At a recent Microsoft event, there was an interesting new option that will be added to an upcoming update of Windows 10, which is currently being tested (not ready for primetime yet). It's called "incoming Android call notifications." What the feature will do is send a notification to your Windows PC that a call has come into your Android phone, and you'll have the choice of either declining the call or sending a text from your PC to the caller. (For this to work, you'd need to have Microsoft's Cortana app installed on your Android phone, and enable the "cross-device" feature in your phone's Settings.)
Obviously, if your phone is at hand, this isn't a critically necessary feature, but people often leave their phones in random rooms around their house while working or playing at their computer. And besides, typing a text on a full keyboard is far easier than from a phone.
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I loved the TV series Scrubs for its whimsy, charm, humor, intelligence, willingness to take risks and try the off-beat, and rare ability to mix humor with serious drama. Comedy Central has an all-day marathon today with Scrubs, and two of my favorite episodes are running back-to-back -- at 8:30 PM and 9 PM Los Angeles time today. The first, "My Way Home," is a very clever, very funny, and extremely touching homage to The Wizard of Oz (directed by series star Zach Braff, who has gone on to have a good feature film directing career), and it's followed by "My Musical," which is...well, a musical, with the music written by the people who did the Tony-winning Best Musical Avenue Q. (Indeed, the guest star in the episode, Stephanie D'Abruzzo got a Tony nomination as Best Lead Actress in a musical for Avenue Q.) One of my favorite things in the musical episode by the way is absolutely minor, but the fact that they did something so simple shows the thought they put into the episode, and it's how they built in a "first act curtain" and the mid-way "intermission." In fact, here's the very opening of the episode to show that they didn't just pop in a few random songs, but really went all-out to to a full-fledged musical. If you have seen the show, this is a great (albeit unorthodox) introduction to it. If you know the show, you'll likely want to see these again. Crank up the DVR. With the G7 conference now over, it turns out that Trump is the ONLY world leader there who did NOT hold a press conference afterwards with his country's reporters. Beyond the obvious and very basic lack of transparency problem this causes for not keeping the American public informed, it also breaks a long American tradition for using the G7 to show openness and how Freedom of the Press works as an example to the world.
I believe that this is officially called Making America Cowardly Again... Keeping this theme of timidity going, when White House officials did deign to talk to the press, they would only do so off-camera and instead of the president sent out National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and economic adviser Gary Cohn -- neither of who would even address reports about Senior Adviser Jared Kushner trying to set up clandestine back-channel communications with the Russians using Russian facilities. Trump is already, of course, touting how great and successful his G7 conference was. Probably the greatest ever, for all I know. So great. The most beautiful G7 of all time, much better than G6, a much bigger number. The thing is, though, when a president is too scared to face reporters after such a supposedly great and successful conference, it's a pretty fair guess that the conference wasn't quite as great and successful as he wants other to believe. Furthermore, rather than facing the press in person. he instead raced to the protection of his Tweet Room and took yet another attempt to try and trash the press with a tweet about the Montana congressional race, writing -- "Does anyone notice how the Montana Congressional race was such a big deal to Dems & Fake News until the Republican won? V was poorly covered." Never mind that I don't know for certain what the "V" means in the last sentence, it's adorable to see him touting a candidate who attacked a reporter and had police charges filed against him. And adorable as well to see him touting a race where Republicans dropped about 14 points in the outcome. And adorable how he's unable to grasp the really basic concept that the public cares about a race when it's being run -- any race, political or on foot -- but once it's over they generally move on. Almost all the time. And as-always adorable to see him try to lash out again at "Fake" news, even when it's not remotely clear what "fake" thing he's referring to here. And now that he's returned home and apparently got his "tweet privileges" back, there he is, tweeting up a storm again and doing his best to tray and trash the press even more, tweeting -- "The Fake News Media works hard at disparaging & demeaning my use of social media because they don't want America to hear the real story!" Because, of course, the Real Story can always be told in full in 140 characters or less. No matter how incomprehensible. On the one hand, I do find all this galling how damaging it is to the country for the president to be on a clear mission of trying to undermine the confidence and trust of people in a free press, which is precisely what despots do -- as if Trump actually cared whether he damaged the country or not. On the other hand, every time he goes SO overboard attacking the press and crying woeful tears of FAKE and hiding from the press it speaks volumes about how concerned he is with all the investigative reporting that the press is doing on the growing range of his administration's various inappropriate involvements with Russia. It's worth noting that trying desperately to trash the press is not going to stop them. And with a 37% approval rating for Trump, it seems like the public has already reached the conclusion that the news is pretty darn true. This week, host Peter Sagal's guest contestant for the "Not My Job" segment of the NPR comedy-quiz show Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me! is the great singer-songwriter John Prine. There's a nice bit of connection here, since the show is done is Chicago, and Chicago is where John Prine came to fame -- and even started as a mailman. (He talks about that here, although leaves out the story about how he occasionally would lock himself in a mailbox for the privacy so that he could write there.) There's no discussion of his close friend Steve Goodman, but he does talk about folk singer Ed Holstein, who's still performing, and with his brother Fred -- a folksinger, as well -- owned the prominent club Holsteins, which was the center of the folk scene in Chicago. And Prine also tells the story about how he got his start thanks to, of all people, Roger Ebert. It's a very affectionate and funny chat.
On this new 3rd & Fairfax podcast, the guest is writer Mike Schur who talks about the range of his impressive career that started with being put in charge of the "Weekend Update" segment of SNL with Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon, moving on to the writing staff for The Office for its first four seasons. From there, he co-created Parks and Recreation. And then co-creating Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Finally, he gets into his latest series that he created last season, The Good Place. As I wrote on this pages earlier here, I love the show and am a big fan of its charm, whimsy and inventiveness, and particularly its willingness to try "different." One "Spoiler Alert" -- if you're still catching up on the show, there is a discussion of the season finale. As you might imagine, it's a lively and fun interview -- as well as charming and even at times self-effacing.
This week's contestant is Mike Freiberg from Golden Valley, Minnesota. The hidden song is extremely easy, and most people I think will get it about five seconds in, after a very sleight introduction. And it's obvious throughout, not especially hidden. As for the composer style, I had a pretty definitive guess early on and was right. So -- I got both, huzzah. I think most have a good chance, as well.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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