{"id":7991,"date":"2020-05-31T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-31T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=7991"},"modified":"2020-06-05T00:01:12","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T23:01:12","slug":"weeknote-22-2020-holidaying-on-the-costa-del-great-ouse-plus-password-resets-cycling-performance-video-conferencing-equipment-and-status-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2020\/05\/weeknote-22-2020-holidaying-on-the-costa-del-great-ouse-plus-password-resets-cycling-performance-video-conferencing-equipment-and-status-lights.htm","title":{"rendered":"Weeknote 22\/2020: holidaying on the Costa del Great Ouse (plus password resets, cycling performance, video-conferencing equipment and status lights)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the last few hours of 2019, my family planned our holiday. We thought we had it all sorted – fly to Barcelona, spend the weekend sight-seeing (including taking my football-mad son to Camp Nou) and then head up the coast for a few more days in the Costa Brava. Flights were booked, accomodation was sorted, trips were starting to get booked up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hadn’t counted on a global pandemic.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be clear, I’m thankful that myself, my family and friends, and those around us are (so far) safe and well. By April, I didn’t much like the prospect of getting into a metal tube with 160+ strangers and flying for 3 hours in each direction. We’re also incredibly lucky to be able to access open countryside within a couple of hundred metres of our house, so daily exercise is still possible and enjoyable, with very few people around, most of the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I still took the week off work though. After cancelling my Easter break, it’s been a while since I took annual leave and even my Furlough period was not exactly relaxing, so I could do with a rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weather has been glorious in the UK this week too, making me extra-glad we re-landscaped the garden last year and I’ve spent more than a few hours just chilling on our deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, we also got a taste of what it must be like to live in a tourist hotspot, as hundreds of visitors descended on our local river each day this weekend. It seems the Great Ouse at Olney has featured in a list of top places to swim in Britain, which was recently featured in The Times. It may sound NIMBYish, but please can they stay away until this crisis is over?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the holiday, hopefully, we’ll get the money refunded for the cancelled flights (if the airlines don’t fold first – I’m sure that if they refunded everyone they would be insolvent, which is my theory for why they are not increasing staff levels to process refunds more quickly); FC Barcelona contacted me weeks ago to extend my ticket and offer a refund if we can’t use it; and AirBnB had the money back in our account within days of us being forced to pull out due to cancelled flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(I did spend a few weeks effectively “playing chicken” with easyJet to see if they would cancel first, or if it would be us. An airline-cancelled flight can be refunded, but a consumer-cancelled flight would be lost, unless we managed to claim on travel insurance).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though I’ve had a week off, I’ve still been playing with tech. Some of my “projects” should soon have their own blog post (an Intel NUC for a new Zwift PC; migrating my wife’s personal email out of my Office 365 subscription to save me a licence; and taking a look at Veeam Backup for Office 365), whilst others get a brief mention below…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please stop resetting user passwords every x days!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Regularly resetting passwords (unless a compromise is suspected) is an old way of thinking. Unfortunately, many organisations still make users change their password every few weeks. Mine came up for renewal this week and I struggled to come up with an acceptable, yet memorable passphrase. So, guess what? I wrote it down!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I use a password manager for most of my credentials but that doesn’t help with my Windows logon (before I’ve got to my browser). Biometric security like Windows Hello helps too (meaning I rarely use the password, but am even less likely to remember it when needed).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the National Cyber Security Centre (@NCSC<\/a>)’s password guidance infographic (used with permission<\/a>) and the associated password guidance<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This list of 100,000 commonly used passwords<\/a> that will get blocked by some systems may also be useful – from Troy Hunt (@TroyHunt<\/a>) but provided to me by my colleague Gavin Ashton (@gvnshtn<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performance analysis for cyclists, by cyclists<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been watching with interest as my occasional cycling buddy (and now Azure MVP<\/a>) James Randall (@AzureTrenches<\/a>) has been teasing development on his new cycling performance platform side project. This week he opened it up for early access and I’ve started to road test it… it looks really promising and I’m super impressed that James created this. Check it out at For Cyclists By Cyclists<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So… its time to let this out into the wild I guess. Always nerve wracking. Feedback of any kind welcome!https:\/\/t.co\/9FoBumpJwN<\/a>

For my tech followers (everyone!) this is end to end #fsharp<\/a> using @safe_stack<\/a> and running on @azure<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/9uduQ1pnHD<\/a><\/p>\u2014 James Randall (@AzureTrenches) May 26, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Podcasting\/video conferencing upgrades in my home office<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With video conferencing switching from something-I-use-for-internal-calls to something-I-use-to-deliver-consulting-engagements, I decided to upgrade the microphone and lighting in my home office. After seeking some advice from those who know about such things (thanks Matt Ballantine\/@ballantine70<\/a> and the WB-40 Podcast<\/a> WhatsApp group), I purchased a Marantz MPM-1000U microphone<\/a>, boom arm<\/a>, shock mount<\/a>, and a cheap rechargeable LED photography light<\/a> with tripod<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s early days yet but initial testing suggests that the microphone is excellent (although the supplied USB A-B cable is too short for practical use). I had also considered the Blue Yeti\/Raspberry but it seems to have been discontinued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the photo lighting, it should be just enough to illuminate my face as the north-facing window to my left often leaves me silhouetted on calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New video conferencing\/podcasting accessories set up and ready to go #HomeOfficeUpgrade<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/dgTaQQVuZb<\/a><\/p>\u2014 Mark Wilson ???? (@markwilsonit) May 28, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Smart lighting to match my Microsoft Teams presence<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I haven’t watched the Microsoft Build conference presentations yet, but I heard that Scott Hanselman (@shanselman<\/a>) featured Isaac Levin (@isaacrlevin<\/a>)’s PresenceLight app<\/a> to change the lighting according to his Windows Theme. The app can also be used to change Hue or LIFX lighting along with Teams presence status, so that’s in place now outside my home office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Got @isaacrlevin<\/a>‘s PresenceLight app set up with a Philips Hue compatible bulb outside my office, ready for my return to work tomorrow… more about the app at https:\/\/t.co\/ijpmbqFUWy<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/P6ptSy0kKO<\/a><\/p>\u2014 Mark Wilson ???? (@markwilsonit) May 31, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It’s not the first time I’ve tried something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n