Brian T. Jackett

Fix Auto-Mount Encrypted Volume for WD MyCloud EX2 NAS In this post I'll show how to enable auto-mount for encrypted volumes with the Western Digital MyCloud EX2 Ultra NAS. This is a very specific scenario but documenting it for myself and sharing with others as I saw misleading information on…

Retrospective for 2025 I started this post halfway through 2026 and now finishing it up a few months later, but it is never too late to get started again. This is a tradition I've had for many years now of writing a retrospective (2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012, 2011…

We've got a puzzle for you to solve. There have been lots of questions about what movie will be shown at Stir Trek this year, and we decided to make it a contest for the first person to guess correctly. Here's your only clue.

Tickets for Stir Trek 2026 are now available at Early Bird and Super Early Bird pricing (first 50 sales only). Get them now before they go up in price. events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-20...

Registration link for Stir Trek 2026 tickets goes live at noon ET today! First 50 super early bird tickets will go fast 🏃‍➡️🏃‍♀️‍➡️ 🎟️ events.humanitix.com/stir-trek-20...

Reminder: Stir Trek tickets go on sale in 24 hours and we have limited super early bird pricing for the first 50 tickets sold. Set your clocks for noon tomorrow!

We just sent out our speaker acceptance notices, and the lineup is looking fantastic. Later today, we’ll be sending the rest of the notifications to everyone who submitted. Excited for May 1! Don't forget, tickets go on sale on Tuesday, February 24 at noon eastern!

It's happening! Tickets for Stir Trek 2026 go on sale next Tuesday the 24th at noon! We're offering Super Early Bird ticket rates for the first 50 purchases before shifting to early bird pricing for the May 1st event. Stay tuned for details on movies! stirtrek.com

How it started: [first image] How it's going: [second image] Wow, this is really cool to see as a "I haven't written prod code in 12+ yrs" dev. As always, not production-ready, but teaching me lots as a "new to feature PM" role ramping up.

On new laptop and I can't find an RSS reader that I like, so I'm vibe coding one to my exact specs. It is ridiculous how fast / well this is working as I go along and tweak things. How is your Friday night going?

Finished Columbus Blue Jackets 5k faster than planned, on top of it being 6F (-2F with windchill ❄️⛄) at the start of race. Final time of 33:26 (10:46 min/mile). Looking forward to more races this year!

Friendly reminder that the #StirTrek CFP is open until Jan 25th! Get your submissions in ASAP! sessionize.com/stir-trek-2...

Stir Trek 2026 - Call for Speakers is NOW OPEN sessionize.com/stir-trek-2... @stirtrek.com

Looking back at my 2025 running / exercise stats, I had ~195 days with exercise (walking, running, cycling). Grand totals: ⏱️ 412 hours of exercise 🏃 780 miles 👟 2 pairs of shoes Already started up exercise for 2026 and have 3 events planned (5k and at least 2x quarter marathons) 😃

Will be a bit quieter for me on here next 90 days. I'm starting Exodus 90 with guys from my church. It's a program to help simplify life, including cutting out extra social media, TV, etc. while adding exercise, consistent sleep, and more. If you'd like to join me or learn more: exodus90.com

Ok, not official but I was able to transfer my Steam save games (PC) to Xbox PC version. I set translation mappings for files but this let me pick up where I left off when playing on Steam... will see if any game crashes or glitches... github.com/Fr33dan/GPSa... cc @radiobeartime.com

Does anyone have guidance if this is even possible? Take a save game from #Steam and (through #XboxPlayAnywhere or otherwise) be able to transfer that save game to a purchased #Xbox game? Specifically looking at #DaveTheDiver but others as well. Thanks in advance.

Wow, hit 1000 day streak on Duolingo. Doesn't feel like it has been that long. Come learn with me: invite.duolingo.com/BDHTZTB5CWWK...

Kids school is cancelled AND two family members sick... please send your positive vibes to make it through today.

Glad I backed the Kickstarter. Looking forward to Big Hops coming out next month 😀

Spending some time each week in December on de-cluttering, not just around our house but also my digital life (email newsletters, browser favorites, photo backups, etc.) Feels good even if small, slow progress. What are you doing to get yourself ready for a fresh start in 2026?

🤔 Imagine asking your tenant, "Do I have any global admins that don't have phishing resistant authentication?" and getting an instant, accurate answer without writing a single line of code. 🤯 The way we interact with Microsoft Graph is changing forever.

Result of testing last week: 1-pager summary (w/ 16+ page appendix diving into analysis notes, screenshots, and use cases). 😲 Sharing with a few teams as food for thought over the end of year break. 🍛4️⃣🧠

M365 Copilot now supports (public preview) building a plugin using an MCP server. I've enjoyed testing this out and working with a few partners on their integrations already. Give it a try and please share your feedback / feature requests! learn.microsoft.com/microsoft-36...

✨ SharePoint Site Creation in Microsoft Graph with new permission model • Create sites with Microsoft Graph • New Sites.Create.All permission • Grant permissions for admin • Delegated and app-only models supported Read more → devblogs.microsoft.com/microsoft365... #SharePoint #MicrosoftGraph

This was a great find on Woot (4D Build - Iron Man helmet). $4 plus shipping (also did an X Wing). More fun to put together than Legos in my opinion and way cheaper. Easy enough my kids could help.

Enjoying the morning doing a bunch of research / analysis on our own and competitor platforms. Good to see what things are supported / new / lacking / etc. on each.

We're live! Tune in for new third party game announcements and more: xbx.lv/47Rwiq9 | #XboxPartnerPreview

It's live! The Microsoft Ignite 2025 Book of News! news.microsoft.com/ignite-2025-... #msignite

The Galaxy awaits. The official trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is here. Only in theaters April 2026.

Quick look at Northern lights despite the clouds. Glad my wife set a reminder. #Aurora

Things you DON'T want to be web searching at 11:30pm on a Sunday night: How to get pen ink stains off inside of dryer... 🫣😣 A $0.10 pen caused 1+ hours of cleanup on the dryer and clothes that it exploded on. Turns out nail polish remover (acetone) and rubbing alcohol worked best. 😐

Only SEVENTEEN spots left (out of 50) in the @csadvent.christmas. Claim your day (Dec 1–25), publish something cool about C#, link to csadvent.christmas, and share with #csharp Claim your spot now! 🎄

I’m so close to my $1,000 birthday fundraiser goal for Atlanta Community Food Bank! Help me get over the finish line by donating directly on Instagram or venmoing me (kellyvaughn) if you don’t have an Instagram account. ig.me/25DBucOEUs3K...

Woke up at 6am (before kids awake and still in my pajamas 😁) to run to grocery store for eggs and milk so we could make scrambled eggs together before school. Sometimes it is the little sacrifices that bring the most joy 🙏

Some days you just need to chainsaw a bunch of wood to unwind from work. Today was the day for me.

Andrej Karpathy’s take on AI coding agents feels grounded. The industry’s chasing full autonomy when models still hallucinate too much. Agents that churn out a thousand lines of code leave you either blindly trusting them or slogging through reviews. These tools should embrace their fallibility.

Finished my first half marathon! Weather wasn't great but big thanks to my family who cheered me on at 3 different spots on course along with all the volunteers, Nationwide Children's Hospital folks, supporters, and other runners. Now to rest for 1-2 weeks 😁🏃🏁

Wish me luck, ready for first half marathon (and it's raining and windy the whole race forecast). Excited to finish this!

Doing self-reflection this week. One of the areas I'm noticing needing more attention is resiliency. I'm involved / leading many different projects (personal and work-related), but when things get over-whelming I don't always have proper backup plans in place. How about yourself? #Goals

Glad I backed this on Kickstarter. Looks like it is shaping up and looking forward (+ my kids) to playing!

Bucket list item accomplished: @ludovicoeinaudioff.bsky.social live concert I don't know that I've ever experienced such an amazing concert before. Worth the plane trip just to be here 🙏😁🎼

Good read. This reminds me in my first co-op tech job in college I built an Oracle PL-SQL report for customer order data for a business analyst. The query was correct but due to my lack of knowledge on filtering, what should've been a 2 page report was actually 180+ pages!

Last big training run leading up to half marathon in 3 weeks. Wish I could've gotten a longer run in but balancing training time with family and work responsibilities is tough. Starting to taper runs next few weeks and then big race Oct 19 🏃💪 Looking forward to it! Wish me luck.

I'm participating in Base To Space, a fundraiser for Fred Hutch Cancer Center. On Sunday I'll be running up the 832 stairs of the Space Needle, and would love it if you could sponsor me. runsignup.com/gavinbarron

Wow, longest training run so far preparing for half marathon. Behind training schedule but the fact that pace and heart rate are improving I'm very proud! 🏃 Now to eat and recover 😁

Saw this bold poster that said: "If you don’t love what you’re doing, change it. This is your life. Do what you love. It’s never too late." It got me thinking, when will we stop waiting for "someday"? Change requires courage now. 👉 What small shift have you been putting off?

My son and I were on a Scout campout 1 hr outside town this past weekend. Friday night we spent 25+ mins just looking at stars, satellites, and shooting stars since we don't get as good of view at home with city lights. No need for pictures, just bonding time and talking.

Tested out GitHub Spark github.com/spark/ for the first time today. Worked quite well for first time describing an app and then having it generated while being able to inspect the code / preview it. A couple issues I found in testing, but liked the experience overall. Light switch simulator.

youtu.be/CXhnPLMIET0