The last thing I want to do is pile on to the loathing of this calendar year. That being said, this week didn’t turn out completely as planned, but after stopping and shifting a few times I can fairly say I pretty much made it to Friday.

A Facebag of Cash – If you or someone you loved lived in the State of Illinois between mid-2011 and the present and also happened to have a Facebook account, you may qualify for money from the social media behemoth. A class-action lawsuit against Facebook has been settled over their use of facial recognition software on their platform. I’m also interested to see what the next class-action case is against them.

The New Gold Standard – Speaking of states and money, new to me is the fact that Nevada and Utah have issued something called ”Goldbacks” which is valid currency in those states that resembles traditional paper money but made with gold. A $1 Nevada Goldback is valued at about $3 as of this writing. You can buy them in those states as well as online. I’m intrigued by this and may order some – worst case scenario I would have a nice shiny bookmark.

Never Thought It Was Dead – I learned about LinkedIn Live from a colleague’s post on, you guessed it, LinkedIn, as he was asking if anyone had used it. I wasn’t aware of it, especially as I haven’t seen anyone using it or promoting they are using it. An “integrated” solution certainly adds value, but for me simply linking to a Zoom event will suffice.

If you have used LinkedIn Live, please post a comment as I would like to know how it works for you.

IWM FTW – The University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh (UWO) has been named one of the top schools in the US (number 6 actually) for the next generation of Web designers according to College Magazine. This is attributed to UWO’s Interactive Web Management (IWM) program. IWM is a cross-disciplinary program that creates well-rounded, holistic students that understand all aspects of the Web and online. I have a little insight into its awesomeness as I have been honored to be a guest lecture at one of its classes, Application of New & Emerging Media Journalism, for the past few years and will be this fall as well. Go Titans!

Short But Sweet Links – Raise your hand if you like to create short URLs that you can share with people that are easy to read? You know, something like https://psurl.com/elmo that will take you to this cute but annoying video for brushing your teeth. If I have lost you, read on with caution, but there’s the ability to create your own with self-hosted Web software called YOURLS. I have used it for years, and that was after years building my own Web software to create short URLs. If you use YOURLS, a vital update came out over the pandemic.

Note if you would like to have your own URL shortener and don’t have your own Web server, my friends at Name.com offer this service. And if you follow this short URL https://psurl.com/domain you will get a $5 towards it… and I get something too!

Deep Fried Thoughts – There’s only one way to learn if you don’t like a deep fried Oreo and that’s by eating one. It sinks in even more if you make it yourself.

Stacking Up Work – Part of the Scrum framework is the backlog. In short, it is what you want to work on, and the process of refining the backlog helps determine what you will work on next. I watched an interesting presentation this week titled “Stack Your Backlog” by Joe Krebs which used the analogy of fire wood to describe how you can effectively work with your backlog, from the condition and size of the wood to how you stack it. Where the recording of the presentation is not available yet, the slides are available. Though the audio doesn’t accompany it, you can infer much of his points from the slides alone.

Good for Deeds – Whenever a political candidate is asked why they are running, rarely do you get an answer that is anything close to down to earth. For me that has been the case until I heard about Seth Reid, who is running as an independent candidate for Winnebago County, Wisconsin Register of Deeds. This office is hardly one that drives people to vote, but Reid’s goals are noble and interesting – he comes from a computer security background and wants to apply this knowledge to the office to ensure all records are secure. He is running against a Republican incumbent and there’s no Democratic opponent. Watch this video of Seth Reid and you’ll know why he has my vote.

Nice Wheels – This past weekend my family finally ventured the whole 2 blocks to the taco truck that has been showing up in our neighborhood for a month or so. Why we hadn’t patronized it earlier is unclear, but we went there the day after seeing the movie Chef. Coincidence?

Savage – While on a caffeine quest the other night I found Starbucks was closed, yet the Dunkin’ next door was open. And in case anyone has tunnel vision when they were going to the Seattle-based store, the Canton, Massachusetts-based store is making sure your horizon is broadened.

The course of true love never did run smooth.

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

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