It was back to the pool for me, as a last minute call for volunteers got me to see my kiddos swim in person for the first time in over a year. Where some swim teams haven’t even tried hosting meets, others have, and they have done it right and with virus safety in mind. The kiddos did some big swims and I was proud of their performance. I also got to perform, for during one session I was back at the mic as meet announcer.

That’s 920-867... – Local calls in Wisconsin will soon require the area code to be dialed first due to new cross-state area codes. Or in other words, Dairyland will now be in line with dialing habits in most every state in the US.

One-Tap Scroll to Top – New to me, and likely many of you too who are reading this, is that you can tap the “status bar” on your iPhone or iPad to scroll to the top of what you are reading. The status bar is the space at the top where the time and other information is displayed. Where this function is not in every app, most Web browsers I tried can do it. And for those who don’t know, Safari is a Web browser. Special thanks to my friend Stefanos for pointing out this feature in his latest blog post.

Overplanned obsolescence – A warning message about updates to my Chromebook led to this information that the Internet device will not accept updates after this coming September. There’s a term for this – planned obsolescence. It’s when someone who makes hardware or software says that after a certain date you need to buy new hardware or software from them as they will no longer support what you have. Of course what you have will still likely work, but I digress. The Chromebook was a hand-me-down from a friend who was downsizing equipment and came in handy when schools all went virtual a year ago. Even though the Chromebook will still work with Google’s Chrome OS, I may look into alternative, non-Google operating systems for it like GalliumOS.

De-Googling May Not Be a Bad Idea – This article in The Hacker News shows what personal data Google captures on its users. The search-and-more giant was called out by smaller and less-capturing DuckDuckGo. Check out the chart towards the bottom of the article for the gory details.

Random Journey – Now that people are starting to get out more, why plan something when you can just go someplace random? Also new to me this week is Randonautica an app that uses quantum random number generation to send you someplace close by or elsewhere. Think Geocaching to a different level. I haven’t tried it yet, but my friend Randy who told me about it highly recommends it.

Last Run – This week Dick Hoyt passed away at the young age of 80. For decades he ran the Boston Marathon and races and triathlons around the world while pushing his son Rick. I met him a few times over the years that I had volunteered for the Boston Marathon, and he was a class act. The story I linked to here is by Boston sportscaster Steve Burton, someone else I have met before and equally a class act.

Temptation – Despite my track record I did not give up other blogging for Lent, and I do have other stories coming. One thing I have been moderately successful at over the period leading up to Easter is not eating meat on Fridays. Today I was successful at it despite picking up a package of beef bacon from local favorite Jacob’s Meat Market. I actually had an order in for this new delicacy of theirs as it has been selling out. By the time you are reading this it should be not-Friday and I will be cooking and enjoying this, and remarking how the above photo doesn’t do this deliciousness justice.

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

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To honor the life of Lou Ottens, the inventor of the cassette tape, I am sitting in a high-armed chair reminiscent of the famous Maxell cassette tape poster as I compile the other things I learned this week. Hat tip to Kim on this news.

Find Me Flaw – It was revealed there was a flaw in Apple’s Find Me app and service that would reveal the location histories of its users. Where this service is used by many, especially parents who want to track the locations of their kiddos, the potential for unintended consequences is high.

Maybe Don’t Use Find Me in Virginia? – Signed this month to go into effect in 2023 is the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act or CDPA. The East-coast Commonwealth joins West-coast California as the only other US state to have its own privacy law. Both are have a similar approach to the European Union’s GDPR. To the average person the acronyms I just threw around may not mean much. However if you are a business in Virginia or do business with people from there, it’s worth looking into to see if or how the new law will apply to you in a little over a year and a half.

Makeup with (Avocado) A-Peel – The other day my kiddo started telling me about a line of makeup that was inspired by the Mexican fast-casual restaurant Chipotle. I was laughing out loud at the descriptions of makeup inspired by their menu items, including a makeup bag that looks like a take-out food bag, thinking she was trying to prank me. That was until she showed me this link to a line of real Chipotle-inspired makeup products. I’ll never be able to look at anyone eating a burrito or bowl who accidently gets some on their face the same way again.

Digital Beanie Babies, Sorta – If you still haven’t grasped the concept of blockchain or bitcoin, then add non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, to the list. In very short, is a way of identifying a unique digital asset and assigning an owner to it. An example is one my friend Craig wrote on where Twitter founder Jack Dorsey is going to sell his first tweet, and the owner’s name will be forever tied to it. Podcasting co-inventor Adam Curry called NFTs “digital Beanie Babies” and I have to agree with him... as I scour my hard drive for something unique to sell to someone.

Managing Communities The Right Way – Agile guru Tom Cagley shared this great checklist for managing remote communities of practice or communities of interest meetings. Even as some events are starting to be planned in person, there are still plenty happening virtually. If you’re going to do it, do it right.

Starting My Birthday List Early – This week audio gear maker JLab announced JBuds Frames, which clip onto your glasses for what they call “open-ear” listening. I’m not a fan of standard earbuds, and having the ability to listen to music or a podcast in a more ambient way will be much more preferred by me. As an added bonus, the mic on the JBuds Frames are not always listening to you.

Boulder Pledge – New to me though far from new to the world is the Boulder Pledge. It was a statement made by late film critic Roger Ebert in 1996 that, in summary, says he won’t do business with spammers. Many people reading this may not have had an email account in 1996, let alone getting much spam in their inbox. This was the early days of the consumer Internet, and it was a prophetic statement. Hat tip to Joe for his mention of this on LinkedIn this week.

You Can't Do That – Presented without further comment, especially to prevent inadvertent offending of my fellow Wisconsinites, is this story about a car that had a lawn chair for its driver seat.

FAQ SEO FTW – In an effort to try to space out acronyms this week yet share with you useful information, I present this thoughtful piece by my friend and search engine optimization guru CT Moore on frequently asked questions (FAQ) and SEO. CT not only knows this topic, he also presents it very well. Where many times I feel updating the FAQs for the program I manage is mundane, its value can be tremendous.

Cordless Not FTW For All – It has been several years since I have purchased window blinds, a streak I broke last weekend. As I perused the big box hardware stores I saw only cordless blinds. A friendly staff at one store explained most all blinds sold today are cordless to prevent accidental strangulation of kids and pets, which I confirmed elsewhere. You can custom order corded blinds, which I will be doing as 2 sets of blinds I bought and installed failed to live up to expectations.

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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 compile this list on my computer I realize it’s the National Day of Unplugging. In the background a movie is being streamed over Netflix, not to mention too many lights on in the house. At least the adult beverage I am sipping now didn’t require any wired power to pour.

Who Comes Up With These Days Anyway? – World Backup Day is March 31. However I really, really urge you to backup your files way sooner, and just like voting in Chicago – early and often. If you’re not sure how to approach backing up your vital pictures and files, I offer this oldie but goodie on my own backup strategy.

Speaking of Your Data... – I signed up for this free Webinar titled, “Government Access to Private Data: Who gets what when and how?” being offered by the University of Wisconsin next week. The speaker’s bio alone intrigued me to watch this, and I also found it interesting that recordings of the event are prohibited.

The Next Generation of Wikipedia? – Larry Sanger, one of the founders of Wikipedia, is starting Encyclosphere as an alternative to the popular digital encyclopedia. It’s not live yet, and from descriptions I read it will not be a central site but a network of resources. Could The Hot Iron be one? Who knows. I have subscribed to their email list to learn about progress in this endeavor.

There has been a lot of talk about how Wikipedia works, using volunteer editors whose influence on content can show their bias. However this is nothing new to me or something that has happened just in the last 4 years. Almost a decade ago I first learned of this by someone I knew in tech networking circles in Chicago. She told me that many edits she and other colleagues made on women’s sports were continuously being deleted. Note I said sports, not politics.

Define Rockstars – “... it’s better to have a rockstar team rather than a team of rockstars...” is a paraphrase of a great quote I heard this week on an episode of the Scrum Master Toolbox podcast. This made me think back on all of the teams I have been a part of over the years, and I concur wholeheartedly with it.

Two-Minute Catholic – With all of the podcasts that are queued in my mobile app, the last thing I wanted is another long show to subscribe to that I will likely never get to yet keep holding out hope I will. I recently learned about Relevant Radio, a network of Catholic radio stations that also has an app, and this week found Fr. Kubicki’s 2 Minute Prayer Reflection. Two minutes! This daily timeout is welcome in the mix of news and technology listening.

Six-Months Italian – They say all good things come to an end, and I decided to stop my daily streak of “learning” Italian at 180 with the Duolingo app. Six months is nothing to shake a stick at, but lately I have been repeating lessons rather than taking new ones simply for the sake of keeping the streak alive. Where I have gained a better understanding of my mother tongue, I don’t have a venue to practice it. I may resume lessons in the future. In the meantime I am going to focus on career-advancing studies.

No Cost to Viewer’s Remorse – Last weekend the new combo animated/live-action Tom & Jerry movie came out concurrently in physical movie theatres and on the streaming channel HBO Max. As I get HBO Max for free for being an AT&T customer, I didn’t mind it as much how horrible the movie was as the only cost was my time, which did not last through the entire duration of the film.

No Cost and No Remorse for this Agile Learning – This week Agile coach and educator Anthony Mersino released the second edition of his book Agile Project Management for free in PDF and Kindle formats. As a paper book aficionado, I have started reading this as a PDF, but will still buy a copy in paper format when it comes out. I have taken courses from Anthony and he has a great style of educating that gets you excited about using Agile and Scrum methods.

End of a Friendly Era – I learned that last month S. Presley Blake, the co-founder of the East coast Friendly Ice Cream restaurant chain, died at age 106. In its heyday Friendly’s was a go-to place for Fishamajig sandwiches and Fribble shakes. I worked at the store in my hometown for 60 days exactly, allowing a friend to get a bonus for referring me, as I quickly realized food service wasn’t my thing. A philanthropist after selling the restaurants, Blake was also known for building a replica of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in northern Connecticut when he was in his late 90’s.

Go Cubs Go – The gratuitously cute bear cub photo at the top of this post was sent to me by my cousin. The cub’s mother is being monitored by state wildlife officials and thus they were able to capture this photo and others of mother bear and her newborn cubs on said cousin’s land. Where I would never think of using cute animals to drive traffic to this humble blog, I’ll fully assess this position after checking the traffic to this one post.

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

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Here’s my workspace as I compile my list of learnings from the week: I am sitting outside at Little Switzerland ski area in Slinger, Wisconsin wearing a flannel shirt and cap but no jacket while looking out to the ski slopes. There also may be a hopped beverage close by. Not trying to brag, but with temperatures in the mid 40’s F this week after subzero the past few weeks, I am in literal amazement of this scene!

Less Scrolling LinkedIn – I deleted the LinkedIn app from my mobile device this week. Why? I have found myself endlessly scrolling through the highly-algorythmed timeline of the business networking app far too often. I came to this realization after listening to a recent episode of the PhoneBoy Speaks podcast, where he talked about doing the same. I still use LinkedIn but only on my computer. Where I don’t have specific measurements, I feel my general interactivity with the meatspace world has increased a smidge.

(One) More Email from LinkedIn – Earlier this week I published a post on allowing LinkedIn connections to download your email address and though a few days later I was curious if, of my 1,600+ connections, I had any more than 25 with email addresses in my download file. After just checking, the number increased to one more. One. It’s nice to see someone read it.

Rockin’ Releases – Software developers often give code names to new releases of their hard work. Sometimes those names are fun, other times they are boring. I was thrilled to see the latest release of YOURLS, the short URL link server I use, named its latest version after Mike Muir, the lead singer of Suicidal Tendencies. As YOURLS rocks, it’s only fitting its releases should rock too.

Rockin’ Across Politics – A story that did not get much attention as I thought it would following the death of radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh regarding his show’s theme song, My City Was Gone, by The Pretenders. Why? Because Limbaugh and Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer of the band, are polar opposites in their political views. So why would Hynde allow her song to be used? Her Dad was a fan of Limbaugh. But there’s more to the story, and read the link for more on how these 2 celebrities came to common ground.

Unlocking Words – There is a workaround to edit a locked Microsoft Word document.

From Iceland With Broadband – When I heard Wisconsin was asking residents to use an Internet speed test Web site to collect broadband speeds in the state, I visited the Web site to do my civic duty. However, I use a VPN on my computer, and when I did it registered me in Iceland. Weighing Internet privacy over a low-impact display of my citizenship, I opted for the former.

RIP Bobby – This past week my friend Jimmy’s brother Bobby lost his battle with a fast-moving form of cancer. When he was diagnosed a GoFundMe page was setup where Bobby would post updates, when he could, of this unfortunate journey. I felt was very brave. The GoFundMe is still open to help support his family.

Power to the Product Owner – When I became a Certified ScrumMaster last year, what really intrigued me most from my training was the role of the Product Owner on the Scrum team. Since then I have read and listened to much on this vital team role, including this recorded Webinar this week on better understanding the Product Owner. It is due to this “mystery” that I am planning to become a Certified Scrum Product Owner as well this year.

Meme More Better – For all the memes out there, I always find the need to make more. I have used a variety of sites to do this, as past ones keep changing, usually for the worse. I have decided to use this site to Meme Better.

Stacked Potential – New to me is the Amazon Dash Smart Shelf that was launched last fall which is basically a scale for detecting when products on it weight less (or are in short supply) and will order more. Where the idea is nice, I would consider getting one if it could double as a postal scale or even a human scale. Otherwise that’s a lot of overhead for determining if I need more printer paper.

Credit Where Due – My CPA Ron Axe is awesome. I met him years ago at the first business networking event I went to in Chicago and I have been a client of his ever since, and so have other family members. This week I heard that when a family member submitted for their taxes the letter that came with their 2020 US federal government stimulus check, it was the first one Ron had gotten from a client. Apparently, everyone thought it wasn’t a tax document and threw it out. In honor of this, Ron made a donation to Rescuing Leftover Cuisine in their name.

Don't Buy The Dips – Hedge fund manager, financial educator and all-around great guy Jonathan Hoenig is offering another free webinar next week, Don’t Buy The Dips. I will be watching and learning, and you should too.

Hope Comes and Goes – Last week my fair city had a program called Avenue of ice where ice sculptures were dotted along the main drag, College Avenue. I got the picture above of one of them, HOPE, which was not far from the HOPE sign I learned about late last year. It’s a good thing I got this picture the day it started as a few days later the above-mentioned heat wave did a number on it. This is a case where hope lost is not necessarily a bad thing.

"I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things."
― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

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

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LinkedIn has long offered the ability for its users to download a list of their connections contact information. However at some point in time the business social network threw in a roadblock – your connections need to allow your email address to be included in a downloaded file. Each one of them. Individually. Seriously.

Most people are unaware you have to make this selection. I first learned about this opt-in setting from veteran tech journalist John C. Dvorak. I then allowed my connections to see my email address in their download files, and then I checked how many of my connections opted to do this – of my 1,676 connections downloaded, only 24 email addresses were in the file. Twenty four. That’s only .0143%!

Granted some of my connections may not want their information in a downloaded file as someone maybe doing so to spam email them. But among those whose email addresses were not in the list are some whom I consider “power networkers.” My guess is they are simply unaware of this setting.

Below I will show you how you can download a list of your connections, then how to make the setting change. I tested this with my friend Gary T. Sanborn as his email was not in my downloaded list, but was after he made the setting change.

How to download your contacts

Perform the following steps – these were done in a standard Web browser, and may vary in the LinkedIn mobile app.

• Navigate to LinkedIn.com and login
• Click "Me" in the top navigation, then "Settings & Privacy" from the menu
• Click "Get a copy of your data"
• Check "Want something in particular..." then check "Connections"
• Click "Request archive" button
• Enter your password in pop-up window and click "Done" button
• You will see a "Download pending" message
• Await an email that the download is available, or refresh the page and click the "Download archive" button
• Open the Zip file and extract the Connections.csv file
• Open the CSV file and sort by email address to see how many addresses you actually have

As you can see below in my initial list, Gary’s email address was missing. Interestingly I can view his email address on his profile page, as that is a different setting.

When I mentioned this to Gary, he had no idea about it. I then asked him to go through the following steps, to which he obliged as he is a sharing, networking kind of guy.

How to allow someone to download your email address

Perform the following steps – again, this works in a standard Web browser.

• Navigate to LinkedIn.com and login
• Click "Me" in the top navigation, then "Settings & Privacy" from the menu
• Click "Visibility" in the left sidebar
• Click "Who can see or download your email address" to expand the area
• Under the option "Allow your connections to download your email [your email address] in their data export? If no, your primary email address will not be included." slide the switch to Yes (as shown in the screenshot above)
• You will see a green "Saved" indicator that your choice has been saved

After he made the change, I followed the first set of steps and requested another download of my connections, and his email address was in the new list.

Deconstructing Downloading Email Addresses

I urge all of my own connections and anyone reading this to make this setting change. If you are on LinkedIn, you are there to connect with people. If people want to manage your contact information in their own database, and yes perhaps send you emails, they should be able to easily do so. Where I understand LinkedIn likely wants to mitigate people getting spam email, they should also make this setting change front and center so the masses are aware of it, as the numbers show they are not.

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

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