Category Archives: digital

Introducing Audible Channels  

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If you are a big Audible user, than you probably heard the news. The largest seller and producer of spoken audio entertainment, information, and educational programming, is getting into short-form content. 

The new area is called Audible Channels and it offers podcasts, news, comedy, and exclusive shows. All this is free for Audible.com members.  You can stream or download the new collections from your smartphone app.

I going to try Audible Channels tomorrow between appointments. It will be great to start and finish a story in an hour or less. I am totally addicted to Audible. I even have certain magazines read to me. It’s a whole new way of life.

  
   

  

  

Vanity Fair 

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I’m in a very creative mood. I love stories that energize me. I wanted to share some of the ones that recently spurred me on to think about new projects.

  
Two photos featured in Vanity Fair.              

 Pablo Picasso’s Bust of a Woman, 1931. Opposite, the artist in Cannes, September 11, 1956.

Left, by François Halard/The Condé Nast Archive/© 2016 Estate of Pablo Picasso/ARtists rights Society (A.R.S.), New York; Right, by Arnold Newman/Getty Images.

This one from Vanity Fair talks about the family fight for the thousands of paintings and sculptures that Picasso left behind. Understanding the depth of Picasso’s work makes me realize just how prolific he was and much time he devoted to his art. 
Click here

Next…..

 

Sheila Elias

 
This is a short video about my artist friend Sheila Elias. I’ve written about her before because she is a fabulous inspiration to those of us who want to keep creating as we age.  

Click here.

Happy 90th birthday Hef 

Written by a business friend Ed Hulse

 

A Drone And Desserts     

  

This was the scene tonight at Books and Books in Coral Gables, Florida. We were sitting in the courtyard of this famous Miami bookstore, nibbling on desserts, when all of a sudden, we see a very bright red light above us. Everyone looks up and gasps. The drone was coming right at us. Luckily its pilot was standing nearby, so he sent the unmanned vehicle in another direction. Whew, it was scary, but fun to watch the drone in the pitch black sky.
  

Only 1 in 50 People Can Identify These Iconic Actresses 

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I had a lot of fun last week taking this quiz from Mental Feed, a brain twister Internet site.  It was posted on many social media platforms.  I really surprised myself when I got them all right. 

This was the notice that I received.

    

Here’s your chance to test your ability to identify these fabulous women.

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
  

To see if you selected the correct answers, click here.

Good luck ! 
  
 

It’s A Lyve

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I’m willing to bet that most of you have never heard of Lyve before. I am also willing to bet that once you learn about it, you will want one.

I never heard of Lyve until my friends, Williams and Steve, gave it to me as a present. They knew that I would love it. This product is such a natural. I can’t imagine why someone didn’t invent it before. 

Thanks guys.

Lyve is a 5 x 3 inch digital storage box with a touch LCD screen viewer. The unit automatically backups all of your photos and videos from your computer, tablet, smartphones and drives. Now you can store  and view everything in one scrolling slideshow.  

I finally have a single library with every photo and video that I have ever taken over the last eight years. I have over 10,000 shots stored. Lyve can handle a few hundred thousand photos and videos. It’s storage capacity is 2TB. 

What’s more, Lyve has a companion app that displays everything too so now I can carry all of my photos and videos around without using one bit of storage capacity on my phone. Just imagine having the ability too view everything all at once. The app also features controls that are needed for other options.

Right now, Lyve is on my night table. I am watching rotating photos and videos that I haven’t seen years. This is so awesome. If it wasn’t for Lyve, I probably would have never seen these precious moments again.

Click on the video below to see my demo. 

Click in the video below to see Lyve’s demo.

Lyve is compatible with all Apple and Android devices, Windows PCs, and Kindle Fire HDX.   

Once I have some free time, I plan to tag my photos so I can group, sort, search them with ease. With Lyve’s photo editing features i can also crop, enhance, filter, frame, remove red-eye, and add stickers.

There is a lot to learn about Lyve. I’m going to be very busy. If you did know about Lyve, let me know. I’m curious about its popularity.
     

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The Day Our Privacy Died 

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When my cousin Jeff came to visit last week, he kept checking his cell. He had recently installed several Arlo home security cameras in his Los Angeles home. I kept hearing him laughing out loud as he viewed his father-in-law picking up his mail at home, a cat running through the yard, and a bird landing on one of his balconies. 

That doesn’t seem very funny to us but if it’s your own premises, it must be humorous. I decided I had to have an Arlo system, in our Miami condo, so I could laugh too, when I was away.

What I didn’t realize was that the cameras shoot motion all the time. Late night snack attacks, naked runs to the washer and dryer, and PJ sleep walks all get recorded. We finally learned to turn the cameras toward the walls when we are home.

A late night visit from my cousin Beth

  

Watching the view from my iPhone

  

Making a fast exit

  

Watching the sunrise on my iPhone from the other side of our apartment.

  

I’m on the phone and Eliot arrives home .

  
  
Leaving for an assignment
      
  

    
    
        
    
    
    
      
    
  

Hazel Tov 

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Our baby is being born tonight. Eliot bought me flowers and poured himself a drink. We are so proud of the entire Hazel team. We will see you Monday in Chicago. Hazel Tov !!!!!!

 

Ron Abel and Chuck Steffan, the creators

  
 
‘Hazel,’ a musical made for a maid, hopes to sweep families off their feet – Chicago Tribune Click here for story.
🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷


Zaha Hadid

Photo by Eliot Hess

Miami mourns the loss of Zaha Hadid, one of the most brilliant architects in the world. Eliot took this photo as the sun set tonight near her latest Miami project, 1000 Museum. Click here for Miami Herald story.

Steve Jobs School

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Maurice with Mari and Daphne when she was a few months old. The others are Maurice’s adult children. 

My long-time friend, Maurice de Hond, born and raised in Amsterdam, Holland, has started a completely new type of school, called The Steve Jobs School. I wrote about this before in DigiDame, but I am updating it because Maurice has made great progress. I just received an email from Maurice which explains more.  He knows I am sharing it with you. 

Side note: (The Steve Jobs School uses the iPad to allow children to create their own curriculum with the help of parents and teachers. Young students learn vital social skills by working with other children on projects and by presenting  informative facts to the group).

Dear Lois, 

As you know, I started a completely new school model in 2013-2014. As a tribute to Steve Jobs, we named the school after him.

You can learn more about it on our website,  www.stevejobsschool.world.

(You will also find several of my speeches about this topic).
I started the school for my daughter Daphne, born in 2009, because I didn’t want her educated for the future with programs that were prepared 30 years ago. 

I always say, “We prepare children for the future, but we keep them in school imprisoned in the past.” 

We really reinvented the elementary school. We are named one of the 13 most innovative schools in the world by Tech Insider.

We are getting online visitors, almost on a daily basis, from all over the world.

At the end of the year, we will have 40 elementary schools in the Netherlands, with around 8000 children, using our education model.  

There are schools in Johannesburg and Spain who are currently using our system and we are discussing this method with representatives in more than 10 countries including Dubai and Qatar.

I am invited to give keynote speeches all over the world. In the last couple of months, I was in Taipei, Stavanger (Norway), London, and Berlin. Next week I will be in Bulgaria (Sofia). And the coming months I will be in Aruba, San Diego, Germany, and Johannesburg.

A journalist recently wrote a book about us in Dutch called “Each Child Is Different,  how the Dutch Reinvented Primary Education.”

The printed English versiion will be available in two weeks. Digital copies will also be issued 

Here are our accomplishments:

– Children like to go to school. They even  want to go to school on a Saturday.

– Many children with ADHD and ADD are not showing any symptons in our  educational approach.  I am getting mails from parents saying that their child has really improved.

– Children with Dyslexia are doing much better too..

– Parents tell us that their children are expressing themselves more.
– Parents are more involved in our schools (we let them give workshops about their hobby or profession).

Talk soon, 

 Maurice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sidewalk Sentiments 

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I took these photos on my iPhone Saturday night when we were in Wynwood, Miami. These sayings are stenciled on the sidewalks of the famous art district. It’s interesting to see people stop and read the pavement signs.

It just proves that even in this world when most people are glued to their smartphones, you can get their attention if you just have something important to say.
    
    
        
    
   

Wynwood Arts District

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There is an area of Miami that is one of the most creative communities in the United States. Wynwood Arts District features more than 70 art galleries, retail stores, antique shops, bars, and fine restaurants. We took our 16 year old cousin, Hanna Young, to visit Wynwood on Saturday. She wanted to see the magnificent murals on many of the warehouses that grace this special place. Hanna is from Los Angeles and this was her first visit to Wynwood.  Here is her photo essay.

  
    
   

 
    

    
   

  

#ArtistsForBelgium

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Artists all over the world are sharing tributes to Belgium on Twitter with the hashtag #ArtistsForBelgium.

The image that is being used most  of the time is a “splatter-paint outline” of a Smurf in the colors of the Belgian flag. Others are using their own creativity.

According to Mashable, “The Smurfs are the creation of the late Belgian artist Peyo who debuted the small, blue creatures in the late 1950s and have since become a worldwide animation phenomenon.”