Another look back at some of the things I’ve been up to over the last few weeks…
At work
April marks a year since I started my transition to a new role at Node4. I didn’t move over full-time until July, but that’s when I stopped running what was formerly risual’s Architecture team and joined the Office of the CTO. This is not the forum to share the full details but suffice to say I had manouevred myself into a position where I was very unhappy – neither close to the tech nor able to best use my skills to provide value to the organisation and to our clients.
The change in role has been a breath of fresh air: the focus has changed a few times and there have been some bumps on the road; but one thing is core – I get up each morning and think about how best to add value. Whether that’s building out collateral for our public cloud portfolio, developing a new offering to guard against ransomware, helping clients with their IT Strategy or getting some structure around our “thought leadership” outputs.
The month ended with Node4’s “Go To Market” conference, in Nottingham. It’s an opportunity to set the agenda for the coming year and make sure we’re all headed in the same direction. This was the first time I’d attended and it was also a brilliant opportunity to meet some of my colleagues from across the business.
I managed to get myself into the video somehow, despite not officially being one of the presenters…
OK, let's have a bit of fun. What am I up to here? Wrong answers only! pic.twitter.com/gmIwkY39nb
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) May 7, 2024
After two days of socialising, I was completely wiped out and needed some time to decompress. It’s left me thinking a lot about introversion. On the flip side, I also need to work on my FOMO… being one of the last to go to bed on the first night was not smart. At my age, I should know better.
Blogging
As usual, I didn’t find much time to blog this month, but I did write a thing about Enterprise Architecture, based on Dave Clark and Sophie Marshall’s good work…
Away from work
It’s not often that I go to the theatre but I saw the 1990s TV sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey was returning in theatre format with the original cast. I then failed to book tickets, missing it in Milton Keynes by a week. I asked myself if I could be bothered to go to Birmingham instead? Well, why not… I had a birthday so that was an opportunity to do something different!
Here we go! pic.twitter.com/UqIyEE6HnV
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) April 20, 2024
I loved it, but it’s definitely written for an audience of a certain age (and I fit that demographic). For those less familiar with the original TV programme, it’s still amusing, but it does help to understand the characters and how they have developed over 30 years.
A matinee theatre show in a major city gave us an opportunity for a day out. So, afterwards we wandered down to The Custard Factory in Digbeth, for food and drink at Sobremesa and Rico Libre.
Oh yes, and I couldn’t help but be amused when I spotted that the image on the vinyl wrap in the train toilets contained an empty vodka bottle…
Travelling to Birmingham for the day and taking the train ? ??. @LNRailway have wrapped the toilet to make it more attractive. Pity they didn’t Photoshop out the empty #Smirnoff vodka bottle ? pic.twitter.com/CQmqFKs7M3
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) April 20, 2024
Playing with tech
If last month was about Meshtastic, this month has been Home Assistant. After initially installing on a Raspberry Pi to try it out, I quickly moved to a dedicated device and bought a Home Assistant Green. There was nothing wrong with the Pi installation, but I could use a Raspberry Pi 5 for other things. I’m still getting to grips with dashboards but Home Assistant has pulled all of my various smart devices together into one platform. This thread tells some of the story:
Geek goodies! #HomeAssistant build starts here… pic.twitter.com/0AfV7kdtSZ
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) April 1, 2024
Annoyingly though, iCloud’s “was this you?” messages are not very helpful when you have automated services using your account:
Hey @Apple, it would be so much easier if you told me the IP address that was used to sign into my iCloud account. Twice now I’ve changed my password, only to find it’s a legitimate service running at home (Home Assistant) and not fraudulent. The timestamp is not helpful. IP is!
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) April 10, 2024
I’ve also been upgrading the home Wi-Fi, moving from a consumer AmpliFi mesh to a solution based on UniFi equipment. That’s been an adventure in itself and will probably be a blog post in its own right.
And, I “went viral” (well, certainly had far more engagement than my normal tweets do), with a family service announcement for Wi-Fi updates…
Does anyone else have to schedule IT infrastructure maintenance windows at home? I mean, Wi-Fi/Internet access is a critical service with teenagers in the house, right? #GeekLife pic.twitter.com/A3QhNU7qh5
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) April 4, 2024
Elsewhere on the Internet
- On the need for critical thinking:
In this age of AI “critical thinking, regardless of which domain you're in, becomes the skill that is far, far more needed” #ArtificialIntelligence https://t.co/IkinijP9vX
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) April 5, 2024
- On outdated anti-WFH rhetoric:
#FlexShaming over at the Telegraph again. Missing the point that flexible working is more than WFH. It is part time work, job shares, compressed hours, annualised hours, flexi-time, four day weeks. Everyone who does not work full time 9-5 is not sat on their sofa. https://t.co/XToO73s3G9
— Gem Dale (@HR_Gem) April 8, 2024
- On brilliant advertising:
Yes copy is great – but sometimes all you need is an image pic.twitter.com/ulhJ6Q0joZ
— Vivien Koh-Milburn (@FromVivien) April 7, 2024
- On the decline of reporting:
In 2004 if you reported a story on your "blog" citing 2 sources, you were dismissed as oh that "blogger." In 2024, mainstream media reports a story with a single anonymous source, without as much fact-checking and it is a scoop and viewed as gospel. How things change in 20 years!
— OM (@om) April 9, 2024
- On the value (or otherwise) of a degree:
Something, something, the price of everything and the value of nothing… https://t.co/q4i1gyS6SP
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) April 10, 2024
- On blogging:
A lovely post from my friend Andrew looking back on his blogging history. Mine’s 20 too this year… Blogger was my platform before WordPress but it’s interesting to reflect on why we did it, and how Twitter/X changed things, before it too started to fade https://t.co/mjTDAtnixu
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) April 11, 2024
- On whether or not it’s useful to refer to “cyber”:
Really like the distinction in this discussion about why it’s important to have a term like cyber (or something else) to distinguish from other types of security… meaning it’s not just nonsense marketing terminology https://t.co/gzKkHqHc5t
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) April 22, 2024
- On the reasons that things sometimes cost more than you think they should:
A thread worth reading, for anyone who wonders why professional services cost more than they think they might… https://t.co/1zhony8KE1
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) April 27, 2024
Travel
As is usual, supporting Matt with his cycling races has meant a fair amount of travel and this month’s Premier Inn destinations have been… Tiverton and Stockton-on-Tees. Stockton was the overnight stay for the East Cleveland Classic, where I was in the team car all afternoon – and what an experience that was!
Last week was #VeloMatt’s first “National A” road race on closed roads (the East Cleveland Classic) and my first time in the #RideRevolution team car ?????????????. Stressful at times but fun too. I haven’t edited the video yet and it’s been a week already so here’s a little clip ? pic.twitter.com/NTYiow9WBK
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) April 21, 2024
There was also a race in Leicestershire where Matt was in the break for 2 hours before getting caught and then boxed in on the final sprint.
But the big one was supposed to have been the CiCLE Classic in Rutland, until it was unfortunately cancelled on the day due to biblical rain. I do feel for the organisers in these scenarios, but even more so for the teams that had travelled from overseas.
#VeloMatt’s on the start list for today’s CiCLE Classic but there’s nothing happening yet as parts of the course are flooded ?. Waiting to see what (if anything) gets raced today. Defo a delayed start… lots of waiting around keeping warm… https://t.co/OCdNTWs3e2
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) April 28, 2024
Away from cycling, but very exciting, is starting to plan an Interrail trip with Ben this summer. I only have two weeks’ leave available, but i’m pretty sure we’re going to have a brilliant time. It’s not the first time for me – I went solo in the early 1990s – but things have changed a lot since then.
Planning an Interrail trip with my son this summer… very exciting but not sure the @ThomasCookUK book from when I went in the early 90s is very relevant today… pic.twitter.com/YUH6xIoIPM
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) April 4, 2024
This month in photos
Met a friend for lunch in #StonyStratford. Saints Coffee, in The Bull Hotel, famous as one half of the origin of the English idiom of a “cock and bull story”… https://t.co/uwaMRX1cIk pic.twitter.com/DQ84MNaDkO
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) April 12, 2024
Wrap-up
That’s all for this month… May’s nearly over now but I have some notes ready for a review – hopefully not too long after the end of the month!
Featured image taken from Node4’s Go To Market video, on LinkedIn
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