While watching my kiddos grades rising now that they are back in the physical classrooms in contrast with the falling temperatures outside, I guess there’s worst trade-offs out there.

Herb Will Be Your Valentine – Former Wisconsin US Senator and current billionaire Herb Kohl once again fully funded several hundred DonorsChoose campaigns for Dairyland teachers this past Valentine’s Day. DonorsChoose is a platform where school teachers can raise money for supplies or equipment for their classrooms. This is the fourth time the heir to the department store chain has done this. Note to Wisco teachers, mark your calendar for next February.

Taxing The Ignored – Maryland became the first US state to tax online advertising after the state’s legislature overrode the governor’s veto of the bill. Where many people ignore banner ads and general ad links, it is the lucrative business that made Google and Facebook the giants they are. It will be interesting to see how many other states follow suit, as well as how Maryland businesses find ways around the tax.

Lesser is Morer – When you try to cut grains out of your diet, it’s a challenge when you want a “treat” and Doritos is out of the question. This is why I was happy I found the Lesser Evil snacks brand this past week. Based in Connecticut, the company makes snack foods with basic ingredients. What has become a new favorite in the house for me – and others as well – are their “No Cheese” Cheesiness Paleo Puffs. Though they have a different consistency of a standard cheese puff, they also don’t have the dayglow orange tint to them, not to mention being tasty.

This Cookie Option, Not So Much – Cookies have been used in Web browsers to “remember” information for almost as long as there have been Web browsers. They have evolved (devolved?) to being the means for companies tracking you as you traverse across various Web sites. Many Web browsers and tools can optionally block cookies, and now the major browsers are looking to eliminate them altogether. Google, who as previously stated is in business to make a lot of money, is coming up with alternatives to cookies. Where the intent of cookies wasn’t originally to track your every move, I am also suspect of any attempt by Google to control their replacement.

A Different Take on No Comment – Comments on blogs, articles and social media were designed to engage readers in a conversation. Just as cookies had a noble beginning and devolved, the same can be said for comments. An alumni of the University of Wisconsin is suing her alma mater for hiding comments on social media critical of animal testing at the school. This may lead to organizations simply not posting on social media or people getting off the platforms altogether. With the state of how these social media sites are today, this may not necessarily be a bad thing.

Be Billions – I have started binge-watching the Showtime series Billions with Paul Giamatti. Where I am not really into finance or law, there’s something about the characters in this story that has really drawn me into it.

Modeling the Creative – This week I caught up on a webinar I missed live on Learning Loops. It is a “mental model” for keeping the creative juices flowing when innovating products. It’s an energetic presentation and one I encourage you to watch even if you don’t have a product challenge right now.

Riddle Me Tech – As I am studying for the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certification, which would prove I have a good high-level understanding of the tech giant’s cloud services, my friend Raj recommended IT Exams to review practice questions. Where this link is to the actual Microsoft exam questions, you can browse the site for all sorts of practice questions for, as they say, the very low price of free.

A Sunnier Outlook – When the thermometer goes up nearly 30 degrees over a few days, yet is still below freezing, you think a lot of why you are where you are. As dwelling on this wasn’t going to do me any good, I would often minimize all of my open apps and stare at the wallpaper on my computer. I took this photo last December when my family went to Florida, and this is the sunrise over Cocoa Beach. My daydreams of warmer, sunnier days may be coming soon, as the forecast for next week will have temperatures above freezing, though by only a few degrees.

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

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With all of the people I know that are moving to Florida, it makes me wonder - how many people can fit in the Sunshine State? As I ponder this, I look out the window to the thermometer pinning below zero.

Pre-preview Value – On a trip to an actual movie theatre I learned something from whatever they call the “pre-roll” videos before the movie trailers begin. Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Psycho was the first movie to have a flushing toilet in it. Why? Because showing a commode in a film in 1960 was considered filthy.

What’s In a Name? – A forthcoming movie is Land starring Robin Wright. I saw the preview for Land and I am planning to see it. There’s something about the name of the character she plays... I just can’t put my finger on it.

Only the Shadow Knew, Now We All Do – Presented without comment is this article from Time about a “secret” election campaign in 2020 If you know me, you can likely guess what my comment would be.

A New Spin on Front Office – I have to hand it to the local minor league baseball team, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, as they have come up with creative ways to make money when games couldn’t be played. The latest is where you can rent a work suite at the ballpark which is a reconfigured suite where you would typically watch a game. Where this is not something you would likely do every day, it offers a better view than you likely have from your current bedroom workspace.

Daily Scrum Podcast – I recently started listening to the Scrum Master Toolbox podcast. It’s a daily, 15-minute show that covers various aspects of Scrum. As most of the other podcasts I listen to are much longer and seem to be getting longer, it’s nice to have a short but thought-provoking episode every day.

Hungry? – Did I mention my kiddo is selling Girl Scout cookies?

Streaming Ideas – Last weekend I volunteered for the first time to run the streaming of my church’s Saturday mass. The software they use is the open-source OBS software and I was told this is what most organizations are using to stream events. I’ve downloaded a copy of the software locally, and am hoping to brush-up on this. If my hopes are fulfilled and there are outdoor swim meets this summer, this would be a great way to let people see their kiddos in the water.

Backfilling Knowledge – The online training site Pluralsight had a free weekend and after much searching I decided to take Learning ExpressionEngine even though the course was 7 years old and for 4 versions back on the blog software I use. Why? All I know about EE is self-taught, and I learned features I wasn’t aware of. Now that I know all that I should, I can build on that as I learn about the latest version.

A Silver Bullet for Several Sources – New to me this week was CORS which stands for Cross-Origin Resource Sharing. It is, and I am paraphrasing here, a way to indicate your Web page is getting content from other Web servers. Where I am not coding as much as I used to, I continue to keep close to how things work – for me, it’s not just what, but how.

SIM Swapping Shysters – Just when you thought you were randomly dropping a mobile phone signal, it could be an indication someone is stealing your identity! This article from Hacker News talks about how people were caught “SIM swapping” and the accompanying video details how SIM swapping works. This was eye opening to me, and maybe I just need to turn my device off more and keep it in a drawer.

Homage to a Hustler – This week Larry Flynt died. If you didn’t know who he was, or even if you did (or think you did), I recommend reading this article on Larry Flynt by Dr. Vincent Filak.

Light sight – This time of year, the outdoor solar lights around our house don’t always illuminate consistently. It has something to do about how actual sunlight is needed to recharge a battery with a solar cell or something like that. As I was racing out the door to the car the other night, this one pictured caught my eye.

“Rumors fly when information isn't out...”

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

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In the same week Dunkirk Dave didn’t see his shadow thus forecasting an early spring, my area got clobbered with a huge snowstorm coupled with high winds, coupled with poor road plowing. If you don’t know Dave, he’s the “other” groundhog. Said other groundhog predicted a longer winter, so I am going with the rodent from my hometown.

Improved is Subjective – What you see in this post is compiled with a lot of copying and pasting of links from my Microsoft Edge browser. Last week I noticed links were labeled with the title of the Web page and not the actual URL text, and I had no idea why. It turns out this is a new “feature.” Scrolling down this article fortunately showed me how to disable it.

Or Maybe Just Surf – Perhaps my browser expectations are too high, and I should just use the Edge browser to do a different type of surfing offline as my friend Craig does?

Can’t Widget Your Way Out – You may have seen a floating icon over the edge of some Web sites, and by clicking you get “help” in the form of accessibility tools. I have been suspect of these, as with all of my research and hands-on experience, there is no magic bullet for Web accessibility. This report from the Seyfarth law firm confirms that fact.

What to Do? Tell Me a Story – User story mapping is a term that applies to an agile approach of defining what you are going to do (e.g. build software, design a service) instead of writing detailed specifications that nobody reads. This is a good article on user story mapping from a design point-of-view.

Zoom Like a Pro – If you think the only prep you need before going live on camera is to make sure you are wearing something, then you may not want to read this post from my friend Roland on how CEOs and other experts approach streaming. Not surprising, there’s a lot more going on you don’t see in that little box on the screen.

There Once Was a Sidewalk from Nantucket – Appleton, Wisconsin is soliciting poetry to be set in concrete in sidewalks. I showed an example of this sidewalk square prose last summer in one of my What I Learned posts. Where I am not “there” in writing poetry, I’m equally as interested in seeing what is laid in concrete as seeing crumbing sidewalks repaired.

It’s Spongebob, For You – The Nickelodeon kids TV empire now has a birthday club where you can have one of their show characters call you. As my kiddo who has an upcoming birthday doesn’t read my blog, I’m not worried she sees what I may do for it. I’m also thinking of doing this for some not-so-kiddo friends.

Fluffy Unicorns for Adults Only – Last weekend I had the pleasure of imbibing a Fluffy Unicorn... IPA, that is, at the Stillmank Brewery in Green Bay, Wisconsin while attending a meetup there of listeners of the No Agenda Show Podcast. It was a delicious brew, but I decided not to get stickers of the beer label for my kiddo who loooves unicorns. Perhaps a call from the school in the morning asking why there is a such a sticker on the Chromebook may have led to this decision.

Unlocking the Nextcloud – I often say I need to write more about Nextcloud, the private cloud software I use to manage photos, calendars, contacts and more. Though I am not going to do it now, I do want to share this link to fix if you get an error when deleting files on how to clear Nextcloud file locks.

Christmas (cards) by the numbers – This past week I took down Christmas cards (don’t worry, the decorations came down weeks ago!) and as I went through them, I counted a 50/50 split between traditional cards – ones where you actually write on them – and photo cards – ones where you build and print online or at a store. With recent trends towards the latter, I was surprised at the actual mix.

18 (bottles of?) Books On The Wall – When listening to a Scrum podcast listing recommended books to help ScrumMasters like myself, I looked up and saw all the unread books on my bookshelf. Counting them, I have accumulated 18 books I have yet to read. As I still want to read them, I decided to scratch the list and read what I have. Look for more book takeaways when I find the time to do so.

What I Know – My friend Gary shared this post on LinkedIn from organization psychologist Adam Grant with an interesting chart on what we know, and the humility of admitting what we don’t I know at least in the US admitting you don’t know something is a sign of weakness in some organizations, where the reality is others may not know the answer either.

Burnt Cookies – I’ve been using the DuckDuckGo Web browser as the primary one on my iPhone for the last few weeks and have enjoyed its user experience. Built in is the simplicity of clearing your personal data by clicking a “flame” logo, literally seeing flames burning your cookies and other private information as shown in the accompany image. You can alternately choose a whirlpool or airstream animation. The browser also supports Android devices but not Windows or MacOS. If you’re conscious of being tracked as I am, this is an elegant way of thwarting it.

“We shape our tools, thereafter our tools shape us.” – Marshall McLuhan

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

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A dear friend once suggested I write a book consisting of blog posts I have written here at The Hot Iron. My response to her, through a dismissively scrunched face, was “who would want to read past things I wrote?” After reading Things That Matter by Charles Krauthammer, I am rethinking that knee-jerk reaction.

Krauthammer was an award-winning columnist, following years as a policy advisor following years as a doctor. When I saw him occasionally as an analyst on various cable news talk shows I had no idea of any of this. As I enjoyed his commentary on TV, I presumed I would enjoy this book, not to mention taking away a few things from it. In this case my reaction was spot-on.

A good look back on history thru a unique lens – In addition to his journey from medicine to writing, Krauthammer was an American who lived in Canada in his youth. His writing style was smart yet educating with a wry sense of humor, and it was clear to anyone reading it of his conservative stance. Even if you didn’t agree with him, he wrote in a way that you would still want to hear what he had to say. This combination of background and style made for the unique pieces curated in this book.

Peace in The Devil's Dictionary – In one article Krauthammer referred the definition of “peace” in The Devil’s Dictionary. I had never heard of the Devil’s Dictionary and wasn’t aware of this satirical book of definitions for common terms. In this case, peace is defined as, “in international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting.”

More writers should do this – Clearly this book has got me thinking of re-evaluating doing this myself, despite the antithesis of my notoriety as compared to Charles Krauthammer. As well there are many columnists out there who should also do this... and I am looking at you Heidi Stevens!

Things That Matter is not solely a political book, as it talks of life, culture, sports, chess and, yes, politics covering several decades of his columns. I enjoyed his thoughtful writing that presented a perspective of a time when I was much younger and didn’t fully know all going on in the world.

If you are interested in a historical look at world events from the time they occurred I highly recommend Things That Matter. I was given this book several years ago before Krauthammer died and I finally got to reading it now. I passed this book along to my wife who also enjoyed him on TV and my guess is she’ll enjoy his writings as well. Perhaps you can get the book from her when she is done with it, or click any link here to buy a copy of your own – if you do I will earn a few pennies from your purchase.

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

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First some housekeeping, as I added some emphasis to the blog this week. First I highlighted the opportunity for you to buy me a cup of coffee if you like what you are reading. I also added the heading “Value for Value” to it, in hopes that will resonate with some people. I also added “disclaimer” text that some links I have to products or services I could earn money from is you click and buy. The US Federal Trade Commission has been all over bloggers on this for years. Oh, and I also removed links to my social media channels that I barely use anymore.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

I Didn’t Call You Old, Honest – I often talk about good and bad Web and digital design. Many of the concepts that go (or should go) into design come from the offline world. Here’s a great video from Don Norman, a design guru who is elderly himself, on designing for the elderly. Spoiler – design for the elderly benefits those much younger too!

Did I mention my kiddo is selling Girl Scouts Cookies?

Does Resume Size Matter? – I saw this post on LinkedIn from someone I don’t know about their 1-page resume and it made me think about my own 1-page resume. Many people have told me it’s too short, and how could someone amazing as me fit on one page. Easily!

Killer Phones – Apparently the magnets in the new Apple iPhone 12 can impact pacemakers. I mentioned this to a few people, and they didn’t know a mobile device has magnets in it. So be careful putting it in your front shirt pocket, or anywhere near your body in general.

Now I Git It – Git is a distributed computer code repository, and one I haven’t used. So I was interested in reading this Git overview by Skyline Technologies on it. My biggest takeaway is in how it differs from traditional code version control.

More to PDFs than You Thought – This week I took an online course offered by Siteimprove Academy on Accessibility for PDFs. It was eye-opening for me as I have worked with accessibility on Web pages and apps, but was unaware what goes into PDFs. I could write a lot on this, but here’s a quick tip for you – start with a tagged Word document, then save or export to PDF rather than printing it to a PDF.

Revue Who? – I got an email this week that Revue was acquired by Twitter as apparently I had an account with them. Who? Well I was able to recover my password and delete my account, and still didn’t get the gist of who they were in the process of doing so.

All Good Things... – For about the last year I have been working at a co-working space in town called World HeadQuarters. I joined back in February just in time to close in March when everything else was shut down. After things started re-opening it relocated from its unique space – a former outdoors goods store – to another unique space – a former mobile showroom. Before Christmas I got word they were closing their location in town (they have another about a half hour away) and this weekend is the final time I will be able to key in. I wish the owner Brenda, her family and team the best of luck and good fortune.

It was an interesting ride; I got to know some good people and even got some work there. One unique aspect they added to the location was this custom-built front desk, pictured above. It’s made from reclaimed wood pallets. The ops manager built it, and I helped him secure some of the pallets that went into it. As cool as it looks, it was also fun watching it being built.

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

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