Aside from Indians season being over and the Browns season continuing, it’s been a beautiful fall week in Cleveland. We’ve been busy here at the office and running a little short staffed due to two new additions on the Ashton team; congrats to Steve (#1) and Justin (#3) as well as their growing families. It’s been another one of those quiet weeks in terms of interesting technology news, but I do have a few items for you including electric vehicles (which truck do you prefer), LinkedIn, Tetris, and of course, ransomware. Enjoy.
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Supply Chains
Back in the early days of Covid (hard to believe it’s been almost five years), we had a heckuva time getting hardware; laptops, webcams, headsets, monitors… all the stuff people needed to properly work from home. Some of that was due to manufacturing delays and some due to demand, but now the technology world might be hit by more delays due to recent hurricanes in Florida and North Carolina.
LinkedIn Lunatics
I’ve noticed that LinkedIn has moved towards being the Facebook of professionals, and that posts have moved away from knowledge and networking. Until this morning, however, I wasn’t aware of LinkedIn Lunatics (maybe because I don’t use Reddit). According to the article, there are 600K members of that group who like to discuss (in their minds) the worst of the worst LinkedIn posts.
Spam Filters
I know that many of your email systems view me as spam, and that some small portion of you probably agree. But for those who don’t, and who would prefer to keep getting my weekly updates in your inbox, rather than having to search through your junk/spam folders, now you can! Somebody was kind enough to put together a list of most modern email providers and how to add certain senders to whitelists, making sure that you get the emails you want and blocks those you don’t.
Cybertrucks
The Tesla Cybertruck has to be the silliest looking vehicle on the road, but now the EU is questioning whether it’s too dangerous for their roads. Based on the ridiculous treatment that Elon Musk has been getting over there of late, it makes one wonder whether a Bill Gates version would be perfectly acceptable…
Ransomware
It must feel pretty bad when you’ve been hit by ransomware and have absolutely “no prospect for recovery”. That’s where Casio (remember those cool calculator watches from the early 1980s?) stands right now, after being hit by ransomware on October 5th. At this point, they hope to be back in good working order by the end of November. Wow.
Halloween
Halloween is next Thursday, so if you don’t have your candy, you’d better get on it! In honor of the day; a list of the best towns and cities in which to celebrate. And if you head to NYC (#5 on the list), you can travel to New Jersey to check out the Beetlejuice house.
Reader Submissions
This is usually where “Nancy’s Nuggets” go, but since both she and Travis sent me items this week, I had to change the heading. If you’re a fan of the video game Tetris, you now have a new goal to which to aspire; beating the system. Some kid (who clearly doesn’t have ADHD) spent 80 minutes playing the game and beating the system.
For you old school 4×4 fans, Travis forwarded me news that Volkswagen is bringing back the Scout (International Harvester), this time in fully electric models. Any thoughts from the crowd on these new vehicles?
Last Minute Additions
I was just about to hit the “send” button on this week’s edition, when two more interesting pieces appeared in my inbox. One about Work From Gym (as opposed to Work From Home), and the second about a woman who is suing an AI company over her son’s suicide.
I gave up watching Saturday Night Live thirty years ago, when it stopped being funny (that meshes with the Browns and their decision to stop being good). That said, this clip about George Washington, weights, and measures was shared with me this morning by Lou, our swag provider at Rad Graphics. I guess the quantity “a gross” isn’t as common as I expected, and the ensuing conversation brought this skit to mind. It’s only five minutes long, so it won’t take the place of the Browns game on Sunday, but it’s a good start!
Speaking of the Browns, we sold our tickets to Sunday’s Ravens game… some sucker agreed to pay $320! Unfortunately, that was for four tickets. On the upside, it saves me $25 on parking and another $50 on beers and burgers before the game. If you know anybody who might be interested in tickets for next week’s Chargers game, send them my way!
In the meantime, enjoy the weekend and Go Bucks!
Abbey