Blogs

In a world brimming with distractions, achieving peak productivity seems like a Herculean task. Emails ping, Teams messages flutter in, and before you know it, the day has slipped through your fingers, leaving behind a trail of unfinished tasks. Enter time blocking, a deceptively simple yet profoundly effective technique that promises to reclaim your day and enhance your focus. This approach has saved me as I moved into a much larger role within my professional life, while juggling a new family and renovating a house - while trying to remain sane....

Thoughts sparked from Sarcastic Sounds “Someday Soon” It’s a common refrain, almost cliché: you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Yet, this simple line captures a profound truth about human experience, one that’s both paradoxical and universal. It speaks to our inability to fully appreciate the present until it becomes the past, to understand the value of what we have until it’s no longer ours. This idea, while seemingly straightforward, reveals deep insights into how we perceive and interact with the world around us....

In the landscape of technological evolution, 2023 marked a significant milestone with the advent of readily available AI tools, ushering in an era where artificial intelligence applications burgeoned, promising to redefine how we tackle everyday tasks. These advances cut through, to the point where everyone and their Nan had heard of ChatGPT. Yet, amidst this digital renaissance, a paradox emerged—not of capability, but of integration. The true challenge lay not in the power of AI itself but in weaving it into the fabric of our daily lives....

I’ve been trying to improve my overall fitness for some time. It took about 6 months from birth of our Daughter to the point where I felt there was time to start committing solidly to a exercise schedule and not the ad-hoc approach taken up to that point. I found that I enjoyed running during the Covid lock-downs where exercise, and time outside the house, were a luxury. I would, however, always get injured....

What’s the problem? I use my phone to much. This is likely the modern refrain. If it’s not phones then it was TV before it and before that, heck, it was newspapers. For as long as we have been exploiting technology there has been a fear that perhaps, just maybe, that technology might be exploiting us. I feel this way about my phone. I spend way to much time daily on a device that I fear gives me little to no value for the investment put into it....

A year ago I transitioned from my background in Chemical R&D to a role within the IT function - a significant leap for me. I was quickly introduced to the world of continuous learning within the realm of IT and the well defined certification paths - something, I believe, is lacking within the chemical space. The need to adapt and keep up with ever-evolving technologies was evident and I realized the importance of certifications in validating my knowledge....

Motivation Having recently moved from Chemical R&D to take up a role within the IT function I have been exposed to some thinking regarding career development outside what I am used to. I am most impressed with the almost universal need to keep learning new technologies within the IT space - something I am taking to heart. I am also very impressed with the want to solidify learning with certifications....

Introduction As technology continues to advance, it has become easier for people to create fake blogs and pass them off as legitimate sources of information. One tool that is being used to create these fake blogs is chatgpt, a machine learning algorithm that can generate text in a conversational style. While chatgpt has many legitimate uses, it is also being used to create fake blogs that are designed to manipulate readers and spread false information....

Emacs as a Daemon This guide will get emacs running as a server on Linux systems. This means that each time you load a file emacs is ready and doesn’t need to load. On some systems emacs start up times can be several seconds so having emacs there and ready to go can save you some real time and improve your workflows. I always forget how to do this so this guide is for me more than anyone else!...

So after dodging the bullet for over two year, both myself and my Partner came down with Covid. We had just returned from visiting family in Spain and, after a day of feeling a little strange, I woke up with a fever and the lateral test to prove it. While initially not to bad at around day four my fatigue and sore throat were almost unbearable. I was struggling to swallow water and unable to recall what drugs I had taken last....