At work I’ve been working on a big Amazon Web Services related project. For part of this project, I wanted to record some information in a database. Previously, all I’ve used has been relational databases like MySQL. One could use AWS Relational Database Service, but that’s expensive if you’re only storing a small amount of data. I decided to take the plunge and learn how to use DynamoDB and more importantly, how to use this “NoSQL” thing people have been talking about.
Wrapping my brain around DynamoDB
Review: Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel
Today, I’d like to talk to you about Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel, the third entry in the Army of Two franchise. Jon and I both enjoyed Army of Two and Army of Two: The 40th Day. We enjoyed it so much that I composed an ode to Army of Two for AoT 2′s release date and Jon did a review of The 40th Day after we finished it. Unfortunately, the third entry does not live up to its predecessors.
FYI, there will be storyline spoilers for the entire series to date.
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Cloud Life: Week 2 – Pixel Hardware Review
While it doesn’t take two weeks to review the hardware of a laptop, I wanted to give the Chromebook Pixel a chance to strut its stuff (plus I just didn’t get around to writing anything sooner). I’ll go right ahead and say that the Pixel is a nice computer; it’s a $1,300 machine and it feels worth the price point (more or less). From the screen to the touchpad to the overall build, it’s a solid machine.
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Cloud Life: Day 1 – A Pixel Arrives
I love Chrome. I’ve use Chrome exclusively for several years now and vehemently refuse to use anything else (Sorry Firefox). As such, the idea of the Chromebook has always appealed to me. Previously, I got my hands on a Cr-48 and took the Acer AC700 for a spin. So when the Chromebook Pixel was announced, I was quite excited. Though I didn’t jump right into buying one… until today.
Password reset questions are getting out of hand
As soon as the Web had developed sites that required logging into, it also developed the problem of lost passwords. The solution for that was simple: password reset questions. You’ve probably run into these a hundred times and they are typically the same questions on every site, like “Where were you born?”, “What’s your mothers maiden name?” and “What street did you grow up on?”.
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Snowulf Mobile lives again!
Snowulf.com with Jetpack Mobile theme on iPhone 5
WordPress 3.5 and mod_pagespeed do NOT play well together
WordPress 3.5 may look cool, but it has found a dozen new and clever ways in which to break itself. Last week, I figured out how to fix the “Add Media” button. This week, I discovered that I could no longer select any drop-downs in the admin screens, add tags, or click most buttons. I dug around and found the “Troubleshooting WordPress 3.5 Master List” which lead me to discover that mod_pagespeed was my most recent grief giver. Fortunately, it’s easy to fix.
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Book Lovers Rejoice! GoodReads.com is your new best friend
I first came across GoodReads on Facebook. Several of my co-workers had joined and my news feed was suddenly being peppered with new books they had decided to read. Now, I am not generally a fan of Facebook apps. They drive me insane and as soon as I see a new game update or ANYTHING mentioning farmville I block it instantly.
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Securing your Apple adapters in conference rooms
Modern IT is an increasingly Mac-friendly endeavor. One of the major annoyances (in my book) with Macs is the use of adapters and dongles. It isn’t so much that adapters are required, it’s that in shared spaces (such as conference rooms) you need to have them easily accessible AND removable, but not-easily wandered off with. This last requirement is the most troublesome for me because people seem to love to go wandering off with VGA and network adapters from conference rooms. They may have dozens of the damn things back at their desk (because I readily provide them to my users), but they’ll accidentally walk off with another. I found a solution to securing all types of Apple adapters in our conference rooms, and it costs about about $0.10 USD.
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