Frank Contrepois

Category: learning in public

avoiding lastpass for most used password without killing security

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I use LastPass, and I find it a great tool, but while on the road, it is complicated to remember that the password for the mobile website is ia0oJ4a&// and even harder to enter on a mobile phone. This password checker tells me that the password above is very strong, **as is RinobeatsCheetah!! **. Remembering RinobeatsCheetah!! is easy. To create a long-term memory, you need to associate the content with emotion. Read more...

Even simple things need change to stay alive

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I am late 7 articles on this blog. I am supposed to write something every day, but it is not happening. Why? Because it is too complicated. While simple compared to Wordpress, it is still too complicated for me to do it on-the-fly. It was not at the beginning, so what happened? It is due to simplification and time. At the beginning of this blog journey, I had lots of ideas and great enthusiasm. Read more...

Startup founder stages - part 1

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Seen from the founder This is a, first draft, of a list of stages founders will go through, in no particular order (yet) I hope to get your feedback. I will then work to find some support (experience, sites, books) for each I want to become an entrepreneur but no ideas I’ve an idea but no way to make it happen I’ve and idea and know where to start I can do an MVP - but not done yet I have an MVP Should I be CEO I’m pivoting (may happen multiple times) I’m on the verge of bankruptcy I’m not selling enough I’m not selling at all I’m selling too much I need cash to grow I need an investor I need a co-founder What is a balance sheet? Read more...

My best book on leadership - what is yours

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People, wanting to be better leaders, have been asking me “which book should I read”. My answer is Turn The Ship Around!: A True Story of Building Leaders by Breaking the Rules of David Maquet Turn The Ship Around!: A True Story of Building Leaders by Breaking the Rules Read more...

So funny, yet so desperately true

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This is an hilarious short movie made in 2014 showing the initial interaction between a customer, sales, project manager, expert" ( the only sane in the meeting) It was correct in 2014 and is still accurate in 2020 Read more...

Autopsy of AWS EC2 pricing - and some anomalies

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Summary tables Linux Suse RedHat Windows SQL Server Web SQL Server Standard SQL Server Enterprise Infrastructure Intro At Strategic Blue, we care about the money, and we’ve been collecting prices of AWS and other cloud vendors for a while. Another characteristic of Strategic Blue is that we are curious and love digging into the numbers, checking common assumptions, and find new ways to save money. The first article in the series focused on finding the cost of Windows on AWS and make some basic comparison with Azure A second article show an anomaly in AWS pricing probably due to a human error This article extends on those researches to split AWS pricing into three components: Read more...

Low priority tasks

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If you use any prioritisation for your tasks, you might have some ’low priority’ tasks that never make it to the top or (worst) only make it when they become critical. To solve this problem, my friend and colleague Stephen keeps a list of low priority tasks and blocks in his calendar, 2 hours every week to focus on low-priority tasks. Nice one Stephen! Read more...