OTR Links 05/10/2021


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My Week Ending 2021-05-09


Here’s a summary of some of the things I learned and published this week.

Readings 

You can follow my daily readings as they happen here.  Below are a selected few, with commentary, from the past week.

Sunday

  • I found this interesting; readers know that I do a lot of dog walking – yesterday 15 000 steps. Can you get fit from doing this?
  • When I read lists list this of popular baby names, I know why my kids were always the odd ones out. They didn’t make the list

Monday

  • If nothing else, the pandemic has shown us the need for fastest internet speeds. here are the fastest in the world
  • With the price of lumber these days, maybe this will really take off

Tuesday

  • When I read articles like this, I’m reminded why I use an advertisement blocker or a browser with blocking built in
  • A part of my past has now been torn down – the Hespeler Road bridge and I can’t even drive by to see what’s there now

Wednesday

  • Listowel is a great town and now is recognized world-wide for their sign wars. Gotta love it
  • There might have been more consequences if she had confided in the first lady, an educators

Thursday

  • Somehow, I think that Facebook is getting things right although I’m generally not in favour of censorship
  • This might give you renewed appreciation for Gmail and make you turn on two factor validation immediately

Friday

  • Cinco de Mayo brings out the inquisitiveness in some people
  • This article looks at technology in the classroom as we realize that we should have paid more attention to technology use years ago

Saturday

  • For the record, I still shower daily
  • I don’t think the effect of cancelled sports on kids should come as a surprise to people

Blog Posts on
doug … off the record

My daily contributions to this blog are linked below. If you’re looking for a week in review for doug–off the record, you came to the right place.

#FollowFriday – May 6, 2021

https://wke.lt/w/s/Uhzc4Y

voicEd Radio

On this week’s show, Stephen Hurley and I chatted about Mathematics, teaching online, yoga, cameras, and Minecraft.

The show, stored as a podcast is available here:
https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/online-on-the-yoga-mat-and-on-camera/

  • Alice Aspinall – @aliceaspinall
  • Terry Whitmell – @TerryWhitmell
  • Tim King – @tk1ng
  • Peter Beens – @pbeens
  • Shawna Rothgeb-Bird – @rollforlearning

Opening Song:

Closing Song:

All of the podcasts are archived here. The show is broadcast LIVE almost every Wednesday morning at 8:45 on voicEd Radio.

Technology Troubleshooting

I don’t know how many times I’ve had to solve this problem for people. I had to do it again yesterday.

“I can’t upgrade my iPad because there isn’t enough free space.”

I love the fact that schools are embracing technology and all that but device management needs to come into play somewhere.

So I did what you would. I uploaded the content to my cloud space, performed the upgrade, and then downloaded the content. It doesn’t solve the original problem but at least the iPad is running the latest and greatest.

You’d think that, with what Apple charges for these devices, that there would be a little more storage to come with the device. But, that just pushes the problem into the future. The true answer comes from knowing what’s happening and addressing it.

On the other hand, if I’m Apple, I know that I’m going to be pushing out these updates so I’d reserve 5GB or whatever as headroom for the updates. Then, they’d go seamlessly. And, for the advanced user, they could turn it off and then be on their own to manage things.

Video of the Week

This is great news. I wonder if storage would have been an issue if done in the winter.

Photo of the Week

I get to see this every morning.

Image

Thanks for reading.

Please join me daily for something new and, hopefully, interesting for you. I honestly and truthfully appreciate your few moments reading my thoughts. Time willing, this summary appears every Sunday afternoon.

Be safe.

dp

This blog post was originally posted at:

https://dougpete.wordpress.com/

If you find it anywhere else, it’s not original.

Whatever happened to …


… Pantry Ginger Cookies?

I can’t even find a picture to maybe spark a memory of these wonderful treats.

A long time ago, they used to be something that my grandparents always had on hand. They were an odd shape with edges that wowed in and out, were very thing with a smooth top, and had the word Pantry stamped into the top.

Unlike many other ginger snaps, these really had a powerful ginger taste to them and were not what you would call sweet. They came in a pinkish cardboard package with a cellophane top so you could see that they weren’t broken although it really didn’t matter to me. For a guy who typically doesn’t like cookies, these allowed me to break that rule.

Until a while back, they were available for sale at the local Sobeys but no longer. I’ve looked there, at No Frills, Walmart, etc. and can’t find them anywhere. There seems to be no reference to them online at all. I’ve even gone to grocery store websites, searched for “cookies” or “ginger” and scrolled through so many offerings with no luck.

There are lots of ginger and gingerbread offerings but it’s like these don’t exist! Can you help a guy out?

For a Sunday…

  • do you know of Pantry Ginger cookies? (if so, I really need to know where)
  • have you ever made a gingerbread character?
  • why do most ginger or gingerbread cookies have a broken top instead of a smooth one like these had?
  • is this product a casualty of the pandemic as companies reduce products?
  • do you have a favourite cookie or will any one do?
  • I’m not making this up – https://www.chowhound.com/post/pantry-cookie-1970s-1063083

I’d be most interested in your comments, particularly if you can give me a lead on what happened to these. Please do so in the comments below.

If you have a topic for this regular Sunday morning post, please reach out and give me your idea. For the most part, the topics are fun to research and reminisce about. This particular one is frustrating because it’s been a staple in our cupboard for so long and now we can’t find it.

OTR Links 05/09/2021


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Let’s go on a trip


WARNING – if you’re like me, this could be a real time suck!

Aren’t we all ready to do a little travelling again? As we know, it isn’t going to happen anytime soon. I even heard rumblings that the stay at home order might be extended later this month.

Fortunately, we have the internet and now, City Guesser.

I’ve seen things like this before and they tend to be easy. CN Tower? I know where that is. Skylon Tower? I know where that is. Math Building at the University of Waterloo? I know where that is. Calgary Tower? Pffft.

This is really different and I found it so engaging. (and hard)

First, pick a location. There actually is a section dealing with monuments.

I decided to go easy on myself and started with Canada.

That wasn’t so easy! I wasn’t prepared for this.

City Guesser puts you at street level and starts you walking. All that you need to do is look around and try to recognize landmarks, buildings, streets, buses, and everything that’s there in detail. Then, you plot it on a map.

It’s not easy. Every Canadian City has many TD Banks, Scotiabanks, … You’re going to have to go deeper than that.

Give it a shot. I’m sure that you’ll be pushed to remember everything you thought you knew about places!