My Tech, My Travel, My Time

Who am I?

I’m an experienced Technical Architect working out of the South-East of the UK. I’ve worked all over the world including Europe, the USA, and several sites across Australasia. I’ve hit buttons on systems with over 400,000 users on them. That made me a bit nervous. I have in excess of 25 years experience in the technology infrastructure delivery sector. I started out deploying and supporting Novell Netware, but then moved into networking and Microsoft products once that become prudent. I was fortunate enough to be given very flattering, awesome opportunities by amazing people over the years, and I hope I repaid them in hard work and some gratitude. In the last several years I’ve been working in the Unified Communications

You can read my stuff here.

What do I do?

I’m passionate about technology – both corporate and consumer. I believe it has added significantly to my story, and I believe that story is really only at the beginning. I love talking about technology, and have been a guest speaker at several events, and on multiple continents. The first time I got on stage at Microsoft in Seattle I had to pinch myself – my love of technology and what it can do for people had people listening to me. My mind was completely blown. I also love to travel – and I treat travel as an experience, not as a destination. That want to travel, to experience, has taken me to so many very cool places, and with very cool people, while also sometimes being quite scary. Think we may be able to work together? Please get in touch and let’s see what we can make happen!

  • M4 Max – the only Apple Silicon Worth Buying

    M4 Max – the only Apple Silicon Worth Buying

    Yeah, that’s a silly, clickbaity headline. I’d never write something like that. WAIT. Had a chat with a mate today — he’s a techy — about which chip to go for in his next MacBook. We went back and forth, compared specs, workloads, all that jazz. End result? He ordered a fully-loaded M4 Max MacBook…


  • Cannot pair a yubikey for MacOS Login

    Cannot pair a yubikey for MacOS Login

    I’ve done a bit of a derp, and it’s taken me way too long to work out such a simple derp. I use physical keys for logon to my MacOS devices, as well as passwords. I’ve been setting up a new MacBook Air today, and could I get my YubiKey to work? I’ve factory reset…


  • PST Import Service – Viewing Uploaded PST

    This is quick addenda to my previous post on the PST Import Service. Sometimes you can run in to an issue where the import service says it cannot find the PST files – something like ‘The PST could not be found in the storage account’. You can view the storage blob created during an import…


  • The PST Import Service

    The PST Import Service

    A while ago I did a video on the PST Import Service on Microsoft 365 / Office 365. You can see it here: Office365 Exchange Online PST Import Service Enough has changed so that a revisit is needed. What the PST Import Service does is allow you to bulk-copy PST files to Azure and have…


  • Sometimes good-enough…isn’t.

    The First Refusal: When “Good Enough” Isn’t Enough Lately, I’ve been taking on more work after a period of downtime. And a few days ago, I experienced something new – my first refusal. Someone approached me with an opportunity, and I simply turned it down with a polite “thanks, but no thanks.” It wasn’t a…


  • Cleaning Drives

    If like me you swap between operating systems for external drives you can sometimes find yourself in the situation where – for whatever reason – you can’t partition a drive how you want. Usually it’s if I’ve been swapping between Linux/Windows etc. and have been doing unusual things. Anyway, it’s real easy to clear down…


  • Synology NAS and MacOS Sequoia – Poor Performance

    Synology NAS and MacOS Sequoia – Poor Performance

    Since upgrading to MacOS Sequoia I noticed backups of my machines that had a lot of small files were either taking an age or failing. I also noticed that large transfers would slow down significantly after a while. After thinking this was an issue with my networking…and finding it wasn’t, I managed to narrow it…


  • Cannot Rename Network Adapter

    I’m feeling a bit … lost. For some reason on one particular machine I don’t seem to be able to rename any Network Interface on Windows 11: I’ve just tried it on another couple of machines and it’s worked fine – and I’ve obviously managed to rename some previously! So, anyone any idea what’s going…


  • Apple pulls data protection tool

    Apple pulls data protection tool

    2025-02-27 12:16:23: And another. This is going to run a while I think! US Probes UK’s Apple Encryption Demand for Possible Treaty Violation 2025-02-26 21:23:50: There’s a couple of relevant press articles that poped up after I wrote this: US intelligence head ‘not told’ about UK’s secret Apple data demand Apple’s Data Encryption Changes in…


  • Ember Heated Coffee Mug

    Ember Heated Coffee Mug

    I little while ago I was moaning on the Internet (shocked you are, I’m sure) about how I keep leaving half drunk cold cups of tea/coffee everywhere…anyway, somebody took some pity on me and told me they were sending me a little gift. What turns up but an Ember Heated Coffee Mug in stainless steel.…