Daniel F. Dickinson
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Blog

  • A wooden bench in a tree-covered haven in the fall, with autumn-coloured\nleaves covering the ground.\n
    • Blog
    May 14, 2025

    1Y 1Q into Return to Work

    It’s been a successful year and quarter for my return to work effort, and I like to believe I have had a positive impact at the company I work for ‒ Ambient Activity. While there have been challenges it’s been exciting to refresh and renew the technology infrastructure and product technology platform at Ambient Activity, with more in the works.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • A tree with open bark after a lightning strike
    • Blog
    Jan 13, 2025

    Deep Fried

    Things got even busier during the holiday season than I wrote in Busy, Busy, Busy, especially at work. We were quite fried, but we’ve survived.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • A small painting with a computer in shades of purple in the\nforeground and blue background, in a conceptual style, on a blonde wooden table\n
    • Blog
    Dec 12, 2024

    Busy, Busy, Busy

    Daniel F. Dickinson has been keeping extremely busy with employment, other technical activities - not the mention the snow removal that is required in Midland - and his self-motivated volunteering hours.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • A hand with varicose veins rests on an a high contrast accessible computer keybard
    • Blog
    Oct 27, 2024

    Accessibility Meets Standard Practice

    Sometimes what would be best practice to improve accessibility in a pristine space is changes. This can happen where standard practice in an existing endeavour mean that accessibility tools are less effective, or break, if not constructed to overcome barriers in the standard practise rather than those in the pristine space (which no longer exists).

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • Windows
    • Blog
    Aug 9, 2024

    Deep in Windows Tech

    In fact I am quite interested in what I am working on, and am happy to be learning new things. Unfortunately, not sleeping well, and other frustrations, have marred my enjoyment of my current circumstances. Still, I will prevail.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • Featured image
    • Blog
    Jun 2, 2024

    Loose Screws

    While it once might have been said that I had a few screws loose, nowadays I am not only getting things done, I am thinking clearly and coherently (except when exhausted of course, but that is to be expected). I’ve also been too busy to spend too much time on politics or news and all the things that I cannot change.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • Path through a forest in the fall
    • Blog
    Jan 13, 2024

    Song of natural freedom

    A little personal creativity diversion from the technical/professional content of this blog.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • A glowing Earth in the palm of a human hand
    • Blog
    Jan 13, 2024

    Finished Second Week New Job

    I finished the second week of my new job! Though I did contract work for the same company a week before the holidays, at a very needed moment. So, I will have worked with them for three weeks, now.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • A small painting with a computer in shades of purple in the\nforeground and blue background, in a conceptual style, on a blonde wooden table\n
    • Blog
    Dec 2, 2023

    Successful reset, full steam ahead

    My personal reset has been a success. I’m back on track with my training, my contract is going well, and my web presence refresh is making good progress.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • CompTIA A+ · ce certification logo
    • Blog
    Oct 24, 2023

    A success and progress on a few fronts: Step One Achieved!

    I have achieved CompTIA A+ · ce certification, which is step one of my return-to-work plan. I’ve also been making progress on other fronts.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • Microsoft Bing
    • Blog
    Sep 24, 2023

    Bing chat fails reverse logic, hallucinates, and outright lies

    Bing chat fails to reason about who owns Princes and Madmen blog (me) and outright lies and claims that “Princes and Madmen” is a book written by Matthew Weiner.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • O'Reilly DEIJ scholarship badge
    • Blog
    Aug 19, 2023

    O’Reilly DEIJ scholarship recipient, and nearing a moment of truth

    Since I forgot to mention it before: I am a recipient of a 2023 O’Reilly DEIJ scholarship. I am also very close to official tests of my knowledge. And no, technology really doesn’t change that much.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • A small painting with a computer in shades of purple in the\nforeground and blue background, in a conceptual style, on a blonde wooden table\n
    • Blog
    May 26, 2023

    It’s actually happening: Cross-skilling and contract starts

    Some updates on my training and paid work opportunities. (They’ve come through!). Maybe even a little bit too much at once.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • A hand with varicose veins rests on an a high contrast accessible computer keybard
    • Blog
    Aug 9, 2022

    Updating spaces to tabs

    In code, choosing spaces over tabs creates accessibility barriers. The developer ‘Holy Wars’ ignore this, so this article explains the issue.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • A small painting with a computer in shades of purple in the\nforeground and blue background, in a conceptual style, on a blonde wooden table\n
    • Blog
    Apr 19, 2022

    I have been up to tech

    If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t posted in a long time: “I have been up to tech!” I’ve created and updated quite a few projects.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • A arrow pointing left inside a circle with a line through it
    • Blog
    Oct 15, 2021

    Accessible design: No _blank

    With browsers having built-in “Open link in new tab” functionality, it doesn’t make sense to break a basic web idiom (the back button) on a whim. Auto-opening link in a new tab/window breaks the back button and is unnecessary (because users have the ability to make that choice for themselves).

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • Daniel F. Dickinson's introduction card
    • Blog
    Aug 7, 2021

    Relaxation at the Midland Copy Shoppe

    One of the lessons I’ve learned over the last few years is to relax and let others do what they do better than I.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • Illustration of a moving van in front of two houses, and a person hidden\nby the boxes they are carrying\n
    • Blog
    Mar 4, 2021

    Archives: Rent or own?

    … that got me interested in the question, “How long before one reaches the break even point on the purchase of a residence compared to a lease?”

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • Diagram of an Accelerator Mass Spectrometer
    • Blog
    Mar 3, 2021

    Dating with accelerators

    Uses the basic principles of radioactive dating and combines them with advanced isotope measurements to obtain very precise results from small samples.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • Three Mile Island nuclear fission electrical generation station\n
    • Blog
    Feb 10, 2021

    Facebook “meltdown”

    If my feed was showing me what ’engaged’ me why did I get fed up and leave? There are several parts to the answer, but an important piece is that Facebook’s algorithm is largely an uncontrolled ‘positive feedback loop’.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • A small painting with a computer in shades of purple in the\nforeground and blue background, in a conceptual style, on a blonde wooden table\n
    • Blog
    Jan 2, 2021

    Data Responsibly

    We need mandatory third party security and privacy audits to matter as much to directors and shareholders as financial audits.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater
  • Young Caucasian man dressed as a strange pirate, Halloween 1998.\nImage has been 'clothified'\n
    • Blog
    Mar 5, 2003

    Princes and Madmen

    A strange idea came to me in conversation the other day, namely that my schizophrenia helps me understand what it must be like to be Prince William.

    • A cleanshaven middle-aged man wearing glasses and a dark green sweater

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