https://mjcb.ca/ Recent content on mjcb.ca Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Copyright © 2018 - 2026 Matthew Burr Sat, 02 May 2026 11:03:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2026/05/02/practical-guide-to-pki-with-windows-server-behind-the-scenes-part-2/ Sat, 02 May 2026 11:03:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2026/05/02/practical-guide-to-pki-with-windows-server-behind-the-scenes-part-2/ Similar to the release of the first edition of this book, I wanted to go into the details on why I created a second edition and what I learned while writing it. Just like the first time I went through this process, writing a book was harder than I thought it would be, and I wrongly assumed that creating a new edition would be a quick task to accomplish. Nevertheless, I still wanted to document the process if other people were interested in how it works. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2026/01/30/microsoft-gave-bitlocker-recovery-keys-to-the-fbi/ Fri, 30 Jan 2026 07:57:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2026/01/30/microsoft-gave-bitlocker-recovery-keys-to-the-fbi/ It was recently announced that in 2025, Microsoft had given BitLocker Recovery Keys to the FBI that were stored on their servers as part of a criminal investigation. Bitlocker is enabled by default on every Windows 11 device, and with the requirement to use a Microsoft Account on every default installation of Windows 11, the recovery keys should not be considered secure. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2026/01/27/vcf-montreal-2026/ Tue, 27 Jan 2026 18:58:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2026/01/27/vcf-montreal-2026/ The Vintage Computer Federation hosted the VCF Montréal event on January 24th and 25th, 2026. This was the first time that I have ever attended this type of event, and it has been something that I have wanted to do for a long time. I was originally planning on attending the VCF Midwest event in September of 2025, but recent events changed my plans. I had a great time, but unfortunately it was cut short due to circumstances beyond my control. https://mjcb.ca/newsletters/my-year-in-review-2025/ Fri, 16 Jan 2026 19:14:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/newsletters/my-year-in-review-2025/ Despite being a few weeks late, I still wanted to take some time and go over what I worked on in 2025 and what my plans are for 2026. I accomplished a lot in 2025, including the completion of a book that I had been working on for some time, as well as starting a few other projects. 2026 is going to be a busy year for me, and I am going to work hard to stay on track and get everything completed that I need to get completed. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2025/11/08/online-services-diversification/ Sat, 08 Nov 2025 08:58:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2025/11/08/online-services-diversification/ I wanted to go over an initiative that I have been working on since the fall of 2024. Recent events have forced me to prioritize some of these tasks, as I really want to complete these tasks sooner rather than later. I am attempting to migrate as many of my online services as possible away from services based in the US. This is not an easy task which will require certain concessions on some things, and I am prepared to deal with that. It is impossible to avoid US services, but I will try my best to avoid them for critical services. https://mjcb.ca/publications/practical-guide-to-pki-with-windows-server-second-edition/ Tue, 04 Nov 2025 17:17:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/publications/practical-guide-to-pki-with-windows-server-second-edition/ Now available for sale, the follow-up to the Practical Guide to PKI with Windows Server book that I published in 2021. This new edition has been greatly updated and expanded from the previous version, and builds on steps that were not included in the original book. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2025/10/14/windows-10-end-of-life/ Tue, 14 Oct 2025 21:49:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2025/10/14/windows-10-end-of-life/ Today (mostly) marks the end of support for Windows 10 for the average consumer. Businesses that use the LTSC versions will have support for longer, as well as companies who are willing to pay for updates. Windows 10 was a major change from Windows 8 (8.1), and several of the changes were due to customer feedback. Despite the initial issues and reputation of Windows 10, it has become the next Windows 7 in people not wanting to move on to the next supported version. https://mjcb.ca/newsletters/newsletters/ Tue, 09 Sep 2025 18:18:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/newsletters/newsletters/ I have gotten into the habit of creating posts every few months offering updates on what I am currently working on and what is coming up in the future. It was always an informal thing to do, and I never really had a set schedule on creating those posts. I have decided that I wanted to be more regular on providing updates, so I have decided to create a newsletter for the website. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2025/07/19/crowdstrike-incident-one-year-later/ Sat, 19 Jul 2025 14:24:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2025/07/19/crowdstrike-incident-one-year-later/ On July 19, 2024 an incident occurred where approximately 8.5 million Windows computers were taken offline due to a bad definition file being deployed to the CrowdStrike Falcon product. Due to the way that the definition file was formatted, the way that Windows does not allow bad drivers to be bypassed at boot time, and the way that Windows handles Antivirus products in general all contributed to the outage. It has been a year since this incident and I wanted to go over what has changed, and if it is still possible for this issue to occur in the future. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2025/05/15/why-i-ditched-microsoft-365-part-2/ Thu, 15 May 2025 21:57:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2025/05/15/why-i-ditched-microsoft-365-part-2/ There were several tasks that needed to be completed to successfully migrate away from Microsoft 365. I decided that I would test different solutions and make changes as needed, but the move away from Microsoft 365 would be a one-way trip. I had no intention of going back to that platform, and I was going to make whatever solution I ended up with work for me. At the end of this migration, I was able to have a proper email and groupware solution that did everything I needed it to do, and it was on a non-US provider. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2025/05/15/why-i-ditched-microsoft-365-part-1/ Thu, 15 May 2025 21:56:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2025/05/15/why-i-ditched-microsoft-365-part-1/ I have been stuck in a loop for a while using multiple services from different providers to get things done in my daily workflow. I have been looking for ways to consolidate and simplify those services as much as possible, as I am tired of dealing with multiple providers for everyday tasks. I have written about this several times on this website, and I have made a lot of efforts to reduce the number of services that I am using. Obviously, this is not a problem for a lot of people, and they have no issues switching back and forth between services, but I find it to be quite annoying and distracting. After going back and forth and tracking my usage, I decided that I no longer need Microsoft 365 at all, and it was time for it to go. The Microsoft 365 services that are offered can be provided elsewhere, and that was what I wanted to investigate. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2025/02/13/new-website-domain/ Thu, 13 Feb 2025 22:57:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2025/02/13/new-website-domain/ I wasn't planning on making this change right now, but recent events have accelerated my schedule. I am retiring the mjcb.io domain and moving everything to the mjcb.ca domain for all of my online services. I wanted to make this change sooner rather than later, as it will take time for those changes to be propagated. Fortunately, I am not too concerned with a lot of the issues that arise from changing domains. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2025/01/01/my-year-in-review-2024/ Wed, 01 Jan 2025 20:59:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2025/01/01/my-year-in-review-2024/ Another year has come and gone. I wanted to take some time and go over what I worked on in 2024, and what my plans are for 2025. I got a lot of things done in 2024, but I ran out of time on some projects. Those projects are going to be completed in the first few months of 2025 as I really would like to move onto other things. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/12/09/how-8-bit-atari-computers-work/ Mon, 09 Dec 2024 22:44:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/12/09/how-8-bit-atari-computers-work/ The 8-Bit Guy recently posted a video about the history of the Atari 8-Bit computers, and the impact that they had on the industry. I was never the biggest fan of Atari consoles when I was a kid, mostly because more modern consoles were available by the time I was playing games. I was not aware of the extra capabilities of these computers, mostly because there was little documentation available in the pre-Internet era, and I was too young to know how to program. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/11/20/windows-95-installation-process/ Wed, 20 Nov 2024 07:13:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/11/20/windows-95-installation-process/ I have been following Raymond Chen's blog, The Old New Thing, or several years and he recently posted about the process that Windows 95 used for installation. The installer was unusual since it booted into a limited MS-DOS environment, then a limited Windows 3.1 environment, and then finally into a Windows 95 environment. I had heard several reasons for this strange process for years, so it was nice to finally hear the reason from someone at Microsoft. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/11/18/windows-server-2025-rtm/ Mon, 18 Nov 2024 23:03:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/11/18/windows-server-2025-rtm/ Windows Server 2025 was released to manufacturing on November 1, 2024, after being in public preview for most of the year. This is a major release, and there are many changes to the core features of Windows Server. This is also the first version of Windows Server to be available on the ARM architecture, which will allow for some interesting deployment options for the operating system. Windows Server 2025 is a LTSC (Long-Term Servicing Channel) release and will be supported until October 10, 2034. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/07/31/goodbye-xbox-360/ Wed, 31 Jul 2024 22:44:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/07/31/goodbye-xbox-360/ Microsoft announced last year that on July 29, 2024, the Xbox 360 Marketplace would be shut down for good. The Xbox 360 console would continue to operate normally, but the ability to purchase new games through the Xbox 360 Marketplace would be permanently removed (existing purchases would still work). It marks the end of an era for the Xbox 360, which was released in the fall of 2005, and was supported for almost 20 years. Microsoft supported the Xbox 360 for almost 8 years after the console was officially discontinued, which is impressive considering how the Xbox division has been doing in recent years. At the end of the day the Xbox 360 sold 84 million units worldwide, which is in the top 10, so not bad for a console. Despite the early hardware issues, it was a successful console with a great legacy. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/07/23/crowdstrike-incident/ Tue, 23 Jul 2024 18:39:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/07/23/crowdstrike-incident/ I woke up on Friday July 19, 2024, and read that there was a massive IT outage in progress that was affecting airlines, financial institutions, and various other businesses worldwide. I was aware of CrowdStrike prior to this outage, and it was not surprising to me at all that something like this finally happened at this scale. While I have never been a customer of CrowdStrike, I have used products in the past that worked in a similar manner, and they always made me nervous how they deployed updates. These updates have the potential to cripple all workstations and servers in an organization with only one minor issue, and that is exactly what happened. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/05/30/skills-canada-2009-retrospective/ Thu, 30 May 2024 13:42:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/05/30/skills-canada-2009-retrospective/ After writing about the Skills Ontario competition I also wanted to go into the details of the Skills Canada competition that I attended in late May 2009, and go over the entire experience. It has been 15 years since I attended and competed in the Skills Canada competition. The Skills Canada competition was a week-long experience, starting on May 19, 2009, and ending on May 23, 2009, at various locations in Charlottetown, PEI. I won first place in the IT and Network Support competition, making me the first student from Cambrian College to win in that competition. On top of that I was also the first student from Cambrian College to ever win gold at Skills Canada in any competition. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/05/17/microsofts-quest-for-short-term-profit/ Fri, 17 May 2024 18:21:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/05/17/microsofts-quest-for-short-term-profit/ This article from Windows Central came up the other day and it sums up a lot of the current issues with the consumer side of Microsoft, not necessarily on the Azure or Office 365 sides. Obviously, short term gains are most publicly traded companies primary concern, but Microsoft is no longer playing the long game on its core products and services, and it is starting to erode trust in the company. Overall, a good read and worth the time to go through it. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/05/05/skills-ontario-2009-retrospective/ Sun, 05 May 2024 15:07:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/05/05/skills-ontario-2009-retrospective/ I wanted to go into the details of the Skills Ontario competition that I attended in early May 2009, and go over the entire experience. It has been 15 years since I competed at the Skills Ontario competition. The Skills Ontario competition took place from May 4 to May 6, 2009, at the RIM Park and Manulife Financial Sportsplex in Waterloo, Ontario. I won first place in the IT and Network Support competition which qualified me for Skills Canada in late May 2009, which I also attended. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/04/28/skills-competition-retrospective/ Sun, 28 Apr 2024 13:03:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/04/28/skills-competition-retrospective/ On May 1, 2009, I finished the last day of my field placement at Health Sciences North in Sudbury, Ontario, and completed the final course that I needed so that I could graduate from Cambrian College in the CETY (Computer Systems Technology) program. The following week I travelled to Waterloo, Ontario to represent my college in the Skills Ontario competition in the IT and Network Support category. I ended up winning first place in that competition, and I then travelled to Charlottetown, PEI a few weeks later to the Skills Canada competition to compete again where I also won first place. It has been 15 years since I competed at both events, and I wanted to go over the experience. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/04/15/apple-antitrust-lawsuit-march-2024/ Mon, 15 Apr 2024 22:47:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/04/15/apple-antitrust-lawsuit-march-2024/ On March 21, 2024, the United States Justice Department and 16 States filed suit against Apple for monopolistic practices in the smartphone market. The main allegation is that Apple has violated antitrust laws by making it difficult for competitors and other third-parties to interoperate with the iPhone (and with iOS), and as a result they have a monopoly on the smartphone market in the US. This was certainly an interesting thing to hear about and it seems to have come out of nowhere. It is a complex case, and despite what others are saying, it is not completely related to the whole ''green bubble'' situation with iMessage. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/04/09/backup-strategy/ Tue, 09 Apr 2024 20:22:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/04/09/backup-strategy/ World Backup Day was a few days ago and I wanted to go into the details on my current backup strategy, and the reasons behind the way that I handle the backups of my important data. While it is not overly complex compared to other backup strategies that I have seen, it is important to have a formal process in place to ensure that data is being backed up and correctly protected. It is very easy to just assume that everything is being backed up and that is the end of it, but not properly scheduling, validating, or tracking your backups is what usually causes data loss. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/03/18/dell-wyse-3040/ Mon, 18 Mar 2024 21:19:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/03/18/dell-wyse-3040/ Several years ago, I acquired a Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client while I was doing some contract work. The company that I was working for was getting rid of several dozen of them and offered me one if I was interested. Right after that happened, I moved and it ended up in storage, and I only just recently rediscovered that I even had it. This turned out to be quote convenient because I was using a Raspberry Pi as a Pi-hole server on my network, and I needed to repurpose that device for something else, so I decided to use this system to replace it. Even though it is an old system that is end-of-life, it is still useful. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/01/03/my-year-in-review-2023/ Wed, 03 Jan 2024 17:14:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2024/01/03/my-year-in-review-2023/ Once again, the year is over and I wanted to take some time to look back on what I accomplished during 2023, and what I am planning to do in 2024. Overall, I think the goals are quite achievable and I should have no issues with getting the things done that I want to get done. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2023/11/03/fall-update-2023/ Fri, 03 Nov 2023 21:34:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2023/11/03/fall-update-2023/ I have released some new and updated publications in the last week that I wanted to mention. I also wanted to quickly go over what I have planned for the remainder of 2023 and for the beginning of 2024, as some of my plans have changed slightly from the last time that I talked about it. https://mjcb.ca/publications/adcs-on-windows-server-2022/ Wed, 25 Oct 2023 07:49:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/publications/adcs-on-windows-server-2022/ Now available for download, the AD CS on Windows Server 2022 guide for creating a Two-Tier Certificate Authority using Active Directory Certificate Services and Windows Server 2022. This guide offers a rapid deployment of a Two-Tier Certificate Authority using Windows Server. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2023/09/25/travel-chromebook-experiment/ Mon, 25 Sep 2023 21:22:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2023/09/25/travel-chromebook-experiment/ In September 2022 I took a 3-week trip to the Azores to visit family members, and to have my first real vacation since the end of 2019. I wasn't planning on taking my daily driver MacBook Air with me because I was concerned about it getting lost or damaged, but I wanted to take something with me in case I needed to do some work or to connect to anything at home. I ended up getting a Chromebook for the first time in several years, and it worked out exceptionally well, despite some minor limitations. I wanted to see if a Chromebook could actually be useful as a primary device for an extended period. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2023/07/26/mid-year-update-2023/ Wed, 26 Jul 2023 01:45:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2023/07/26/mid-year-update-2023/ We are over halfway through 2023 and I wanted to provide a few updates on what I am working on since I have been receiving a few emails from people about it. I wanted to get into details on what I am working on now, what I plan on releasing in the next few weeks, and what the rest of my plans are for the remainder of the year. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2023/05/22/apple-silicon-two-years-later-part-2/ Mon, 22 May 2023 20:05:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2023/05/22/apple-silicon-two-years-later-part-2/ So, this post ended up taking a lot longer to put together than I thought it would. I am still using the same MacBook Air (M1, 2020) that I was using 16 months ago when I wrote the first post, and I am still happy with the performance and the capabilities of it. I have owned it since February 2021 and been using it as my primary machine for over 2 full years now. Enough has been written on the capabilities and performance of Apple Silicon chips, so I am just going to talk about my experiences with it. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2023/01/10/windows-8-1-end-of-life/ Tue, 10 Jan 2023 07:02:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2023/01/10/windows-8-1-end-of-life/ Today is the last time that Microsoft will publish any updates for Windows 8.1. Today marks the end of extended support for Windows 8.1, and Windows 8.1 is now officially end of life. To say that Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 were controversial is an understatement, but at the end of the day they were both solid improvements over Windows 7, despite the issues that they introduced. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/12/28/my-year-in-review-2022/ Wed, 28 Dec 2022 18:37:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/12/28/my-year-in-review-2022/ Is 2022 over already? I don't have a lot to talk about, but this was the first year that has felt like normal since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/11/03/website-github-migration/ Thu, 03 Nov 2022 17:01:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/11/03/website-github-migration/ I recently deleted my Atlassian accounts and migrated all my code from Bitbucket to GitHub. This was for a couple of reasons, but bottom line I am just finished with Atlassian as a company. Their business model is horrible, and they are just not worth it anymore. On the upside, GitHub is pretty much the de facto standard for Git, and Bitbucket is more of a niche at this point. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/10/05/docs-mjcb-ca/ Wed, 05 Oct 2022 19:48:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/10/05/docs-mjcb-ca/ I am launching a dedicated website that is going to be just for documentation that I have created over the years, and for all documentation that I will be creating going forward. It uses Hugo and Netlify just like this website, and GitHub for hosting the Git repository. I have decided to make the repository for the website public, so anyone can download it if they want. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/09/27/practical-guide-to-pki-with-windows-server-one-year-later/ Tue, 27 Sep 2022 15:57:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/09/27/practical-guide-to-pki-with-windows-server-one-year-later/ I published my book, Practical Guide to PKI with Windows Server on September 22, 2021, and it has now been over a full year since I made it generally available for purchase. I wanted to reflect on what I have learned since releasing the book, what issues I have encountered, and what the next steps are. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/07/29/consulting-services/ Fri, 29 Jul 2022 20:13:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/07/29/consulting-services/ I have received several emails lately from people who have purchased my Practical Guide to PKI with Windows Server book and from people who have been downloaded my free guide on the same subject. There isn't a problem with this, I am glad that people are reading both publications and have questions about it, but I wanted to set expectations with people whenever they have questions about it. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/06/15/internet-explorer-eol/ Wed, 15 Jun 2022 06:34:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/06/15/internet-explorer-eol/ Internet Explorer 11 has officially gone end of life and it had a good run despite the issues associated with it. The first version of Internet Explorer was released on August 16, 1995, and it had a 26+ year run as one of the most well-known Web Browsers in the world. Unfortunately, with the widespread adoption of modern Web Browsers, there was no longer a need for IE, and it is time to move on. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/06/02/goodbye-vmware/ Thu, 02 Jun 2022 19:49:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/06/02/goodbye-vmware/ I have had some time to think about it and I don't normally comment on things like this, but the recent news that Broadcom was acquiring VMware from Dell for approximately $61 billion has me quite concerned about the future of on-premises virtualization and what is going to happen to enterprise solutions like VMware. Perpetual software licenses are going away faster than ever, and once it is normalized there will be no going back. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/05/11/exchange-online-mail-flow-rules-aliases/ Wed, 11 May 2022 19:32:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/05/11/exchange-online-mail-flow-rules-aliases/ I ran into a somewhat annoying issue with using Mail Flow Rules with Exchange Online to modify the subject header on emails that were sent to aliases on some of my Office 365 accounts. I wanted to modify the email subject of those emails to show what alias it was meant for, and I figured I should share that process here if someone else runs into the same issue. This isn't something that I do very often, and I was doing it wrong from the beginning, hence why I was having an issue. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/05/01/microsoft-administration-portals/ Sun, 01 May 2022 20:51:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/05/01/microsoft-administration-portals/ I found a useful resource a few days ago that lists all the known/major Microsoft Administration Portals on a single website. While it is a great resource, it also represents a lot of the frustrations that I have with Microsoft's online services and how administrators are expected to manage them. https://mjcb.ca/publications/building-a-certificate-authority-in-windows-server-2019/ Tue, 05 Apr 2022 06:47:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/publications/building-a-certificate-authority-in-windows-server-2019/ Now available for download, a version of the Building a Certificate Authority in Windows Server 2019 guide that I published in early 2020. This guide offers a rapid deployment of a Two-Tier Certificate Authority using Windows Server without advanced features. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/03/31/world-backup-day-2022/ Thu, 31 Mar 2022 07:02:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/03/31/world-backup-day-2022/ World Backup Day is a day of awareness for people to learn about the importance of regular backups of their important data. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/03/07/freedos-13-released/ Mon, 07 Mar 2022 17:15:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/03/07/freedos-13-released/ I recently saw a post about the newest release of FreeDOS and I wanted to take some time and see how well it works in 2022 on a laptop that was designed to run it from the late MS-DOS era. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/01/25/apple-silicon-one-year-later-part-1/ Tue, 25 Jan 2022 08:05:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/01/25/apple-silicon-one-year-later-part-1/ I have written about my obsession with ARM processors and why I have wanted one in a daily driver laptop many times before on this website. It has been something that I have wanted in a laptop for a long time, but unfortunately the hardware and software options were never quite there yet. I have tried many ARM devices over the last 10 years which promised that they could be a daily driver device, or at least something close to that. I was always disappointed with those devices, and I never really found something that worked reliably for me. As time went on, I realized that I really wanted an ARM-based device as my daily driver, regardless of the form factor. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/01/14/retro-computers/ Fri, 14 Jan 2022 22:25:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/01/14/retro-computers/ I have been collecting retro computers for the last few years, mostly replacing devices that I have owned since the early 2000's that I have gotten rid of. I spent a lot of time moving around between 2004 and 2011, and I wasn't always able to store things easily, so I got into the habit of traveling light. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/01/01/my-year-in-review-2021/ Sat, 01 Jan 2022 12:43:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2022/01/01/my-year-in-review-2021/ To start off, 2021 went much better than 2020 for me. Even though COVID-19 is still a worldwide problem, and the pandemic is far from over, I was able to accomplish a lot more than I thought I would. This was both professionally and personally. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2021/12/23/goodbye-wordpress-hello-hugo/ Thu, 23 Dec 2021 12:05:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2021/12/23/goodbye-wordpress-hello-hugo/ I recently migrated this website from the WordPress platform to Hugo. I wanted to go into details on why I made the decision to change CMS platforms, and what the process was for completing the migration. Changing hosting providers is usually a non-issue and can be performed with proper planning and a pre-determined cutover date, but migrating from one platform to another requires a lot more time and effort to complete successfully and there are always minor issues as a result. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2021/09/23/practical-guide-to-pki-with-windows-server-behind-the-scenes/ Thu, 23 Sep 2021 09:08:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2021/09/23/practical-guide-to-pki-with-windows-server-behind-the-scenes/ I wanted to go into the details on why I wrote this book and focus on what I learned while writing it. I will also go into the details on the process of writing the book and what tools I used. Writing a book was much harder than I ever thought it would be, but I wanted to document the process as best as I could, if other people are interested in doing the same. As difficult as it was, I would certainly do it again now that I know what to expect. https://mjcb.ca/publications/practical-guide-to-pki-with-windows-server-first-edition/ Wed, 22 Sep 2021 20:16:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/publications/practical-guide-to-pki-with-windows-server-first-edition/ Now available for sale, the book version of the Building a Certificate Authority in Windows Server 2019 guide that I published in early 2020. The guide has been greatly expanded and includes many additional details and steps that were not included in the original guide. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2021/01/01/my-year-in-review-2020/ Fri, 01 Jan 2021 16:27:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2021/01/01/my-year-in-review-2020/ So, to start off, COVID-19 just completely messed up all my 2020 plans. This is both with my professional plans as well as my personal plans. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/07/20/visual-studio-code-with-latex-follow-up/ Mon, 20 Jul 2020 07:43:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/07/20/visual-studio-code-with-latex-follow-up/ I posted an article about using Visual Studio Code with LaTeX earlier this year and I wanted to do a follow-up with some of the additional extensions that I have been utilizing, as well as some of the extra configuration items that I have been using as I have made this environment my primary LaTeX editor. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/06/28/apple-arm-transition/ Sun, 28 Jun 2020 09:45:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/06/28/apple-arm-transition/ It has been a rumour for many years that Apple was finally going to ditch Intel and use their own custom processors in all their devices, the exact same ones that they have been utilizing in their iOS devices for the last few years. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/06/23/the-great-work-from-home-experiment/ Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:40:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/06/23/the-great-work-from-home-experiment/ To say that 2020 has not been going well would be a big understatement. The COVID-19 pandemic came out of nowhere and it has rapidly disrupted the lives of hundreds of millions of people. Entire countries were and still are under full or partial lock down, air travel is virtually non-existent, and manufacturing is seriously impacted. I won't even get into the economic repercussions since that will take a long time to determine once the pandemic is finally over. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/05/30/spacex-dm-2-flight-may-2020/ Sat, 30 May 2020 22:08:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/05/30/spacex-dm-2-flight-may-2020/ The SpaceX Demonstration Mission 2 Flight successfully flew on May 30, 2020, at 3:22pm EST. Despite a weather delay from a few days prior, the flight went off without a hitch. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/04/14/gentoo-linux-on-the-thinkpad-t470/ Tue, 14 Apr 2020 20:14:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/04/14/gentoo-linux-on-the-thinkpad-t470/ Just a quick tutorial on getting Gentoo Linux running on a Lenovo ThinkPad T470 laptop. Created out of boredom as the result of being in lockdown because of COVID-19. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/31/world-backup-day-2020/ Tue, 31 Mar 2020 07:42:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/31/world-backup-day-2020/ World Backup Day is a yearly event which is a day of awareness for people to learn about the importance of regular backups. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-8/ Mon, 09 Mar 2020 19:09:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-8/ The conclusion to this 8-part series on creating a Certificate Authority in Windows Server 2019 using Active Directory Certificate Services. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-7/ Mon, 09 Mar 2020 19:08:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-7/ What good is a Certificate Authority in an Active Directory environment if there is no way to automatically deploy the Certificates? Luckily, with the use of Group Policy and a few configuration changes to Certificate Templates, this is an easy task to perform. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-6/ Mon, 09 Mar 2020 19:07:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-6/ Certificates are not always one size fits all for an organization, but luckily it is easy to customize the Certificates that are deployed to your organization. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-5/ Mon, 09 Mar 2020 19:06:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-5/ The last thing that you ever want to deal with is losing the Private Key for an important Certificate. Luckily, this is easy to avoid with the use of Key Archiving directly to Active Directory. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-4/ Mon, 09 Mar 2020 19:05:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-4/ For every Certificate Authority, it is inevitable that you are eventually going to need to revoke a certificate for one reason or another. The Online Responder Role in Active Directory Certificate Services is capable of rapidly revoking certificates and ensuring that users in your organization are notified as quickly as possible. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-3/ Mon, 09 Mar 2020 19:04:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-3/ Once the Certificate Authority has been created it is time to deploy those Certificates to the organization. Using Group Policy with Active Directory, this is an easy task, and can deploy the Certificates to the organization in only a few minutes. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-2/ Mon, 09 Mar 2020 19:03:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-2/ Once the Root CA has been created, the Subordinate CA needs to be setup. This Subordinate CA is needed to do all the work for the Certificate Authority. It will issue all Certificates to the organization and handle the day-to-day operations. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-1/ Mon, 09 Mar 2020 19:02:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019-part-1/ The first step in establishing a two-tier Certificate Authority is the creation of the Root Certificate. The Root Certificate is the most important part of the Certificate Authority, and it is critical that this is setup properly and securely from day one. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019/ Mon, 09 Mar 2020 19:01:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/03/09/certificate-authority-windows-server-2019/ This is the start of an 8-part series on building a Certificate Authority using Active Directory Certificate Services in Windows Server 2019. The process is quite involved, but with this guide and planning on your part, you should be able to build this important infrastructure component with ease. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/01/23/visual-studio-code-with-latex/ Thu, 23 Jan 2020 18:28:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/01/23/visual-studio-code-with-latex/ LaTeX is a powerful typesetting language that has been used for decades by people looking to create documents without needing to worry about the look of it. I have been using it for the last few years for important documents, and I wanted to integrate it with my favourite editor prior to undertaking a large project using it. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/01/19/spacex-in-flight-abort-test/ Sun, 19 Jan 2020 21:29:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/01/19/spacex-in-flight-abort-test/ Just another critical step that SpaceX needed to complete for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. As usual they nailed the test. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/01/14/windows-7-end-of-life/ Tue, 14 Jan 2020 14:13:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2020/01/14/windows-7-end-of-life/ I liked Windows 7 a lot, it was a great operating system that I deployed and supported very early in my IT career. An end of an era, but it had to happen. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/12/31/my-year-in-review-2019/ Tue, 31 Dec 2019 13:34:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/12/31/my-year-in-review-2019/ Once again, I made a promise to myself that I would post a lot more often to this site, but once again a lot of things got in the way, and I wasn't able to get as much done as I hoped. I was doing very well in the earlier part of the year, but after the middle of April I ran into a lot of issues that prevented me from focusing my attention on the site. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/04/11/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-arabsat-6a/ Thu, 11 Apr 2019 19:10:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/04/11/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-arabsat-6a/ As with all SpaceX launches, I will never not be impressed by how easy they make this look. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/04/09/windows-xp-is-finally-dead/ Tue, 09 Apr 2019 21:51:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/04/09/windows-xp-is-finally-dead/ It had a good run, but the time has finally run out on Windows XP and all its variants. It was a great OS (eventually), but ultimately it has been succeeded by more modern operating systems and better practices. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/04/02/sorry-no-github-page/ Tue, 02 Apr 2019 20:16:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/04/02/sorry-no-github-page/ In case you have been living under a rock, this thing called DevOps and Automation is a pretty big deal nowadays. The line between Developers, Systems Administrators and Network Administrators is being increasingly blurred, so it is not uncommon to be asked to do code deployments and support when it sort of isn't something you should be doing. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/03/29/world-backup-day-2019/ Fri, 29 Mar 2019 20:44:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/03/29/world-backup-day-2019/ World Backup Day is a day of awareness for people to learn about the importance of regular backups for their personal data. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/03/09/spacex-dm1-flight-march-2019/ Sat, 09 Mar 2019 08:28:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/03/09/spacex-dm1-flight-march-2019/ The SpaceX Demonstration Mission 1 Flight has successfully completed as of 8:45am EST on Friday March 8, 2019. There were no issues, and this is the very successful first step towards the next flight (In-Flight Abort Test) that will take place in the next few weeks, using the same Dragon Capsule that completed the DM1 Mission. If nothing major comes up, the DM2 flight should occur in the Summer of 2019 with two Astronauts on board. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/02/11/most-common-mistakes-in-active-directory/ Mon, 11 Feb 2019 15:38:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/02/11/most-common-mistakes-in-active-directory/ Active Directory is an incredibly powerful tool that pretty much every business relies on for user authentication and management. That doesn't mean that people set it up properly though, and Microsoft has provided a very good guide on how to avoid those mistakes. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/01/15/openssh-client-and-openssh-server-on-windows/ Tue, 15 Jan 2019 19:49:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/01/15/openssh-client-and-openssh-server-on-windows/ One of the biggest and most welcome changes to the Windows 10 1809 update and in Windows Server 2019 was the addition of the OpenSSH Client and OpenSSH Server features. Certainly, this was something that I never expected to happen, but it is a welcome change. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/01/02/ultima-thule-flyby/ Wed, 02 Jan 2019 21:29:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2019/01/02/ultima-thule-flyby/ The New Horizons spacecraft successfully completed its flyby of Ultima Thule (2014 MU69) at 12:33am on January 1, 2019. So far there has not been a lot of information released due to the slow (but steady) retrieval of data from the spacecraft, but the initial images are amazing. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/12/31/my-year-in-review-2018/ Mon, 31 Dec 2018 06:10:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/12/31/my-year-in-review-2018/ When I decided that I wanted to start a dedicated website/blog earlier in 2018, I intended to use it to showcase what I was working on and what I have accomplished overall. I find that I work through a lot of problems, and I never share the solutions with people, which is one of the main reasons that I wanted to create this site. I also wanted to use this site to show what I was interested in with subjects other than IT, which I ended up not doing (even though I had several ideas, I never posted anything). I ended up not posting as often as I wanted to, but that will be something that I intend to change in 2019. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/11/14/vmware-workstation-and-hyper-v/ Wed, 14 Nov 2018 21:09:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/11/14/vmware-workstation-and-hyper-v/ I recently ran into an issue with my ThinkPad while trying to run VMware Workstation 15.0 when I had the Hyper-V role installed on Windows 10 Pro 1809. Having VMware installed at the same time as having the Hyper-V role installed is not an issue, but it is not possible to run both at the same time. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/11/07/wsl-changes-in-1809/ Wed, 07 Nov 2018 18:42:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/11/07/wsl-changes-in-1809/ I found a good blog article about the changes that were made to the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) in the Windows 10 1809 update (or whatever it will be called when they eventually release it again) on the Windows Command Line Blog. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/10/29/one-windows-kernel/ Mon, 29 Oct 2018 12:25:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/10/29/one-windows-kernel/ The Windows Kernel Internals team posted a very interesting article about the architecture of the Windows Kernel and on its ability to scale up from embedded IoT devices to servers running the Azure datacentres. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/10/04/lenovo-miix-630/ Thu, 04 Oct 2018 19:35:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/10/04/lenovo-miix-630/ I wanted to do a follow up my previous post about Windows on ARM since I have had some recent hands-on experience with this platform. I was able to obtain a Lenovo Miix 630 through a contract that I am working on, and I have been using it in a daily basis for the last 2 months. I had wanted to give this platform a fair chance, and here is what I found out. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/09/28/commodore-history-series/ Fri, 28 Sep 2018 18:37:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/09/28/commodore-history-series/ The 8-Bit Guy has been working on a comprehensive history and review of the Commodore Computer family starting from the Commodore PET to the Commodore 64, all the way to the Commodore C128. I admit that I am complete nerd and I find this entire video series very interesting, mostly because for a brief time when I was a kid, I had a Commodore 64, and it was technically the first computer that I ever owned. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/09/25/windows-nt-351-hyper-v/ Tue, 25 Sep 2018 06:01:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/09/25/windows-nt-351-hyper-v/ I ran into a few issues with running this very old operating system as a virtual machine on Hyper-V a few days ago. I needed to do this for a personal project that I am working on, one that I have been thinking about doing for a while now. Since I ran into a few issues with getting this to work correctly, I thought I should share my findings and write a quick guide on how to get Windows NT 3.51 Server and Windows NT 3.51 Workstation running on Hyper-V. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/08/05/windows-on-arm/ Sun, 05 Aug 2018 14:31:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/08/05/windows-on-arm/ Not a lot of people realize that Windows can be used on more than just x86 and x64-based hardware. Windows NT was designed from day one to be portable on multiple hardware platforms and was supported at one time on the MIPS, Alpha, PowerPC, and Itanium platforms. https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/04/16/new-website/ Mon, 16 Apr 2018 08:44:00 +0000 https://mjcb.ca/blog/2018/04/16/new-website/ Just a quick post about my new website and what I am planning to use it for. It was a long time coming, so hopefully I can commit to posting here often.