Work on Numeric Citizen Blog

Mon, 18 May 2026 13:32:36 -0400

AI Data Centers Are Deeply Unpopular, Across the Political Spectrum, John Gruber’s comment:

It’s hard to overstate how unpopular this polling paints AI data centers. It’s just an absolute messaging and marketing disaster for the entire tech industry.

In case you missed it: I’ve been working in IT and data center-related tech and projects for more than three decades. Not all data centers are meant to host AI-related stuff. But the trend is clear: it’s becoming harder and harder to find general-purpose data centers… why? Because hosting AI is much more profitable per square-foot. Like Gruber said: Money talks.

A Little Rant about LinkedIn

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 08:54:21 -0400

Rant of the day: Why is Microsoft not caring about making the LinkedIn app a better app, a better mobile experience? Aren’t they using designers? UX specialists? Even AI? Aren’t they taking care of their brand and image? I mean, using this app on the iPad is such a displeasure.

If someone from Microsoft and / or LinkedIn responsible for this app: have tried it once for real on the iPad? Are you ok with this? Really? If you aren’t, and obviously cannot do anything about it, why are you still working there?

Rant off.

The iPad Pro on The Road for Office Work

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 06:55:39 -0400

Finally, I configured my personal iPad Pro with all my office tools. I certainly wish my job would allow me to use a Mac, but no.

The iPad is very good in this scenario with all the M365 apps (bleh). Battery life is 20 times better than my HP laptop, without the always-on noisy fans. I understand this device is way more powerful than the MacBook Neo, much more compact, three times more expensive for an inferior software experience. That is quite a paradox.

Today, I’m going to the administrative head office, a three-hour drive, using the office’s business bus, specially designed for workers on the road (sure, the Corporation wants always-productive employees!).

Life of an IT worker.

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 09:44:41 -0400

I’ve been working hard on a few presentations lately at work and one of the most satisfying thing is when I remove words or phrases without changing the message.

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 09:11:11 -0400

It’s funny how my interactions with my colleages is evolving since I’ve been using AI. My requests to them are looking more and more like prompts: I give them a context, state my needs and expectations and provide the expected end results, in that order. All the time. 🫣

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 17:41:09 -0400

Blogging in the enterprise is not a thing apparently, even with a headcount of 58K people. I spent some time today in Viva Engage communities to see if some people were there for blogging, even with a corporate mindset, but nothing. It seems that only corporate-related communities are allowed. Too bad.

The Future of Technical Training According to Microsoft

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 06:44:50 -0400

Today, I’m completing a four-day course from Microsoft (AS-104 if you are curious). It’s all virtual, of course, through Microsoft Teams, and instructor-led. We’re a group of 50 people from all around the world, primarily from the US, from what I can see. The one fascinating thing is how pushy the instructors are for us to use… Copilot. They use it all the time to answer questions and paste the answers in the group chat. They offer ways to utilize Copilot to prepare for the certification exam. Etc. Copilot is really their assistant, the undergraduate who’s doing the dirty job, the gopher, if you will. The course is so strictly structured and formatted that I’m seeing a future where there won’t be any instructors. Only Copilot. 😳

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 14:43:59 -0400

To everyone who is afraid of losing their job because of generative artificial intelligence (or one of its variations), now is the right time to ask yourself: am I giving my best at work? Don’t give your employer any reasons or desire to replace you with AI.

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 15:07:42 -0400

Fun fact: I keep a log (or a journal) of everything I do in a day at work. I’ve been doing this for decades. I always used digital tools for that but the guy who gave me the inspiration for doing this when I started my career was doing the same but on paper. I thought Incould improve his process. I did.

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 20:36:13 -0400

I often repeat this thought in my head when I’m in challenging times: “everything around me has been done by people not smarter than me.”. It’s inspired by Steve Jobs’ words from an interview he did in the early 1990s, where he was reflecting on how empowering it is to realize that the world is built by people just like us — and that we can reshape it too.

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 12:26:09 -0400

For the first time in twenty years, I don’t have any business-related apps on my mobile phone, except one for 2FA. No email, no instant messaging, no documents, nothing! I feel some sort of hard-to-describe relief.

What, You Have a Blog? Really?

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 21:39:55 -0400

I overheard people at the office talking about their weekend activities. I wasn’t in the conversation, but I’m always prepared for those. I never talk about my writing hobby or the many websites I maintain. Most people would find this strange. They’d say things like, “What, you have a blog? Really?” Yes, that’s right. I prefer to skip all that and talk about a walk in the park, in the forest, and maybe about photography. Blogging is like people collecting stamps back in the day. Sad.

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 19:48:01 -0400

Having to immerse myself in a different digital ecosystem, specifically Microsoft’s, helps me appreciate the strengths of both Apple and Microsoft. Does this mean I should consider switching to Android? I’ll leave that for you to guess. 🤭

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 19:45:09 -0400

One of the fun things when starting a new job with a new set of digital tools is to rethink old habits and change what was broken. Information classifications and tasks management are seeing a big rethink which is, of course, highly tied to Microsoft 365 tools (To Do, OneNote, Outlook and their tied integration).

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 20:43:52 -0400

Today, I tested my LG UltraFine 4K monitor on my wife’s Windows 11 laptop, but the monitor wouldn’t power up, and the Windows Device Manager also failed to recognize it. This means I’ll probably need a USB hub to go with my future work laptop if I want to use that monitor. I’ll probably buy a new monitor specially for my work laptop, since the company will be paying for it.

I'm Already Feeling The Upcoming Loss

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 14:24:17 -0400

The last time I used a Windows PC was with Windows 10 sometimes around 2020. Since then, Windows 11 came out with a few major releases along with it. I’ll have to relearn so many small things to flex my muscles memory. Also, and it’s probably the biggest lost: so many small utilities like Raycast, CleanShot X, Paste, PopClip and so many more that were making me much more productive are gone with Windows 11. Am I going to survive?

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 10:49:05 -0400

Started to think about my knowledge organisation scheme with Microsoft OneNote for my next job. OneNote works with Notebooks, Sections and pages. I might start with one notebook then later subdivide the data as my knowledge accumulates. I don’t hate OneNote. It’s a rather well designed app IMO.

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 15:43:03 -0400

My days of using Notion for work are counted. I started using Notion in 2023, but I realize that I should have started well before that. Sadly, I won’t be allowed to use such “non-standard” tool at my next job. The standard is: Microsoft 365 + Confluence. 🥴

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 09:28:47 -0400

I’m officially starting a new job in less than two weeks. As I clean up my belongings at my current employer, I’m amazed by how much content I’ve gathered and created over the past seven years. Most of it, about 80%, is now worthless.

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 21:10:24 -0400

I’m excited about the next two days as I will be traveling by train from Montreal to Quebec City. I enjoy train travel between those two cities because it’s relaxing, the scenery is usually beautiful, and the weather should be nice. I appreciate the opportunity to embrace modern technology; I’ll be able to work remotely from my laptop, with my iPhone’s 5G connection to stay productive while on the move.

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 11:13:44 -0400

Each time I select a few emails in Outlook at the office and then move them into a folder I think of Severance’s employees working on their computer to gather numbers and drop them in a bucket. Every. Single. Time. And now you’ll probably do, too. You’re welcome.

What Are They Gonna Do Now? What a Waste!

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 20:28:05 -0400

One quick question tonight: those people who worked for a government agency in the US and got laid-off by DOGE or anyone close to them or because of them, what are they doing now? Where will they find their purpose? I’m thinking about the scientists, social workers, phycologists, Are they going to work for the private sector or simply increase the unemployment rate? I mean, there are so many human dramas unfolding right now.

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:19:53 -0400

I headed to the office this morning and brought both my iPad Pro and my MacBook Pro. I had to install the latest updates on my MBP, so I started working on my iPad with an external monitor. I’m pretty sure I’ll be using that setup for the rest of the day. I’m being pretty patient with iPadOS paper cuts.

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 14:43:23 -0400

It’s the type of day where I would have liked to work in a coffee shop, but I can’t because I’m working for my job doing some extra time. We’re not allowed to work client’s documents in public spaces.

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 11:57:30 -0400

I understand that people, particularly my colleagues, are using ChatGPT much more than they are willing to admit, as evidenced by my conversations with a few of them this morning.

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 11:56:12 -0400

I’m at the office today, first time in 2025. I’m one of those who is fortunate enough to work for a company that doesn’t care too much about who’s in and out of the downtown office, they care about the results and how efficient we are to get those. I find it rather sad that the discussions around people returning to the office or not never or seldomly revolve around the idea that working from home might be one of the ways to combat climate change by limiting those in and out and commute time to go to the office. We don’t learn or we’re afraid of accepting that we need to change, for real this time.

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 09:57:16 -0400

Microsoft is putting the “Copilot” tag everywhere… even on Microsoft 365 which will become Microsoft 365 Copilot. It’s fascinating to see a company like to playing with the branding of its services.

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 09:59:13 -0400

Last work day of the year. It should be an easy one, mostly spent on writing a client proposal.

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 17:52:12 -0400

Today, I submitted my resume for a new job out of curiosity. The submission form included a section for adding websites, but I didn’t include any of my many sites. I often feel shy about sharing them in my professional life. I may be missing an opportunity to show some of my abilities, who knows.

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 13:12:38 -0400

Working from home the coffee shop near my house… on Friday, something that I rarely do, but weather outside is so great 😀. This is my creative moment of the week.

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 11:23:59 -0400

Today, I had no choice but to request the use of a Cloud PC by Microsoft for using a crappy app: Visio. I like this idea of renting a PC instance in the cloud, though.

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 08:42:07 -0400

Today is a day at the office which means an iPad-only day to take notes. I love those days. The iPad is such a great device for this use case.

Hard Times Are Sometimes Needed

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 12:36:55 -0400

When things go wrong at work, when numbers don’t add up to meet high sales expectations, only then people starts to question things. It’s only in these harder days that we can really start to find new ways, reimagine how we do business. Those hard times are sometimes necessary for a company to evolve.

Looking at you Apple¹.

I’m also referring to the company I work for presently. ↩︎

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 13:15:17 -0400

Of all the PowerPoint presentations that I need to attend for my job¹, it is baffling how many times the presenter don’t bother putting the presentation mode ON. Can Microsoft do something do about it? 🙄

And often suffer watching the content… ↩︎

When Will IT Support Guys Learn?

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 16:14:01 -0400

The CEO of the company I work for (450 employees) called me today over Microsoft Teams because he was seeking for help and explanations for a problem with repeated authentification requests when using Microsoft 365 services on his devices (an iPhone, an iPad). He wasn’t sure why he was getting that many requests. After calling the IT department for support, he was baffled by the responses he got for his problem: reboot your phone, uninstall Apple Mail and re-install, that type of shitty responses. After a few tries, he finally got the “real” reasons: iPhone aren’t supported officially and weakening the security posture of the whole company, he should get an Android. What a shitload of bullshit, which is often typical from IT guys who don’t understand or know Apple devices. I’m so tired of this, after all those decades.

Back to my call with my CEO, after trying to understand the situation and find a sound explanation, I told him that the type of answers he got was unacceptable. We are an IT company for god’s sake! He was shy of admitting the same and surprised by this nonsense. He is the CEO, a smart guy. We should do better.

The iPhone is not weakening the security posture of the company, some IT support guys are¹.

I don’t want to generalize but this type of support from unknowledgeable IT guys is still way too much prevalent these days. ↩︎

Here's Why I Hate Template In Office Work

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 11:32:38 -0400

Using templates in office work can sometimes be counterproductive, leading to less original thinking, reduced engagement, and fewer creative problem-solving opportunities. Templates can make it easy to fall into a routine of just filling in blanks, resulting in more generic outputs and a checkbox mentality. This reliance on templates can also make it challenging to adapt and innovate when a task doesn’t fit the template. To keep creativity and innovation alive, it’s helpful to use templates as a starting point while encouraging team members to think critically and adapt as needed.

Some of my colleagues are highly dependant on them, I’m not. I’m staying away from them. It’s a creative thinking killer.

Tue, 28 May 2024 11:19:46 -0400

This Microsoft Word bug is really starting to get on my nerves. It’s been going on for weeks now.

Overrated x 1000

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 10:17:36 -0400

Microsoft 365 or Office 365, if you prefer, is so overrated. Microsoft is the master of selling licenses but when it comes down to doing real serious collaborative work with Teams and the rest of the software suite it falls apart really quickly. For example: trying to collaborated on a Word document, creating comments and assigning a task toi someone… nobody knows really where the task is actually saved! And no one seems to get a notification… or nobody cares to look at the activity tab in Teams because it is so overwhelming! Oh and don’t get me started with Microsoft Loop, a pale copycat of Notion. And should we talk about Visio? I prefer not.

I’m so fed up of working in an IT field where everyone is short sighted with Microsoft. I mean, there are so much more powerful collaborative apps out there.

/rantoff

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 09:13:05 -0400

Why on earth in 2024 a company like Checkpoint still ships 32-bit software like a MDR client for Windows Server 2019? I mean, come on!! It’s like shipping a parallel port on a MacBook Pro!

On Presenting

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 12:38:10 -0400

Just completed a one hour customer presentation this morning. It was the culmination of a six-week project that shoud lead to bigger opportunities. I love doing presentations and I’m really comfortable doing so in front of people, especially when it is directly related to my field of expertise.

Each time I prepare such presentations, I always think about Steve Jobs keynotes. Always. He was a model for me. And still is. There is a little bit of his way into my presentation delivery: setting the stage, telling a story, and a « one more thing » whenever possible.

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 11:40:36 -0400

In my day-to-day work, I’m benefiting so much from many mentors that I had a chance to meet during my career. They don’t know it, but they helped me so much to become what I am today and how I work with my other colleagues. Someone said: we are the sum of people we met in our life. I like this a lot.

Sat, 09 Mar 2024 09:01:46 -0400

Yesterday at the office, during a web conference, one of my colleagues, probably around 24 years old, called me a boomer! I responded: Hey, young boy, consider take ChatGPT for a ride and ask him what is the “X” generation is? I felt insulted.

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 08:46:45 -0400

Yesterday, while writing and editing a report for one of our clients, I used ChatGPT for two different use cases. One use case was to ask for a summarization of what “firmware” is and how critical it is. The second use case is to define the pillars of a data management and governance policy in the enterprise. On that one, I asked for more details about managing unstructured data. The ChatGPT results were mind-blowing. I know a lot about this specific IT field, and I could validate the correctness of the answers. I saved a lot of time because of ChatGPT.

But what about my ethics?

Should I write a disclaimer in this report that says GenAI was used to put together some portions of this report? Is the client ready and mature enough to read this disclaimer? Will he understand that ChatGPT is in fact like an assistant to whom I asked to summarize what a data governance policy is? How do I cite my sources?

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 11:16:15 -0400

Yesterday I did a 20-min presentation on how to take advantage of ChatGPT and GenAI tools at work, for my colleagues. Many of them didn’t learn anything because they already experimented with these tools. For others, they learned quite a bit and I saw their enchantment in their eyes. This reminds of 1993 when I gave a similar presentation about tools like Netscape, Newsgroups, Gopher, and Mail and how to use http requests. Today, we need to learn how to create effective “prompts”.

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 12:19:56 -0400

When people are nervous and under pressure, their worst tendencies often surface easily. 😌

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 07:44:53 -0400

I have been tasked to create a short presentation to my colleagues on how to take advantage of ChatGPT in day to day work. That will be a fun one to create. I love those little special projects. 😊👨🏻‍💻

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 07:46:26 -0400

I’ve been granted a Microsoft Copilot license at work for testing purposes. I have a love and hate relationship with Microsoft software in general. This will probably extend to cover Copilot as well. I shall not be deceived by this video. I will see.

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 14:16:55 -0400

I hate it when I get this feeling of losing control of my agenda at work. I’m not used to this. 😩

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 15:35:48 -0400

☝🏻 Thought of the day: collaborative software or services enabling better collaboration within a team is overrated or overestimated. If you are a loner at work, you’ll stay a loner, with or without a collab suite. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 10:33:21 -0400

I use Notion quite a lot at work to help me manage my workloads and projects. It’s quite a powerful and flexible tool, rarely seen these days. I appreciate every minute I spend in it, to the same level I experience when using Apple Keynote.

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 10:47:42 -0400

I’m still surprised and baffled when I see coworkers with so limited knowledge of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. I mean, beyond typing words and writing simple calculations. 🤔

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 18:07:54 -0400

Sometimes, writing is like swimming against the current. Today, ideas were fuzzy, and I could not clarify them and put them in the right order. Those days are never easy, especially when it’s a day where writing intelligent texts is absolutely essential. People are depending on me. That was a bad day. Sign-off. 😑

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 14:15:20 -0400

Om Malik link-posting on his blog:

David Mills, the creator of Network Time Protocol (NTP), which is fundamental to the functioning of networks. Mills, nicknamed the Internet’s Time Lord by his peers, passed away on January 17 at the age of 85. His contributions to the development and evolution of the Internet are numerous and far-reaching. We are quietly losing a generation that has helped build the network we often take for granted. Source: RIP, Internet’s Time Lord – On my Om

I do deal with NTP protocol from time to time at my job as a solution architect. The fathers (and mothers) of the modern computing era are dying.

Avoiding Vendors Lock-in

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 12:14:05 -0400

The notion of “avoiding vendors lock-in” in information technology is interesting. I would argue that it’s impossible to completely be without some sort of vendor lock-in¹. At some point, there is always a required commitment level. You commit to open-source software. You commit to a cloud vendor. You commit to a platform. I often give the example of a company building an application internally with a team of developers. In that scenario, the company is committing to something: the application, the data tied to it and its operational model. Applications are hard to replace in many environments. When you decide to invest in software development, you commit to the end product for many years, if not decades, until the organization decides it’s time to transform the application into something else². There is this concept of “security by design” and of “portable by design,” which should apply to any technical or application architecture. The rest is marketing nonsense.

I do understand data portability concepts and loose coupling principles, though. ↩︎
When it’s time to adopt new architecture paradigms like the cloud is imposing. ↩︎

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 10:12:54 -0400

Confession of the day: I hate being confined to the world of Microsoft 365 for my work, knowing that there are much cooler tools out there. Notion is one example, Basecamp is another one, Monday, etc, even though it might be a controversial opinion. And don’t get me started about the Microsoft Visio; there are dozens of much better alternatives¹.

Draw.io, LucidChart, etc. ↩︎

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 15:10:02 -0400

I’m spending my Friday afternoon writing documents for a big project at work. Even at work, I write a lot, which is a creative process, but in a different context. My personal hobbies nourish my creativity at work. Or the other way around. I don’t know. I like my job. My hobbies. My creative life. 😌

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 14:05:15 -0400

This morning, at work, I had the idea of creating a GPT that would act as a virtual resume for me. Colleagues would prompt this GPT about my professional journey with usual questions about my past experience, projects, certifications, abilities, etc. I uploaded a few files, including my resume and some other professional stuff, to try it out. It took me 15 minutes to create this virtual representation of myself. Tested many prompts against it. I’m blown away. The future is here, ladies and gentlemen.

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 12:27:53 -0400

Google announcement regarding egress fees:

Starting today, Google Cloud customers who wish to stop using Google Cloud and migrate their data to another cloud provider and/or on premises, can take advantage of free network data transfer to migrate their data out of Google Cloud. This applies to all customers globally. Source: Eliminating data transfer fees when migrating off Google Cloud | Google Cloud Blog

This is major. I often see clients forget to consider the exit costs of any hyper-scaler in the TCO calculation. Getting into the cloud isn’t cheap. And up until today, getting out of the cloud wasn’t either. Now, for those on GCP, it is. I expect the others (looking at you, AWS, and Azure) to follow, maybe not this year, but they will, either by their choice or they will be forced. This is an anti-competitive measure to charge for egress fees.

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 11:25:59 -0400

Someone at work sent me a text to get feedback. After reading it, I had this vague impression that ChatGPT was involved in the process. Out of curiosity, I openly asked the author if it was the case. And sure enough, the answer was yes. 8 out of 10 times, the outcome is the same when I ask that question. Gen AI usage is becoming pervasive in my world at work. Is it the same for you?

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 10:41:50 -0400

Scrolling through my LinkedIn timeline today. It always gives me weird feelings when I see people I work with announcing their retirement. These posts are reminders that, eventually, everyone will cross that gate. Me included. 😔

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 10:30:21 -0400

Monday. A new work week begins. To celebrate, I created a new category for my work-related posts (RSS feed). I plan to share more about my work life in 2024 and beyond. 👨🏻‍💻

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 08:15:19 -0400

Introspection time: I chose to be in IT because I thought it was much easier to deal with computers than humans. I’m not an introvert, though, far from it. But, it happened without explicit thought back in the day. After 30 years in IT, I still think the same, and I often say that the challenge in the information technology field is not about technology per se, but it’s mostly about human issues with technology. Ironically, most of my job today is to build teams of people to make things happen. I’m still focused on technology, but in reality, I try to ensure that all members of a team work towards the same objectives. I’m pretty good about it and people are appreciative of my work. How ironic.

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 21:21:10 -0400

Going back to work tomorrow after a two-week break that was much needed. Now, I know what’s awaiting me tomorrow. It’s a fuckin busy agenda. 😳 I refrained all weekend from connecting to my office email. Sure, I could have done a pre-cleanup and say: ok, it’s not that bad. But I didn’t do it. Why? Because my mailbox would have been cleaner, yeah, but not my mental charge, would have been 🤯. It was a good decision to stay partly innocent. ☝🏻