Working past time

Yesterday's post regarding the "C+" grade of the keyboard is primarily my own doing. It has nothing to do with the functionality of the keyboard but has everything to do with me learning it. I've never argued that I'm solely a Windows person; I've just not had all the experience in the world with regards to an Apple environment. Especially within the past 20 years. So my undoing and not knowing enough to make completely understand all the ins and outs of 🍎⌘ shortcuts makes matters a little hard. I'm not making any apologies for it; I just need time to sort it all out. 


The history lessons I was referencing is the true reason for the post right now. I had been emailing a friend about the cost of living and minimum wage here in Florida, and decided to Google the correct figures before I went and blabbered all the wrong points of fact. 

Part of the reasoning behind researching everything was because I knew the US was involved in the Great Depression in the 1920s and ended with the Great Recession in the 1930s. I just needed more particulars, date wise. 

However...

I found out (Do you always believe what the Internet tells you???) that the Federal Government, in all their infinite wisdom, decided to make October 24, 1938 the day for federally mandated minimum wage. Thus making allowing people (to) earn $0.25 an hour, all across the nation (source: History of Federal Minimum Wage Rates Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938 - 2009). Exactly one year later, it rose 5 cents to a whopping $0.30 and I bet people were ecstatic. Although, according to The People History, things were "relatively" inexpensive (by today's standards / comparatively speaking). Truth be told, 25 - 30 cents is nothing to sneeze at, considering the times and it was probably a hard sell to those who must have been living a working life then. Monthly rent was $27, while the cost of a new house was $3,900 (which would take a little over 2 and a half years to accumulate those quarters, if my math is correct). A new car costs less than a new house ($763), as well as the price per year to keep your car full would be cheaper too ($0.10 a gallon). 

It's so weird to see the prices "of yesterday" in comparison to today. My parents and their parents always say they "remember when X cost Y". We look at our lives now and wonder how we got to such inflation in our daily necessities, and then I look at the technology we're using. I'm typing on a laptop and using cable internet. Yesterday I was using a smart phone to blog. What's tomorrow going to bring? 

We take a lot of things for granted...

Although I would like to say "I want to take a pause for a sponsor break" here but I can't. So I'll say "if you are a Netflix subscriber, look for Dana Carvey's comedy special. There's a bit about Macca talking to John that's a laugh riot". As I type this, I'm looking to see if Amazon has the video. Unfortunately, it's not available on DVD yet, but I found the Netflix page:  Dana Carvey: Straight White Male, 60: A Netflix Original. What it is, is relevant to how we use technology these days. It's supposed to be Paul McCartney on Earth, having a conversation with John Lennon in Heaven. It deals with musicians these days thinking they're bigger than the Beatles and ends with the use of smartphones. I don't want to give away the whole bit or the punch line, but if you have to watch a few stand ups this year, this one should be on the list. 

Check out the links, see if you can find Dana's stand up, be good to yourselves..

Cheers;








See Also:


Main page of The People History

U.S. Timeline - The 1930s via "America's Best History"

Google keyword "us history 1938"

“Trying it out”

A couple months ago, I wrote about purchasing an Apple Bluetooth Keyboard for my iPhone and that I had yet to fully try it. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this blog post has been brought to you by the $10.63 keyboard! The only challenge is I now need a projector or monitor to hook up to my phone, as the screen is so tiny that it is hard to keep track of what I’m writing. It seems like I've got to zoom in to each sentence to see what’s going on. But then it doesn’t follow what I’m doing, so normal zoom makes me want a magnifier on this thing.

 I know there are shortcuts to learn to make things easier, and I’ve actually got another webpage open telling me what to use the “Command” button for. Like I’ve said before, I haven’t used an Apple product this in depth since Oregon Trail blazed a way for Carmen Sandiego to find hidden objects.

Linking is sure going to be interesting...

In other news, I had my laptop all set up to write a post this morning about some “interesting” history I read this morning, but I got wrapped up in other things and now my laptop is off and in another room because we have company over that has taken over the dining room table. All because my house is a little bit of a mess right now, I can’t use my room like I usually do. My routine has been picked up and shaken a bit, so it makes life a little hard to do things. Hence me using my “new” keyboard to write this. There’s nothing wrong with the house because of the hurricane last month, trust me. We just had a little baby flood from an upstairs condo. Long story short, the immediate upstairs unit is bank owned & some vendor had come in at one point, turned the water on, used the toilet, and disappeared. No one knows how long the water was running for, but it destroyed the immediate downstairs unit (the owners are seasonal owners). We’re talking a whole half of their unit is stripped... gutted... right down to the studs. How do I fit into this? The walls my unit share with the downstairs unit got the end of the running water. So that means a big part of my kitchen, a tiny piece of the dining room and then two and a half walls of my bedroom have been stripped down to the cement blocks and studs. It’s chaos enthralled around here lately, but I guess it’s a lot better than places in the rest of the world...

Back on track: I learned a few things today about the history of the United States, but can’t do the linking I want to because of this screen challenge. Therefore, I think I’m going to call this test of a post, a solid C+ and end on a “good” note. I’ll post within the next couple days of the information I wanted to share, and research some information about phone projections.

Until next time...


Cheers;







See also (aka how I’m testing a way to link with the keyboard):
Amazon has raised its’ price of the keyboard I’m using; It was ~$79 when I wrote about it:


I’ve got a new little Bluetooth speaker that came in the mail the other day:
Linkte mini Bluetooth speaker
(It is interesting that Amazon doesn’t supply them unless it’s being resold. But you get the idea of what it looks like. It works rather well, surprisingly, but I’ve yet to test out an actual phone call with it)

I’m listening to Jana Kramer as I struggle to type everything out.

"Don't speak its name" vol. 3 *

I was in Connecticut over Columbus Day weekend. There was a point where I was at my uncle's house and my aunt comes over to where I was sitting. She stands in front of a floor lamp next to me and asks a command that it be turned on. In a matter of a blink, it turned on.

Huh?

Let me back track for a minute and set the scene. I was visiting family because there is a wedding in a few months. This particular weekend was the bridal luncheon and we were in the groom's parents house (my aunt and uncle), celebrating the weekend as well as having the bride open presents. The place that made the most sense to do this was in the living room. I happened to be sitting on the couch, and between me and the wall was a decent floor lamp. Next to the floor lamp and against the other wall is a book case with an unnoticeable device (hidden due to the height of the lamp and its shade).

So...

When it came time to need more light, my aunt walks over to where I was sitting, looks at the lamp and says "Alexa, turn on the lamp in the living room". On it went... like magic.

Come to find out, my aunt and uncle own an Echo. Through out the weekend, someone would say "Alexa, play..." and mentioned an artist. Again, magically there was music. I asked my uncle how the light turned on, and instead of giving me some fluff of an answer, he plainly stated "there's a wall switch attached to the Echo and each electronic. You just tell it what item you want on or off and it does it". He proceeded to give me the example of the light, but instead of saying "living room", he said "outlet 2" or whatever it was attached to. On the lamp went.

What I didn't see was where the hub was plugged in to. I guess from what my uncle told me (among other things) all you need is a smart outlet to plug your furnishings in to, let Alexa know what it is, and when you're ready to use it, she can turn it on.

There is a lot I don't understand about this and I can admit to it. I know I'm missing some information somewhere, as I went looking for the hub and I don't really know if my uncle paid for the Echo Plus (which sells for $149.99) or the basic Echo that costs $99.99.

One of the things I wonder is the simple fact that if you buy the Echo, do you have to buy the hubs separately and let Alexa find each device? What happens if you have multiple rooms - do you need multiple Echos and multiple hubs? I keyword searched "smart hubs compatible with alexa" and a list of items came up. Since they range in price, the question becomes "what did my uncle buy to make it all work?". I know I should have gone into more detail with specifics, but it was a whirlwind of a weekend and I wasn't paying too much attention to those details.

It's nice that if you buy into the whole hub situation, you can tell a device (that always seems to be listening) to unlock your front door or turn on a light. Maybe even your TV if you're so inclined.

We're turning into a society wanting to rely on ever changing technology. I keep saying "I'm saving for Prime" but won't get Alexa. I don't have that much of a need, truthfully. I'll get Prime to stream the original content and get the shipping rate, but outside of that, maybe the $99 for the year is a waste? I don't know yet because I'm still trying to talk to people about it.

I do know that the smarter our houses become, the more it reminds me of Ray Bradbury's There Will Come Soft Rains. No spoilers, but it's an open concept of an interpretation and I challenge people to read it.

Until the next device peaks my interest...

Cheers;










See Also:
* I skipped a "volume" specifically because I wanted a crazy reference to the following albums ("just because"):



See also (aka music in my head, outside of the above references):
I have a very specific memory of this song from when I worked in Boston. Thanks, "T", for making our job more fun!