Category Archives: Technology

Heads-Up for LinkedIn Users

If you have a LinkedIn account, stop what you’re doing and change your LinkedIn password immediately. I’m not kidding–just do it. Once you’re logged in, click on your name near the upper-right corner, click Settings from the menu, click the Account tab near the lower-left corner, and click Change password. Now that you’ve changed yourContinue reading “Heads-Up for LinkedIn Users”

Converting to Project Connection Across Multiple Packages in SSIS 2012

I’m migrating a Business Intelligence project from SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2012. Microsoft has, overall, done a great job with their development and migration tools, and some of the new features of SQL 2012 are great and will save me a lot of time going forward. One neat new feature in SQL ServerContinue reading “Converting to Project Connection Across Multiple Packages in SSIS 2012”

Generating a Range of Dates in MySQL

Working on a report from a MySQL database, I needed a table of all dates for the next year. With SQL Server (2005 and later) there’s a CTE/recursive method to do this pretty elegantly, but I couldn’t find anything similar for MySQL. All the solutions I found involved temporary tables, loops, and/or stored procedures–none ofContinue reading “Generating a Range of Dates in MySQL”

Active Directory Single Sign-On for Linux Intranet Servers

I mentioned a while ago that I have a Linux web server set up with Kerberos SSO in our AD domain. Setting it up was a lot more tedious than it seems like it should have been. I found bits and pieces of useful information here and there, and some step-by-step guides to help withContinue reading “Active Directory Single Sign-On for Linux Intranet Servers”

Intranet Milestone: Transparent Authentication

I’ve started a project to move the front-end of our intranet from SharePoint to WordPress (SP is just too icky to do any serious front-end work with). The plan is for WordPress to become the front-end and CMS for news-type content, keep SharePoint for file library and calendar-type stuff (at least for now), and useContinue reading “Intranet Milestone: Transparent Authentication”

Internet Wiretap Bill Misses the Mark

Charlie Savage reported Monday in the New York Times that the Obama administration is seeking legislation that would require “back-doors” in all encryption products and services in the US. Of course, they cite terrorism as a primary motivation. How best to balance the needs of law enforcement (and of government in general) with the privacyContinue reading “Internet Wiretap Bill Misses the Mark”

When Low Tech Is the Best Tech

We’ve been thinking about developing a quick application to replace a paper HR process—should be a simple state machine with four possible states: Submitted, Accepted, Rejected, and Completed. But then we realized we would need email notifications and a coherent security model. These requirements—workflow, notification, and security—happen reasonably well in the old paper model. NotContinue reading “When Low Tech Is the Best Tech”

The Enterprise Information Protection Paradigm

It used to be that network infrastructure was one of an organization’s most valuable assets and security was geared toward protecting the infrastructure; but costs are falling, and the network has become a commodity. Meanwhile, the volume and value of information stored electronically are growing rapidly. For this reason, Dan Greer advocates a paradigm shiftContinue reading “The Enterprise Information Protection Paradigm”