NEW DEVICES: When the "Out-Of-Box User Experience" Doesn't Work for the Disabled.

 

Should the hardware manufacturers be required to provide fully configured hardware setups for their disabled customers when supplying them with new equipment?

Recently myself and a volunteer spent several hours over the phone assisting someone with a severe vision problem set up their new computer. They had reached out to us after several weeks of back-and-forth with both the manufacturer and the store where they bought the machine.

As the discussion on the phone went on it became very clear that nothing on the new machine had been configured for those with vision impairments. And I began to wonder, why the heck did the store who knew the customer from previous purchases sell them the machine without some basic configuration? One might argue that in the modern machine and with the diversity of disabilities that there is simply is no single configuration which would fit all persons in a particular category.Being physically disabled myself, I beg to differ.

Addressing just vision impairments for this discussion, to keep things somewhat simple, the store could have delivered the machine set to low resolution so that things looks of much larger on the screen, instead of allowing the computer to go to the highest resolution the monitor supported immediately upon plugging the initial startup. Which effectively made the machine absolutely useless to the customer. They couldn't see a thing on their monitor. Computers are very flexible and I would be astounded if there was no way to customize a few settings ahead of time. At the very least they could've provided the customer with a few avenues to get the machine properly set up.

To be clear, the volunteers and I will continue working with this person until we get things in order. But I find myself rather annoyed that technology companies, when that they produce computers or phones or indeed some other devices don't take the initial set up into account.  Nor is it any good for a manufacturer to just put an "accessibility icon" in the corner of the startup screen… Because in this case the customer couldn't see it and probably wouldn't have recognized what it was even if it was within their visual range.

This isn't an isolated case either. I have seen it happen with, smart phones, smart TVs, and even some hardware specifically designed for people with disabilities. You would think that last group of product would be the exception. Nope. As a matter of fact it was a joystick, a $700 joystick, and it had the worst manual I have ever seen. Badly formatted and written in addition to being way too brief. My assumption in this case is that they assumed some technician would set it up for the client or customer and time. As a supplier of hardware one cannot assume that there will be a genius at the other end of the purchase chain to configure the device.

Now, we can't entirely blame the manufacturer and supplier. The customer must also take a good amount of responsibility. Unlike the general public, these devices are usually purchased to become an integral part of the person's daily routine and will be in use over a long period of time. I don't know the background in the above situation, but as a consumer you must take your time to fully review whether or not the device you are considering purchasing will actually work for you. This will mean, because I've done it personally myself,

1. After tentatively picking a product, there will be a lot of discussion as to whether it will work for a given situation. This means really looking at, in detail, how the device will physically fit in the chosen final environment. This may mean arranging a loaner device to test out whether or not it will work as anticipated. Checking to see whether the buttons are reachable, whether the screen is too bright or too dark, whether the pointing devices are calibrated to the person's sensitivities. Expect to take quite a bit of time on this initial stage. If the supplier is not willing to provide the time, then it is a good indication that this is not the right supplier. Seek a company that is willing to put in the effort.
   
   
2. No new device work exactly like the old familiar device, especially with technology. It will always change. Attention must be paid to in the case of a smart phone or computer aspects like: can some of the old software that is familiar be brought over to the new device. What replacements can be found for the items that cannot be brought over.
   
   
3. Plan ahead for the new device to change in some fashion. With software always being updated there must be a contingency plan in place should something like a new user interface be implemented by the company during an update and thereby moving or altering the position of all the icons. This can happen all of a sudden so arrange for this eventuality. Consider if applicable installing on the new device a Remote Desktop application and arrange for a friend or someone equally trusted to have the ability to remotely connect to the device to make the interface usable again.

These are just some ideas and thoughts I had for today. You could call it my Wednesday morning a rant. Have a good day everyone and of course feel free to leave comments.

Patrick

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement. 

Tied To The Internet: Could we cope without it?

What if, for reasons unknown, the Internet stop working permanently and for presumably other unknown reasons we couldn't replace it with any other technology? Just think up the number of things that would be immediately useless or incredibly limited. Your cell phone would for the most part be just a phone. I bet even text messaging wouldn't work because I am sure that somewhere embedded in the Short Message Service  (SMS) technology is a reliance on the Internet. So scratch one fancy phone. Your computer, aside from your home network, would literally be a standalone machine. No email, video calls, and definitely not know uploading and downloading. No streaming. You get the idea.

Just the removal of one component of our technological life… A technology that is so integrated into everything now that I'm sure almost no one has a grasp of the full impact of the loss, should it one day disappear. My wheelchair gets updates over the Internet. That right. that in itself, tells us how deeply intertwined this communication technology is. I don't think society could go back, actually when the Internet didn't exist for the average person. It is tempting to think "Oh yes, society could go back" but in all honestly I don't think that thought is realistic. Not only have billions of people grown up with having the Internet and have gotten very used to looking up anything pretty much instantly. (Here we are not considering the quality of the information retrieved, just the fact that it can be retrieved easily.)I can't see business reverting to the old ways of doing things either.

It is however, and intriguing thought experiment. The public Internet began around 1993 when the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) put the underlying software in the public domain, and yes I just use Gemini to look that little factoid up. Any links in this article will be my attempt to corroborate these statements. That small amount of "research" took all of 20 seconds. If however we were back in the year 1989 or so, what what I have to do to find the information?… My first thought would be a trip to the library, and I'm probably only thinking that way because I am 66 years old and can remember using a library. However how would someone in their 20s or 30s if they were put in such a situation find any information. A library may be a relic to them, something they will only heard about from their parents.

Let's say a city like Vancouver British Columbia Canada was put in this situation. Would people begin to rally to the challenge of a pre-Internet existence? To be clear I'm not talking about rolling the entire city back to the year 1989 or so, just removing the Internet itself. This might make a fascinating book or at the very least a video series. That may be even better because the viewer could see the impact of losing a technology so critical to our modern lives. 

False Creek, Vancouver BC Canada, circa 1980s
Click to download the full resolution image.
I, Patrick Clark, hereby place this image in the public domain.

This image was scanned originally from a "slide" (More information on what a Slide projector was can be found here,) which had faded and was corrected with scratch removal, white balancing, and slightly cropped because the original image was not aligned properly in the scanner. This photograph was originally taken by my father and scanned into a computer some years later running Windows XP. Restoration was done in 2026 on Windows 11 using Corel Paint Shop Pro 2023 by Patrick Clark.

 

 

I know the photograph of the Vancouver from the early 1980s is a little out of place with the topic at hand since at the time of the photo very few people knew about the Internet and it was still in extremely early development. But it does underline how much things have changed. I think cell phones were just becoming a thing and again they were expensive. But could the average person living today adapt to a world without Internet? I mean, my watch needs the Internet to set the correct time. There is no way to set it manually. So if the battery ever dies, that's it for the watch.

I have lots of old skills that would enable me to cope, and I do remember researching school essays by hand, raiding the aforementioned library. Or buying a physical book and reading the whole thing. These behaviours are sufficiently ingrained in me that I'm not even sure what skills I am using. Someone born in the 2000's however, would have their skills tied to the Internet. 

 

Socialization

This could be most difficult for people who grew up with the Internet. Without social media and text messaging this could be very difficult to adjust to. It would include discovering the lost art of conversation. And conversation is pretty much a lost art indeed in some segments of the population. Go on public transit and there is very little discussion among the riders. Everybody is glued to their devices. There is a lot of subtlety in being social: 

• You have to pick up on clues in the environment. 
• Know how to keep a conversation engaging. 
• Know when to not engage someone. 

 These are all skills that can take many years, may be months if you're only rusty at the particular task.

From my perspective social media has done more harm than good. It doesn't allow people to naturally mature emotionally because they can write or say something inappropriate online and then just disappear. Do that in real life and you would get an unavoidable reaction from the other person. People I think would have a rough time regaining old skills. Learning how to be in a larger environment and sociable is something humans start to learn when they're young and it is complicated to say the least.

When I was about 15 citizens band radios (CB) were all the rage and I was caught up in it. This is the first time we saw people say things and act inappropriately go off the air. You couldn't do that before. If someone said something rude the other person or a group of people would let them know right then and there that whatever they said was unacceptable.

My CB radio a RadioShack Realistic TRC 30A
Circa 1975

Society needs people with good socialization skills. It is fundamental in getting along. The question is and I know I'm repeating myself - Could people pick these critical skills in adult life? Would there always be something rough around the edges with these people or could they successfully master socialization? My goodness the number of questions in this article so far is rather surprising. From my initial perspective it looks like we really do rely on the Internet in a lot of areas.

On the other hand, there are many positives that being able to communicate rapidly and exchange information brought to us by the Internet that have benefited people. So like life itself there are no absolute good or bad in this discussion. 

I remember my parents absolutely freaking out whenever it was necessary to make a long distance phone call. The price was expensive and charged on a permanent basis. Now with just your browser, you can have a conversation with a friend on the other side of the world and the cost is negligible complete with real-time video. 

Would handwriting come back in to use?

This is a point I really find a mind blowing. The fact that they do not teach handwriting in school. Initially it makes sense since everything is done online. But consider the intimate connection of writing something on paper. It involves a completely different mindset and I wouldn't be surprised if it ultimately affects in a positive way one's cognitive abilities. Not just the mechanics of creating a written sentence, the way you are putting together the thoughts in your mind. It is much more intimate than typing on a keyboard.

I know from personal experience using voice dictation that a person speaks in day-to-day language very differently than they write. Presumably this is due to the fact that you have time to think while constructing a paragraph. Voice dictation on the other hand there is a tendency to write very informally. So if someone always had access to the Internet and did not learn handwriting the challenges they would face would be quite large. After all this was a skill which took time to develop. Never mind reading someone else's handwriting. Both my parents were in healthcare and my father had particularly bad, almost abstract, and writing. Very few people have to deal with this now.

And all that is happened is that one component, albeit a big one, has been removed in this discussion. "The Internet".

I am really interested to hear your comments. When time permits I will also add a YouTube video version of this article.   ... And here it is:

Have a great day!
Patrick 

 PS: This is the 200th post on this blog. I plan to keep on going😀.

 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement. 

Fleeting Micro Judgements

 

Someone says something to you. In the milliseconds, before you have an initial reaction, your mind is already deciding the value of what what was just heard. It is determining before you have your initial feeling about the statement, whether the feeling you experience should be one of pleasure, disgust, or anger. In short your brain is putting a label on it before you're even aware of hearing what is being said by the other person. This happens very quickly, in a fleeting moment your mind may be considering something else. Nevertheless these judgements have made their mark and coloured your perceptions.

These "micro judgements" as I call them, work in concert with cognitive bias, are so automatic and often arbitrary, that it is a wonder the average person isn't a walking, talking body of contradiction. Fortunately our higher brain functions manage (i.e.functions that require advanced, complex, and abstract processing )to project the appearance of rational human being most of the time. But put someone under the right kind of stress however and these micro judgements can become visible. 

These small almost instantaneous judgements reveal a far more complicated psyche. When I was in my 20s  to my dismay, I found many negative biases. And I thought myself quite a liberal, so that discovery bothered me greatly initially. Then I realized that all of humanity has these contradictory and complementary micro judgements. I still didn't feel great about my little discovery but I did take away from the ongoing experience one simple fact:

"It is better to know about these biases, then it is to be in denial of them."

It is an ongoing journey of paying attention and personal learning. As opposed to ultimately being an emotional train wreck running in neutral.

Imagine if we were all taught in early school to pay attention to the judgements we make about everything around us. The insights a young mind would gain would be a phenomenal asset throughout out their lives. And I Do Mean Phenomenal. I see many people today who are in terrible emotional states because they are at odds with themselves, only they don't know it. They only know the manifested symptom. This "symptom" often catches them off guard because it doesn't fit in with who they think they are. Yet if we can get people to learn how to be introspective at an early age, I think we would unleash not only emotional wellness but probably who are better thinkers. -- "He paused, to consider deeply problems faced by society."

Today we spend a great deal of our time reacting to the external world, as though nothing else mattered. "It's all out there" is the mantra of the modern age. In truth, the most powerful modifiers are internally based.Take for example the emotion of Love. There is no greater feeling. It is so profound that it can instantly change your outlook on the entire world and those around you. Think of someone you love right now. All of a sudden the world seems a better place. Nothing external has changed. All you've done is acknowledge and get in touch with some totally internal experience. You can be in the worst mood and yet after thinking about a beautiful memory, all of a sudden things are markedly improved.

People must reacquaint themselves with their internal motivations to not only see the profound effect micro judgements have on their personal outlooks, but to understand the tremendous potential available. I think the larger world is that of the psyche. It is the totality of our complexity and also our potential.

Have a great day!
Patrick 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

Who says the world has to make sense?… See it like a child for a day. Or more often if you like😃

I recently met a child of about seven years old, and the first thing he said was "You've got a big tummy." They were dancing around with blinking LED shoes when they said this. I thought to myself "What a joyful honest answer." I couldn't help smiling.

There was absolutely no malice in what they said, rather there was honesty and the simplicity of how they interacted with people. No judgements, no negativity, lots of playfulness and above all, simply direct. I don't's can learn a thing or two from this encounter between the old and the new.

As adults, perhaps it is time to look and think a little bit like a child. When you next open your front door, take just a moment and look around your surroundings as someone much younger. Not only will you go down memory lane, I'm betting you will realize just how many layers of complications and considerations grown-ups tend to put on themselves. Most of the time this is good, but if we begin to do it subconsciously without thinking there is a chance we can lose touch with the simple pleasures of life. Things need not be complicated. And it could be quite refreshing 😄

I'm reminded of a time when I was very young in Trail British Columbia when my brother had received a miniature working steam engine, complete with a boiler, and a flywheel. I was fascinated by this little gizmo. So I asked my dad if we could build one out of a coffee can. He looked at me and said "I don't think that would work." The more he tried to explain why this would not be a good idea, the more my young mind went wild with ideas on how to fix each of his stated issues. You see, he was looking at it as an adult, and rightfully so, but I was looking at it as a child and coming up with solutions, albeit based on the cartoon logic of the Coyote and RoadRunner" (Thank God I was exposed to those cartoons, back then). Even though we never built this steam engine. I have learned something very important from the experience and lingering memory. "Keep your mind open to the possibilities--Even If They Are Ridiculous. Because from that ultimately not so ridiculous answers may emerge."

Today's lesson then is to remember to think like a child on a regular basis. Just stick your head out the door, or a look around the corner with the attitude you had when you were five or seven years old. The world is about exploring and some of the best toys come from being open to the simple ways of seeing things. Take it a step further if you find this enjoyable. Do it regularly. Don't worry about limitations, details, or whether you may make a mess 😉....  If it puts a smile on your face then you have gained something magical.

Most of the really creative and free people I know stand touch with their childlike perceptions and frequently revisit their own mental playground. Leaving behind all the considerations and the judgements that adults have.

Is matter-of-fact I'm have put a few days on my calendar right now and if I can find a way to do this regularly I may go off and fly a lollipop and dunk it in my chocolate pudding!


Have a great day everyone.
Patrick

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

Buying The Ephemeral

I sat down, to get an idea of just how many subscriptions and other payments are made in one year to services and products which are totally ephemeral. I don't mean in the classical definition of the word ephemeral, that is things which lasted only one day, rather I mean purchased items which have no physical shape. Take for example a movie subscription on Netflix. Then their software, it to today has no physical product and even if you're lucky enough to have a box which the product came in I bet that's all it is an empty box with perhaps a license key.

When you start to add all of the items up, it can be quite a shock. Not only is there nothing physical to show for the money you are spending, it is the fact that we have moved very quickly in this direction. I can't help thinking that this is a "Sucker's Game" in the end.

It used to be that everything you spent money on you came home with. As the late
George Carlin used to say in his standup routine "You Have so Much Stuff! And you need more places to put it." Now we don't need any place, and in that I find an issue. I Miss My Stuff!.

When I first got into computing, the software came with huge binders of information. It cost an arm and a leg, but you had something physical. Even though it had a software license there was no time limit. As long as you had a computer that could run whatever the product was. It would work… Fast forward to 2026 and every time major software is launched on your machine it connects to a remote server run by the company who made the package. If it doesn't make that connection your software doesn't run. Here's the kicker, and nobody seems to mind.

So what we are witnessing is a huge change in the mindset of the consumer, and from my perspective, this puts a layer of abstraction between the very products you use and the knowledge of what you need in order to use them. If your Internet connection goes down how many of these products you know will stop working? Probably many more than you think. Recently, I worked was someone whose printer was not working. It turned out that the printer needed to be hooked up to the Internet so that he could call home approximately once a week. It was doing this because the owner had joined a subscription ink service. To make matters even more interesting, when they decided to cancel their subscription the printer shut down again because the ink cartridges were parked of that subscription. Ultimately the person I had to go to the store and physically by new cartridges to get things going again. Even though the subscription cartridges had plenty of ink left and they had been fully paid for.

Not too long ago this would have resulted in a complete consumer revolt. As I recall a mini revolt was generated when Windows 95 and Windows 98 implemented a crude version of automatic updates. People were really put off by the fact that Microsoft could scan their computer. If they only knew, back then what was coming… Back then as well you had to go to the Microsoft update webpage to do the scan so it was quite different than it is today, but it was the beginning of a transition from the physical product to the ephemeral.

It is so easy to lose track and receive a surprise Subscription Renewal notice saying something like "Thank You! Your subscription has been automatically renewed." It adds up collectively very quickly. Personally that is why I have every auto payment option in my bank account turned off. On the occasion where a store requires the authorization for automatic payments, once the transaction is complete I go in and it disable that authorization.

Let me know your thoughts on this topic. If you feel like it please also feel free to relay some personal experiences.

Have a great day!
Patrick

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

Compartmentalization Of One's Place In Society

As many of you know, I live in a supported living environment, which simply means the due to my physical disability I have 24 hour care. On the whole however I am quite independent and am always up to some activity. I really do have a curious and thoughtful mind. This is in sharp contrast to many of the people in my building who for lack of a better phrase, regardless of the severity or mildness of their condition don't have a "life" outside of the institutional framework. That is everything about their existence revolves around this facility. They may go outside but only to the local shopping mall or occasionally a movie theatre. There was a constant complaint that they are board or in other ways disgruntled and yet they do nothing to alter that state. As you can imagine, this results in a very routine life. For them every day is essentially the same as the one before it and frequently the names of each day don't seem to matter. A Wednesday has just as much importance as a Friday, which anyone working a standard week would know is definitely not the case. Friday is the beginning of the beloved weekend, and it still issomething I get excited about 😃

I've been in this facility for about seven years now and many times I've tried to encourage people in the building to broaden their horizons and do more. I mean we live in a day and age where we are simply flooded with information and opportunities… How could one not have an outside interest or opinion upon which to expand their life upon? Whenever I bring up this point, people asked me what they should do instead of looking inside of themselves to consider what they want to do. 

"You will never be satisfied with life, if you ask others what to do. You must ask yourself, what you want to do with life."

This cyclical behaviour of people asking others what they should do and then rejecting the suggestion, only to go back into the same routines repeats constantly. Honestly this is now something I find a little annoying, because many of the people living in my building could be doing something more rewarding with their lives, but there is always something that has blocked them. I think, I might have an idea now what that issue might be.

Is it possible that they have locked themselves into a social caste like system? Perhaps they believe that because of their condition and because of where they live that they are compartmentalized into a limited set of opportunities. Very much like the caste system in other countries. You are born into a level of society and that is where you must state. That may sound like a ridiculous thought, but I am reminded of a friend who during a meeting of one of the groups I belong to, and I'm paraphrasing said "We are the elites, of the disabled in our age group. "At the time I thought this was a very arrogant statement. But now I am reconsidering this, although not from such a literal point of view. At the time the group I was attending we were talking about the geriatric disabled. People born in the early 1960s. The group grew up in a totally different culture especially in the early days, there was an implied social caste: "You are not normal. You are different. The opportunities in life for you will be very limited." While this is an exaggerated statement, we did take subtler messages like this to heart and even to this day at 66 years old I still have to fight the occasional belief that I feel pulling me into this limited set of opportunities. I think that is what my friend meant. Analogous to electrons trapped in the valence rings of an atom. Each electron stays within its own orbit until forcibly nudged out of it. It is not a perfect analogy and I am by no means a chemist so please take only the very general concept of this idea, in other words don't shoot the writer of this article for being inaccurate. What I mean to say is our people locked in their own or mental orbits in my facility? Do they just feel that they are part of this caste system and must stay within their own orbit.

As we all know, even though we are thinking beings of emotions can override logical thought. And if you think you belong in one orbit, or one caste you emotionally hold yourself to that level. This way of approaching the problem does make a lot of sense to me. I am not sure of the solution, aside from nagging everyone around me to death to get off their butts and do something with their lives. Which I will continue to do, so not to worry. But, if what I propose here is true, then there are undoubtedly others who are equally compartmentalized and limited by the very nature of the way they are feeling and thinking about their lives. So this is no small matter and I shall take it with me as I moved through my various activities moving forward.

Down the road there will likely be a video companion to this article because it is rather profound from my perspective. Videos however take time to get right and in the meantime I would love to hear from you, dear reader.

 As you can see the, I have created a companion video. The more I think about this topic, the more profound it becomes. I really do believe that a lot more emphasis needs to be placed on it. Being visible issues are easy to see and therefore simple to focus resources on, but it is ultimately the subtle beliefs and behaviours which have the long term impact.

While I was making the video there was a concern in the use of the word "Caste" was inappropriate, but I think it is perfectly accurate. It describes an involuntary classification placed on the individual-based only upon the situation they were born into. More importantly, as the person grows up this often becomes a self reinforcing belief so that it is fundamental in everything they do. If we step back and take a wider perspective you can see the limits and judgements being placed on many people.

To a greater or lesser extent I think everyone knows about this but I think it is been vastly underestimated. Just because something is subtle only means that it may go on unnoticed by the larger public. It does not mean that it is any less deserving of attention and ultimately resolution.

Do you think the ideas put forward in this article have merit? Let me know your experiences and thoughts. In the meantime of course have a great day and take care.

Patrick

** NOTE: The pictures and the thumbnail of the video are from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement. 

 

Change May Bring Discomfort But...

 ...It Is Guaranteed to show you something positive you didn't expect.

It is always wise to remember that no matter who you are and how observant you are there will be many times in the life where one becomes, quite accidentally, a little too comfortable.

That is, in the absence of an external force acting on the human being, we have a tendency to stop our own evolution by becoming a little too comfortable with whatever the current situation is. This stops most people from developing further. That is until something comes along and shakes them up a bit so that they continue on the road of life.

Everyone falls into this trap many times over a human being's admittedly short lifespan. When people become content for a long period of time they inevitably stop evolving. Which  is a shame, because that is the very time to undertake something new and shake up the tree. To be clear I don't mean you have to do this every day, but I do you mean that it should be frequent enough that you are keenly aware of the benefits. And what might the benefits be you ask?… Far too many to mention, and for each person the list is unique. I can tell you however that it keeps you engaged with the very process of life. Allowing you to notice things you might otherwise have not seen. I bet you as a matter of fact that when you see something new especially if it's unexpected, there is always something deep within that feels a little uncomfortable. That feeling of being "uncomfortable" is an extremely important sign because it means that you are looking at an opportunity to change. You may not like what you perceive as the change, and indeed there may be a fair bit of resistance to the new concepts you are confronted with, but I promise in the end you will gain more than you lose. Usually in ways that are imperceptible to other people. But you know what has occurred.

Click picture to view / download full
resolution printable copy.

This artwork is hereby placed in the
public domain and is based upon material
in the public domain. Patrick Clark

So please don't allow yourself to become overly comfortable or complacent. You should always try to shake each day up a little bit. Because the only meaningful constant in one's life is "change itself".

 So go out and do something you were not quite expecting today. Shake up the day!

Feel free to let me know in the comments if you had any Eureka moments 😉

Take care Patrick 

 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

 

 

Moving video and pictures from a Android phone to a USB stick and back

One of the scenarios I hear from people frequently is regarding their phones storage filling up. The phone call or discussion goes something like this:

They are getting messages from the phone that they can no longer take any photos because there is no storage space left… Usually at this point there is also a message suggesting that they pay for more online storage as well.

These two messages totally confuse the issue for most people who are not technically savvy. If they buy more online storage, the problem on the phone seems to go away for only short amount of time and then there is another message asking them to upgrade.

So my purpose in this article and accompanying video is to attempt to untangle this mess of running out of room on the phone for photos.

First off let's make clear what online storage is and why the phone is using it. When you take a photograph with your phone it is stored in two places. 

1. Inside your phone as you would expect, and this does take up physical storage space. 
   
   
2. The phone also sends a copy of the photograph to online storage. So you have a backup of the photograph. 

Great, except unless you're paying extra the amount of photos which can be stored online is rather limited. So you start getting messages about running low on storage pretty quickly after sitting up your new phone.

This behaviour of automatically backing up photographs is pretty much the default configuration for phones now days. Some phones however are configured a little bit differently and they will not display this message about running low on storage until both the online storage and the phones physical built in storage are full. If this is the situation a phone is in then it's a real mess because usually the phone cannot do software updates since there is no room to actually put the update.

So what do you do?

Answer: Transfer your photos from the phone's physical memory to another device, usually a USB memory stick or an external hard drive, for safekeeping. This does mean that you won't be able to look at all your photos on your phone, but because you now have the photos stored somewhere else you can use other devices to look at them. And if you really want to you can transfer them back to the phone at any time.

The video goes into greater detail of the transfer process but here in brief are the steps, just so you get some idea of what is going on and how to do it. These steps are specific for the Android Operating system for phones. With iPhones the procedure is considerably different. If I can get my hands on a current iPhone I will make a video and article for those as well.

Before proceeding… Phones and anything related to the Internet changes frequently. It is quite possible that the procedures outlined below no longer match your phone. These instructions are specifically geared toward android-based operating system phones and tablets. Use them at your own risk. When in doubt Do Not guess. Take your device to a professional who can provide specific guidance.

1. Buy a USB memory stick with a Type "C" plug as shown in the picture below. The USB stick will connect to your phone using the same connection as the one used for charging. If the phone does not have this style of USB connector take the phone to the store when you are purchasing the USB stick and see if you can get a compatible USB stick or an adapter. (In the video I recommend a USB stick with at least 32 gigabytes (GB) of storage. But after thinking about it if you can get 64 GB that would be preferable. Pictures and videos can be quite large now days.)
   
   

   

   A suitable USB stick with a "Type C" connection on the end.
   This represents 90% of all new cell phones. 
   
   

2. Plug the USB stick into the phone. If you get a message indicating that the stick must be "formatted", click "yes" to proceed. This will only occur the first time you use the stick and may not occur at all.
   
    Be aware though that this formatting process will erase anything previously put on the USB stick. So when in doubt always use a empty stick. 
   
   However once the initial format is complete the next time you use the same stick the phone will not go through this process and you can add more photos to a partially filled stick.
   
   

Then Something Marvellously Positive Happened...

Sometimes, just sometimes, something happens that catches you off guard and make your day. As though the world was saying to you "Hey, here's a surprise, if you're quick enough to notice it." and in this situation it was a friend of mine would recently become a grandfather telling me about the child's name. It wasn't the name that caught my eye, it was the expression on his face. Absolute and complete joy!

I swear the guy lost 20 years in a split second and it was astounding to see this just instantaneously happen. To know that this was a regular at the end around the world millions of times a day doesn't matter. Nothing could discount this experience. I don't even know if he realized intellectually just how much joy he was feeling, and I guess it doesn't matter.

So the next time someone tells you or expresses an opinion that nothing good ever happens in the modern world or that everything is negative I want you to think about this short little post and video. It reminds us all that good things are constantly happening. We must however be open to listening for them. They are there, taking a multitude of forms, some short some long.
 

Hypothetical site, not real.

Can you imagine if there was an online service similar to Facebook but focused on posting positive or inspirational stories and events. That would be pretty cool. There probably is, somewhere on the vast Internet and if not, which is something I find highly unlikely, we must find out why. Maybe it's just the simple fact that we are conditioned on an evolutionary level to look for negative things first. It is better to suspect that there might be something hiding in the bush, then not be aware of it in the first place. Regardless however, such a service putting a positive angle on events would be a welcome and needed commodity. ("Commodity" is not the word I would use, but it is the word that came to mind as I write this text.)

In the video below, it is easy to see how pleasantly I was blown away by my friends expression as he told me about his new relative. I wish I had been able to get a photograph of his face. I am really not understating it when I say that he became 20 years younger. These really are the things we need to retrain our modern brains to pay attention to. That is to look for positive experiences, rather than the default negative.

 In the past I know that various people and companies have tried to start "Good News Networks" and that it is always been an uphill battle. I think the idea would be much easier to address if one would start small. That is pay attention to the small things that occur in life, then progressed slowly, up the ladder until you can start something like a positive stories network, or organization with the same goals in mind. The modern person has been conditioned, not to look for the uplifting things and therefore we have many negative behaviours to deal with and resolve before we can tackle the big projects. However as any of my readers know, I am an optimist and I keep seeing the beauty and life intermingled with a little bit of magic.

Feel free to start a competition with your friends to see who can come up with the most positive experience of the week. It may sound a little corny, but you never know, such a simple start may ultimately lead to a big idea.

So there you have it, my retelling of a short little experience which happened to me. It might be in short but it sure wasn't insignificant for either the grandfather or myself. Things are always happening in the world and it is not always one-sided.

Have a great day Patrick

** NOTE: The picture "Welcome to Good News" is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

 

How has the quality of "News" being reported changed over the years?

I think everyone will agree, in 2026, the average person now has access to information regarding what is going on in the world much more readily than in times past. Indeed, people now have what they might consider to be too many sources of information.

How has this affected our perception of the world? Personally to me, I think the individual is now put in the unenviable position of being the "Chief Editor" of the articles and information that come across their virtual desk. I remember when I was very young news would come from a few well-respected sources, Walter Cronkite, comes to mind as well as, in Canada CBC news. Which I still listen to today. It seems to me that the coverage of the events in the media has also drastically changed. I love detailed articles be they visual in nature or in print or newscast. Have you noticed that often when an event is being reported the most important details about the story which would help you put it into proper context are missing in the report?--I have. You can't always put this lack of information down to withholding information because it might affect some aspect of the story. The media needs to get back to much deeper coverage in order to educate the listener.

What constitutes as news has also dramatically changed, I think what is going on is because we have now switched from a information content based driven media system, to a newsroom system that must put out regular snippets, the quality of the information has gone way down. Indeed what now qualifies as newsworthy is sometimes completely underwhelming.

However there is still plenty of excellent reporting and dialogue going on in the media at large. It must be sought out however and supported. As far as the person receiving the news goes they must also not expect everything to be quickly understood. Some topics take research and that means effort on the part of the audience which of course takes time. This has an excellent side effect in that it helps keep a community well informed and engaged with each other. This is something I think we need to get back to.

I am currently considering several bigger and more in depth articles for the blog as opposed to the short little snippets. The longer more in depth articles however take time and usually involve an accompanying video. For now, however I just want you to consider ways to deepen your understanding of what is going on in the world by seeking out information and news resources that go beyond the three minute podcast.

Have a great day everyone and stay tuned.
Patrick

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.