Have you ever thought

Hey kids, have you ever thought that the people who seldom post on Fakebook are out having fun in real life?

That thought just flashed across a few of my brain cells.

While in blogland I assume that a blogger who has not posted in awhile probably just got busy in real life. Or maybe went to the darkside of Fakebook. Fakebook is very different, even dangerous at times. Not that I have a good handle on either FB or blogs. The last good handle I handled was that long part of my hammer.

Since (I’ve read this somewhere) most FB users access FB on their smartphones maybe a period without FB activity just indicates a dead battery. I only access FB from my laptop which I’m using enough as it is. My blog posting is not mobile. Really my online life is not very mobile and that’s the way I prefer it to be. I prefer blogs post because they take more time and thought to post.

who needs a silly smartphone

Imagine me, the-one-who-resisted-the-trend giving advice on smartphone usage. I made a living on technology. My engineering career focused on telecommunications and software.

About apps (yes apps not abs) - We had an interesting rush hour adventure with Google maps yesterday. The too often non express expressways around Chicago can really blow a trip to a live performance. Let’s move it along here we have tickets to a show.

The genius of Google maps told us it was better to exit the expressway, travel some side streets (with exciting traffic lights, left turns and plenty of traffic) then get back on the expressway. We tried it one time on yesterday’s trip. I’m sure it wasted even more time. Then a few miles down the road it suggested taking an exit again.

“What should we do?”, she asked.
“Turn off Google maps!”, I replied.

My advice - don’t put FB on your smartphone, don’t leave the location setting on all the time, don’t get dependent on GPS mapping service, learn how to use maps and finally use sunscreen and blog on.

my advice - try BOTH

 Joke alert
(don’t worry it’s not political)

Late one day, my friend gets pulled over for speeding. This tired looking state trooper comes up to the window. As he hands back the license he says, “My shift ends in a few minutes so if you can give me a reason for speeding that I have not heard, I’ll just give you a warning.”

My friend thinks for awhile and tells the officer, “My ex-wife left me and married a state trooper. I saw your flashing lights and thought it was him bringing her back.” No ticket for my smart thinking friend.

do we need a fragment app

Not really, Friday Fragment posts can be just off-the-top-of-your-head stuff. If you have a dry idea don’t sweat it, just write it. No odor either. Click over to A Star In My Own Universe blog to find more FF postings.

Now this smartphone life is still new to me, so excuse me for still mentioning it. Of course, you may have missed my posts about flipping my old flip phone for a smartphone (interested? here’s the link).

now I'm snapping pics where I don't need to

Hey do you (those of you who are old enough to know ABBA) think this “voice message” on a text has gone full circle? I now have the technology to attach a voice message to a text. Why not just call and leave a voicemail instead?

Oh the texting I've missed. Today I was caught in the reply-all trap. Those handy (?) group texts most often default to reply-all replies. I replied with a few questions that really should have gone to just one person. A good rule for me is to check for questions. If my reply has them most likely it should be directed to just one person.

How many times have you needed to delete a post on FB left by a "friend" on your wall (do we still call it a wall?) ? If not very often, then you should friend my brother, you’ll see.

Oh BTW, I refuse to load FB on my smartphone. All my FB’ing is done via laptop or my wife tells what posts she has seen.

I do believe the one useful, must-have app is a navigation tool. I used Google maps and it worked great.

On a recent trip coming home, when we had about 4 hours to go. She-with-the-decisions decide to fit in a trip to her mom’s place. Google maps with the traffic loaded made it easier to pull off (not pull off the road but pull off the change in plans).

good colors for robot envy

Periodic table vs. Your kitchen table.

Everything you eat at the kitchen table is created (grown or made) from elements from the periodic table. Mostly hydrogen, carbon and oxygen. However the periodic table lacks any element called fat or sugar. Weight gain must not be very elementary. Hey I'm not chemist but I enjoyed a good mixer once.

oh the apps

Oh my aching app.

just switches NO apps

Go ahead tell me, I’m just having a nostalgic moment. I’ve found nostalgia builds with age. I also find solutions are often created for problems that don't really exist.

Here at the Lisleman Institute for Better Posting we have been alerted to recent developments in the gadget filled world surrounding many of us.  Most  gadgets are useful or at least entertaining (others not so much - see “lets discount this”) but I don’t agree with producing gadgets for just the sake of adding another gadget to our world. Tell me what you think of these latest developments:

• Baby pacifier gadget/app - Assuming pacifiers are still only for babies (I’ve heard youth is being prolonged more and more so who knows?) this product just doesn’t make any sense. Bluetooth enabled and equipped with a temperature sensor, it will report the baby’s temperature on your smartphone. That’s nice but I would rather use one of the newer non-contact thermometers which are less expensive and probably more accurate. Another feature listed is being able to find a lost pacifier. Well ok sure, but for the price of this one pacifier I could have bought a dozen or more spare pacifiers. (did you know there are some comical pacifiers available now? - mustache, Billy Bob teeth)
• Digital tickets replacing real paper tickets - Professional teams around the country are switching to digital tickets and apps. Big deal or so what you might say. I don’t attend many big games so after watching a big game at the stadium I like to keep the ticket as a souvenir. A code in your smartphone app does NOT make for much of a souvenir. Perhaps this is a reason for more selfies being taken.
• Online Girl Scout cookie sales - Will this bring an end to the buy-my-kid’s-cookies campaigns at work? I guess we now have a new excuse for the kid at the door. Sorry, we buy ours online. Now I didn’t see anything about wireless connectivity regarding these cookies. I could use a bluetooth enabled cookie jar.

picture taken from bluemaestro.com site

I've looked at smartphones from both sides now,
from up and down, and still somehow
it's smartphone illusions I recall,
I really don't know smartphones at all

(bottom note about wording - I started coding way back in the 80’s. I used and wrote applications on a Unix system. Today it seems the term app has been “refreshed” to only refer to smartphones programs. The background history of computing and programming is still very recent. Seriously do we need a new verb for software program development?   appification??   Go stick your appification up your cloud.)