Ideas from Mark Stout

Our recent venture into the wonderful world of car buying brought home the nicest car I’ve ever driven.  That’s saying a lot--but on the other hand my brother never has let me drive his classic roadster or Lexus --but I digress. We ventured forth with a list of must-have and nice-to-have features.  We came home without any of the nice-to-haves. Our list of Android Auto, heated seats and a backup camera were available but added thousands to the cost. And in one vehicle the package with those items came only with a third row of seats--seats that only a toddler would fit in, and would take away useful storage space.  This is my first car with Bluetooth technology. I enjoy listening to podcasts and having phone calls through the speaker system instead of my Bluetooth earpiece. Coincidentally, last week’s column was about earpieces. Tech changes fast. Seriously, an earpiece is still good if you are not the only one in the car and you want to listen to somethin...

Apple’s announcement of the latest iPhone and a new Apple Watch was overshadowed by one feature of the new phone. Or rather, a feature removed from the phone. Gone is the headphone jack.  Instead,  iPhone 7  will come with earpods that connect through the phone’s lightning connector. Removing the old connector, which provided a hole into the body of the phone, improves the water resistance of the phone. Anyone who has ever dropped a phone into the sink (or worse!)  will appreciate that feature. What really upsets long time iPhone users though is this renders their huge collection of earbuds, headphones, remote speakers and such harder to use. Apple is including a dongle with the iPhone 7 that permits previous devices to work, but the dongle is an ugly appendage hanging off the phone, likely to break or get lost.  And replacement earbuds from Apple cost $29, the same as the old wired earbuds with the 3.5 mm plug that is now gone.  What is not ce...

Our county libraries are bragging they are Pokemon Go gyms, where players of the game can capture virtual Pokemons.  This phone game is all the rage now with kids through adults. I know a minister who plays and is proud his church property is home to three Poke stops. I’m happy to see the library promoting this on its website.  Staffers understand that being a Pokemon gym is a wonderful way to attract patrons who may have forgotten about the library. Are public libraries obsolete?  It is understandable to wonder this in the world of broadband, eBooks, Netflix and are other digital media services.  The library does not seem to have the same gravitation pull it once did for many of us. In reality, our public libraries are more important than ever. Not everyone can afford a computer, or if they can, also afford broadband. Yet most jobs these days require you to fill out online applications. Our public libraries and their free computers and inter...

When my employer and I decided to relocate me from California to Virginia in 1999, the owner of the company said, “I wonder if you’ll become politically passionate like everyone else we’ve moved back there.” There is something about this area that infected me. While I’m not passionate, my interest in the process has increased. In the midst of a presidential election cycle, we all find ourselves a bit more caught up than usual. There are online tools to help us follow the elections.  More and more, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are conversing with voters via social media. I have followed the tweets coming from the various candidates through the primaries and now into the general election. I use Twitter’s  Tweetdec k product. It allows me to have columns of related sources together. I created a Twitter list of candidates and another of news sources. While I don’t read all the tweets, a quick glance gives me an idea of the ongoing conversation Clinton and Trump are having wit...