It was a short week workwise, and though I was wicked busy, I seemed to be more on auto-pilot than anything. Looking back, about the only real thinking I did was whether or not I wanted to get the early child tax credits the US government for some reason is handing out this year ahead of next year’s taxes.

Do and Deduct Accessibility – Speaking of taxes, here’s a tax credit for small businesses that makes sense. US tax code says you can deduct some expenses to make your business accessible. Though it doesn’t explicitly state you can deduct Web or digital Accessibility, why not? A great question for a CPA or tax advisor as I am neither of them.

Camp and De-Google – For the last several years I have been using Matomo on this very blog. Matomo is a free, open-source alternative to Google Analytics. Though I work with Google Analytics, or GA for short, as part of my job, for myself the less Big Tech I am involved with the better. So I have been experimenting with Matomo along with GA, which I still have here as well. With that long setup, there’s plans for a MatomoCamp in the making. A “camp” is really an informal conference, and this would be for people to learn about and expand their knowledge of Matomo. It looks like there’s a ways to go in planning, but it will be interesting to see how people are using it, especially as I am the only one I know who does.

Elton Encore – Tickets went on sale this past week for Sir Elton John’s farewell tour when it hits the home of my New England Patriots next year on my birthday. While seeing this performance would be a treat, it wouldn’t be the first time I saw him in concert at Gillette Stadium, and up close too. Back in 2004 I was at the season opener of the Patriots as they celebrated another Super Bowl championship. I took the train to the game and it arrived later than planned. As I was running through the concourse to my seats, I came head-on to security clearing a path for a golf cart, and on it was none other than Elton himself, complete with a scared look on his face! Moments later Elton John performed with the Boston Pops, as you can see in this YouTube video. That experience would be hard to top.

Good While It Lasted – Amazon announced it is ending its 2% reward when you load at least $100 into your account with the Big Tech retail giant. You have until the day before my birthday to take advantage of this gain, which has a better return than most bank savings accounts offer. Clearly this means Amazon worked out a better deal on credit card processing, which I presume is why they offered this alternative in the first place. You can still load manually or automatically to your account, and if you do the latter they will give you $5 for the first time you do it.

Make Your Own Final Countdown – In recent years I have warmed back up to countdown clocks on Web sites. Perhaps it is because there is one on the swim meet Web site I manage? I have also seen such clocks in email messages and wondered how those were done. This past week I finally looked into it, and this post explains the why and how to make your own countdown clock for email and Web too.

Keep ‘Em Separated Or Else – I have always been a firm believer in the separation of personal and work email. My reasons have been mainly for organizational purposes, but also because your work email belongs to your employer, so why use it for personal use? A group called the Wisconsin Transparency Project wants to make this law, making it illegal to use private email for public business. Their argument, beyond organizational purposes, is that it adds complexity when open record requests are made for emails for a person, and their personal accounts have to be scoured as well as work accounts. Though I am not someone who advocates for legislating common sense, I can get behind this one.

Train Keeps A Rollin’ – A consistent commercial during the 1970’s was for Wausau Insurance. Here’s an example of one, which features the train station in the north central Wisconsin city where the insurance company was based, that was animated in the outro of all of their commercials. As the spot said, the trains aren’t running anymore, and haven’t ran past this station in decades. Heck, the company was acquired by Liberty Mutual Insurance and is no more. This past weekend I went there and took the above photo, as the for the past few years the station has been home to Timekeeper Distillery. I also went in and sampled their tasty spirits, taking home a bottle of their Straight Bourbon Whiskey. This will be a new auto stop for me when driving “Up North.”

Happy US Independence Day!

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

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One could assume I am merely getting into a groove of writing my learnings every 2 weeks, but people who know me would know better. Trying to compress 8 months of planning and prep for an outdoor swim meet into 4 weeks played into this a little bit. Ok, a lot. But it was worth it, and worth sitting down to compile this list is as well.

See The Fruits of My Labors – A lot of hard work went into putting that swim meet together by a lot of people, including new elements required as a result of city mandates which I presume are to prevent the meet from turning into a super-spreader event? One of those elements was livestreaming the meet. Where it has become commonplace for swim meets around the country, we haven’t done it ourselves, and at an outdoor pool to boot. We pulled it off, and if you’re inclined you can see it on the Fox Cities Bird Bath swim meet’s YouTube channel. Believe it or not the view and angles of the pool are very helpful to swim families.

My Morning Brew Means More – Go ahead and accuse me of picking and choosing scientific studies, but I am all over this one on how coffee consumption helps prevent chronic liver disease.

More Reasons Not to Put It On a Hot Dog – After reading this list of rather handy uses for ketchup other than eating it you likely won’t want eat it either. My guess is my new favorite ketchup by TrueMadeFoods I mentioned a few weeks back doesn’t have the same side uses.

So Long Sweet Baby Ray – Larry Raymond, the founder and namesake of the Sweet Baby Ray’s barbeque sauce, died at the end of May. Raymond was from Chicago where he was a chef and started the sauce brand over an illustrious career. He later lived in my wife’s hometown here in Wisconsin. His sauce lives on as it is now owned by the same Massachusetts company that makes Ken’s Steak House salad dressings.

Although I have known it for years, I am repeatedly reminded that being a leader comes from action, not from a title.

Accessibility Wins In Bill Loss – Where news coverage portrayed the only people against U.S. Senate Bill 1, or S1, were Republicans, those who are seeking greater accessibility in voting were as well. Why? The For The People Act had a paper ballot mandate, which goes against already existing technology to aid those with impairments to vote beyond a paper ballot. This statement from the National Coalition for Accessible Voting details some of the opposition that goes beyond party lines.

Tallying Recounts with Existing Technology – Where I have seen a lot of coverage on the recounting of 2020 election ballots in Arizona, what I haven’t seen much coverage on is an easier way to audit the vote. This way was proposed by a trio including Larry Moore, who I had the privilege to work for in the past and has helmed 2 digital voting firms. Perhaps it’s the lack of sensationalism that explains why the coverage is so sparse?

Looking Google In The Eye With Your Web Site – People often lament to me the challenges they have with their Web site’s ranking in Google. Perhaps these straightforward missives from digital marketing guru Chris Abraham will help with tips on what work you should be doing on your Web site for Google to notice and this 3-part series on how to deal with the Big Tech firm’s latest algorithm changes.

Then There’s What You Have to do in Ontario – Larger firms in the Canadian province of Ontario also have to ensure their Web site meets accessibility standards. They have to do so not because it’s a great idea, but because it’s the law. And they can get fined for not meeting those accessibility standards.

Bene There, Done Them – A staple of early Web sites in the 90’s were small, rectangular animated icons promoting other Web sites or technology. I recall making some myself and adding others to various Web sites. If you don’t know what I am talking about see for yourself – this site has literally thousands of these 88 by 31 pixel icons.

Maybe I Should Start Everything Like This – I came across this video of a classical singer warming up for a performance with a true classic, the theme to Star Trek: The Original Series. I need to take a timeout and think about how I can break the monotony of the daily grind and infuse a little “wow” into it.

Bridging the Virtual Gap – When I took the training from Mike Cohn of Mountain Goat Software to become a Certified Scrum Product Owner the takeaways from the course were the materials and experience that made it well worth it. The cherry on the sundae was the gift box they sent me afterwards, which I just opened the other week. I commented on the branding of their materials and Web site, but this gift blew me away! Pictured above, there’s a custom designed box complete with goat pictures inside and out. Inside was a hand-written note from Mike, a notebook and a deck of Planning Poker cards, used for planning in Scrum. For fun there was a pen with a USB Flash drive built-in, stickers and temporary tattoos. This was a treat and excellent way for the virtual course to come 360 with something tangible.

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

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Time. That elusive thing we all can measure and manage but still escapes us and we tend to let other things manage it. Though long ago I realized I cannot “make time” I am still working on the measure and manage things. As a result, a week went by where I didn’t write this collection of seven days of observations and learnings. So much for my year plus streak! But life goes on and I still kept taking notes, and here they are.

But First, Please Subscribe – I may have mentioned over the years that my kiddos are swimmers and I am involved with making the swim meets happen. Some of you have even suggested I need to spend more time away from chlorine, but I digress. In any case, we are live streaming swim meets over the next month and I need to make our new YouTube channel “legit” – can I ask for a subscribe to our YouTube channel?

Click Here to Subscribe to the YouTube channel

Thanks in advance for your support!

Brackets Begone – I don’t always write code, but when I do, I have used Brackets as my code editor. When I recently opened it up to do some coding magic, I got a message Brackets is being discontinued. Apparently software giant Adobe owns this open source project and is abandoning it. Not quite sure if someone is continuing it or not. It has worked well for me, and I am sure I will find an apt replacement.

Branding Jumpstart Gets Better – My good friend Emily Brackett (no relation to the previously mentioned code editor) and her agency Visible Logic have recently launched a new version of Branding Compass, a service for businesses and individuals to build a brand on a budget that still speaks to their business or personal goals. I have seen this service evolve over the years and it is a great resource. Of course if you have the budget to do a full brand, hire Visible Logic for that. But if not, this is a must-do to project the image you want without the big spend.

Squinting On The Edge – With a recent install of a new version of the Microsoft Edge Web browser, I noticed the text in the address bar was smaller. I apparently wasn’t alone in this observation of smaller text in Edge. Not sure why anyone would want to do this, or give the option to not adjust it, but I find it highly annoying. Edge has been my “primary” browser but with what I do I am usually in literally a half-dozen browsers over the course of the day, so it has been tolerable.

Friend or Phishing Scam? – Several of my clients got emails similar to this which are phishing scams that can lead to ransomware installs that seize your computers. Often I am asked how to tell if something is a legitimate email or not, and my answer is to simply do a Web search on the opening line of the email, as I did with this one which led to the link I have presented here.

Stop the Ringer From Going Low – There’s nothing like helping someone to setup a new iPhone and you discover “features” you didn’t know existed or how to remedy them. One such is when the phone starts ringing, the ringer gets quieter. Why anyone would want that is beyond me, but here’s how I found how to stop the ringer from doing that.

File Under Why, Why! – I learned about Amazon Sidewalk, a “service” where your Amazon Alexa device becomes something similar to a WiFi hotspot. With all of the spying talking tubes do as it is, this is a privacy nightmare! It can be turned off – as I don’t have an Alexa, I can’t vouch for any links out there, but they do exist.

Graphic Tools I Used – As I have mentioned I use these posts as personal reference materials as well, so these links on how to set transparency of an image in Gimp and how to create outline boxes in Photoshop are more things I am filing here.

Enough Tech Mike, How About Some Music? – I realize as I wrap up the last few weeks, most of what I learned was tech heavy. So this list of the top alternative songs of 1989 as compiled by Matt Sebastian and his Slicing Up Eyeballs blog is certainly welcome. A fun fact is the name of his blog comes from the song Debaser from the Boston band The Pixies that is on the list.

Coffee Sunrise – The above photo was taken from the balcony of our hotel in St. Ignace, Michigan as the sun rose over Lake Huron. A family getaway to nearby Mackinac Island – just a short ferry ride from our hotel – included biking, mini golf and a ton of fresh made ice cream. It also included not running on any time schedule. I share the photo to you and if you click on it you can see a larger version, suitable for your computer wallpaper or Zoom background.

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

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It was a fast week, as is shown by the items not crossed off of my to-do list. Sharing this list of what stimulated whatever side of the brain that stimulates one intellectually is also an item to be crossed off the list.

Catch-up – After taking a training course last week (more on that to come) it seems like I am still catching up on a lot. Catch-up... ketchup... which reminds me of my new favorite ketchup from TrueMadeFoods which has no sugar and is surprisingly good.

Mute Maria at the Pump – This post came out about how to mute those annoying “entertainment” spots that are playing at a gas pump near you. Sorry not sorry to my fellow Patriots fan Maria Menounos who is the star of many of these segments.

The Act is still the Law – A friendly reminder to myself and all that despite a pandemic, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, is still alive and well, the law.

POPOV, not Popov – Since I have been in the world of the Scrum framework for working over the last year or so, I have heard a lot of dissing on the Product Owner role. The Product Owner or PO represents the product stakeholder and is a key member of a Scrum team. That being said, it’s an important role, and I think a lot of it is based on the fact that there’s more emphasis on the Scrum Master role, at least that’s how I see it. So when I discovered Roman Pichler's Product Owner Podcast this week, it shed a refreshing light on the PO role.

Back to the Deck – This week the 2 outdoor, 50-meter swim meets my swim team puts on were given the green light. The Fox Cities Summer Classic will be on Saturday and Sunday, June 19 and 20 and the 22nd Bird Bath Invitational will be Friday thru Sunday, July 9 thru 11, both at lovely Erb Park Pool in my home city. More information on these unique swim meets is available on this well-designed and highly-useful Web site.

Just Buy That New Technology Already – I’ve talked about planned obsolescence in the past, but after a while older technology just isn’t supported anymore. Let’s Encrypt is open source software that generates SSL certificates for free on your Web server. If that didn’t make any sense to you, SSL is the “S” in “HTTPS” and secures the information between your computer or device and a Web server. In September, Let’s Encrypt won’t support some older technology. The impact on the general population will be low, but could impact nonetheless.

Quiet Riot – The daily lineup for Riot Fest came out this week and it’s a great one. Unfortunately 3-day passes are sold out and only a couple of single day tickets are available. As I am not as young as I used to be, I like the VIP area, and all things considered, I will be missing this great lineup. Of course if anyone has an extra VIP 3-day pass, I’m more than glad to take it off your hands.

Saaaaaaaaaaaailing – The Yacht Rock channel is back on SiriusXM. If you don’t know what yacht rock is, put on an Izod polo shirt and time travel back to summers along the water in the 1970’s. It’s rock, but mellow. Thing Christopher Cross... if you know who that is. I was tuned in last summer while trying to maneuver a pontoon boat around a lake.

Zero Interest – Check out the label above for a beverage called Minute Maid ZeroSugar Lemonade. Modified Cornstarch? Glycerol ester of rosin? No thanks.

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

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This past week I spent a lot of time participating in and conducting training, and then it seemed like the rest of the time was making up for what I missed or didn’t do when I was in said training. Though the idea of calling in sick to get work done came to mind, my ethics gene kicked that idea away.

The Write Time – Who knew I lived so close to the Museum of Writing Instruments? Now that places are opening up, I’ll have to pencil in a visit there.

Just Don’t Write Your Passwords – Where it’s a great recommendation to have unique passwords for Web sites and services, should you change them often or be forced to do so? This article talks to the pros and cons of changing passwords regularly and a tech giant that is changing its stance on this.

Don’t Shoot, Shoot, Shoot That Thing At Me, Anywhere – Clearly not everything is obvious in life, like not having naked Nerf wars.

So You Don’t Get Into a Pickle at Work – New to me is the Gherkin syntax for defining business rules that are easily translated to code. I learned about it in a class I took this week. Curious – have you used it before?

Are You Fast Enough for Big Tech? Just when you thought it was enough to worry about your Web site’s content accuracy, SEO, SSL, hacking, yada-yada, add Web page speed to the list. Well Google wants you to at least. Page loading can make a difference if someone will wait to view your content and perhaps buy from you. The areas for improvement for this very blog are ones I will be working on. But at the end of the day, if it takes a few seconds longer to load, will you still read this blog?

Easier than Untangling? – I’ve mentioned JLab audio equipment before as the brand has worked well for me. I just learned they offer a recycling program where you can get a 30% discount on new products when you turn in old ones. This might be the solution for those headphones and items that I can’t part with because they just might be used again maybe possible someday.

Back on the Virtual Stage – I was invited again by my friend Eric to talk about “underperforming friendships” on the audio social media channel Clubhouse this coming week. The last time I was a last-minute addition to the discussion, so this time I have had some time to put some thoughts into this, and let me know after this Wednesday what you think.

Too Much Marketing – Where it’s easy to find alcohol-infused (also known as “hard”) seltzer at convenient stores, it’s still hard to find plain old seltzer that is not sweetened or infused with something other than CO2. At one stop last week I took a triple take at Liquid Death. After getting beyond what I was actually reading, some of which is pictured above, I found it being simply a can of carbonated Austrian mountain spring water. And as it is European, the carbonation is less than you would find in a US brand. It went well with my salad, but no thirsts were actually murdered in the process of drinking it.

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

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