In the same week Dunkirk Dave didn’t see his shadow thus forecasting an early spring, my area got clobbered with a huge snowstorm coupled with high winds, coupled with poor road plowing. If you don’t know Dave, he’s the “other” groundhog. Said other groundhog predicted a longer winter, so I am going with the rodent from my hometown.

Improved is Subjective – What you see in this post is compiled with a lot of copying and pasting of links from my Microsoft Edge browser. Last week I noticed links were labeled with the title of the Web page and not the actual URL text, and I had no idea why. It turns out this is a new “feature.” Scrolling down this article fortunately showed me how to disable it.

Or Maybe Just Surf – Perhaps my browser expectations are too high, and I should just use the Edge browser to do a different type of surfing offline as my friend Craig does?

Can’t Widget Your Way Out – You may have seen a floating icon over the edge of some Web sites, and by clicking you get “help” in the form of accessibility tools. I have been suspect of these, as with all of my research and hands-on experience, there is no magic bullet for Web accessibility. This report from the Seyfarth law firm confirms that fact.

What to Do? Tell Me a Story – User story mapping is a term that applies to an agile approach of defining what you are going to do (e.g. build software, design a service) instead of writing detailed specifications that nobody reads. This is a good article on user story mapping from a design point-of-view.

Zoom Like a Pro – If you think the only prep you need before going live on camera is to make sure you are wearing something, then you may not want to read this post from my friend Roland on how CEOs and other experts approach streaming. Not surprising, there’s a lot more going on you don’t see in that little box on the screen.

There Once Was a Sidewalk from Nantucket – Appleton, Wisconsin is soliciting poetry to be set in concrete in sidewalks. I showed an example of this sidewalk square prose last summer in one of my What I Learned posts. Where I am not “there” in writing poetry, I’m equally as interested in seeing what is laid in concrete as seeing crumbing sidewalks repaired.

It’s Spongebob, For You – The Nickelodeon kids TV empire now has a birthday club where you can have one of their show characters call you. As my kiddo who has an upcoming birthday doesn’t read my blog, I’m not worried she sees what I may do for it. I’m also thinking of doing this for some not-so-kiddo friends.

Fluffy Unicorns for Adults Only – Last weekend I had the pleasure of imbibing a Fluffy Unicorn... IPA, that is, at the Stillmank Brewery in Green Bay, Wisconsin while attending a meetup there of listeners of the No Agenda Show Podcast. It was a delicious brew, but I decided not to get stickers of the beer label for my kiddo who loooves unicorns. Perhaps a call from the school in the morning asking why there is a such a sticker on the Chromebook may have led to this decision.

Unlocking the Nextcloud – I often say I need to write more about Nextcloud, the private cloud software I use to manage photos, calendars, contacts and more. Though I am not going to do it now, I do want to share this link to fix if you get an error when deleting files on how to clear Nextcloud file locks.

Christmas (cards) by the numbers – This past week I took down Christmas cards (don’t worry, the decorations came down weeks ago!) and as I went through them, I counted a 50/50 split between traditional cards – ones where you actually write on them – and photo cards – ones where you build and print online or at a store. With recent trends towards the latter, I was surprised at the actual mix.

18 (bottles of?) Books On The Wall – When listening to a Scrum podcast listing recommended books to help ScrumMasters like myself, I looked up and saw all the unread books on my bookshelf. Counting them, I have accumulated 18 books I have yet to read. As I still want to read them, I decided to scratch the list and read what I have. Look for more book takeaways when I find the time to do so.

What I Know – My friend Gary shared this post on LinkedIn from organization psychologist Adam Grant with an interesting chart on what we know, and the humility of admitting what we don’t I know at least in the US admitting you don’t know something is a sign of weakness in some organizations, where the reality is others may not know the answer either.

Burnt Cookies – I’ve been using the DuckDuckGo Web browser as the primary one on my iPhone for the last few weeks and have enjoyed its user experience. Built in is the simplicity of clearing your personal data by clicking a “flame” logo, literally seeing flames burning your cookies and other private information as shown in the accompany image. You can alternately choose a whirlpool or airstream animation. The browser also supports Android devices but not Windows or MacOS. If you’re conscious of being tracked as I am, this is an elegant way of thwarting it.

“We shape our tools, thereafter our tools shape us.” – Marshall McLuhan

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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A dear friend once suggested I write a book consisting of blog posts I have written here at The Hot Iron. My response to her, through a dismissively scrunched face, was “who would want to read past things I wrote?” After reading Things That Matter by Charles Krauthammer, I am rethinking that knee-jerk reaction.

Krauthammer was an award-winning columnist, following years as a policy advisor following years as a doctor. When I saw him occasionally as an analyst on various cable news talk shows I had no idea of any of this. As I enjoyed his commentary on TV, I presumed I would enjoy this book, not to mention taking away a few things from it. In this case my reaction was spot-on.

A good look back on history thru a unique lens – In addition to his journey from medicine to writing, Krauthammer was an American who lived in Canada in his youth. His writing style was smart yet educating with a wry sense of humor, and it was clear to anyone reading it of his conservative stance. Even if you didn’t agree with him, he wrote in a way that you would still want to hear what he had to say. This combination of background and style made for the unique pieces curated in this book.

Peace in The Devil's Dictionary – In one article Krauthammer referred the definition of “peace” in The Devil’s Dictionary. I had never heard of the Devil’s Dictionary and wasn’t aware of this satirical book of definitions for common terms. In this case, peace is defined as, “in international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting.”

More writers should do this – Clearly this book has got me thinking of re-evaluating doing this myself, despite the antithesis of my notoriety as compared to Charles Krauthammer. As well there are many columnists out there who should also do this... and I am looking at you Heidi Stevens!

Things That Matter is not solely a political book, as it talks of life, culture, sports, chess and, yes, politics covering several decades of his columns. I enjoyed his thoughtful writing that presented a perspective of a time when I was much younger and didn’t fully know all going on in the world.

If you are interested in a historical look at world events from the time they occurred I highly recommend Things That Matter. I was given this book several years ago before Krauthammer died and I finally got to reading it now. I passed this book along to my wife who also enjoyed him on TV and my guess is she’ll enjoy his writings as well. Perhaps you can get the book from her when she is done with it, or click any link here to buy a copy of your own – if you do I will earn a few pennies from your purchase.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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First some housekeeping, as I added some emphasis to the blog this week. First I highlighted the opportunity for you to buy me a cup of coffee if you like what you are reading. I also added the heading “Value for Value” to it, in hopes that will resonate with some people. I also added “disclaimer” text that some links I have to products or services I could earn money from is you click and buy. The US Federal Trade Commission has been all over bloggers on this for years. Oh, and I also removed links to my social media channels that I barely use anymore.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

I Didn’t Call You Old, Honest – I often talk about good and bad Web and digital design. Many of the concepts that go (or should go) into design come from the offline world. Here’s a great video from Don Norman, a design guru who is elderly himself, on designing for the elderly. Spoiler – design for the elderly benefits those much younger too!

Did I mention my kiddo is selling Girl Scouts Cookies?

Does Resume Size Matter? – I saw this post on LinkedIn from someone I don’t know about their 1-page resume and it made me think about my own 1-page resume. Many people have told me it’s too short, and how could someone amazing as me fit on one page. Easily!

Killer Phones – Apparently the magnets in the new Apple iPhone 12 can impact pacemakers. I mentioned this to a few people, and they didn’t know a mobile device has magnets in it. So be careful putting it in your front shirt pocket, or anywhere near your body in general.

Now I Git It – Git is a distributed computer code repository, and one I haven’t used. So I was interested in reading this Git overview by Skyline Technologies on it. My biggest takeaway is in how it differs from traditional code version control.

More to PDFs than You Thought – This week I took an online course offered by Siteimprove Academy on Accessibility for PDFs. It was eye-opening for me as I have worked with accessibility on Web pages and apps, but was unaware what goes into PDFs. I could write a lot on this, but here’s a quick tip for you – start with a tagged Word document, then save or export to PDF rather than printing it to a PDF.

Revue Who? – I got an email this week that Revue was acquired by Twitter as apparently I had an account with them. Who? Well I was able to recover my password and delete my account, and still didn’t get the gist of who they were in the process of doing so.

All Good Things... – For about the last year I have been working at a co-working space in town called World HeadQuarters. I joined back in February just in time to close in March when everything else was shut down. After things started re-opening it relocated from its unique space – a former outdoors goods store – to another unique space – a former mobile showroom. Before Christmas I got word they were closing their location in town (they have another about a half hour away) and this weekend is the final time I will be able to key in. I wish the owner Brenda, her family and team the best of luck and good fortune.

It was an interesting ride; I got to know some good people and even got some work there. One unique aspect they added to the location was this custom-built front desk, pictured above. It’s made from reclaimed wood pallets. The ops manager built it, and I helped him secure some of the pallets that went into it. As cool as it looks, it was also fun watching it being built.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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It’s that time of year when young girls around the country go door-to-door and setup tables at supermarkets to sell to the masses what they have been longing for – Girl Scouts Cookies. Only that this year, who will be answering their door to strangers or congregating in the entrances of public markets?

The show – or sales – must go on, and my daughter is taking to where everyone else buys things, the Internet, to sell cookies. You now have the opportunity to buy Thin Mints, Caramel deLites, Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Caramel Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Patties, Shortbreads, Lemonades, Girl Scout S’mores and the new ones – Toast-Yay. Some are even gluten free and vegan. All can be shipped directly to the comfort of your own home.

To buy cookies, simply click on the bug red button below:

If the link doesn’t work, click here to Buy Girl Scout Cookies Now!

My daughter thanks you in advance for the dozens of cookies you will be buying! The proceeds of the sales that go to her Girl Scouts troop will help subsidize the virtual activities and badges they are earning throughout the school year as well as Girl Scouts summer camps, which are planned to reopen in some fashion this summer.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Gee, I watched a lot of video this week. And no, I wasn’t watching these as I drove my kiddos to school for the first time in forever, something I was thrilled to do again.

What else did I do? Maybe it’s in a journal? – This weekly blog post is somewhat of a journal for me, as I takes notes typed into my phone as the proverbial “ding” goes off in my head. However I used to journal at past jobs, carrying a notebook just about everywhere, taking down ideas, minutes and the occasional doodles. Agile coach Anthony Mersino wrote about journaling and this has inspired me to start back to do this. I have a journal a friend gave me that this would work perfect for, and I’ll see how it goes over the next few weeks.

2020 Scrum Guide Event – Back in November was the 25th anniversary of the Scrum Guide what some call the bible of the project management framework. To celebrate this there was a virtual event, and by the time I tried to connect to it the Zoom meeting was full. The recording of the anniversary Scrum Guide event was made available and I finally watched it... all 2 hours and 18 minutes of it. It was long but well worth it for anyone who is a Scrum practitioner and curious to hear about what went into the making of the latest update.

VUCA? – Under the new to me category is the acronym VUCA which stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. I learned about this in a video podcast I watched of an interview with a friend from high school Lynn Turner referred to it. In summary, from what I understand, it came from the fall of the USSR and moving away from one common enemy to a time of uncertainty, and using these terms to approach how to handle not only world affairs but what is going on in your business. Or at least that’s how I understand it now, and need to spend more time wrapping my head around it.

Feel-Good Stereotypes – I had added the movie The Feast of the Seven Fishes to my watchlist in hopes of watching it before Christmas. Oops. It’s a story of a multi-generational Italian-American family celebrating Christmas with the Seven Fishes, which are literally seven types of seafood (and can vary). It was a very good movie and I highly recommend it. But as I was watching it, what stood out to me this was not my Italian-American experience growing up. The story has what I’d call “typical Italian-American movie family” of hard-working, loud, wine-drinking, loving people who have some form of organized crime ties. This was not my family at all. First off, my Mom didn’t like eel, so we never did this, but had plenty of shrimp cocktail at Christmas. I could go on, and someday I may elaborate more. Note even though it’s technically a Christmas movie, it’s a good watch even after the Epiphany.

To Boldly Laugh – With all of the videos I saw, the algos at YouTube clearly know I like Star Trek and served up blooper reels like this one I watched interestingly subtitled in Italian. I don’t know why I didn’t look for these sooner.

Watched about listening to The Watch – A new Indiegogo crowdsourcing opened this week for The Watch an audio drama series about Milwaukee, Wisconsin police officers and their lives on and off the beat. Check out the campaign, and from what my friend Randy, who is a writer and voice actor, it will be very entertaining. And I am not just saying that because one of the characters may have a name similar to mine.

Not talking in the Clubhouse yet – I have been hearing about Clubhouse a new social media platform that is audio only. Thanks to my friend John I have an account on there but haven’t had the time to go thru it. I found this Clubhouse overview article I have to still read. Hopefully I have more to report next week.

Did you hear the first? – This article about the origins of podcasting talks about the very first podcast feed, which may not be what you or anyone else heard.

Big Tech Tracking – Somehow I missed that last week Google completed its acquisition of FitBit. The first thing I thought of was if FitBit will give people refunds for their purchase like Nest did when it was acquired by the tech giant.

Small Tech Lookups – A lot of my working days revolves around domain names and their settings, called DNS for, you guessed it, domain name settings. A couple of additional sites I have been relying on are DNSChecker and DNSWatch. I share these here as, well, I haven’t started journaling yet.

General inspiration – Last week I mentioned about the new General Motors logo, which inspired Matt to write this extremely intriguing piece on how decades of design styles went into the new symbol for GM.

Heavy reading on small business data security – As many readers of The Hot Iron have their own business, I share this article from The Hacker News on the importance of application and data security. My hope is you have already considered everything in the article. Right?

Lighter reading – The Small Change Institute is looking for uplifting stories from the pandemic for a study on “joyscrolling” which is scrolling through an online stream of good news as compared to what we all read now. Feel free to fill out the form and help this upstart cause.

Reach out and touch – My friend Stefanos wrote this thoughtful story about the Touch Bar, a feature of MacBooks that have received a lot of negative publicity and in his eloquent way talks about human behavior in general and Aristotle.

Guess who’s coming to your house? – By now pretty much the entire world has seen memes of US Senator Bernie Sanders and his sitting stance at the inauguration of US President Joe Biden this past week. Someone came up with the idea of this simple Web app where you can plug in any address, and the Independent senior senator from Vermont will be sitting in front of it. It’s likely the only true laugh in American politics we’ll have for a while.

It better be – I have been seeing billboards like the one pictured here for a few weeks. I have no idea who is behind it, but it better not be a disappointment.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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