In a previous post I talked about how to discover which version of PaperCut MF is running on your server.

Now we have that information, we need to know the latest released version from the PaperCut website to see if there is a new release to install.

When you are a PaperCut MF or PaperCut NG administrator you need to make sure your software is up to date.

I am lazy, so let’s write a script that will create a job ticket when
a new MF release is available and assign it to the appropriate person,
so they get prompted to investigate.

I was recently tearing what’s left of my hair out while trying to access a Linux VM in a Google Cloud Compute environment.

The last time I needed access to this VM I simply opened IAP Desktop, double-clicked on the VM, and was presented with a terminal session in short order.

Not so today, reader, not so today.

In order to be a truly caring company we need to make our product technology available to the widest possible audience across the globe. Not everyone uses English as a first language or has access to the latest technologies.

When we recently created our new cloud-native platform we had an opportunity to exploit that understanding for our integration partners and be as inclusive as possible. What are some of the principles we applied in our new developer program to improve accessibility?

Just when you thought PrintNightmare was the biggest security issue in over a decade, the Log4Shell exploit Log4J happened.

What exactly is the Log4Shell exploit and how did PaperCut respond? I’ve got all the answers and security lingo for you!

99.99%. It’s a compelling figure. The uptime guarantee trumpeted in SLAs the world over.

Of course, 100% is simply unattainable. Those SLAs must provide wiggle room for the .01% of unplanned, unavoidable, ‘well I didn’t expect THAT to happen, ‘what do you mean there’s been a power spike to the UPS’, ‘so THAT’S what that switch does’ events.

Walk into almost any office today, and among the desks, chairs, computers, and coffee machines, you’ll probably also find at least one printer.

But in 100 years’ time will that still be the case?

I think the humble ream of paper will be as alien as a floppy disc. The paperless office will come about due to a rise in a new form of personal computing: Virtual and Augmented Reality.

To celebrate Ada Lovelace Day I thought I’d take the opportunity to write about another underrated woman of STEM, Pandrosion of Alexandria.

As far as we know Pandrosion developed a technique to calculate approximate, but numerically accurate, cube roots using a three dimensional geometric technique.

TL;DR — Alec loves programming in Go.

And someone asked for a utility to modify the value of auth.webservices.auth-token config value when installing a third-party integration package.

We’re renaming our Git master branches to main.

This post from PaperCutter Alec explains why we’re doing it, how we’re approaching it, and provides useful suggestions if you want to make similar changes.

Ready to get your Git on?

Today a lot of the world’s information is accessible using web APIs of various types.

A few times recently I have seen developers make assumptions about the information they would get back from a web API call.

This led to trouble when the server supplied data that was slightly different than expected.

Near the beginning of 2020, I entered a lead role for the first time in my career.

Becoming a leader is challenging (albeit rewarding). But leading a team remotely during a global pandemic? This notches up the difficulty.

I make no claim to have figured it all out. But here are 3 lessons I’ve learned.