The IT Blog

Kill It with Fire – Manage Aging Computer Systems

I just noticed that I never made a book recommendation, even though I’m reading quite some books – well okay, not too many IT books to be honest. A while ago a – very valued – colleague recommended Kill It with Fire – Manage Aging Computer Systems to me.

Now that was ironic …

At the beginning of January, I joked on LinkedIn that calling people back to work at the start of flu season was probably one of the dumbest things a company could do.

Is your phone listening – or is it IP based Ad Tracking?

In my recent blog post about reducing Ad-Tracking by using Firewall rules, I already mentioned that I might dig a bit deeper into the topic of IP-based AD-tracking.

RaspberryPi System upgrade vs. Fresh install

Recently I noticed that one of my RaspberryPIs was running a rather old version of Raspian. I thought it might be a good idea to upgrade and followed the instructions from Upgrade Raspberry Pi OS to the Latest Version (2024) – RaspberryTips.

Are you ready to hear the Feedback you were asking for?

Feedback is a double-edged sword – powerful for growth but tough to hear. Whether it’s improving a skill, leading a team, or refining creative work, feedback is invaluable. Yet, how we react to it can make or break the result.

IBAN UX Fail …

I don’t often write about UX failures, but one thing that keeps coming up is the handling of IBANs in checkout processes.

You would think that there’s nothing special about entering an IBAN into a web form: Form, enter IBAN, submit. Well … I keep noticing two things/problems:

How to enable automatic updates on Linux / RaspberryPi

I just noticed that I haven’t logged on to one of my RaspberryPIs for quite a while and also didn’t update it. Instead of hacking some root crontab, a quick search brought this thread in the Raspi forums up: crontab update – Raspberry Pi Forums and unattended upgrades – How do I enable automatic updates? – Ask Ubuntu

To keep the Raspberry Pi updated, I just use the following:

sudo apt install unattended-upgrades apt-listchanges
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades

Documentation can be found here: Package management | Ubuntu

How to reduce AdTracking with Fritz!Box filter lists for mobile devices

Problem: I am using Pi-Hole on my network to block quite a few ADs and trackers. However, the blocking does not work reliably on Android devices on our WiFi (This thread suggests that this also concerns Apple devices – but we don’t have any at home, though).

I noticed this when I was researching some cycling products and my wife suddenly started getting cycling ADs in her Facebook stream on her tablet. We don’t share devices or accounts or anything – but we do share the same network and therefore the IP of our router.

Avoid commercial (WordPress) Plugins that require annual licences

One reason to stay away from commercial Plugins is that you might be f**ed when they raise prices:

Years ago, I chose the Before-After-Slider from Themefic (like here: https://www.franzgraf.de/blog/2024/discovering-the-bosensteiner-almpfad/ ).

Back then for 19$ / year.
Now we are at 39$ / year.

Yes, the plugin now can do more – more stuff that I simply do not need. Well … Don’t get me wrong: I’m totally fine to pay for some service – but doubling the price for stuff that I just don’t need.

How to remove “AMD Software Adrenalin Edition” from Context Menu in Windows 11

Problem: After installing the AMD Adrenalin Software, a new entry appeared in the Explorer Context Menu. What I find super annoying is that it dows nothing else than opening the Adrenalin Software. There is no Context at all. So: get rid of it.