Though not asked for or about by anyone...

IT Didn’t Last Long – Early in December people in the technology industry briefly lost their minds over an article in the Wall Street Journal titled It’s Time To Get Rid Of The IT Department. The premise was that with all of the online services out there, commonly referred to by us technical people as micro-services architecture, you didn’t need a department overseeing all of the chaos of random people creating free or paid accounts and having no idea how everything links together. As you can guess by that previous sentence, us techies took a deep breath, had a laugh, then went back to helping those people who keep setting up those accounts.

Speaking of Lasting Too Long – It still baffles me that people register domain names with Network Solutions. They were the first domain name registrar, and their Web interface really hasn’t changed all that much over the decades. They charge more than others and make it difficult to make changes to domain name settings or DNS. If you want a better solution, go to Name.com.

The Lawyers Year-End Bonuses – A couple of class-action lawsuits came across my view, One was for TikTok and data privacy, the other for Zoom and third-party access. For the TikTok class action, if you are/were a resident of Illinois at the time you could get six-times the money back, however much that is anyway.

With regards to these, I did file for TikTok but not Zoom. The former is a highly toxic service owned by the Chinese Communist Party, and the latter is a service that helped maintain my sanity during the lockdowns, and nobody ever hacked into any calls I was on. Even though there’s a fixed amount of money involved, on principal I did what I did.

Badger Bitedown – The University of Wisconsin-Madison was one of several colleges whose football players were wearing special mouth guards this past season to measure the impact of head injuries. If you have ever seen or heard anything about CTE and its causes, this study hopefully yields information on the impact of sports on head injuries and their impact on the lives of those who got such injuries. People are not going to stop playing sports that can cause these injuries anytime soon, so anything that can help along the way is a good thing.

Fresh Take-Off – Over the years I have mentioned a local radio show Fresh Take and its host Josh Dukelow on the pages of this blog. It has been a unique show, airing topics and guests you won’t hear elsewhere and in a fashion the hosts aptly calls “getting you think, not telling you what to think.” Now Josh is leaving the area, and his show will be signing off on January 21. I wish him the best on his next chapter in his life journey, and am wondering who and what will replace his air slot.

Reason 8,237,912 To Not Ship With FedEx – Many people don’t realize that FedEx uses contractors to deliver packages. So if someone in a FedEx truck with a FedEx uniform comes to your front door, they may not actually be an employee of FedEx. That is, if the FedEx truck is in an accident and never comes to your door, as what happened in the middle of the Christmas package rush. Fortunately there are some good people in the world, they are just not wearing a FedEx uniform.

Shattering Santa Stereotypes – Santa Claus isn’t necessarily always an old fat man with a white beard wearing a red suit and having the trappings as told by numerous tales. Sometimes it’s a younger, svelte, redhead woman donning a black coat and single-handedly fulfilling the role of Sant Nick and then some, not to mention cooking the roast beast. And for this, saying I am eternally grateful doesn’t begin to cover how I feel.

Heaven Closes Before Christmas? – Sad news for the local soccer community hit before the holidays that a local indoor soccer facility Soccer Heaven was closing for good after decades in business. Where the name “heaven” may have been a stretch for this facility, it is where my kiddo really came into being a soccer player and loving the sport. Now we’ll drive about a half-hour further away to play over the winter, but have plenty of memories and victories on the fake grass formerly one exit away.

Don’t Ski So Close To Me – A “lost” video by the band The Police came out over the holidays. It was a video for their classic hit “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” but filmed at a Canadian ski area. Apparently a concert the trio were supposed to be in was canceled, so they had some time on their hands. For fans of the band like me, it was the right amount of silliness going into the holidays.

Another Way to Watch and Be Warm – Not to be outdone by yule log videos out there on the Internet and broadcast by TV stations on Christmas eve, the Italian American Podcast came out with Yule Pot a pot of tomato sauce simmering on the stove while Christmas songs by Italian-Americans play. And yes, I said sauce, not gravy.

Rise... – After displaying a similar looking sign with the word HOPE in the center of my city, a new one has taken its place, RISE, as shown above. My hopes is we will rise up and return to what we were prior to all of this chaos in the world, and even be a better place to live and thrive.

... And Scene – With this What I Learned, I have decided to retire this (somewhat) weekly posting, again. Where I have enjoyed writing it and keep observing things – perhaps more than I normally would – it’s time has come. I am hoping to write more, lengthier posts on single topics, as I have been doing in recent years. Thanks for all of the feedback and reading by you. As this was the “second coming” of the series, could there be a third?

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

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It seems like I was just finishing up my Thanksgiving dinner grace that the first Christmas card came in the mail. Where I can’t control what others do, I am enjoying the holiday weekend as much as possible, along with hanging up that first card.

ICYMIY – In case you missed my post that appeared to most on Thanksgiving, here’s a link to it. It was either people were too busy celebrating the holiday or perhaps they just didn’t care to read my takeaways from yet another Patriots book?

262 – Congrats to my smokin’ hot wife for running her 10th marathon last week. I’ve long believed running a marathon is more mental than physical, and just thinking about it is making me tired. It’s quite an achievement to run one 26.2 mile event, but 10 is certainly a feat of feet.

WhatOps? – For those more technically inclined reading this, you may be familiar with the term DevOps, which is all the rage for how developers are working with delivering more in an orderly fashion. But have you heard of DesignOps? If not, this is a link to several articles to get you thinking more about DesignOps. I’m still going thru it myself, but it’s good to see everyone wants in on a more sane way of creating great things.

Back with a Bash – Last week a great tech in-person networking event was held in the shadows of Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin called Tech Bash. Several tech firms and meetup groups presented and were in attendance to connect with the community. It was also an opportunity to learn about Livex a New York City-based firm that is a global leader in livestreaming who also has operations in the area. They also have a livestream platform called Rivet that I am exploring more for how it could work with swim meet livestreaming. It was a great event and even greater to shake hands with people I hadn’t seen in in real life in a long time, not to mention seeing first-hand the thriving tech scene in the area.

Back to the Email – I posted a survey on LinkedIn asking how people tackle their email inbox after being away from work for a while and there’s still time to chime in on it. That is if you are on LinkedIn. And if you are and you’re reading this, let’s connect.

Arizona Election News You Likely Haven’t Heard Of – There has been a lot of news about 2020 elections in Arizona and its recount done by the Cyber Ninjas. However there has not been much coverage about an alternative approach to recounting the ballots, by a diverse team no less. This group calls themselves The Audit Guys and has been involved with this recount as well as other analysis on the last US Presidential election. In past What I Learned posts I have included links to info from Larry Moore, one of The Audit Guys and someone I had the good fortune to work for in the past. The Audit Guys’ latest article is their review of the Cyber Ninjas recount. I recommend checking back on this site for more analysis you won’t find elsewhere but should.

A Focus on Reducing and Reusing – The 3 R’s of the environment were taught to me as Reduce, Reuse, then Recycle. However it seems the emphasis over the years has been on the last one, where I would have thought it would have been on the first two. This is a good, detailed article on problems with recycling and a program called Loop that is working on reusable product packaging. It is led by major corporations, and it will be interesting to see how they do and how it cascades through all aspects of the economy.

Another Reason for Another Cup – If others can pick and choose their medical studies, so can I! Here’s one on how coffee can lower the risk for stroke and dementia.

Go Ahead, Be “Unsafe” on the Web – One of my biggest pet peeves with Big Tech firms is when they decided a Web site would rank lower if it didn’t have an SSL certificate (a.k.a. the S in https) even if the Web site wasn’t processing sensitive information, such as a blog. Then these firms decided their Web browsers would give a warning and try to block you from seeing the Web site without SSL. But leave it to the developers of the browsers to build-in a workaround, as was new to me in this article about the phrase “thisisunsafe.” Granted this isn’t easy for the non-technical user, but for those of us who make their living on the Web, this will make life much easier.

Seeing the Forest for the Fallen Tree – When on a trek through my friend’s hunting land last week, I was keeping an eye on the ground as I walking on something that was far from a groomed trail. I came across the above-pictured log, covered in moss and though barely visible was new-fallen snow on it too. Just after taking this photo and noticed the sight of the forest and sky around me. Often I take for granted the beauty of my surroundings. This time I took in and took photos of all around me.

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

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Where I would like to blame missing a week on the disruptions of the new features and settings in iOS 15 on my iPhone that are supposed to cause less distractions, alas I truly cannot. Perhaps I am the only person who loves all notifications and not grouped, but that’s another post for another time.

Grands – I appreciated the few kudos on reaching 1,000 blog posts, especially from long-time reader and fellow blogger Matt, who pointed out another word for one-thousand is chiliad. I am still trying to find a way to work it into a sentence without sounding snooty.

Nice thinkin’, Ray – Next week the Ghostbusters original story becomes a trilogy. I came across this video clip with Ivan Reitman, the director of the first 2 installments and Dad of the director of this one, showing a video to Bill Murray of how the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man has evolved. It opens in the US next week, and finally I have a reason to return to a movie theater.

More proof the Cloud is simply someone else’s computer – Open-source file management and application platform Nextcloud has announced a new app to allow for peer-to-peer backups. All you need is someone else who uses Nextcloud and you can backup your files to theirs, encrypted and compressed of course. I have used Nextcloud for years, though ironically I don’t know anyone else who uses it.

Snap up 80’s music lore – When I read about Deirdre O’Donoghue being “the most influential American DJ you’ve never heard of,” I said to myself, “self, I never heard of her, and I am intrigued.” She was a DJ on a public radio show in Los Angeles that featured interviews and a great mix of 80’s alternative music. Though she is no longer on this mortal coil, the tapes of her shows have been recovered and a podcast series called Bent by Nature has been produced from them. The first few episodes are fun, and if you’re into the best music era of all time on this earth, give it a listen.

Time killers as we await Valentine's Day – I was sad to hear that Christkindlmarket will not return to Milwaukee this year, though it will be back in its original Chicago location. Where trekking that far south may not be in the cards for me, trekking a little south to Milwaukee for the Noel Light Park and Christmas Market sounds like it may make up for it. No definitive word if they will have boot mugs though.

Crafting I could tolerate – New to me is Cricut a line of computer-driven cutters that can be used to make car window decals, and likely other crafty things. But car window decals! They also make a mug press for dishwasher-safe printing on coffee mugs, though it looks like supply chain issues have hit their larger mug sizes. This would certainly make for an interesting hobby, and a nice Christmas present for me.

Make Images Vital Again – Back in the old days of the Web people would upload a ginormous image to their Web site, and you could see it slowly loading a line of pixels at a time. Sadly that is still going on over a quarter of a century later. I learned about TinyPNG a Web site where you can upload and optimally compress the size of image for a Web site – note that a picture straight off of your phone is likely too big for a Web site. I saw this service listed on this great article from consultancy SmoothFusion on overall improvements you can make to your Web site.

Mixed feeling about this phone repair – Apparently if you crack the screen of your iPhone 13 and bring it to a non-Apple authorized repair place, Face ID on your phone will no longer work. Where I don’t use Face ID on my non model 13 phone because of risk and security concerns, it goes against your right to have your phone repaired wherever the heck you want to which clearly Apple, et. al. don’t want you to do.

Rudy Reminder – While watching All-American with one of my kiddos this past week there was a mention to a “Rudy moment” and guessing (correctly) she didn’t know that reference, I proceeded to give her the top-line story about Rudy Ruettiger and mentioned the movie about his life. I also recalled in the closing scene of the movie, there’s a shot of Rudy being carried off the field of Notre Dame Stadium, and sticking out among the dark clothing is my friend Tim, waving while wearing a white cap and bright blue jacket to the left of the on-screen which you can see at the 3:37 mark of this video words. He just happened to be at an actual Notre Dame game when this scene was filmed.

FILO – If you are a regular reader of my What I Learned posts or anything I write here at this humble blog, you will notice I like to include some original photo, artwork or even screenshot. As I looked thru photos the last few weeks, there wasn’t really anything to choose from. So I scrolled back to the oldest photo on my phone and I have added it above; it’s a photo of a mural on a park pavilion in Redgranite, Wisconsin, taken this summer. It caught my eye, and hopefully does yours too.

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

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

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As I try to clear the nagging debate out of my mind over whether the movie Jaws is a horror film or not, I am fortunate to have had more cerebral encounters over the past week.

But were those cerebral encounters optimal? – New to me is ultradian rhythms although I don’t quite fully understand them yet. Apparently these are a level lower than circadian rhythms, where we have cycles throughout the day, and need “rest” in between them. I put this at the top of this week’s list as I need to re-read this (again) and try to find where my peaks and troughs are throughout the day.

Silly Spammers – I couldn’t help but laugh when I got spam email for a spelling check system that opened like this, “...it looks like you have a couple spelling errors on your website such as the word "Blart".” Clearly whatever algorithm this system uses is unaware of the movie that was filmed at my favorite mall in the Boston area, not to mention the grammatical error of putting the period outside of the quote at the end of a sentence. Interesting that their system went back over a year to find a spelling “error.”

Little House Lore – When my family took a road trip out west through Minnesota and South Dakota a few years ago, we saw markers and sites related to the book series Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We didn’t stop any as they were out of the way, plus I had heard there was a lot of questions as to the historical accuracy in the series. This week I came across this article that gets into some of the details of Wilder’s stories, including one notable character that was actually a mashup of several people. There was no mention if Charles Ingalls hair was flowing as portrayed by Michael Landon.

Back in a Bash – It’s great that in-person networking events are coming back, and one I am looking forward to is Tech Bash, which will be held at Badger State Brewing in Green Bay, WI on November 15. There’s a vibrant tech scene there, and it’s fueled by their Chamber of Commerce. It should prove to be a lively event.

Ask Him Anything, Really – My friend and doppelganger Mike Gastin has started an “ask me anything” video series, where people send him questions related to branding and marketing, among other topics, and he answers them. One I particularly liked is on how to get new clients for your business. In addition to being informative, his videos are also very well produced. Maybe I should ask him how he does it?

Different country, somewhat similar technology – I have been fortunate to work with some amazing technologists over my career, both close to home and around the world. One of them is from Bulgaria, and this week he shared with me this article about how Bulgaria became a technology leader. I love these kind of stories as it’s great to learn of international parallels to what I was working with and on at different points of my career.

Maybe she is new to the planet? – A woman from New York is suing breakfast food behemoth Kellogg’s over the fact that there are few strawberries in their Strawberry Pop-Tarts. As I read this, I said to myself, “you mean there’s actually real strawberries in a strawberry Pop-Tart?” And here I always thought it was a genetically engineered processed sugar piece of food that is oh, so tasty yet bad for you; did you think that too? Maybe New York is where her spaceship recently landed, as I thought this was universal common knowledge.

Trick or Treat and Camp – Last weekend at High Cliff State Park, which is at the top of Lake Winnebago by me here in Dairyland, they resumed the annual tradition of people camping in cooler weather and having Trick-or-Treating, where the campers go all out to decorate their campsite. It was a jackpot for the kiddos as they filled their bags with candy, however I was more impressed with the “adult” treats of homebrewed beer and a wide assortment of Jell-o shots! The picture above was one of the many elaborate setups on a camp site. After this, having the kiddos go around the neighborhood this Sunday will likely 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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With Fall finally kicking in with cooler temperatures and leaves piling up in the yard, this week’s journal of the interesting things I have learned is compiled with the constant hum of leaf blowers in the background.

Once you remember what a passport is for ... – My friends at Swift Passport Services shared what the next generation of US passports will look like. Security and a little more style are a couple of the elements of the new passport design. Even if you renew your passport today, you may still get the old format as the printers for the new passports are still being rolled out.

Literally a game of numbers – Cormac Sampson is an Offensive Lineman for the University of Wisconsin football team. As his family is friends with ours, I have known him long before he could bench press me, but I digress. The Junior has been Mr. Versatility for the Badgers and has played several positions on the O-line. As a result, he has to change his uniform number for each position, as number ranges are assigned to positions, several times. In this interview of Cormac, he talks about the multitude of jerseys he has worn over the years and how his Mom cheers on her little boy.

Appfirmations – My fellow co-working space co-worker Mike writes for The Sweet Setup and this week he wrote about the mobile app Affirmations, a simple but elegant app which can remind you how great you are, as well as when and how to breathe. The random affirmations that pop-up on my screen have been welcome since I added the app this week.

Classic Fright – I came across this list of classic Halloween movies and am sharing namely because the newer ones that are appearing more on the big screen at home just don’t give goosebumps like the good ol’ ones.

Like they need more traffic anyway – In my latest book takeaway on The Tao of Bill Murray the real intense readers of this little blog noticed that I didn’t include links to buy the book on Amazon. Going forward, I won’t be adding these. Why? I got an update from the Amazon Associates affiliate program, where these links come from, that I need to add even more disclaimers that these links would earn me money if someone clicked and bought the book.

This messaging is related to US Federal Trade Commission (or FTC) requirements for disclosure of any earning relationship with any product or service mentioned in a blog, or elsewhere. When it came out years ago I analyzed the FTC requirements and had many questions and honestly think it’s too much and plays consumers as being completely oblivious. Couple that with the fact I have only earned US$4.00 (yes, four dollars) over the years, it’s not worth it. I will eventually pull down other links, but in the future you won’t see them.

Perhaps the FTC should focus on persistent tracking? – This article about how Web sites track you is nothing new, but frames it that non-profits’ Web sites are tracking you, possibly in conflict with the work they do. Referenced in the story is a tracking too that The Markup offers so you can search for potential sites that track you. Of course Google comes up for many sites as their Analytics tool tracks hits. It makes one think what is really important about Web sites and to who.

Walking around the law – I heard the term “walking quorum” for the first time this week, thanks to my friend Josh Dukelow and his local radio talk show Fresh Take. In general, a walking quorum is not a good thing and can be a violation of governmental open meeting laws. This definition of a walking quorum from my state is a good place to start understanding it.

Tick-Tok – Just when you thought there was enough harm being done as a result of the social media platform TikTok, now we have an idea where its name may have come from – TikTok may be causing young girls to develop ticks and more.

Collect Friend Contacts Info Without a Bag – I couldn’t help but laugh when I read this story about a woman who lost contact with all of her friends after someone hacked her Facebook page. Just as a business doesn’t have a true relationship with customers over Facebook, the same goes with people. The article does say to get the email addresses of your “friends” to keep in contact outside of the platform. For some reason it left out to delete your account once you have that list.

Credit where credit is due – Where I’m not sure who originally said this quote pictured above, it is one that I will not forget as it reminds you who to think of first. It reads, “anger is the punishment you give yourself for someone else’s mistake – have a bless day.” Not bad for something on the chalkboard in a restaurant bathroom.

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

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