Author: Ezra S F


  • Do not move things right before I click on them. Windows this means you. Opening up a new window steals focus from my mouse to the new one. Opening a new window when I did not explicitly request it and while I am typing or navigating something in order to do something critical infuriates me. Facebook this…

  • Googlewashing

    Surprised the term “Blackboard” has not been Googlewashed to Moodle or Sakai. Or Blackboard doing the same to Instructure. P.S. I am too scared of using the other term and getting more visitors here from the CIA and NSA.

  • One of the questions we ask our clients initiating an engagement to help them setup external authentication from our LMS to their server is, “What is the certificate authority for your SSL certificate?” We have been burned by people purchasing certificates from authorities Java does not support. (And the support is indeed limited compared to say,…

  • J.R.?

    James Richard Perry has the initials J. R. Just like the central character from the show Dallas? Sorry, I have to go fall on the floor laughing.

  • An interesting attempt to calculate the weight of the Internet. Not the machines or fiber. But the amount of data and weight of electrons used.

  • Black Box Magic

    With a black box system a person working with it sees what goes in and what comes out. The machine’s decision making process is obfuscated. Theories are made based on incomplete evidence on the behavior. More data points on more situations confirming the behavior is my way of being more comfortable the theory is correct. Sometimes…

  • Trash Can PSA

    Public Service Announcement: Just like documents you place in a physical trash for safe keeping may disappear overnight, do not put emails you may need to keep your email client’s trash can folder. (No, this did not happen to me. Just saw a user’s rant.)

  • This spectacular video by Sophie Windsor Clive features starlings gathering in interesting patterns. Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo. A chance encounter and shared moment with one of natures greatest and most fleeting phenomena.

  • LDAP Fiasco

    Last week I logged into the ticket management system to look at updates to cases overnight and saw a pop-up for a “widespread issue”, basically two school, involving LDAP. So I looked up the case. The two schools were on the same cluster. Most likely the problem was on my end, which sucks. Security people…