I swear this is true.  You will either love this or spend the rest of the day banging your head against the wall.  I just came across this tweet a couple minutes ago, and it is serious and on the level.  I

This is from a guy who identifies himself as a “legal and political analyst for the Fox News Channel.”  Really.  His name is even familiar to me.  For those who watch "Fox News" periodically or regularly, you probably know him.

​This is how he actually thinks technology works.  That it's "probably" just a coincidence.  Probably!!!  And he’s a legal and political analyst for “Fox News”!!!!  Boy, does this explain a lot.
 
It’s one thing for idiots to have idiot conspiracy theories.  But as biased as they are at “Fox News,” you still hope that their “legal and political analysts” are just biased and not brain-dead.  Alas…
 ​

One of the funniest tech columns I've read (while being very informative on a good subject) was this by my pal Ed Bott on ZDNet.  It's about people focusing on the wrong thing and missing all the apps that can't be uninstalled from different platforms - some for good reasons, some not.

The story began life when Ed was hearing about outrage from people and other reporters about how it wasn't possible to uninstall Microsoft's Edge browser from Windows when that operating system is installed.  He makes the point that what people complaining don't realize is that if you immediately uninstall the Edge upon getting Windows -- which many people might do -- then you would have no way of downloading whatever browser you choose to run.  So, Windows makes it impossible to uninstall Edge, but after you get the browser you want, you can make it your default browser and simply hide Edge.

But then he goes further, looking into all the different programs that people don't realize can't be uninstalled, whether from Windows or the Apple operating system.

And it's all done in Ed's straightforward, easy to follow in English and funny way.  And all the better, the article  -- titled, "How to uninstall Chrome, Safari, and other built-in apps? OMG, you can't!​" -- also has one of my favorite tech quips I've come across. Without giving it away, in case you do read the article, it deals with the Apple app for chess that can't be uninstalled.

You can read the fun article here.

Much as there's SO much political news to deal with, I nonetheless thought I'd go with something different this morning instead.  A tech warning.

I did something very stupid yesterday.  Fortunately, it didn't go any farther than that, and there was no problem.  I could have done something disastrous.  But happily had the presence of mind to double-check before it was too late, and all's well.  But that's why the warning.  And a warning with an added asterisk that I've been writing a tech column for over 20 years and should be fooled like like, making it all the more stupid, but also making it all the more clear how vigilant one has to be.

Yesterday, I got a pop-up message that my Flash software might be out-of-date, and would I like it to download the update.  (Flash software is what allows graphics to be animated, among other things, mostly for games but also some online applications.)  Now, the notice seemed a bit odd, since I didn't recall ever getting a pop-warning notice before, but I have had to update my Flash software, though usually manually.  And I didn't exactly remember what prompted me to update it -- just a random, periodic manual check, perhaps?  Or a graphic animation wasn't working, maybe.  Or a notice that it was out-of-date when a Flash animation came on screen?  Or...a pop-up like this, possibly.

I didn't recall.  I did know, though, that I have auto-updates set on much of my software, and I also have software that checks for when updates are available.  (I manually run one of those checkers every Sunday, in fact, and had done so that very morning.)  So, I was surprised, but though it reasonable enough to download the update which looked absolutely real with the Flash logo and everything.

That said, I'll admit to further being surprised that it automatically downloaded the Flash update before I even had a chance to click "Download."  And that did make me wary -- but not as wary as I should have been, since I figured it was just related to my various auto-check programs about updates.

What also struck me was weird was that I thought I'd read that Flash was going to be discontinued, though I figured I might have been confusing it with another similar type of software known as Java.  In fact, Java was discontinued.in 2018, I believe.  So, I thought that that was probably what I was thinking of.

Important note:  When you have a lot of yellow caution warning lights, they're there for a reason.  So, stop.  And I usually do stop at that point, since I was wary about a lot of things.  But there were enough answers to my wariness that I movie forward foolishly.

Foolishly, yes, but for all this above, I still hadn't taken a direct action that was actually stupid.  All this I've just described was automatic on its own.  What was stupid is that I went to the downloaded file and double-clicked on it to run.  What on earth I was thinking, I don't know.  I could have opened the door to disaster.

Fortunately, like all software, another pop-up box then appeared telling me about the file and asking me to confirm the download.  And that's when I fortunately looked closer and took a step back.

It actually all looked fine.  But there was one line that looked off.  It showed the location where the server was located that would be installing the file.  Fortunately.  It was something like "Netvork  Tekhnolodzhiz - Tov."  Now, of course, lot of techies have senses of humor of come up with funny names for their servers.  Just that morning, I've updated one of my pieces of software using the popular Major Geeks.  (Another reason I was in the "updating software" frame of mind, probably...)  And I do know that some servers are overseas.  And I could have just missed the spelling if I wasn't at least (happily) wary enough to look.  And that didn't look right.  At all.  So -- fortunately and joyously -- I held up clicking on the "Install" button and went back to my web browser and did a search for "Netvork  Tekhnolodzhiz - Tov."

I still don't know what it is.  But that's because there were a lot of listings, some for that, some for other things different, with lots of various explanations -- but one word that showed up in the first few listings was..."Ukraine."

I didn't look any further.  I didn't care if it was legitimate.  If my Flash player was going to be out-of-date, so be it.  I could always check into it later on.  And if worse comes to worse, ask my tech guru Ed Bott, who would probably say, "Are you nuts???!!!" -- and who is probably shaking his head in agony while laughing at the same time (since I did say I was safe...) while he's reading this.

I mean, seriously -- "Ukraine"!!  Why not put a skull-and-crossbones on it with "666" superimposed underneath and have ominous organ music blast out of my speakers?  Ukraine.  Thank goodness it wasn't something even slightly less blatant, like...oh, Moldova.  Perhaps the only time I was actually thrilled to see "Ukraine" appear during this election cycle.  

So, after seeing "Ukraine" -- and I mean instantly after -- I immediately went back to the pop-up screen, immediately clicked "Cancel" and not only immediately deleted the file, but permanently deleted it, immediately.  And immediately closed all the pop-up screens where it was asking me about the file.  (Which I hadn't seen before, but is another dead giveaway that someone is trying to get you to do something you shouldn't.)

And by the way, I later did a search and it turns out I was right -- Flash is being discontinued in December, 2020 -- only four months away.

So, other than feeling like a total idiot for not stopping immediately when I had all those "yellow caution warning lights" in my gut -- and mind -- and then actually clicking on the file, all is well.  No problem was caused, because I did finally hold off and looked into what finally was enough to seem wrong.

How did I get that download?  I'm not sure, but I think it came as a result of a search I was doing for a question I had.  I was clicking on sites that seemed like they might have an answer -- all of which were ones that I either recognized or appeared reasonably legitimate -- except for one that had an odd name.  But it was an odd question, and it was only information I was looking forward, I wasn't planning on clicking on anything.  But I'm sure it was that website, and when I simply accessed, it sent that download.  Which I idiotically clicked on.  And then stopped, fortunately researched it and then happily canceled out.

So, that's the warning.

You probably know it.  And probably follow it.  But it's still good to be reminded of things being especially clever and catching you off-guard even when you're fairly wary.  I mean, as I said at the beginning I've been writing a tech column for over 20 years, and I just did something incredibly stupid and naive (though "naive" is too kind a word.  It' was mind-numblingly idiotic.)  But if there are just enough reasons to move forward, that's what sometimes gets done.  Which is a good reason to repeat the "Important note" yet again --

When you have a lot of yellow caution warning lights, they're there for a reason.  So, stop.

It's sort of the way I feel about people who foolishly are thinking of voting for Trump and anyone in the Republican Party.

Ah, great!  I knew I'd be able to get around to some political opinion this morning.  Phew!!!

I haven't been writing my Writers Workbench tech review column for a while -- it seems other things have gotten in the way -- but I did finally just step back into the stream and had a new column posted on the Writers Guild of America website..  This was for the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD external drive.  It's ethereally light and small, and for large files especially, blisteringly fast.  It's not for everyone's needs, but those who do have a use for it, it's very impressive.

I note a couple of oddities in my testing of small files, but that didn’t affect my thoughts over all.  Just odd.
 
As always, because coding the article is a pain -- and the WGA has done it for me on their site -- It's far easier to just provide a link to it there.

If you missed ​Last Week Tonight with John Oliver last night, here's the Main Story on facial recognition.  It's extremely interesting -- fascinating about the development of the technology and concerning about the lack of controls for the most part.  And he and his crack staff are able to make if funny, as well.

At last it's here -- my ethereally long article about the Consumer Electronics Show.  Some of it has been posted on this site during my daily reports, but there's much more and it's actually in some sort of structured order to hopefully help make sense of the show, rather than just random products as with the daily postings.

As always, since this is written for my "The Writers Workbench" column on the Writers Guild of America website, I'm posting a link to the article there, rather then do so here.  Not because of priority interest, but because there's a LOT of coding required, and it's all done on the WGA website, which means I don't have to do it here.

So, it you do want to see the full article, you can check it out here.

About six years ago, CES introduced what they called Eureka Park.  This was a small area set off for start-ups and entrepreneurs, some with products that maybe would one day hit the market though most wouldn’t get much farther than Eureka Park.  It was laid out across three small rooms.  Today, it’s a huge part of the exhibition at the Sands Expo, the facility that complements the main Las Vegas Convention Center, taking over much of the lower level.  It feels a bit like a flea market, with narrow aisles, crowds trying to jam their way through, and vendors hawking their wares trying to get your attention.  It’s also a lot of fun.  It’s also grown to include contingents from countries around the world.  While most of the companies still won’t see the light of day, many of the foreign contingents feature vendors who have a footprint back at home and are trying to expand, and I’ve come across some of the others in the marketplace.  (Every once in a while, a few will show up on the TV show Shark Tahnk, and even get a deal.)

I decided to spend a a bit more time at Eureka Park this year than in the past.  I didn’t make it all the way through on my first trip there, dividing time between it and the largest “main room” upstairs — which is massive and dwarfs Eureka Park.  (By the way, not only is this main room massive — though very congenial with especially-wide aisles and fewer people — but it’s got the most convoluted layout in which I regularly get lost and struggle to find my way back to the exit doors.  Really.  It’s sometimes taken me 15-20 minutes to orient myself and find my way out.  But this year I had a brilliant idea.  And I swear this is true.  I brought my compass from my days as it regular wilderness hiker and working for the California Park Service!  This let me set my bearings on arrival and made it a breeze to find my way out.  Honest.  Was it necessary?  Of course not.  Did it make things easier and more fun.  Absolutely.)

As always, in no special order, here are some of the products that caught my interest at Eureka Park. 

Heat box is from Holland, and at heart it’s a lunch box.  But it’s a self-heating lunch box which allows you to warm up your food and have a hot lunch!  It’s wireless, and you add water to the lower area, which you then cover with a metal plate.  The water is heater, and essentially you’re steaming the food.  So, the only kind of food they don’t recommend it for are things that would normally be crispy.  They expect to be in production in Mark.

Younglingz is basically carry-on luggage on wheels, meant for families with small children.  The luggage is sort of L-shaped, which creates a sitting area you little kid can sit on, as you wheel it along.  Sort of a combination stroller-suitcase.  They expect to have them for sale in April-May, and will sell them for $150.

CodeIllusion is a remarkable, very mature product to teach children computer coding (or adults who want to learn).  But this isn’t intended to pique a child’s interest, but for those who really seem to love this sort of thing already, because it’s very expensive, around $1,900.  But it’s tremendous.  The Japanese company has partnered with Disney, and it uses the library of Disney animated films to guide the user through 125 half-hour lessons.  Movies like Frozen, Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Pinocchio and many, many more.  It’s elegantly designed and it walks the student through with clips, provides the code for that sequence and then and then explains what it wants you to change.  Seriously impressive, seriously expensive.

PeriPage is a tiny portable, inkless printer.  About the size of two packs of cigarettes.  It uses small rolls of thermal paper and lets you print out photos, documents and labels,  The results aren’t laser printer-clear, but fine for its purposes.  And being thermal paper, this isn’t meant for things intended as keepsakes, since the results will only last about 10 years, but that’s likely more than long enough for most purposes, which is that you’re away from home and want something printed out right away.

Beyond Eureka Park, I also made it to Showstoppers, which is the other of my two favorite evening events.  Lots of vendors there, filling up the ballroom.  A couple of companies particularly struck my interest --

The product from Tanvas isn't intended for consumer sale, but is intended for manufacturers.  They make "tactile" software (using what's know as haptics) that companies can use in their own products.  What I found most interesting is an application they're developing for cars.  With most new cars moving away from buttons and dials and onto touchscreen dashboards, that makes it difficult for drivers to know exactly what they're accessing without looking over, which is not always a great thing when driving.  However, by giving the dashboard icons a "tactile" feel, a driver will be able to sense what icons they're accessing without checking it out.

I can't tell you if ResQ works as they claim.  That's out of my expertise, and the product was only released this week.  But if it does work as they insist, it's wonderful.  The intent is to allow a user to immediately regain use of their computer after getting hit by a damaging virus or when your system has been blocked by ransonware.  The way that ResQ owners described their product, you hit the "Protect" button on their device (connected to your computer), it downloads an image of your computer hard drive while knowing to avoid any virus/ransomware there), and you can them boot your system from this now-external drive.  And you can then upload this clean version back onto your computer hard drive.  If it works as promised, it's a great thing.

Still more to come from Eureka Park, the Sands and did the Las Vegas Convention Center, but that requires more rambling and note taking, so...onward....

Because of my sense of a "themeless" show this year without any breakthrough technologies, I thought I'd take in CES a bit different this year and look at products more from the innovative perspective, rather than what to expect in the coming years.  Some of the innovation is very impressive and some...well, let's say it's not fully thought through.  But it all gives an idea of what technology can do and perhaps where it may go.

With no order intended, here are some totally random observations of products that I came across wandering around during the first, full day.

In fact, not only did I have an eye out for innovation, these are some of the honorees for the CES Innovation Awards that the show gives out.  And what I found notable is how many of them are in the health and wellness field, an area I generally haven't written about much in the past.

Tactile Pro is the first PC that is made specifically for the blind.  It's a laptop which is able to translate information into Braille.

Lexilens is an absolutely fascinating product, assuming it works as described.  It's eyewear that is engineered to be a reading aid for dyslexics.  The description made it seem like it's able to manipulate the letters that are perceived and then correct them.

On the other end of the spectrum, Mateo is a smart bath mat, and it seems like it's not quite as cool as the inventors believe.  It monitors weight, body composition and "posture evolution", sending the information to an app on a smart phone.  I guess it's for people who don't like a scale in their bathroom and who want to know more about their posture evolution.

Similarly, there was the Smart Belt which has great intentions, but I don't quite grasp why it would be effective.  The intent is to help elderly people who haven an issue with falling.  It analyzes the situations that could lead to a fall, and then warns of conditions for future falls.  But I'm not sure if most people will react in a way to prevent those future falls, especially when it's simply too late, like losing their balance.  

But then, there was another product meant for the elderly that I thought was terrific -- the Pria from Black & Decker.  It's an automated medication manager and home health care assistant.  Basically, you put all your medication in the device in separate compartments and then program it so that it will dispense the proper dosages each day.  And there's also a built-in camera and monitor so that you can have 2-way video communication with a family member or (I assume) your doctor.

One product I'm written about for a few years that I like but really isn't available in the U.S. readily is the induction stove top.  (These are cool to the touch, but heat up metal.)  It requires a complete rewiring of kitchens and a standard that isn't totally compatible to what utilities provide.  (At least that's somewhat how it was described to me.)  But Samsung had a portable induction stovetop, intended for small apartments.  So, I have to assume that, being portable, it might at least have a better chance of being usable in the U.S.

There were other interesting or odd products, of course, that I came across which were not Innovation winners.  Among them are --

The Janax flexible battery is not for consumer sale, but intended for manufacturers.  And yes, the lithium battery is flexible.  That allows batteries to be built into wearable products where a normal battery would be bulky or uncomfortable.

I've come across Toto toilets in the past, and they do love their toilets.  Very innovative, probably more so than most people require, but it's certainly fascinating to see.  The latest uses water very efficiently, provides a soft light for those who use the facilities at night where turning on a bright light would be glaring, a quiet flush and the "Washlet" touch pad -- allowing for a, ahem, back cleaning, front cleaning, privacy music and a wand clean.

And lots of Smart locks, which aren't as Smart as I want in a lock.  They run on batteries, and I've seen them for several years now (a lot more this year), and I've never been bowled over by how they handle the issue of battery power.  One, for example, was the TappLock.  It's a very good-looking product that uses fingerprints to open, and you can store fingerprints of 100 people in one model, and up to 500 in another.  There are warning lights on the lock and power stats on the app, but if for whatever reason you're not as attentive as you should be, it will need a power boost from a charger to be able to work.  When I asked what happens if one doesn't have a portable charger handy, the reply I got back was, "Oh, everybody has a portable charger."  Sorry, much as readers here know I absolutely love portable chargers, "Everybody" doesn't carry one.  Hey, I don't always.  And so I explained to the rep.  "Well, okay, but most people do," she replied.  I'm not even sure if that's true, but the point was -- what happens to those people who don't?"  The answer is they're out of luck.  I asked if one could set the app to send a reminder to you when the power drops to any self-set figure -- perhaps 20% battery left -- but she said no, the app won't do that.  I'd like creating an app that did do that might be a really good idea, far better than thinking "everybody" has a portable charger.

And that's it for now.  More tomorrow.  We march on...

In the weeks leading up to CES, my Email Inbox always gets inundated with companies trying to interest reporters in their greatest, first-of-a-kind, easiest, best product ever.  And culling through them, I generally am able to get a sense of themes that will permeate the event - the types of products that the tech world is developing and have made finally it to the forefront to push the market ahead.  And this year, my observation is that the answer is - none.  There doesn't seem to be a theme.  Mostly, it was a lot of "stuff."  (Which is the technical term…)  To be clear, it's all impressively advanced "stuff," but it's still "stuff."

If any types of products did stick out, it was those in the area of health and wellness, Smart homes, wearables, 5G (still "on the verge," and not mainstream yet), and streaming services.  We'll see, over the next few days.  Mind you, all of these are perfectly valid consumer fields, just not what most people think of when anticipating the Cool Things in Tech.

Further, even without themes, there are always a range of some wonderful and fascinating devices, technologies and advances that catch your eye.  Indeed, one of the major points of CES is discovering what companies are improving and coming up with, to see the direction it's all headed. 

To be clear, this is nothing new.  I've long had a theory about Big Themes.  I've found that they usually run for 3-4 years, and then technology gets so advanced and mature that tech world has to take a year off to breathe, so it can regenerate itself and catch up.  I think we're just in one of those years.

The show officially opened today, but as I mentioned, last night I made my way over to the Mirage for Pepcom's Digital Experience, one of the two, similar evening events I love to go to.. They each take over a ballroom, fill it with vendor booths from 100 companies or so, and invite members of the press.  Plus they provide a buffet.  There is no truth to the rumor that the buffet is the only reason I go. I did enjoy the event, as always, though found it a bit underwhelming.  Like I expect much of the show to be, there was a lot of "stuff."  We'll-crafted tech stuff, but still stuff.

Without any order, but randomly, here a few things that stood out, for a variety of reasons.

Mevo Start is a camera that makes livestreaming incredibly easy.  You connect the Mevo camera to your mobile phone by Bluetooth, and then using their app you can set up which of your social media accounts you want to livestream to.  Whatever you film will then be instantly and automatically uploaded to those social media sites and begin to livestream.

Drinkworks comes from Keurig, and it's a similar product as their highly-popular coffee machines.  This though is for cocktails.  They have about a two dozen "pods" each with a different type of mixed drink.  Everything is inside, including the alcohol, all you add is water.  And yes, they have a child-proof lock to keep out the kiddies.

Another beverage product is Juno, which can chill a can of soft drink in about two minutes, and will chill a bottle of wine in five minutes.

Lots of health-related products, all really good tech, not all great products.  

There were more Smart eToothbrushes, one from Oral B and another from Colgate.  The latter, though -- as I mentioned to one of the product's consulting doctors -- happily was the first one I've seen that wasn't stupid.  In fact, it seemed even useful, the Plaqless Pro  It has sensors that can detect fluorescent that's in plaque and lights up blue, telling you that you've missed it with your brushing.  Only after you've got it fully cleaned does the light change to white. (They don't market it as well as the doctor described it, but at least the product itself was good which was the main thing.)

On the ridiculous end is Charmin Airia.  This is a robot that wheels around with a roll of toilet paper that you can bring to you if your roll runs out when you need one.  A rep of the company kept telling me how valuable this is, that you don't have to get up and go get a roll when needed.  As I explained, I think a lot of people keep an extra roll in a bathroom cabinet, and it's not a problem reaching over for it.  And further, if the issue is that "you don't have to get up," most people keep their bathroom door closed, so when the robot arrives, you're going to have to get up and let it is, since they haven't added the all-important "open the door" feature.  I added that much more important that developing this product is having a good toilet paper, which they do, and he agreed...

The Whistle Go pet tracker seems to be an excellent, if somewhat odd device for pets.  It uses GPS and cellular to let you create a "safe zone" for your pet which will beep if the pet goes outside it.  And you can track where it is easily.  But it also has a fitness tracker that keeps a line on your pet's health -- how many calories it gets, when it runs around for exercise and where, when it's just resting, and even when it's scratching and licking itself (really), information you can get to your vet.

AirThings lets you control the air quality in your home.  They also make a big point explaining how you can control this when you're not at home. That sounds good, and maybe it is, bit it seems that home air quality is far more important when you're actually ay home.

There was a lot more -- most of more interest to other people there than me, but a lot more to come...