by Mark Smiley | Oct 24, 2014 | Feature Story Middle Left
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
— Ferris Bueller
I was channeling my inner Ferris during a recent trip through Denver International. It was early as in even earlier than Toddler App wakes up. To put the earliness of the morning in some perspective, Toddler App wakes the roosters up. Maybe all of the people I observed were on East Coast time. I just wasn’t interested in anything except getting to the gate on time and drinking my Dunkin Donuts coffee. For once, I was looking around rather than staring at my phone. Have you tried this? Did you know there are other people in the same vicinity as you? I counted 15 people that walked by without picking their heads up. Do they have sonar? How are they all not crashing into each other?
My favorite moment was the grandmother giving an Academy Award performance of voice to text. Beep Beep. A pause as she reads the text. Then, beep beep, followed by yelling the text into the phone. Beep Beep. Another pause. More yelling. This continued for five minutes or at least long enough for the first group to board the plane. I openly laughed while watching and sipping some caffeine. Of course, the Frontier flight proceeded to run into an owl on an aborted take-off and a return trip to the gate. Once at the gate, everyone took out their phones. From the back of the plane, beep beep, the same woman yelling “We’re delayed. Send.” Serenity now! Be cognizant of your surroundings for the love of others!
iOS8 — The Ocho is a disappointment. Maybe I was expecting the interface to change like previous upgrades. It feels like the same software as iOS7. Maybe I just haven’t played around with it enough. Maybe I’m getting cranky as I approach 40. Not sure what it is, but the best feature with the new software is that my battery doesn’t drain. Do you have a favorite iOS8 or iPhone6 feature?
More apps were built around the Notification Center with iOS8. What is the Notification Center? From the locked screen, drag the dash straight down to open “today’s” notes and reminders, and notifications. The dash is replaced with the current time when the phone is unlocked. Drag straight down from the time to open the Notification Center. This area has the ability to display active information from your apps. Interested in trying some apps? Try App in the Air, which lists flight info. Vidgets, displays the battery meter and available storage. The battery meter may be redundant, however the storage is helpful. Waiting for the storage availability to load through the settings takes a few minutes. And we can’t possibility wait a few minutes for anything now-a-days, right? For the sports junkie, use this area for ESPN SportsCenter, which shows sports scores and a button to listen to live ESPN radio. Quick-Tap allows shortcuts for activities, such as Text Wife, Call Mom, and Directions to Home. Think of Quick-Tap as the iPhone’s version of adding an icon to your desktop on your PC.
Cool Apps
BlackFriday… It’s that time of year again. This is still the app leader for the best deals. Can you believe stores are open at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving? Is it really necessary to stand in line to grab a $100 flat screen or duke it out over a Teddy Ruxpin? | Trello… it’s a whiteboard. Wait. It’s a to-do list. Wait. It’s both!| MailDeck… an email app that merges multiple accounts in one, which is handy. It allows for sorting by sender, which is better than the Apple version. Better yet? It’s a Denver-based startup. | Litely… Edit your photos to look professional | Fleksy… customize your iPhone keyboard. | For the person two cubes down from my cube, Post-it Plus. Take a picture of your Post-it note and the app turns the written note into an interactive board allowing you to move the notes around and brainstorm. Free up that poor monitor that has 34 post-it notes taped along the screen edges. | Swype… swipe your finger across the keyboard to type rather than pressing the keys. Now iPhone users can be like Samsung users. | PopKey… send a GIF (picture) with your text.
Beep Beep. Happy Turkey Day. Send.
How are you, and or your business using mobile technology? Are you using this technology to entice new hires to join your company? Are you eliminating hardware and going cloud? Has it allowed you to hire employees from outside your area? I’d like to hear your story for a future column.
Do you have a favorite app you’d like to share? Contact Brian at brian@brianzabro ski.com, on Twitter @BrianZab or LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/brianzab.
Brian, a Corporate Account Executive with NetSuite, has spent nearly twenty years in the telecommunications and software industry. Businesses use NetSuite software to run and manage all of their business applications. It’s web-based, so businesses can access their information from anywhere; It’s flexible, which allows the software to be customized for their business; and, it is built on a single platform, which businesses appreciate since they can often eliminate multiple software solutions. Trending companies, such as Box, GoPro, FitBit and Dropbox use this software to run their business. Reach out to Brian to learn how your business can benefit with this software.
by Mark Smiley | Oct 24, 2014 | Feature Story Bottom Left
I don’t know about you but this has been the most profound year of my life. The life lessons that I have experienced have truly been like nothing that I have ever witnessed before. Without question I have felt both sides of every situation and scenario you can imagine — personally, professionally, physically and emotionally. I’ve felt more confident than ever and I’ve been unsure about everything, I received more love than I thought was humanly possible and I’ve never been so alone. I discovered sides of me that I love and cherish and sides of me I never want to see again.
I’ve learned we are all doing the same thing, running the same race and facing the same life challenges. We’re all just trying to make our way through this life as humans, fallible human beings. We are people who depend and rely on each other in various capacities, physically, financially, and emotionally. We do and should expect a certain amount of safety from those with whom we associate in our romantic and platonic relationships.
So, undoubtedly as humans, we all will be let down by someone else’s actions, or by someone exercising their free will, if you will. The will, or need for someone to do something or fulfill something burning inside of them, may affect others’ lives because of their actions. The outcome of someone exercising their humanly free will can be positive or negative depending on the perception of the affected recipient(s).
You, me, us, the recipients, can either understand each other as humans. People are emotionally driven and on any given day we can be happy, sad, healthy, sick, loving, twisted, functional, crazy, you name it… If the emotion exists, you’re not excluded from feeling it.
Here’s where logic can trump emotion and will save you a lot of aggravation and heartache if you break it down in its most simplistic form. It is up to me/you to decide what and who works best in our human lives. It is up to us to seek intimacy and true reality and it is up to us to be actively in charge of our mental and physical health. We must not allow shallow relationships that are based on others reframing our reality by projecting perceptions of euphoria that cater to telling us what we want to hear. Humans have a tendency to do this so that their free will isn’t questioned, judged or challenged.
You, my friends, have the free will to be and conduct yourself in any fashion you desire and do whatever it is that makes you happy without my scrutiny or judgment. All I ask in return is that you offer me unfiltered, unfettered, unencumbered reality so that I can base what capacity you fit in my life.
Let’s face it, if you’re single and actively dating you are dealing with strangers. Strangers who may or may not have your best interest in mind and could potentially turn your life upside down, and most of the time we allow it. We, more often than not, like to give people the benefit of the doubt and sometimes look past things because we refuse to believe people don’t act or react to certain situations. We put it all out there in the manner we would and when they don’t, it’s letdown city. They may not have done anything wrong or they didn’t mean any harm by telling a little white lie, but it hurts nonetheless because we may expect a certain outcome that we’ve created in our minds.
Do me a favor and try this… Try to open up your mind when you’re dating. Allow people to be human, allow them to be comfortable with how they act and what they say. Be more forgiving and understanding to their plight in life instead of yours. Get to know the people you’re dating for who they are, the more comfortable they are the less likely they will feel the need to tell you what you want to hear instead of what they want to say. Watch their actions and listen closely to what they have to say and base if you want to continue your association with them by who they are, not who you want them to be. Stay true to yourself and your needs first, and who knows, if it doesn’t work out you may have just gained a friend, a friend you actually know for who they are!
As a side note: As you may or may not know I have created The Modern Dater Club and it is shaping up nicely! The Modern Dater Club is exclusive to singles who want to go on preplanned excursions with other singles that are created and hosted by me. If you want more information about The Modern Dater Club and how you can become a part of it you can contact me directly at themoderndater@gmail.com. Don’t forget to tune into my dating related radio show every Saturday evening at 7 p.m. on 630 KHOW or grab the podcasts on www. themoderndater.com.
Your pal, Sheik!
by Peter Boyles | Oct 24, 2014 | Blasting with Boyles
Are you confused by the United States’ foreign policy in the Middle East? Let’s begin.
- We support the Iraqi government in its fight against ISIS.
2. We don’t like ISIS but ISIS is supported by Saudi Arabia who we do like.
- We don’t like Assad in Syria. We support the fight against him. But ISIS is also fighting against Assad.
- We don’t like Iran. But Iran supports the Iraqi government in its fight against ISIS.
- Some of our friends support our enemies.
- Some of our enemies are now our friends.
- And some of our enemies are fighting against our other enemies who we want to lose.
- But we don’t want our enemies who are fighting our enemies to win.
- If the people we want to defeat are defeated they could be replaced by people we like even less.
10. Reminding you all this was started by George W. Bush invading a country to drive out terrorists who weren’t actually there.
- But are there now.
Now do you understand American foreign policy??
I am currently reading political scientist Andrew Bacevich. He writes, “Since 1980 the United States has invaded, occupied or bombed 14 nations in the greater Middle East. If you’re following along at home let’s count them.
- Iran
- Libya
- Lebanon
- Kuwait
- Iraq
- Somalia
- Bosnia
- Saudi Arabia
- Afghanistan
- Sudan
- Kosovo
- Yemen
- Pakistan
- And now… Syria
So once again let’s do the math.
Tens of thousands of brave young men and women are wounded or dead. No one knows how many trillions have been lost and no one knows how many people in the Muslim world are dead or how many have become refugees. And I ask you for what?
Pat Buchanan asks that wonderful political question, are you better off now than you were 30 years ago with American policy in the Middle East?
Which terrorist organization do we want to win this battle?
In the news last week, al Qaeda and the Arabian peninsula, who the United States has been attacking for years, (remember the mind of George W. Bush — if you’re a Muslim and don’t like the United States you’re Taliban.) they sent a suicide bomber in an explosive filled automobile into a hospital occupied by Houthi rebels. Remember those boys? Their slogan was “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Jews and a victory to Islam.” As Pat Buchanan says, how do you figure this one?
The Houthis are fighting Al-Qaeda like Hezbollah is fighting Al-Qaeda. Both are Shia supported by Iran which is on our side against ISIS and Syria and Syria is on our side against the Islamic state in Iraq.
I have no idea what this is all about. Can you attempt to understand any of this?
I’ll leave you with this.
George W. Bush’s most compelling evidence for an invasion of Iraq was forged reports alleging Saddam Hussein had been secretly buying raw material to build an atomic bomb. Remember it. It was called the “Italian letter.”
Happy Thanksgiving.
— Peter
by Mark Smiley | Oct 23, 2014 | Featured Stories & Advertisers
