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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