Field notes · north7

Field notes & the long way round.

Mostly tutorials on Microsoft 365 identity, occasional trip reports, and the odd microblog. Posts are tagged so you can filter to the technical ones — or skip straight to the hills.

17 May 2026
· 4 min read

A round of the Loch Avon basin in low cloud

Eleven kilometres around one of the Cairngorms' great hollows, most of it inside a cloud. A navigation day more than a views day.

14 May 2026
· 3 min read

Microsoft kills basic auth, finally. Some thoughts.

A short reaction to a long-awaited removal — and the thing that comes next, which nobody is talking about yet.

14 May 2026
· 14 min read

A Conditional Access policy that even the help desk understands

A first-principles tour of a Conditional Access policy that's restrictive enough for compliance, lenient enough that the help desk isn't drowning, and self-documenting enough that the auditor can read it without a translator.

13 May 2026
· 2 min read

Find every app registration with an expiring secret

One Graph query, sorted by how soon it bites you.

11 May 2026
· 4 min read

mg-graph-helpers: paging and throttling, handled

A small PowerShell module that wraps the parts of Microsoft Graph I reach for weekly — so paging, throttling, and scope checks stop being copy-paste.

09 May 2026
· 6 min read

Writing PowerShell that survives Graph throttling

Microsoft Graph will throttle you. A 429 is not an error to log and move past — it is an instruction, and it tells you exactly how long to wait.