Image :New York Times

The size and capability of Amazon is getting very scary. I just read that the company is thinking about developing a wristband that can track the moves of its employees.

No one knows for sure what Amazon is going to do, but the company has won two patents to manufacture a wristband that can actually be worn by warehouse workers so their productivity can be monitored. No more goofing off.

Amazon doesn’t usually comment on the technology they are testing, so there is a lot of speculation. Many people who are close to Amazon believe that the wristbands will become a reality because the company’s growth depends on strict disciplines.

The whole concept of spying wristbands give me the willies. I worry that years from now, tracking wristbands, will be commonplace.

Read more about this topic in the New York Times.

Tonight was a cause for celebration. Eliot Hess sold a photograph at the Williams McCall @ Frameworks art gala and artist Hector Prado was proud to show off the official 2018 poster he created for the 55th annual Coconut Grove Arts Festival, which runs Feb. 17 through 19.

Prado’s poster, titled “Winds of Change,” was unveiled at a Jan. 18 reception at the Sonesta Coconut Grove Miami.

Frameworks is the official framer of the Coconut Grove Arts Festival.

There’s a red dot next to Eliot’s photo thanks to buyer Ron Moorman.

Randy, gallery owners Dawn and Gail, and Ron.

Todd Smith stopped by to congratulate Eliot.

Elliott and Mindi Lampert, Eliot and gallery owner Cris Sweeny.

Surprise, Surprise look who stopped by: Howard, Michelle, Jenn, Robert, and Scott.

Gail with Hector and Eliot.

Internet personality Katerina Cozias poses with Eliot and Lois.

Below……crowd shots.

For those of us over 70, this is a great exercise regimen. For you young’uns out there (under 70), just keep it in mind, until you reach that magic 70 number !

Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room on each side.

With a 5-lb potato bag in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides. Hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute,  and then relax. Each day you’ll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer. 

After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb potato bags. Then try 50-lb potato bags, and then eventually, try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb potato bag in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute.

After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each bag.

I just downloaded a new app for $3.99 that is going to cure a lot of my reading challenges in the future. Pocket Glasses is going to be very helpful for me with menus, labels on boxes and cans, clothing tags, prescription bottles and all other items that have tiny type.

I see too many of my friends struggling to read, even with their glasses. Pocket Glasses should do the trick. I sometimes notice much younger people having difficulty reading type that is colored light grey or yellow. I always wonder why companies go out of their way to make copy difficult to read. I think they think, it’s fashionable. What a joke.

Pocket Glasses is a pocket magnifier app that features a zoom capability and a flashlight. It has four modes.

1-A slider to zoom-in and a screen capture/freeze for videos. That means you can now read type that is moving.

2-A built-in flashlight to help you read in the dark.. You must give camera and mic permissions for this application to work.

3. Sight Correction: Use it to adjust the app to your eye defect. Do you have any?

4. A magnifier/zoom to use with one of two predefined zoom modes x2 x3 or use the slider to enjoy up to x16 magnified vision.

I hope this app gives you the ability to read a lot more. You don’t want to miss the fine print.

Images: Google

I think I might put my name on the wait list for the new Google Clips camera. I wrote about Clips last October 5, and now it’s available. Google received so many orders they had to create a “wait” list.

Google Clips is a tiny camera with artificial intelligence that takes pictures when it sees something interesting. You don’t take pictures, the cameras does.

Click here for details and please watch the video. It’s so much fun.

The camera costs $249.00. Clips is being marketed to parents and pet owners. Its AI is programmed to recognize familiar faces. You can finally take a selfie from a distance.

Once a bunch of photos have been taken, you can view them on a companion app. Delete anything you don’t like. Save the goods ones on your camera roll. Don’t worry about someone else invading your privacy. You turn it on or off. The photos stay on the camera, not the cloud.

The camera has a 130-degree field of view and takes video at 15 frames per second. It has 15GB of internal storage.

Photos from Bloomberg Technology

I have seen some amazing work spaces in my time but this takes the cake. Amazon has just opened a new rainforest type office that is available to all of its 40,000 employees in Seattle. Amazon employs 541,900 people in total.

Called “Spheres,” the three dome structures costs $4 billion to build. I had to check out that dollar figure several times because I couldn’t believe that a company would spend that much money for employee comfort, but I was wrong.

According to Bloomberg Technology, that figure paid for a miniature rainforest planted inside. The rainforest features 40,000 plants from 400 species that are curated from around the world. Amazon employees are encouraged to hold meetings at “Spheres,” or just chill. Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, believes his new establishment, will spur great creativity.

Promise me you will watch the above video. It’s certainly a destination we should all visit, if they will let us in.

I think we should take the following recommendation seriously. We don’t need scientific proof that dancing is good for us. We all know it. However, it’s nice to see various groups endorse this form of exercise and mental stimulation. I hope the following slides inspire all of us to stay as healthy as possible.

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