RUN TCP/IP | Morgan Lucas is Tech Blogging

 I now have the URL runtcpip.com pointed toward my Google Sites site. This change is reflected on the navigation as 'Projects (Cloud)'. Why? Despite both Blogger and Google Sites being owned by Alphabet/Google, Sites is actually maintained. Google Sites has better security posture and features. It looks more modern, and has multiple pages. I'm 89% sure the SEO is already built in and works better. I didn't have to finangle with attaching Analytics  This blog isn't going anywhere! It will be used as more general technology musings...which it kind of already was. One day I will have another URL to point here, but for now, you can reach it via https://runtcpip.blogspot.com/

 (This is a bit of a departure but I'm still waiting for my cables to use my MacBook Air and finish the Bicep work.) On LinkedIn, saw a post by one of my connections -   " You don't have to post on websites you don't like to build your 'brand'. "  It was so simple and succinct that I went "You know what? Yeah, they're right." -- And, after 6 years of use, hibernated my LinkedIn account on about October 18th 2023 without warning. I don't have to read a bunch of cringey nonsense or watch companies accept bad behavior while "Hey, bigotry is bad" is "not a value alignment with our company". It's great.  I do miss the head-nod-glance acknowledgements of my connections, who have been greatly helpful, as well as watching animators spoil future Dreamworks projects by having them on their profiles and box office news. I do miss being able to send a message to someone to get some insight or let them know of an issue with the...

  I was hired to fix up a tumblr website of Minorities in Publishing through a mutual friend, a podcast that focuses on the voices of the global majority. I like projects like this; You give voice to typically excluded people and find interesting books to read. So, what was the issue? 😬The old website was dated, with an impersonal, grey aesthetic, having last been updated circa 2012 or so. 😬 It wasn't optimized for smaller viewports. What is a viewport? When you adjust your browser window (on desktop or mobile) to be bigger or smaller. 😬 It couldn't be easily updated with new information; The old code was no longer maintained. While a lot of the feed functionality has been eliminated, I; 📙 Fixed outdated side pages of links while providing a template that improved workflow , so they could easily update the pages. 📘 Improved navigation; Instead of linking to individual MP3s, I directed the 'Episodes' link to head to their libsyn library, so people can play the...

  As you may not know, but now know, Google Domains is being sold to Squarespace -- To the annoyed groans of many around the world, myself included.  Word spread on Twitter (I will not call it X) on how Squarespace was often a costlier option for people. I don't remember exact numbers people had experience with, but it was more. 36$/yr sticks in my head, but check for yourself. With a domain costing 12$ through Google, I thought above making the choice to transfer myself; and after perusing this Twitter thread , decided to go with Namecheap on a whim. I didn't know there were so many choices to host domains, DNS options, email services. That would actually be a field of interest to own a business in. It has that old internet charm (robot text anyone?). Now, this very site is hosted on Blogger, which is owned (and ignored) by Google, so it probably isn't being killed anytime soon (I hope). Google Domains was owned by, well, Google, so attaching the domain to the site was qu...

 Other potential titles included "Walking With the Enemy" and "Internet of Shoestrings". I'm not against the concept of the Internet of Things - IoT - but the severe lack of security installed on a commercial level, the lack of education for end users, and the growing reliance on technology in our world. The people who are best at their job have hobbies away from the machine. Some of mine include exercise, running, walking - I go through sneakers quick and hard. So I got some cool shoes - Under Armor HOVR .    They're not on the site but here they are. I got them from an outlet mall, could be discontinued.   I didn't realize until I got home that they had the Bluetooth insignia both within them and on the box.  

  Story time:   I had heard about IRChat in a podcast  (NSFW) at first.    I had no idea until now it was a real thing that not only existed, but still exists .    This is the kind of late 90's "Hackers"-esque mysticism that surrounds tech I love.   IRC is an application based protocol that uses a client/server model to chat over text. They're not necessarily forums, as the functionality is bare-bones 'type words'.   Also, little ASCII people like this ヾ(•ω•`)o    

The updated (and frankly, better written and edited) version will be on my Medium blog December 7th, 2020 with the title " The Myth of the Tech Talent Shortage and The Cost To Your Business ." My Medium profile is here . This post is getting attention again: Hi. I like to think I've gotten less angry than when this was posted (Though I still think it's true, the times have changed with COVID-19, and I could have worded this more constructively). I'm pivoting to different areas of IT; Check the services and projects tag.   It's still BS that there aren't more part time positions in IT and tech. It's not like the talent isn't plentiful.  From Pexels.com Atlanta, Georgia Baltimore, Maryland Newark, New Jersey Savannah, Georgia What do they have in common? They have been the victim of serious cyberattacks on their infrastructure. Said attacks cost the affected city governments and companies more than 30$million dollars . ...

Article Not content to let Target and Toys R Us have all the fun this holiday season , a new toy titanship has emerged: Walmart and Mattel have teamed up for KidHQ, a giant, digital catalog. I appreciate that the website is unlike other things in the marketing sphere, openly pointing out that this is advertising. We are here to sell to you. All for brand engagement , of course. When you make people think a brand is their friend, they're likely to buy. After all: Marketers receive aggregated, anonymized data on purchases through KidHQ and how visitors interact with different toys, [Ivy] Sheibar said And data is worth more than gold. Time to talk about Mattel's past few years.  In 2015, they lost a very lucrative contract - The right to make Disney Princess dolls. Why? “We took Disney for granted. We weren’t focusing on them,” [Chris] Sinclair says. “Shame on us.” [ source ] Also, Mattel had made its own fairy tale heroine line with "Ever After High...

Rebrandly is an API that makes your urls reflective of your business. Ever see links on Twitter that look like t.co? https://www.codecademy.com/articles/rebrandly-signup This is part of the final beginner's Javascript lesson on CodeAcademy, but let's look around some more. A little like finangling with the DNS records of this very domain , more records needed to be placed within. That's really all it does, and the free account has enough options for me. You can pay for far more!

Decentralized Internet: TV Technobabble or Problem-Solver? The article mentions lack of consumer choice.  By the way, name the 8th largest ISP in the country. Answer: It's Mediacom.

...and the current administration doesn't like that. California is one of more than 25 states to consider net neutrality protections since the FCC voted late last year to reverse the Obama-era internet regulations. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who was appointed by President Trump, and Republicans have called for an end to the utility-like oversight of internet service providers. This has a very "Oh, we don't want everyone to have the possibility to access everything...might make the populace too educated ." vibe to it, considering removing Net Neutrality would have ISPs throttling or boosting speed based on their own whims - or how much Netflix or Facebook are willing to pay. As someone very interested in turning broadband internet into a utility...bah.  Make it like health care in developed countries - Basic for everyone, but if you want something better, you can pay for it.