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Context is Queen

Want to improve your workplace communication skills, especially when working with other teams?
Give context.
Why give context?
Context helps your colleagues:

Understand where you’re coming from / viewing things from.
Understand who you are, and what you’re trying to achieve (your overall project, not this specific request)
Helps remove assumptions. Teams often have their own dialects, and your request may … Read more »

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A quick Citrix microapp hack to get notifications when there’s a Citrix Security Bulletin

Credit to Gabe Carrejo and the Patrick Quinlan for their work on this.
It’s possible to use the Citrix Support Security Bulletin RSS feed with Citrix microapps to notify you (or a group) when there’s a new Security Bulletin from Citrix

Rough Steps:

Copy this RSS URL: https://support.citrix.com/feed/products/all/securitybulletins.rss
If you want to narrow the feed down to a specific … Read more »

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Life stuff: Things I’ve learned about dealing with sweat

I’ve acquired some hilarious pairs of oxymoronic genetic traits. My most favourite is probably that I’m built for sports, but sweat like crazy. Like, ridiculous amounts. To the point that my “sweat wicking” t-shirts wet out and end up slowing me down. Thanks, genes?
Anyway, this sweaty-ness is a pain outside of sports too – especially … Read more »

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Building a simple Citrix microapp that shows blog posts from a WordPress RSS feed

Scope

This post will cover how to setup a simple microapp that anyone with access to the Citrix microapps service can build, using public URLs, with no authentication requirements. We’ll be using the RSS integration to talk to a WordPress RSS feed and build a microapp from that.
Here’s roughly how it’ll look in Workspace, when it’s … Read more »

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How to force a Wi-Fi USB adapter on a Synology DiskStation to use 5GHz ac from 2.4GHz

Useful if your SSIDs are identical for 5GHz and 2.4GHz. Having your SSIDs setup like this seems to confuse Synology DSM, and for me it would always connect to the 2.4GHz network.

I had this particular issue where my TP-Link T4U ac wifi adapter for my Synology kept dropping down to using the 2.4GHz network, which … Read more »

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Install Citrix Cloud Connector on Server Core 2016

Scope
This post will provide some quick notes on installing the Citrix Cloud Connector on Server Core 2016.
Conceptual overview

We’re going to take our domain-joined Server Core installation and install the Citrix Cloud Connector on to it.
You can’t simply run the installer from the Server Core UI, because Server Core doesn’t have all the bits required for … Read more »

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Base image automation – download the latest installers for common apps with PowerShell

Overview
Long overdue, and inspired by @xenappblog and @CIT_Bronson, I’m finally documenting this.
In the Citrix RTST environment, we are frequently updating our base images with the latest common apps. To help with this, I cobbled together some scripts that will grab the latest version of apps like Chrome Enterprise, Firefox, VLC, Visual Studio Code, NotePad++, and … Read more »

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It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.

Something came up today that made me think about the importance of framing, and how it can be used to influence/persuade to meet your desired outcomes.

It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.

It’s very easy to forget this – I do it all the time – but delivery is important. It can mean … Read more »

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Creating a Site to Site Routed VPN using DD-WRT and OpenVPN

Scenario
I needed to setup a site-to-site VPN between my home and my parent’s home, so that we can back up our stuff offsite – mostly documents and precious digital photos.
Requirements

I wanted it to be a proper routed VPN network, not a bridged one. By that I mean an OpenVPN tun setup, not an OpenVPN tap … Read more »

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Ways to make your team better by making them feel safe

I’ll get right to the point: Teams work better when they feel safe. And this one-page PDF from the Re:work team at Google gives clear and actionable things you can do and think about that will help to make your team feel safe. It doesn’t matter if you’re a manager or a team-member; check them … Read more »

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Latest

  • The Secret Citrix SysAdmins – My first Citrix blog post

    Hoorah – a year in, and I’ve finally gotten around to writing something about what we do in the RTST team at Citrix.
    If you’re curious about what we do, you can read it over on the official Citrix Blogs site: The Secret Citrix SysAdmins

  • Some loose thoughts after 9 months at Citrix

    Firstly, where did those 9 months go? Wow.
    Back in July 2016, I joined Citrix. Long overdue, I wanted to collect some loose thoughts, so here goes:
    Being more Senior is still weird, but good
    It is still an odd sensation going from being one of the most junior staff members of a team, to one of the … Read more »

  • Getting the Bosch Accelerometer to work on Chuwi Hi 8 Windows 10 Anniversary Edition

    The short version
    If you get the error “Device cannot start” on your Bosch Accelerometer in Device Manager on a Chuwi Hi 8 after installing Windows 10 Anniversary Edition, try this:

    Get the 32-bit Hi 8 Pro and Vi 8 Pro drivers. Look for the text “Chuwi Hi8 Pro Dualboot driver_32bit download”
    Install the driver in the ??-gravity … Read more »

  • Impressions from my first week at Citrix

    On Monday this week, I joined the Interoperability team at Citrix, based in Cambridge. I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on my first week here, and talk generally about what I’ve witnessed.
    When I join a company, I try to understand what they do, how they view themselves, and what they want to do. … Read more »

  • An update on the poor customer service from Microsoft Band support

    Be warned: this is a Whinge-piece.
    I wanted to provide an update on the poor customer service I’ve been receiving from Microsoft UK Support with my original Microsoft Band.
    Microsoft seemingly ignored my “escalated complaint” through resolver.co.uk that I raised in December 2015, so I raised a new service ticket before the 1 year anniversary of my … Read more »