Email marketshare
I used aggregate domain counts from MineMyMail to estimate webmail account share in 2013. The result measured addresses seen by the tool, not active users.
Writing · 2007 onward
This is where my articles live.
This is the durable home for what I publish on vallery.net. It starts with 39 articles from earlier versions of the site, and it stays open for whatever I write next.
39published articles
32technical pieces
7essays
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2013
Technical · 2 min
2012
Why do we use Pulse at Neudesic? The four pillars of enterprise social networking
I reduced the enterprise-social use cases I had seen to four practical groups: culture, knowledge discovery, innovation, and identity and recognition.
Windows 8 Activation oddity
Windows 8 Enterprise installed without asking for a key, then failed activation with error 0x8007232B. I used slmgr to replace the default key and documented the three-step fix.
Client integration in SharePoint 2010 issue
Office documents opened read-only in one SharePoint environment but not another. Fiddler exposed a blocked WebDAV OPTIONS request, and removing the verb restriction fixed it.
Powershell one liner for finding lowest latency domain controller
I needed the domain controller with the lowest latency for LDAP requests. These PowerShell one-liners tested response time and verified that port 389 was reachable.
Quickly convert tif files to jpg in bulk using powershell
I had a CD full of TIF files that needed to go on a website. A few lines of PowerShell converted every file to JPG in place.
Comparing Office 365 and Google Apps
After moving my own domain from Google Apps to Office 365, I compared the two by migration effort, DNS control, features, cost, and the customer each product actually served.
Terrible customer service from Microsoft
A defective Windows Phone sent us between Microsoft, AT&T, and HTC without a workable replacement. I documented what happened and added the resolution when the store manager called.
Organizing your music with Powershell
Our music was spread across computers, backups, and old iTunes libraries. I used PowerShell and TagLib# to deduplicate it and rebuild a consistent artist, album, and title hierarchy.
Building a near silent PC
I spent most weekdays in my office and was tired of listening to a loud workstation. I selected and tested the components for a powerful PC that was nearly silent.
Organizing Lots Of Pictures
Years of digital photos had become a mess of folders and duplicates. I used EXIF dates, MD5 hashes, and PowerShell to rename, deduplicate, and sort the files.
And we’re back…. On wordpress
My SharePoint blogging experiment exposed problems with spam control, URLs, and anonymous comments. I moved the site back to WordPress and explained why.
Blog migration to SharePoint
I moved my WordPress blog to hosted SharePoint because I wanted to use the product I worked with every day. This is the migration, branding, sandbox, and hosting work behind the experiment.
2011
Disable email notifications in SharePoint 2010
SharePoint 2010 enabled profile email notifications by default. I used PowerShell to turn them off in an environment where that default created too much noise.
2010
Enumerating user profile property fields in SharePoint 2010 with PowerShell
I wrote a PowerShell script that connects to the SharePoint 2010 User Profile Service and enumerates every profile property field and its settings.
Using PowerShell and the DirectorySearcher class
I needed the LDAP distinguished name for a user in a trusted remote domain. This PowerShell example uses DirectorySearcher to find it.
Why I Don't Recycle Paper
A disagreement at work led me to examine the environmental case for recycling paper, plastic, glass, and metal. This is the conclusion I reached in 2010.
My Impression Of The iPad After 72 Hours
After using the first iPad in my normal routine for 72 hours, I revisited my initial concerns and described where it was already replacing a laptop.
My First Impression Of The iPad
After 24 hours with the first iPad, I wrote down what worked, what did not, and what surprised me about the hardware, charging, apps, media, and storage.
Activating Features In Bulk On The MySite With PowerShell
A client needed to activate SharePoint MySite features in controlled batches. I wrote a PowerShell script that skipped completed sites and picked up where the prior run stopped.
Using PowerShell To Set SSP Profile Properties
I needed to reset one SharePoint SSP profile property for every user. This PowerShell script enumerated the profiles and applied the change.
My response to the new healthcare legislation
I argued my 2010 libertarian view of the new healthcare law, individual responsibility, and the proper role of government.
2008
My solution for reading RSS across several computers and an iPhone
I wanted read state and subscriptions to follow me across several computers and an iPhone. This is the NewsGator, FeedDemon, and NetNewsWire setup I used.
Compare Apple TV shows in standard and high definition
I compared the same Apple TV episode in standard and high definition to see what the extra money and storage actually bought.
The future of American politics, what do Ron Paul supporters do after he loses?
I asked what Ron Paul supporters should do after the 2008 campaign and argued for building a durable political movement outside one candidate.
Automatically backup your Mac to Amazon S3
Time Machine protected me from a failed disk, but not a failed house. I combined local backups with Amazon S3 to create an automated off-site copy.
Extracting emails from Gmail and Google Apps for Domains
I wanted the useful contact history buried in my Gmail mailbox, so I built a tool to extract, rank, deduplicate, and export email addresses. That utility later became MineMyMail.
2007
The death of the local newspaper?
When my local newspaper had no useful RSS feed, I built one. The project led me to ask what a local paper needed to become if readers were already assembling their own news.
Debug your outbound POST and GET requests
I needed to see the exact POST and GET data an application was sending to a remote service. This small PHP request-echo tool made the hidden request visible.
Libertarian point of view on digital rights management
I worked through a conflict between property rights and consumer rights in digital media. The useful part is that I did not pretend to have a clean answer.
Review of Penn and Teller: Bullshit! Immigration
I reviewed Penn and Teller’s immigration episode and argued my 2007 view of borders, labor, citizenship, and individual freedom.
Gun control in America
I made the libertarian case I held in 2007 about gun ownership, individual rights, and government power. The essay remains a historical position, not a current platform.
10 steps to organize your digital life on OS X and Windows
I laid out the system I used to organize files, email, passwords, photos, music, bookmarks, and backups across OS X and Windows. It will not help anyone find their car keys.
Outsourcing to India, the other perspective.
After a two-week business trip to Delhi, I tried to reconcile the human reality I saw with the way American companies discussed outsourcing. This is the argument I made in 2007.
Review of Penn and Teller: Bullshit! Wal-Mart
I used a Penn and Teller episode as a starting point for a 2007 argument about Wal-Mart, consumer choice, and the effect of large retailers on small communities.
What is Web 3.0? A review of the ICWSM
I used the 2007 International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media to ask what people meant by Web 3.0. My answer focused on social data, identity, and machines learning from human behavior.
Optimizing WordPress and LAMP to survive the Digg effect
A front-page Digg link could overwhelm a small WordPress server. I walked through the Apache, PHP, MySQL, caching, and template changes I used to keep the site alive.
Scalable story promotion
I worked through a promotion model for Pligg that adjusted to traffic instead of using one fixed vote threshold. The post explains the variables and tradeoffs behind the idea.
Setting up an automated workflow to convert files for Apple TV on OS X
I needed a repeatable way to convert video files and move them into iTunes for a new Apple TV. This is the folder-action workflow I built with QuickTime Pro and Automator.
An open collection
Past and future writing belong in one place.
The current collection begins in 2007. Future articles will appear here too, under the same Writing section and RSS feed.