With the 12 days of Christmas a couple of days away, it’s a good thing it’s been a little warmer out this week as it will be easier for the pear tree to take root in the backyard. Maybe that pondering and ping-ponging at work all week caused me to not observe as much over the last week, but what I did was at least for me interesting.

Not the Same Ol’ Song – As much as I enjoy listening to non-stop Christmas music this time of the year, I am starting to get a little tired of the same songs over and over and over. My friends at Riot Fest (ok, I don’t know them personally, but they do get my musical tastes) have published a Spotify playlist of ska Christmas songs as well as a list of videos of Christmas songs by 70’s musicians. If you don’t know ska, give it a listen. If you don’t know 70’s music, I’m sorry.

Give The Gift of Files – I own a Synology device, which simplified is a home server. The firm held its annual event virtually this year and talked about new features and functionality in the coming year. What I am excited about is the future launch of Synology Photos which is its application suite for managing your photos. Imagine iCloud of Google Photos with complete control over your files, and it’s elegant and secure.

Goodbye Groups – At one point it seemed I was part of at least a dozen Yahoo Groups. This was a free service by the once search engine giant where you could collaborate online, but ended up being more of a mailing list offering. As Yahoo isn’t what it once was, neither is Groups, and after stripping the service of most of its features, they are shutting it down altogether. Social colleague Matt brought this to my attention and wrote about his use of Yahoo Groups over the years.

Ten Years After Berlin – As I was reading a post by another social colleague Craig about a new printer he bought I realized I met him in Berlin a decade ago, thanks to Nokia. We were both there, along with Dennis and Rhiannon, to “cover” the Microsoft TechEd Europe conference, where Nokia had a booth and debuted the E7 mobile device. Little did we know a few months later Nokia would switch to the Windows Mobile platform. Or as many in the tech community call it, the beginning of the end for Nokia’s global dominance in mobile technology. Despite this, we had a great time in the German capital.

Total Taste of the Holidays – Ever since I discovered microbrews in Boston in 1990, Harpoon Winter Warmer has been my holiday beer of choice and what I measure all other seasonal beers by. Memories of drinking it ice cold while outside tailgating for late-season Patriots games are now dancing in my head (sans sugar plums) as I am enjoying one as I writ this. For a while I was able to get Winter Warmer at local stores, but it has been hit or miss. This past weekend I found the very last case at Total Wine a national retail chain with an amazing selection of beer, wine, liquors and cigars I had never heard of before that has a store near Milwaukee. It’s certainly now tasting a lot like Christmas.

Happy Birthday on Saturday, Mr. Chairman.

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

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