Back in July 2017, I wrote about my 10 essential iOS applications. I thought now that we’re reaching the end of 2018, it might be a good time to revisit that list.

As I mentioned at the time:

I find it helpful to mix things up from time to time, even going as far as doing a reset of my app icon layouts periodically to reshuffle the deck chairs and throw out any old cruft hiding in corners. One of my favorite activities is to delete apps that don’t get used anymore, or used enough to take up my attention. This time I took the approach of installing only the apps that I know I need on a daily basis, and then filling in the rest as the need for them arise.

A few weeks ago, I took a similar approach but this time with a far more aggressive regimen. I uninstalled nearly every third-party application from my phone. Then I started to analyze the feature/function of every app and determine if the app itself provided something more than just a wrapper around an already functional mobile website.

I find that having fewer things installed on my devices brings me some joy.

Shopping, banking, social media, travel, news, food, weather, shipping. Almost app categories were fair game. About the only group that was mostly safe were apps that controlled the various smart devices around my house: Nest, Hue, eero, Rachio, Lutron, myQ, etc.

From there, it was about finding the apps that were the truly essential apps in my workflow:

• I recently switched to Outlook as my primary email/calendar application. This means I can displace the stock Mail and Calendar apps, as well as remove Fantastical, which was on my 2017 list. Currently, though, I’ve been experimenting with having only my work email in Outlook, and my personal email in the stock app, just for workload isolation. I can’t decide if there is more of less mental friction in keeping them together or keeping them separated.
• I also have been using Microsoft To-Do as a reminders replacement, mostly because of the Tasks integrations with Outlook on Mac. (However, I’ve been bad recently *at actually doing *the things in here.) I’ve been comingling work and personal tasks in here. This has replaced Things for the time being.
• 1Password is simply irreplaceable. You’ll pry it from my cold, dead hands.
• Then there is Overcast for podcasts. I’ve experimented with alternatives in the last few months from the stock Podcasts app, Pocket Casts, and Castro, and always come home to Overcast for the basic reason that podcasts just sound better in there.
• And of course, Tweetbot for Twitter. I just can’t quit you.
• Shortcuts has replaced Workflow after Apple bought them and built much of it into iOS 12.
• I keep the ads and other trackers away in Safari with Better.
• I have Parcel setup to automatically track Amazon, FedEx, UPS, and USPS shipments, of which there are many this time of year. (Seriously, the entrance of my house looks like a loading dock right now.)
• Zoom is a requirement for work.
• As is Slack.
• I’d be locked out of both of those without my RSA soft-token.
• And I love the ability to upload receipts with Concur.
• While authenticating through Workspace One.
• AT&T Call Protect has become my new junk filter for phone calls. This replaced Nomorobo from the 2017 list, which is still a fantastic app, but AT&T’s app is network integrated.
• Finally, despite my new love for Nespresso, I still have a requirement for Starbucks on the go and like to have my order ready as I walk in the door.

From there I started a review with the assumption that I could avoid anything else. Despite quitting Facebook a couple years ago, I’m still on Instagram for close friends and family. I tried for weeks to limit myself to using the web app, in an effort to avoid another app install, but also having it try to entice me to spend more time in it with a dedicated shortcut on my home screen. After trying to limit my usage, I gave in and reinstalled it because it was just too damn hard not to.

I had a similar experience with LinkedIn. The issue there was more around the usability of the website on a mobile device. It was pretty terrible. I’d like to keep this uninstalled but I occasionally end up dropping it back on and then off again. I’ve uninstalled it again recently.

My primary bank has mobile check deposit, and I have family members who for some reason continue to write me checks despite showing the multitude of better ways to transfer money around. So it was a given for reinstall because the only thing worse than writing a check is having to physically go into a bank. So 2007.

I had Microsoft OneDrive installed for accessing work files from my phone, but realized I never used it outside of the native integration of the Outlook app. So, I deleted it. This may return if I find some other reason I was using it.

Target came back, despite my original wipe of shopping applications because of its store card being integrated with the app. The only thing I like more than being able to delete an application from my phone is taking a physical card out of my wallet.

A few other apps that were considered essential in 2017, I’ve since abandoned. Carrot Weather is great, and probably one of the best third-party weather apps on iOS, but I find the stock app to be good enough most of the time. Pcalc is another great app, but I don’t find myself needing to calculate anything so complicated at the stock app can’t get the job done. Cloak was on the list last time and has since been sold and rebranded as encrypt.me. Like many things that get sold, it just doesn’t feel like it has the same level of love and care as the original owners, and so it’s been cut.

My name is Michael Stanclift 👨‍💻 I work for VMware 🐢 I live in Kansas 🌻 I'm married to Sadie 🦸‍♀️ Together we have three boys and one daughter 👣

I have been a Star Trek fan my entire life 🖖

I’m not a perfect person there's many things I wish I didn’t do. But I’ll continue learning. I never meant to reboot that host for you.

I'm currently the Administrator of the Mastodon instance vmst·io. You can find me there as @vmstan.

I am no longer active on the Birdsite.

Personal Technology

The first computer I ever used was an Apple IIe. The first computer I ever owned was an IBM PS/2. I spent the late 90s to 2000s all in on Microsoft, but beginning with the release of the iPhone 3G, I've swung back into the orbit of the fruit company. I try to have mostly Apple products at my disposal for my daily computing needs.

Computer

• Apple MacBook Pro i9 (2019) in Space Gray (provided by VMware)
• LG UltraFine 24" 4K Thunderbolt 3 Display (24MD4KL)
• Keychron K3 with Blue Optical Switches
• Apple Magic Trackpad in White
• Apple Magic Mouse 2 in Black (and White, for the road)
• Beats Studio 3 in Midnight Blue
• Logi Brio 4K Webcam & Litra Glow

Phone

• Apple iPhone 14 Pro in Space Black
• Apple AirPods 3 with Wireless Charging Case
• Apple Watch 5 (44 mm) in Space Gray Stainless Steel with LTE
• Apple MagSafe Battery Pack

Tablet

• Apple iPad Pro 11" (2019) in Space Gray
• Apple Smart Keyboard Folio
• Apple Pencil 2

I'm on a quest to move everything to USB-C or Lightning connectors across everything I own.

Corporate Overlords

I’m currently a Technical Account Manager for VMware focused on healthcare clients. What exactly does a TAM do? Basically whatever my customer needs me to do. I’m part-advocate, part-consultant, part-analyst, and part-therapist. It’s the best job I’ve ever had.

Please note, all opinions expressed on this blog or any of my other social media are mine, and may not reflect theirs.

Prior to VMware, I spent a year working as an Integration Engineer for a financial services and healthcare technology provider called DST Systems. As an IE, my primary function was to work directly with the company business units and help assess their infrastructure needs and design solutions for them that were consistent with the best practices established by the enterprise architecture teams. I supported our pharmacy solutions and business workflow automation groups. I put in my notice the same week a transaction to purchase them was going through, for $5.4 billion.

For six years I was a systems consultant for a value added reseller. I left a few months before they got bought. I did mostly VMware, Cisco and EMC data center consulting projects for them. What can I say? It was VAR life. If you’re not sure what that means, I suggest listening to episode 130 of the Datanauts podcast where the panel explains exactly what that means.

Prior to that, I was a systems administrator for a document imaging software provider called Perceptive Software that was purchased right after I started working for them, for around $250 million. Shortly after I left they rebranded the entire operation but then bought a competitor for $1 billion dollars. Some Chinese investors bought that a couple years ago, and then divested all of the software, so my company became a separate company again, and then it was sold to a different competitor. I only worked there for a year.

For four years I was a Network Analyst for Rockhurst University which is a small Jesuit college in Kansas City. I did a bunch of crazy things there including one of the first major VMware VDI implementations in education. Wyse did a case study on it, and it won an award from ComputerWorld Magazine. Here’s the video version, where you can see a very nervous, 40 pounds lighter, 25 year old version of me explain why desktop virtualization is great.

Who we are

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I’m pleased to announce that yesterday I passed the VCAP6.5-DCD exam, thus earning the VMware Certified Implementation Engineer – Data Center Virtulization “milestone” after elevating the VCAP5-DCA exam that I earned back in 2014.

The DCD exam has been on my list of things to do since not long after I did the DCA. My first attempt was during the beta cycle for the 6.0 exam. The results for that exam took so long to be returned, and after shifting in job roles since then, I’d not had an oppertunity to sit for it until now. The 6.5 version of the exam differs from the 6.0 in that there are no longer the “Visio” style questions, which I think were problematic for the exam from the beginning. There are 60 questions consisting of multiple-choice, drag-n-drop, and multi-select questions, with 140 minutes to complete the exam. I was able to complete the exam in just under 90 minutes, and I didn’t feel like I was rushing.

In terms of advice I can pass on to others who are interested in taking this exam, make sure that you understand:

• AMPRS (Availability, Manageability, Performance, Recoverability and Security)
• RCAR (Requirement, Constraint, Assumption and Risk)
• The difference between Functional and Non-Functional requirements

If you are hands on with vSphere 6.5, especially working with vCenter HA, PSC/SSO and cluster design, you should have all of the bases covered. I have been removed from much of that in the day-to-day for the last year or two, so that was probably the more challenging part of the exam for me. I think if I’d done more to read up on differences between 5.x/6.0 and 6.5, I’d have come back with a better score. But, pass is pass.

I have accepted a job with VMware, as a Technical Account Manager (TAM).

To say I’m excited about this would be a gross understatement. VMware has been the company I’ve spent the majority of my technical focus on up to this point, and since announcing this change on Twitter last week I’ve been thrilled with the replies like “I’ve been here 4 years and it’s an amazing place to work.” During the interview process, one of the current TAM’s told me point blank: “This is the best job I’ve had in my career.” All of this has maintained a level of anticipation about this career change that I’ve not had for any other.

It’s not as if this is a surprise because I interact with so many great people on a regular basis who work for VMware, who seem to genuinely love the work they’re doing. But it’s been refreshing to get the same messages from people I’d never even met before.

The last year has been a rebuilding year, for me. In early 2017, I left my role as an data center engineer at a Value Added Reseller, to go back into a customer role. I had been working as a consultant for nearly six years, but prior to that I spent seven years on the customer side. So now I was back working 9-5, at the same desk. It was tough because I loved consulting, and I literally couldn’t wait to get back, but for various reasons I needed the transition. The role I took was intentionally outside my comfort zone, to force myself to do something different and pickup new skills. It was challenging in ways both expected and unexpected. The team I was working on has some great people, and it has been a fun to work with them, even if all the while I knew this wasn’t the place I wanted to stay at for very long.

This year in transition was a change that I needed, being a customer was a place to lay low, reset, and figure out my future and my priorities. There was no travel and no on-call, not even an expectation to even have email on my phone, let alone respond after hours to it.

But now I’m back, and ready to get to work doing what I love, for the company that I’ve spent the last decade focusing on, in the company of all the great people who’ve helped me get to this point.

I'm very excited to announce the realization of a career goal. I will soon be joining @vmware, as a TAM! 🎉

I can’t wait to get back to helping customers with their virtual challenges, and to start working with all the great $VMW folks who've supported me along this journey. 🙏 pic.twitter.com/fQHAeiOjlr

— Michael Stanclift (@vmstan) April 20, 2018

Occasionally I’ll wear my “blueberry” VMware certification shirt to work.

Some people in the community love these shirts, some people don’t. I, do.

Blue also happens to be my favorite color.

Occasionally someone I work with in my current workplace will comment on it. Before the last year, it was a bit of personal marketing while working as a VAR engineer. When I’d show up on site maybe there was a bit of “you can trust me because hey look it says right here I’m not some rando off the street.” In my current role, it’s not always obvious that I’m engaged in the VMware ecosystem. Since the shirt is, very blue, it gathers comments that range from “oh I didn’t know you were a…” to genuine curiosity of “what does that mean?”

Occasionally though, someone makes the less than flattering comment: “you know no one here cares about certifications, right?”

My usual response? “I do.”

In the moment I might get a little defensive and mention the number of hours required to sit for multiple VCAP exams, the underlying VCP exams, between training classes, time spent doing self guided learning or the process and stress of the actual exam.

The cost of the training, both in currency and time, is sometimes carried by the owner or sometimes their employer. I’ve been fortunate enough in my recent career to have had an employer that would make those investments on our behalf. It wasn’t always that way. Despite being deeply engaged with VMware products since 2007, it took until 2011 to obtain my first VCP. The financial hit for the required class was too much for me to take on at the time.

That VCP was my first industry certification of any kind.

I’m acutely aware that certification doesn’t mean you’re an expert, or that there are plenty of folks running around with certificates for things they have no practical experience with. That’s one reason why I’m such an advocate, and so proud of obtaining two practical/administration VCAP certificates. You can’t just memorize a test dump to walk in and regurgitate against multiple choice questions. You have to demonstrate your competency in a -slow- live environment.

So it’s fine that “nobody” in your organization cares about certifications. They have a value, if sometimes only to the holder.

In the wake of the last comment I got at work, I ordered two new blueberry VCAP shirts. My old one was getting a little rough looking. They’ll come in handy, especially in my next role.

I received a lot of feedback from my tweet about ditching a new Ring for Nest Hello.

I think my Nest Hello preorder has shipped, or is shipping soon. Credit card has been billed.

Ditching the Ring 2 that I picked up last month. Have not been thrilled with it.

— Michael Stanclift (@vmstan) March 15, 2018

Rather than tweetstorm it up, I’ll try and summarize it all here as to why I’m switching.

Most of it boils down to already owning a fair amount of devices in the Nest ecosystem (2nd-gen Thermostat, 3 Dropcams, 3 Protects) and wanting to stay in that. All my smart home gear is split between HomeKit and Nest. Since Ring doesn’t play in either of those ecosystems, it’s yet another platform to manage, and especially since Nest and HomeKit have zero integration without flaky hacks (Homebridge) adding a third platform that talks to neither, was already a step backwards.

I’ve toyed with the idea of replacing the Nest equipment, over time, but if I do it’ll have to be into HomeKit compatible devices. Ecobee has a great thermostat alternative, but as it is, Nest makes some of the best cameras, and there’s not an alternative to the Protect that I’m interested in right now. There is a First Alert competitor that looks interesting but I’ve had bad experiences with false alarms from standard First Alert detectors recently, so my trust in them is broken.

I was already planning to buy the Hello after we moved into our new house last month, but when Costco ran a promotion on the Ring 2 that included a year of monitoring and an extra Chime at a significant discount, I couldn’t resist trying it out.

The Ring is functionally fine. One of my biggest gripes however is the recording isn’t always on, and when it is triggered by an event it’s for a limited period of time. Most recently I noticed this when our new neighbors came to the door to introduce themselves. Being bad at remembering names, I went back to the video tape only to find it cut off after about 20 seconds. I still don’t know their names.

Since it’s not always on, and it’s in sunlight most late afternoons, after activating the first few seconds are over-exposed and worthless.

The benefits of Nest for me do come at a price. The cost of the Ring 2 package was about $50 less than the Hello, and the monitoring for Hello would run another $60 for the year.

One other consideration is that the Hello just looks nicer, in my opinion. The Ring isn’t ugly, it’s just kind of meh looking, to me. I admit to also having a sour impression to the quality of the hardware, having already swapped out faulty Ring for family members, as well as having some come DOA.