Ross Hawkins - January 2012 Entries

January 2012 Entries

2011, the year of distractions

I didn’t (and usually don’t) do end of year posts, however something I read recently got me thinking a lot about 2011’s positives and negatives. One of the definite negatives of last year was that it really felt like a year filled with distractions. The reading that got me thinking was Happy and quiet on Ned Batchelder’s blog. I started following Ned’s blog a very long time ago simply because he used to be involved in Lotus Domino, and I used to be a Lotus person (sssh). I don’t do Lotus Notes/Domino anymore, and neither does Ned, however I...

posted @ Wednesday, January 18, 2012 6:07 PM | Feedback (0)

Struggling to get used to the new Google Analytics interface

While the old interface is still available, I’ve been trying to use the new one as much as possible to get used to it. It’s obvious that there’s some great functionality included in the new version, however there’s a couple of things I really can’t get used to; I miss the old home page, which listed all your accounts and gave a quick aggregated +/- % change from that screen. I can’t find any equivalent in the new version The multiple levels of hierarchy that the new version adds would obviously make sense...

posted @ Sunday, January 15, 2012 10:29 AM | Feedback (0)

MCE Optibay and the joys of ripping open a Macbook Pro

Towards the end of last year I ripped open my Macbook Pro and installed an MCE Optibay mod along with a 2.5” drive to replace the MBP’s internal superdrive. My MBP had a 128gb SSD, and running Windows via Bootcamp or a VM combined with one or two disk hungry OSX applications meant that it simply wasn’t enough space anymore. I looked at the price of a large replacement SSD, and simply couldn’t justify it for a laptop that was slightly over a year old, so the MCE mod made good financial sense. Installing the MCE Optibay was...

posted @ Monday, January 02, 2012 8:05 PM | Feedback (2)

About me

My name is Ross Hawkins and I'm a developer, consultant, business owner and writer based in Auckland, New Zealand (pictured below!). My current work revolves around ASP.NET, C#, jQuery, Ajax, SQL Server, and a mix of other Microsoft development technologies.

I also have about 15 years of experience with IBM Lotus Notes/Domino and associated technologies. While Notes/Domino is no longer my primary focus I still like to dabble and keep my skills up to date.

I own and run 2 businesses - Hawkins Consulting Services, and Ignition Development.

Follow @rosshawkins

Bethells Beach, located in sunny West Auckland, New Zealand

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