Who Are You Wearing?

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Joan Rivers lived right down the street from me on East 62nd Street. I took great comfort in knowing she was nearby. Sometimes I would stand outside her apartment wondering where she got all that energy. Her doorman told me she was President of her Condo. Read all about that here.
She was the real deal.

A number of years ago, Eliot, Whitney and I decided to have our last meal before the Yom Kippur fast at Sarabeth’s on Central Park South. We were deep in conversation when three elderly women sat down next to us. It turned out to be Joan, Cindy Adams, and Barbara Walters. Three old friends having a holiday dinner together. No cameras, no annoying fans, no fanfare. Those in the know told me this was a yearly routine. This holiday is going to be very difficult without Joan.

At 81, Joan had a popular Internet TV show, “In Bed With Joan,” was one of the most popular on folks on Twitter and Facebook, and was the star of “Fashion Police” and a reality TV show, “Joan and Melissa.” She also made weekly appearances in clubs around the U.S.

Here are some tweets regarding her death.

Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360)
I don’t want to live in a world without #JoanRivers. No one does – @Andy on #JoanRivers

Ryan Seacrest (@RyanSeacrest)
It was a treat running into Joan in the hallways at E!…she was always on… always a riot. Our thoughts are w/ you & your family @MelRivers.

Melinda Gates (@melindagates)
“Never be afraid to laugh at yourself.” – Joan Rivers, a true pioneer for women in comedy and show business.

jason alexander (@IJasonAlexander)
My friend, Joan Rivers – we were robbed of many more laughs. You made us laugh at ourselves, Joanie. You blazed many trails. Thank you & RIP

Blair Underwood (@BlairUnderwood)
Joan Rivers had me on her talk show many years ago & I was surprised & have often said that she was one of my favorite interviews.

Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow)
Joan Rivers will always be a pioneer. She paved the way for a lot of comedians. I’m very sad she’s gone.

Frank DiGiacomo (@frankdigiacomo)
#JoanRivers Did you hear Tom Cruise just had a baby? He was there when it was born … He should have been there when it was conceived.

Mandy Moore (@TheMandyMoore)
RIP, #JoanRivers…. What a spirited force, trailblazer and beacon for all things funny. Such a loss.

Rocco DiSpirito (@roccodispirito)
R.I.P. #JoanRivers. You made the world laugh. We’ve lost a #legend today. #inspiration #comedy

Robin Roberts (@RobinRoberts)
So sad that #JoanRivers has passed away. Thinking of her daughter @MelRivers and her family, friends and many fans. #RIPJoanRivers

James Woods (@RealJamesWoods)
#JoanRivers always teased me at every red carpet event. She was always right and always hysterical. She was a joy and I will miss her. RIP

Barbra Streisand (@BarbraStreisand)
I first met Joan Molinsky (that was her real name) when I was 17 years old. We were both in an Off-Off Broadway show called “Driftwood.”
She was a real character, and I am so upset by her passing. She was too young and still had much to do. – Barbra Streisand.

With This Ring I Thee Web

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Image from Mota website.

I think I wrote a pretty clever headline considering the topic that I am about to share with you. As I mentioned to you in a few prior posts, wearable technology is one of the hottest topics in the digital business.

First there were smartphones, then smart watches, and now–drum roll please–smart rings. A well established company in the wearable tech business, Mota of Sunnyvale, CA, has designed a smart ring that will feature all kinds of notifications : text messages, email, calendar events and incoming calls.

The cool thing about the Mota smart ring is that its not obtrusive. More and more folks are complaining that smartphones are interfering with their social lives. No one wants to put their phones down. If people replaced their smartphones with a Mota ring during social hours, they can still be connected without checking for messages. A quick glimpse is far more acceptable than being completely immersed. This is one of the reasons why the smart ring may become so popular when it goes into production later this year.

Designed for use with both Android and iOS devices, the smart ring also has a silent vibration mode that can be tailored to deliver different vibration patterns for your smartphone contacts.

Let’s cross our fingers (ha, ha) that the Mota smart ring works well! Thank you Mashable for telling is about it.

Unhappy Birthday

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The above post on Facebook is real. It was posted late tonight by Eliot’s first cousin Elise. She is the daughter of Aunt Irma, sister to Eliot’s father. I follow Elise on Facebook as I do hundreds of others. I guess she is in her mid 50s.

I am always amazed at her postings. They are brutally honest. I don’t think there is anyone else like her on Facebook. She blows off a lot of steam. I’m not saying that she never posts anything positive, but for me her rants are what captures my attention.

When you meet Elise in person, she is really quite charming. She has a lot to be positive about. She has a wonderful, loving husband, a terrific adult son who she adores, and a grandson who is absolutely adorable. I know all this because I know her and her family offline. Yet her Facebook persona is quite different.

While 99.9 per cent of us post good times in order to show off a bit, Elise uses her platform to make strong statements. Is she portraying the way the rest of us silently feel or is she the new Rodney Dangerfield? There may be some comedy between the lines.

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Forever Young, Not

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IMG_0520.GIF image: Boomerslife.org

There are some advantages to getting older. Albeit, not many, but maybe we can capitalize on those that do come our way.

For instance, when Eliot and I went through security at the airport in Cartagena, Columbia yesterday, the officers let us pass right through even though they were questioning everyone else about what they were doing in the country. As we walked to our gate, I remarked to Eliot that apparently the security officers thought we were too old to be terrorists. I find that kind of insulting.

Eliot and I play the old age card as much as we can. We don’t have to try too hard because most of the young folks take one look and start treating us like we are their grandparents. If we take a subway, at least a half a dozen people immediately offer us their seats. That includes pregnant women, the blind, and people on crutches. Apparently, we look more helpless than them.

We just spent the weekend with six considerably younger guys. They too treated us like we were slightly handicapped. They opened the doors, gave us the best seats, carried extra stuff, and made sure we got safely across the street. They may not have been fully aware of what they were doing, but we embraced it.

Coincidently, my brother emailed me a New York Times article today entitled, “When Did We Get So Old?” I read it hoping I was going to learn an alternative to old age. No such luck. It basically says the approximate 77 million baby boomers that are alive today feel like they are on the outside looking in. Click on the Times story to see why we might be more confused than ever about who we are and where we live.

How do you think I feel? Most of my work revolves around Internet activities where the majority of co-workers are 40 years my junior. Sometimes it gives me the creeps, other times I don’t notice it at all.

I wonder what Hillary thinks?

Hard Butter Challenge

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I feel so relieved. One of life’s greatest challenges may shortly be solved. There is going to be a way to spread hard butter evenly on a piece of bread. No more tearing your bread when trying to get that even look. Or having to settle for clumps of butter in just a few places.

Seriously, biting into a piece of bread with evenly spread butter may not be your biggest concern, but it certainly got the attention of 14,000 backers who contributed over $320,000 on Kickstarter to make sure ButterUp comes to life.

The ButterUp knife features a grater to aerate and soften the butter. Its grater shape does the trick. Watch the above video.

ButterUp will cost around $12. Delivery is next March. You still have time to join the campaign.

A Day Without Internet

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Today we spent the day on a private island called Gente de Mar. It was a thirty minute boat ride from Cartagena. Our friends Juan Carlos and Joao arranged for the eight of us to celebrate Eliot’s birthday being disconnected. That’s the buzzword for living without the Internet.

The manager of the Island told me he is working hard along with a group of others to “unplug” local schools. He felt that the Internet contaminated young minds. That gave us the first clue that the island didn’t offer Wi-Fi.,
So we all put our smartphones away, pulled up lounge chairs, and chilled.

It was the perfect day. Below are photos from tonight’s birthday celebration in Cartagena’s Old Town.

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Below is our day at Gente de Mar starting with the boat ride.

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Microsoft Windows Scam

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IMG_0433.JPG Image by Keenandijon,com.

Below is an email I received from my friend Ben.

HI Lois! I wanted to make you aware of a big scam being perpetrated on many senior citizens. Unfortunately, my 87 year old uncle just fell prey to it. My uncle received a call from some guy claiming to be with Microsoft Windows. Microsoft had detected that his PC was being hit with a computer virus or malware. He sounded very official and my poor uncle complied with his instructions to make some specific keystrokes on his PC. He unknowingly gave the phony guy access to his PC’s MS Windows OS which was then put in a frozen state. It became non-functional.

Again, he described the problem as a virus and malware and told my uncle that he could assist him remotely. In order to fix the problem, he had to pay $200. The so-called service guy would provide him with four years of protection. This incident would never happen again. He told my uncle that he would send him an electronic invoice on his PC screen.

My uncle needed to sign it electronically and give the caller his credit card information. At this point, my uncle finally thought that something was wrong. He hung up on the scammer and frantically called me.

My uncle had the scammer’s Caller ID. It was an 800 number. I called it and the scammer answered claiming he was at at a Microsoft’s Windows customer service office. There was a lot of noise in the background as if it was some sort of a boiler room operation. When I questioned the guy he hung up. I called back and he hung up again. Then he totally blocked my number from getting through.

I then called Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, WA and was connected to their corporate security folks. I explained what had happened to my uncle. The guy at Microsoft said that they were aware of the scammers and that they were already working with the FBI on a massive investigation.

Microsoft told me that the real end game for these scammers is to get the Credit Card information from the targeted seniors and then sell that information to other criminal elements. It’s a shame that seniors are so trusting.

TTYS.

Best, Ben

Box It Up

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I want to scream every time I have to fill in one of those little boxes that requires you to copy the same letters that appear above it. It’s not that I am lazy, it’s just that there are many times I don’t get the letters correctly.

I find myself muttering “Funny, that looked like “a ‘W’.” There are times when I get so frustrated with those little boxes that I just abandon the sites that use them. I never quite understood the true purpose of the little boxes even though techies told me they were for security.

A well-known TED Talk features the creator of the little boxes, Luis von Ahn. He calls them Captcha. You really should watch the video below because it explains why the boxes were created and the truly valuable purpose they serve.

A quick explanation is that Captcha helps the site owner decipher if a computer with a possible virus was trying to enter the site versus a human.

The term CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart. It was coined in 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas Hopper and John Langford of Carnegie Mellon University.