A lot of what I am recalling here from my week is technology related. This isn’t a surprise, as that’s what I do most of my days. I guess it’s better than if I worked in politics?

Back To The Future – A friend and loyal reader here forwarded me this article from a few years ago on the founder of the Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee talking about the Web going back to its roots. I remember the article from then, and it was a good reminder of the “good ol’ days” as myself and many others were getting on the Internet for the first time.

Can We qTox? – I have been seeing a lot in recent weeks about online privacy and controlling your own destiny online. One such endeavor is qTox, an online chat and video tool that is built around privacy. People connect with each other using a long, cryptic key. I don’t know a whole lot of people using it, but it’s another alternative tool to keep around. If anyone reading this uses qTox, let me know!

Lower (Case) Expectations – This past week General Motors came out with a new logo. It’s a take on its iconic logo, but the letters are lower case, and only the “M” is underlined. Apparently the change is to reinforce their move to building more electric vehicles. Clearly they didn’t learn from AT&T doing the same thing with lowercase letters years ago. At least the sign makers will benefit from this.

Taxation Without Dealerships – There are no car dealerships in Washington, D.C. This is nothing new, but it came up in a conversation with a friend who is a car dealer. Rumor has it cars are for sale in neighboring states.

Domaining In The Dark – My favorite domain name registrar Name.com came out with a “dark mode” for their well-designed and easy-to-use Web site. They wrote about the change and how they went about developing it, which was an interesting read. I turned on dark mode then turned it off – it’s just not my thing.

TikTighten – The video social media service TikTok announced it was tightening privacy features for younger users. That’s nice, but I still won’t let my kiddos use it.

Learning Tech – If you’re like me, you are going to be learning and working with cloud technology this year. That’s why this article on managing DevOps was a great read for me. But if you’re not like me, you may want to pass on it.

Using Tech – For as long as the Americans With Disabilities Act has been around, it fascinates me how there is still not complete adoption of it, and the ambiguity with regards to how it applies to technology just causes for all kinds of problems. The law firm Seyfarth laid out its predictions on all Accessibility for the coming year. There are also good tips for anyone who has a business or works in tech to consider for the coming year.

Back to School Shopping in January? – As my kiddos will finally be going back into a school building for their education for the first time in 10 months, of course they were asking to go school shopping. This reminded me of a classic commercial from Staples on one parent’s joy for their kids going back to class. Where I am ecstatic they are going back, it has more to do with at-home remote education simply not working.

Speaking of That At-Home Thing – John Stossol’s latest video report is on actions by school districts and teachers union to keep kids at home. Where I completely respect people who want to keep their kids home, I have met teachers who have kids and who want themselves and their kids back in the classroom, and I am with them. And so is the science on the low spread of COVID-19 in schools that are open.

End of a Safe For Kids Era – The other day I saw a missing spot on the saved channels in my car radio, and after checking I found that Radio Disney was no longer listed with other SiriusXM channels. That’s due to the fact that the kid-friendly pop music channel has left satellite radio, and Radio Disney in the process of shutting down altogether. I was sad to hear this as the contemporary pop songs carefully edited for kid consumption was a very good thing, even though I am sure my kiddos know the full versions. It also made for great swim meet warm-up music. I’m hoping someone will fill the gap that Disney covered for years.

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

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