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News & Notes 6
Fill Your Brain and Inspire Your Heart Adobe has announced their annual “Adobe MAX—The Creativity Conference,” to be held over three days, October 20–22, 2020. Adobe MAX is a uniquely immersive and engaging digital experience, guaranteed to inspire. Three full days of luminary speakers, celebrity appearances, musical performances, global collaborative art projects, and 350+ sessions — and all at no cost. It is a virtual conference. The more than 350 sessions are spread over 10…
Informed Delivery by USPS
Do you know about “Informed Delivery” from the United States Postal Service? One of the newer services from the USPS in the last year or so is what they call “Informed Delivery.” If you’re not familiar with it, once you’re signed up you get an email every morning (usually about 9 AM in my case, sometimes earlier, sometimes later) that includes a scan of the outside of every letter-sized piece of mail that will be…
Pennsylvania Announces Release of the COVID Alert PA App
Pennsylvania has finally released the COVID-19 tracing app that notifies you if you’ve been near someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19. It’s available for both iOS (iPhones) and Android devices (click on the links from your device to download and install the app). This is the system that was jointly developed by Apple and Google. After installing the app and enabling it (it will walk you through the steps) your device will begin collecting…
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Weekend Reading List
This week’s Weekend Reading List is short — just three articles — but the articles themselves are longer than usual. The first article is political, the second is for Beatles lovers, and the last for Apple fans. Enjoy! “The Case Against Trump (and why some of your friends and family no longer want to speak to you)” Make sure you’ve taken your blood pressure medication today. This lengthy article is the best compilation I’ve seen…
Playing With My Food
As my Facebook friends know, I love corn-on-the-cob. Most of our corn this summer has been purchased at Snyder Farms in Perkasie, PA, one dozen ears at a time. After husking and silking one of our most recent purchases, I was playing with a few ears while the others were cooking, resulting in these photos. The main purpose of this post isn’t just to show off the corn but also to experiment with the new…
News and Notes 5
Lost Wages Assistance Program Good news! Pennsylvania has finally been approved to pay an extra $300/week in disaster-assistance benefits as part of the Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) Program from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA). That means if you’re already collecting unemployment compensation because of COVID-19, you may be eligible to receive $300/week for at least five weeks as a lump sum payment later this month. LWA Payments are available for claim weeks ending: August…
Gambling: Lottery Ticket or Stock Market?
First, to clarify, I’m not saying that putting money in the stock market is gambling, but some people do believe that. This post is not investing advice — it’s history I’ve learned over the years of saving for retirement. There are no affiliate links in this post, nor do I have any interest in the companies mentioned in this post, except for owning a few shares of some. The Motley Fool, an investing website, published…
Weekend Reading List
Here’s my recommended weekend reading list for this weekend — a few articles and blog posts I found interesting this week. Ron Sider’s Blog Dr. Ron Sider, a retired professor from Messiah University, is one of my favorite bloggers. I’m posted links to some of his posts before. His latest post today explains in detail why he will vote for Joe Biden for president. He explains why he believes Biden is more pro-life than Trump,…
Apple Card — One Year Later
One year ago today I got my Apple Card (the credit card from Apple/Goldman Sachs). It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already, and I wouldn’t have even thought about it if Facebook hadn’t reminded me this morning (thanks, Facebook) after posting about it last year. I have used it almost exclusively for my purchases since I received it last year (I’ll mention the exceptions in a minute). Everything I buy, whether in person…
Weekend Reading List
I read a lot. Much of it is online, but I’m almost always in the middle of one or two books, too — Kindle versions, of course — so I can pick up wherever I might be at the moment. I’ve finished two books in the last month and a third is more than half read. I plan to occasionally post a list of some of the best online articles I’ve read over the last…
Eight Easy Steps to Improve Your Photography
Ever since the advent of digital photography, but especially since the time our mobile phones have included good cameras, everyone has become a photographer. One of the greatest benefits of digital photography is that you get to see the results of your photographs immediately. Contrast that to the “good old days” when you took your film to Fotomat or the drug store and waited up to two weeks for them to come back, only to…
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News & Notes 4
Due App UpdateApple StockiPad Air for Sale — $149iOS 14 Beta “Due” App Update On July 5th, I reviewed the Due app (It’s About “Due”), a great reminders app that runs on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Today the macOS version was upgraded to version 20 to look and work more like the iOS versions. It’s a free upgrade for everyone who has purchased it since 2017. Redesigned and reimagined from the ground up, Due 20 for…