I was fairly successful in disconnecting somewhat from work this past week, allowing me to observe some of the finer points of life in the midst of holiday planning. For example, I realized the New England Patriots are not in the NFL postseason for the first time since I became a father, all while discovering a taste for RumChata Peppermint Bark.

It’s The Non-Thought That Counts – As emails streamed into my personal and work inboxes from vendors over the past weeks with holiday greetings, few really stood out. The ones that did, however, were those I did not get.

Make Computers Great Again – Over time I have posted many links and videos here on The Hot Iron from the Nielsen Norman Group, a global user experience consulting firm. Why I post a lot of them is because I agree so much with what they pontificate –technology in itself is great, but if you can’t use it, what good is it? In a year-end video, their co-founder Jakob Nielsen takes a stand that we should finally focus on UX, and take the time to make it work. I couldn’t agree more!

Not Your Average Legal Transaction – Legal Sea Foods, the iconic and delicious Boston-based seafood restaurant chain is being sold by owner Roger Berkowitz to a larger restaurant group, while retaining the brand for his online business. The reason? Surprise – the pandemic.

Legal is a success story, providing a great and tasty dining experience that doesn’t come cheap, but is well worth it. Berkowitz is also a success story, taking a family business to international fame, with the reputation for being a good and generous person. Years ago when I was president of the Boston Jaycees I wrote him a letter, among others, thanking for support of the Jaycees and Legal sponsoring our awards program. He then wrote back a personal note to me thanking the Jaycees for all we do in the community! I would always remember than when slurping oysters at one of his locations whenever I would get back to Boston. A gift from Legal’s online shop is the perfect gift for your favorite hard-to-shop-for blogger.

Not Your Average Baseball Transaction – In other business news, a trio of local businesspeople have acquired the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and Fond du Lac Dock Spiders baseball teams, both teams local to me here in northeast Wisconsin. Previously both were owned by a non-profit organization. The reason? Surprise – see the reason for the Legal Sea Foods sale. I see this as a good thing – local people will want to keep the team local and viable, a win for everyone.

What Also Comes With Vaccines – Where the news has been flowing on the newly-released COVID-19 vaccines with sparse mention of the side effects from taking them, there has been little to no coverage of how injuries from this new or any other vaccine are handled. My favorite local radio show, Fresh Take on WHBY, last week covered it, and host Josh Dukelow had an attorney on who argues cases in front of the federal vaccine court. Didn’t know there was such a thing? Or how it works and how the COVID-19 vaccines are handled different from other vaccines? Then give a listen to this informative 17-minute interview and be informed as many are completely unaware of all of this.

Gimme an H for Access – As I perused the Web this week something caught my eye – an hCaptcha prompt on a Web site form. As I have talked about adding Google reCAPTCHA to The Hot Iron before, I’d never seen hCaptcha before. Looking into it, it’s an alternative to the Big Tech giant’s offering, and has an, um, interesting twist on how hCaptcha handles Web Accessibility. Despite this cumbersome method it is a choice nonetheless and one I am looking into more.

Barbie is from Wisconsin –- Who knew? Clearly I didn’t, did you?

Finally Coming Back – Coming to America 2 has been made – finally – and is coming out on Amazon Prime in the spring. Watch the preview and try telling me Eddie Murphy has aged since the first one, because he hasn’t.

A Basic Mobile Layer – Where the Android operating system for mobile phones was developed by Google, many people don’t realize at its base is an open source development project. GrapheneOS is a variant (or fork) of it, which provides a similar user experience with a focus on security and privacy that its commercial kin does not. Installing GrapheneOS on a device isn’t something the average person can do, and though I personally am all-in on iPhones it is something I am looking into due to the inherent nature of most mobile tech to track and sell your information.

Duo Methods to Learn – When searching more on the new voices in the Duolingo language app, I found you can actually take language lessons using a standard Web browser – all along I have only been using its mobile app. One difference is you cannot earn as many points from practicing completed lessons. However the ease of typing on a real keyboard quickly negated that.

Christmas Serendipity – A year ago my family spent the week in Orlando, Florida, and Christmas Eve at Disney Hollywood Studios. Sadly the majority of the holiday festivities there wrapped up days before our arrival, but there were still some decorations out and our kiddos got to see Santa. The picture above is of a wreath hung on an out-of-the-way wall near rest rooms, and I was compelled to capture this consequential decoration.

Rest in power Mike, and I will always remember oysters and beers in Panama City Beach.

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

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