conference. Good times. And we found a karaoke bar around the corner.
Windows 10 came along in 2015. I can tell because any time I fire up a non-domain joined PC MS tells me so. The "prompts" are almost malware-like in their insistence. I upgraded one. I was NOT a fast upgrade. It's free upgrade for most, and by that MS means "free" as in "we're free to keep you encryption keys free".
Speaking of never learning.....It's now been over three years since the demise of This Week In Lotus. Stuart has a new one you know? For real!
I broke down and replaced my trusty iPhone 5 with a 6 Plus. Not going back. The battery life alone is worth it and apparently the screen is much bigger.
Big IT has been busy splitting itself into smaller, more manageable pieces (except IBM, they know something no one else does). We've seen Symantec and HP both cleaved in half. Crap, even Google kind of did too.
This was the year of "chip and PIN" cards in the US. Except you don't need a PIN to complete the transaction. US banks think the customers are too stupid to remember a 4 digit PIN, Apparently they think the customer service costs and the likelihood the customer would move to a non-PIN banking competitor was more a cost than the fraud. MBAs and their spreadsheets doom us all. And it seems as though this rule is only for credit cards?....my debit cards are still mostly chip-less.
I actually made it (finally) to Canada (during a really, really, really bad blizzard.....I buried my rental in a snow bank). It's kind of shocking that this is the first time I've been to Canada, but I can't recall ever going there before.
I can still count on the fingers of no hands how many CCM installations I've ever seen.
I was in the same building as Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans (Captain America, not the irritating radio DJ from the UK).
Technologies that made 2015 KeePass, HAProxy, Apache, NGinX and SHA2.
Technologies that should have made 2015.... 9.0.2 and Hawthorn.
Chrome started at 39, ended at 47.
IE, 11 and 11 (or Edge depending on your OS).
My browser preference has changed. I'd love to still use Firefox (as they give a shit about privacy) but it's performance compared to Chrome is laughably right now. So Chrome it is (hangs head in shame)...
IBM finally grasped that web security in Domino is important. We got SHA2, TLS1.2, OCSP, HSTS and modern ciphers. Only in R9, but we have new stuff!
Speaking of IBM, what on earth are they doing with (to?) N/D 9.0.2? This is truly a let down of epic proportions. I'll never learn will I?
Speaking of never learning, ConnectED 2015 looks to be both mine and IBM's last ConnectED. It's being renamed (come on that can't be a surprise...this is IBM we're talking about here) to Connect. A bit Deja Vuie but I guess that can reuse all the Connect 2013 signs and merchandise by just using whiteout and sharpie markers. It'll save them a fortune. I used to think IBM renamed things in a time of crisis, but surely, no company can be in perpetual crisis, right?
Speaking of ConnectED 15, it was also last time the conference would be held at the Swan and Dolphin. Hopefully the new location have a 24 hour restaurant and a karaoke bar.
Speaking of ConnectEd 15, it was also my last one, I'm abstaining. Not going. Pulling off the band-aid as it were. I hope any that actually pay for it get huge value for money, but if you don't try MWLUG. (the reason this is on here is that I decided this back in September....)
Speaking of MWLUG, the biggest yet was held in ATL. A great success and a phenomenal conference. Good times. And we found a karaoke bar around the corner.
Windows 10 came along in 2015. I can tell because any time I fire up a non-domain joined PC MS tells me so. The "prompts" are almost malware-like in their insistence. I upgraded one. I was NOT a fast upgrade. It's free upgrade for most, and by that MS means "free" as in "we're free to keep you encryption keys free".
Speaking of never learning.....It's now been over three years since the demise of This Week In Lotus. Stuart has a new one you know? For real!
I broke down and replaced my trusty iPhone 5 with a 6 Plus. Not going back. The battery life alone is worth it and apparently the screen is much bigger.
Big IT has been busy splitting itself into smaller, more manageable pieces (except IBM, they know something no one else does). We've seen Symantec and HP both cleaved in half. Crap, even Google kind of did too.
This was the year of "chip and PIN" cards in the US. Except you don't need a PIN to complete the transaction. US banks think the customers are too stupid to remember a 4 digit PIN, Apparently they think the customer service costs and the likelihood the customer would move to a non-PIN banking competitor was more a cost than the fraud. MBAs and their spreadsheets doom us all. And it seems as though this rule is only for credit cards?....my debit cards are still mostly chip-less.
I actually made it (finally) to Canada (during a really, really, really bad blizzard.....I buried my rental in a snow bank). It's kind of shocking that this is the first time I've been to Canada, but I can't recall ever going there before.
I can still count on the fingers of no hands how many CCM installations I've ever seen.
I was in the same building as Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans (Captain America, not the irritating radio DJ from the UK).
Technologies that made 2015 KeePass, HAProxy, Apache, NGinX and SHA2.
Technologies that should have made 2015.... 9.0.2 and Hawthorn.
Sorry Hawthorn and 9.0.2... even with a late January announcement, too little, too late!