Watching this gem by Marques Brownlee brought out some great tech memories. Retro-Tech: Cell Phones and Pagers. I never owned one of the first gen cellphones, but did have a pager. I never knew there were “codes”, working something emojis. Such were the times.
Category: Information Technology
I have an Associate in Technical Arts in Web Application Development degree, as well as certificates in:
- Business Systems Analysis
- Requirements Analysis
- Database Theory and Design
- Cisco Networking
- And I’m one class away from a Desktop Support Certificate
I have a deep knowledge of technical systems and have solved a variety of problems.
Um, Amazon, You Want Me To Rate My Transaction?
Got this email from Amazon a few minutes ago. Methinks it’s missing a few tiny bits of information.
FYI, clicking on the Amazon logo does nothing. No link, no information about which order this might be…nada.
So, I guess I get to delete this message and move on the next one. Only 101 to go!
Weird Things That Come Up In Searches
I was on one of my favorite tech websites looking for internal hard-drives. I never expected to come up with this result.
Is The Smartwatch A Mobile Phone Killer?
Yet Another Phishing Scheme
Got this gem in my inbox this afternoon:
Did a quick Google and found a bunch of references to this as a phishing scheme. The poor grammar and funky URL tipped me off.
Always be diligent, my friends.
Evernote Has Me Deeply Concerned
I’m a heavy user of Evernote. I love the product, as much as I love anything. It does a pretty great job with my notetaking needs. There are some recurring bugs that annoy the hell out of me, but that’s true with pretty much all software.
Then there’s the business. Evernote looks to be in significant trouble. I know so many people who were really annoyed at Evernote’s rebranding initiative. Especially since it appeared that that work came at the expense of feature upgrades.
However, even bigger: their CTO, CFO, CPO and Head of HR all have stepped down. That sends a powerful message. Even it’s a random string of happenstance, it’s hard to accept that. The video below summed the situation, and my concerns, up as of a few days ago.
Now, today, Boing Boing writes that Evernote announced layoffs. The compound effect of all this gives me deep concern. I’ve started exploring the other alternatives. Steve Dotto had talked about Notion, which I’ve started messing with. There’s a bunch of things I like about it, but have only started that exploration.
I’m not ready to fully abandon them yet. However, I also have no interest in getting caught off-guard by the failing of a product I depend on. I’ve been bit by this before.
My son’s blasted phone
Hey there, my tech-savvy friends, my son has an original Pixel, which he loves. However, it’s picked up an annoying glitch. When anyone calls it, the answering screen doesn’t come up. It’s physically impossible to answer it; nothing there at all. Oddly, the phone rings and vibrates, just nothing else.
Here are some key details:
- Do Not Disturb isn’t on.
- The phone settings screen is greyed out (I think this is significant, but not able to drill down any further).
- He can answer calls with a bluetooth headset (tapping “answer” there).
- I’ll check and see if Google assistant will answer the calls. Hadn’t thought of that.
- Recently his phone updated to Android 9/Pie (did he get Pie in the face?)
Searching Google and Bing I’ve found many folks looking for solutions to this, going back a couple of years. Otherwise, that has been remarkably fruitless. Though I found a forum where the problem was stated to be a broken codec on the motherboard, and you’ll need a new one. Amusing by not helpful.
So, anyone have any ideas? My current best guess is that this some kind of bug or conflict related to the update. Haven’t seen anything formal from the Google, so it makes me wonder if it’s on their radar.
I’m eager for advice and counsel, oh my techie friends!
A Day In Front Of My Computer
Zany days. A 2 hour meeting in the morning disrupted everything. Not too uncommon, but it can be discomforting. Today, though, it was good. My team gave me a ton of space, so I was able to tunnel in and make AutoCAD sing. Well, to the best of my ability, at least. I’ve grown massively with my CAD skills, but I see a huge amount of growth out there.
Hours passed quite quickly, I was focused and in my zone. I love that feeling and really relish those moments I get to dive in like that. No distraction…focus! That is my happiest place!
With that, music really helps me deeply dive into focus. I pulled together a decent playlist on Google music based on Ghost in the Shell and Attack On Titan soundtrack elements, Then, this evening, I stumbled upon Maddy Meyers. This album below is exactly what I would’ve loved to queued up. So, it’ll just need to be tomorrow’s. For I expect focus will be important then, too.
I Received A Phishing Phone Call Today: Beware, My Friends
This afternoon my office received a phone call from “800”. I had just finished one project and was reviewing my notes when this popped up. In a good place to deal with random distraction, I opted to grab the call. As the tech-savviest of my office mates, I’m glad I got this one.
Female Robot Voice: “Your Windows license has expired and your account has been compromised…” at which point, I hung up. Now, a malicious part of me thought I should’ve played this up and trolled the phisher, but, no. I do have a ton of real work to do. Stuff that brings money into the company. But I really did want to disturb these creeps.
It’s not the first of these phishing phone calls I’ve received, just the first one like this one. Different verbiage, different delivery mechanism, but, in the end, the same deal.
So, no, this isn’t legit. No, Microsoft isn’t monitoring YOUR computer. Oh, and Windows licenses don’t “expire”. Last but not least, whether it’s a phone call or a pop-up on your browser, your machine probably isn’t compromised. Exception: if the antivirus software YOU installed is telling you this, it might be legit. In that case, along with anything repeatedly popping up on your computer, consult an expert.
Some thinking about iOS and Android
I’m getting caught up in a few things. Just watched the June Apple WWDC. I find a lot of what’s coming exciting and fascinating. The Apple Watch and Apple tv, the new Macs…blah blah blah. That’s not where my mind is, though.
Earlier today we received Samsung Gear 360. My son really wants to get into 360 video and start diving into VR. Well, this presented a challenge. His phone is a Google Pixel. He loves the phone. However, the app isn’t compatible with the Pixel. This product has been on shelves for several years in Android, and Samsung hasn’t built this out for other Android platforms. But yes to Apple? That seems daft. And is definitely frustrating.
This brings out the things that keep pulling me back towards iPhones. I hate paying the Apple tax. However, there are far more things like cases, apps, and interactive tools…like Samsung’s Gear 360 app. But there are so many tools that are only available on iOS. Some apps have far greater feature sets in their iOS versions than in their Android ones.
I understand the challenges that Android’s distributed model face. If iOS has an update, it’s available for every device immediately. Android can take years to port their updates out through their vender partners. Frustration.
So, there’s a solid draw back to iPhone to me. I have some time before I need to make a decision. We’ll see, we’ll see…