What’s New Is Grey Again – Years ago, I was dealing with what was called a “grey screen issue” when people would open the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser and the screen would be solid grey, then display the Web page. Users blamed my Web software for the issue, but it was a well-documented issue with (now) old versions of the IE browser. Lately, I – and others – have been seeing grey flashing using Microsoft’s latest Edge browser. They say there’s something for consistence, right?

A Bad Definition of Content Editing – Listening to the latest Marketing Over Coffee podcast that’s co-hosted by my friend and loyal The Hot Iron reader John Wall, Google is changing the title of some Web pages in search results. You see, you can use an HTML tag of “title” to define the page title. On the Web page you can define headings and subheadings. So the Behemoth Tech search engine may swap out the title you set with a heading. According to this article it’s actually not completely new. As well, it states that the defined titles are getting shorter over time, an intentional setting by Web page creators. I have mixed feelings on this, especially as I know many content editors don’t ever edit the title of a page. Have you?

Wiping Your Tracks As Clean As Possible – If you didn’t know your mobile phone was tracking your every move, please stop reading now, sit down, put a cold towel on your forehead and breathe! Now that you’re back, here’s a nice piece on the type of tracking that is done and how to delete Significant Locations from your Apple device.

A Different Kind of Big House – In a roundabout way, new to me is the TV series Alpha House, which was Amazon’s first original series that debuted in 2013. It’s the tale of 4 Republican US Senators who live in the same house in Washington, D.C. and stars John Goodman. I just finished binging the 2-season series and highly recommend it. Where it’s a political comedy, it pokes fun at all of politics and its arrogance. There was no definitive reason given why Alpha House did not continue beyond 2 seasons, but perhaps the timing of a 3rd beginning in 2016 may have played into it.

Threading The Tunnel – You must see the video in this story about a pilot who flew an airplane through 2 tunnels. Imagine spending a year of preparation to do something like this.

9/10 – Throughout the week I was thinking about where I started the day on September 10, 2001, which was where I am right now. Then I flew back to Boston that night and connected with a friend who was flying in from LA, which interestingly is where he is right now. I have written about 9/11 before and there’s not much more I can add to that. What I will do is tell the story of both 9/10, 9/11 and the days that followed to my kiddos, as they need to hear it firsthand.

What’s Tradition Is Delicious Still – My friend Eric was in my old stomping grounds of Western Massachusetts and I told him to stop in at Red Rose Pizzeria, which was my favorite place for delicious Italian pie when I was growing up. He sent me the picture above, and it was great to have another friend experience what I did. I say again as I have sent many people to the South Main Street restaurant and none have been disappointed.

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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 curate the last few weeks I am wondering what the big deal is about a one Alabama police officer who looks like one actor / former wrestler, especially as I share the look of about a quarter of the people who attend a pro football game on any given Sunday.

Simply Wrong – My last post on the previous 2-week period showed up a week late thanks to my selecting the wrong date. As I was on a road trip with the family, I wasn’t planning on blogging during our trip, so I scheduled the post to go live ahead of time. I guess it’s ok I made the mistake as I slipped into vacation mode?

Somethin’ Honey – On our trip we stopped at a friend’s farm where they have beehives and process and sell honey. It was amazing to hear how it is done, and I learned that you can eat a honeycomb – honey and the wax comb. Who knew? Though it’s ok to spit out the wax instead. It is also said that eating local honey from near where you live can help in fending off seasonal allergies.

A Better Place Than Pie – Pineapple margaritas go great with fresh Atlantic Ocean raw oysters. This is a much better use of the fruit than the sacrilege of putting it on a pizza.

Brand Flashback – When grabbing a bottle of milk for coffee one morning on our trip and, though not yet functionally caffeinated, I made a double-take at the brand on the bottle – Sealtest. I haven’t seen this brand in years, as I have fond memories of Sealtest Maple Walnut ice cream half gallons (when they actually 64 ounces of the dairy treat) in my home freezer as a kid. It turns out the brand is now used in the US only for milk and is bottled in Asheville, North Carolina, and no longer used for ice cream.

Video Flashback – In talking with a colleague about Web promotional videos for products, I recalled this video I produced to promote its internal employee database mobile app for a former employer. Though I don’t look back at my time at that firm with much fondness, this was one of the highlights of my time there.

Gaming The Ads Too – Being in remote areas of the US along our vacation shed light that ads in mobile apps didn’t display when I had no service. Apparently the ads are downloaded over the Internet in real-time, and the lack of service in spots made playing the games a better experience. Putting your mobile device into Airplane Mode will give the same, positive results.

Degoogle Yourself From Maps – One day for some reason I brought up a friend’s address in Google Maps, and I noticed the street view of his house was all blurred out. I made a mental note to ask him about this but forgot to. Then I ran across this article about how to remove your house from the various online map services. If you don’t want your house or license plates on the cars in your driveway to be for all to see – well, at least for those looking to go to your house – then you may want to look into doing this.

New Great Name, Same Great Intent – Congrats to the organizers of the Wisconsin UX (for user experience) Meetup group for rebranding it as Intent + Craft. I love the new name, as it speaks to the thought and work going into a great user experience. I can’t wait for them to resume in-person gatherings, but catch as many of their virtual events as possible.

Do You Signal? – A friend was persuasive in getting me to try Signal, an encrypted alternative to open text messaging. If you know my mobile phone number, you can find me there – go ahead and send me a message!

Ciao Italia – Italian airline Alitalia announced it is shutting down in October. Though I have never flown Alitalia, the brand has been a source of Italian pride and was the airline Popes would fly on. It will be “replaced” by a new airline, ITA, who is buying many of Alitalia’s planes, gates and hiring much of its staff. My guess is they are buying a lot of white paint to cover over a few letters in Alitalia’s logo in the interim.

I Was Working But You Didn’t Know That – When I got back from my vacation this week, I said I was going to be back to work on Thursday. However I was actually “in” on Wednesday, as I took the day as an “incognito day” – I was working, had my out of office messages still active on my email and voicemail, and used the day to catch-up on 2 weeks of emails and activity without anyone bothering me. The only person who knew about this was my director, and I had his blessing. I will do this again, as it made my official return much more orderly and stress-free.

Honest Is The Best Hotel Policy – As I checked into the Hampton Inn in Louisville Kentucky late at night for an overnight stop on my road trip, I noticed this sign at the front desk. At first sight I was expecting something like the legendary Riot House back in the day, it was a nice hotel and perfect for our family to recharge before continuing our trek. But rock stars roaming the hallways would have made for an interesting first stop on the trip.

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

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So here I was, waiting for my test FEMA alert and all this time it was because I wasn’t opted-in to receive them? Luckily I wasn’t solely focused on this over the last few weeks.

Turn-off Voicemail Transcription, Mate – As I mentioned I have been setting up a new iPhone and I seem to keep finding more settings to change. One is voicemail transcriptions, which are useless to me. Though there is no switch to turn them off, if you change the language of your device to one that doesn’t support transcription – like Australian English – that will do the trick.

Here’s Apple Looking At You – News broke on how tech giant Apple is going to run algorithms on photos stored in its iCloud for potential child pornography and of course both outrage and indifference ensued. I have used similar technology in the process of evaluating parental control apps for my kiddos phone (more on that in a future post) and the technology has been mediocre to poor at best with all being false positives. Of course you don’t have to store your photos in iCloud, as using a Synology NAS or Nextcloud as more technical but viable options.

Identity Issues – New to me... do you remember, or maybe years later heard of, the Keep America Beautiful commercial from the 1970’s featuring an Native American who sheds a tear at the end in response to pollution? It turns out the main character of the commercial, Iron Eyes Cody, was actually an Italian American named Espera Oscar de Corti.

Active Avenue – The typically quiet downtown of my fair city was alive the long weekend of the 5th thru the 8th for Mile of Music, a free music festival held at various venues along the almost 5,280 feet of College Avenue, the city’s main strip and thus the name. It was great to see the activity – people, music, commerce – return after a year off.

Library Reimagined – Previously I mentioned I was chosen to be on my city’s Library Building Project Advisory Committee. As part of this, I got a sneak peek at the architect’s plans for it, and wasn’t supposed to say anything publicly at first. Now the preliminary plans for the library have been released and wider public opinion is flowing. Personally I think this is an amazing approach to reimagining the facility and purpose of the library, and can’t wait for the groundbreaking.

Revisiting the Big Book – A few years ago I looked into tools to help with documenting my life and my family... you know, in case something happens and someone wants to know where the key to something is kept, among other things. I then found The Big Book of Everything, but didn’t do anything with it. I am revisiting this and found there’s a new version. The tool is free but he accepts donations, which I will likely get to when I finish it.

Friendly Weed Killer – On a recent episode of the news analysis podcast No Agenda I listen to, there was a mention of a friendlier way to kill weeds using Dawn dishwashing liquid. I tried the mixture of it with Epson salts and vinegar and it worked very well. Now to find a similarly simplistic way to pick-up the dead weeds.

The New Local Way the Cookie Crumbls – I was recently made aware by my kiddo of Crumbl Cookies a chain of boutique cookie shops where they change the varieties on a weekly basis on their large, delicious product. In a roundabout way I found out they are opening near me as Crumbl is hiring for a general manager. Unfortunately said kiddo is not qualified for the job, but likely qualified to be a customer.

Serial Stealers – Oops, someone did it again, as when I went to rent a Redbox DVD (yes, I still work with physical media on occasion) the disc was not in the box, but someone had peeled off the label on it and stuck it to the case, as shown above. Now it’s not like they can’t track who last had the disc, but I digress. It happened to me onetime before, and after a lengthier-than-hoped call, I was taken off their Most Wanted List and got credit for the incident.

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

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Where definitions can vary, the word tyranny generally means the oppression of people by others, whether an individual, system or both. The oppressor is called a tyrant, and thus the relationship to the word. Tyranny was mentioned in the US Declaration of Independence twice in reference to the then King of England. In more modern times, Adolf Hitler has been aptly labeled a tyrant.

The book On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder, subtitled “Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century,” was recommended to me by a wise person. It digests the previous 100 years into things to consider and think about as we move through this current century. The book came out in 2017, and by tone and references, it talks to the politics of the US and world at that point in time, and one politician in particular.

As I read through On Tyranny, there were a lot of reminders for me, as well as a few takeaways.

Does history repeat itself? – I have heard this over and over and over throughout my life. Some have made catchy phrases around it, but the common theme centers around no matter what is done, outcomes to events are similar to those in the past. I pondered this one a lot as I was reading this book and once I was finished. I take away this – hindsight is 20/20, and when we’re in the midst of things we usually have no clue how something will be in the end. It is this end result that may seem like something that happened before, and could be, but the steps that lead to it likely weren’t exactly as previously acted out.

Be aware – The topics explored in On Tyranny were not completely new to me. As a self-described political geek from my school days in the 1980’s, I was the one who paid attention to the world around me, and well as around the corner. Today, I don’t believe these topics are taught in the schools (or taught well), and it’s up to parents to teach them to their kiddos, which I believe happens in my household to some success. If nothing else, we should all be aware of what’s happening, ask questions if we don’t understand it, don’t take everything for face value and make our own educated opinions.

Timing is everything – About half way through the book is the first mention of former US President Donald Trump. He is referred to again as both a candidate for the office and as the sitting president, however not by name. At the time there were accusations of foreign influence on his election and on him himself. Based on this, I assume Trump’s election may have been the primary or partial catalyst for the author writing this book?

Fast-forward 4 years, and there are similar accusations on current US President Joe Biden. Personally I think this book could have a greater reach if the Trump references were left out, allowing the reader to make their own conclusions based on their beliefs and educated opinions. As a non-partisan, I was able to see beyond politics and to the points made in the book.

On Tyranny is a small book that can fit in your hip pocket and a quick read at 128 pages. I enjoyed the book – again much of it was nothing new to me personally, but there was a lot I was glad to recall and a lot I agreed with. I recommend anyone to read this, from middle-schoolers on up, if for any reason to spark questions and conversations on the world today. My copy of the book is off to a colleague who was curious about it, who said he will read it in the morning one day.

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

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Observations... older, Budweiser.

The World According to Him – The other week comedian Jackie Mason left this mortal coil at age 93. I was first aware of the Sheboygan, Wisconsin native from his comedy album based on his Broadway show, The World According to Him. He went on to star in movies and his career got a boost from that time. Years later I was walking along Michigan Avenue in Chicago when Mason was walking towards me. I stared at him, and he stared back at me. I should have thanked him for the laughs.

All History Is Local – As someone who grew up in New England and often would say you can spit from one historic site to the next, I naturally became interested in local history, not just there but wherever I have lived. Serendipitously my wife and I came across the Appleton Historical Society. I had seen the unique building but had no idea what was in it. There’s a plethora of pictures, memorabilia – even a recreation of a old hat shop – all chronicling the history of this city which, interestingly, was named after a New Englander.

Take Your Shot – Benshot is a unique business that makes glassware with things stuck in them. They got their start by putting bullet shells into glasses and can insert just about anything… including a referee whistle. The coaches and officials gifts for this year’s Bird Bath Invitational swim meet were custom designed, etched and had a whistle embedded into it. An added touch to these glasses is that Benshot is located a few miles from where the meet was held.

Stop Drinking Coffee and It Could Happen Anyway – In the on-going study battle if coffee is good for you or not, the latest is on the bad side that high coffee drinking could cause dementia. I’ll be holding out for the next study, providing I remember to.

Anchors Away – Anchors are hyperlinks within a Web page that used to easily navigate you up or down the content on the page. Here’s a good HTML anchor tutorial if 1) you didn’t know what the heck I was talking about and 2) want to know how to create them yourself.

That’s Haaahgan To You – I finally got around to watching the independent comedy Captain Hagen’s Bed and Breakfast. It had been on my watchlist as my good friend and member of my one-time improv group Andrew Cornelius was one of the stars. It’s a cute comedy and I highly recommend it!

Less Beer to Cry Over – A friend in the Boston area shared with me the Boston Beer Works chain of brewpubs has permanently closed their doors. Beer Works opened across from Fenway Park shortly after I moved to the Boston area and was a year-round stop destination for me. Among other memories it was where this radio spot I was in was recorded. On stops back to the Hub I would always make a stop and have a blueberry ale when I went to stock up on Red Sox gear. It will be missed and hopefully someone can bring this tradition back to life.

I Got It The First Time Apple – I am manually setting up a new iPhone as this is how I roll with any technology. One thing I discovered was whenever I got a text and did not unlock my device to view it (I usually read the notifications on the Lock Screen) I was getting a second audio notification. Fortunately you can extend or turn off a second notification on iPhones.

Say No to Business Algos – Lately on LinkedIn I realized I was seeing the same posts in my timeline over and over. I then noticed this little drop-down selector, highlighted below, where you can select Top or Recent posts in your timeline feed.

I quickly changed this to recent and I then saw all new content. On subsequent visits to the networking site, I had to keep resetting it to recent. Look for this option to bypass the Microsoft algorithms and see what is truly new with your business network.

Scribble to Quality – I learned that scribble is the term for the first matter that comes out of a 3D printer. I also learned 3D Scribble is an amazing business that makes high-quality 3D printed items and is owned by my good friend and serial entrepreneur Steven Benjamin. The business also has a wicked cool logo to go along with the cool things they make and how they make them.

Flying for Eyes – This past weekend I went to EAA AirVenture a global gathering of aviation enthusiasts that happens to be about 20 minutes from me in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Over 600,000 people attended this year, plus over 7,000 flights in and out of the airport, making it the busiest airport in the world for the week. Among the experimental and vintage aircraft was the above-pictured MD-80 converted to a flying eye hospital for Orbis a global non-profit which brings eye surgery skills and equipment to people in need. The plane is literally a flying classroom and surgical hospital. I was impressed by the work this organization brings to people around the world, and have added them to my support circle.

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

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