Fresh New Look

Every couple of years I get an itch to remodel my website. I guess part of the reason is due to advances in technology.

When I created the website before this one five years ago, mobile devices were not nearly as prominent as today. The old site did not render well on mobile devices, and image scaling was quite poor to say the least.

The new site is mobile and desktop friendly. On a mobile device you should never need to scroll horizontally (except in code blocks), as this is considered the most user friendly experience when consuming content on a small screen. Switch to landscape mode and the content will reflow to fit the new width of the device, allowing you to see images in the highest possible resolution.

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My New Kids Are Like Me

They wake up...

Mason Bee Waiting...
Mason Bee Waiting...

I take one inside to play with, to care for by warming him up as a good dad should:

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I am a Free Mason Daddy!

I just witnessed the "birth" of my first two mason bees:

Mason Bee Emerging from Cocoon
Mason Bee Emerging from Cocoon
Mason Bee Emerging from Cocoon
Mason Bee Emerging from Cocoon
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Windows Server 2012 RDS - Get IP for RDS Session

Windows Server 2012 is doing the same as most modern software - it is losing features. Sometimes that is a good thing - losing fat is good, spring cleaning your home is good... Trimming the fat from bloated software is definitely a good thing. What is NOT acceptable in my mind, is removing crucial functionality under the disguise of an upgrade / improvement.

I can think of many examples:

  1. Microsoft Edge threw away 90% of the IE11 browser's capability (many of these were good choices, some not)
  2. All the Windows Metro apps that basically contains no functionality other than core features, that were intended to replace their desktop counterparts.
  3. Mac OS X Disk Utility that lost many of its abilities just to look cool and be simpler to use.
  4. Mac OS X Photos app that is not even remotely related to Aperture, citing simplified user interface but basically losing 99% of its functionality.
  5. Online cloud based apps such as QuickBooks, that cannot do half of what the desktop application can do.
  6. The list goes on.
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Free Masons: A Project Begun

I decided freed masons are better than Freemasons. Here is the start of my little project:

The Mason Bee House
The Mason Bee House
The Mason Bee Buffet
The Mason Bee Buffet
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