Hasta La Gadget!

The TouchPad is the webOS-powered tablet that HP released back in 2011. Within a couple of months the company decided to sell all remaining stock through a fire sale because of the TouchPad’s disappointing performance in the market. At $99 HP managed to sell quite a lot of units which users have kept around because its possible to run Android on the TouchPad. Anyone who still has that tablet lying around will be interested to know that its possible to run Android 5.0 Lollipop on the TouchPad.

Android 5.0 Lollipop is the latest iteration of Google’s mobile operating system. It was unveiled earlier this year as Android L and it brings a variety of new features, security updates, a whole new user interface based on Material Design as well as many improvements. While the update hasn’t officially been released for this tablet, a developer has been able to put together a custom Android 5.0 Lollipop ROM for HP TouchPad.

A developer by the name of flitman has posted an early preview of Evervolv 5.0 for the TouchPad over at the XDA Developers forum. It clearly shows that this tablet is capable of running the latest in mobile OS from Google, even though this particular ROM is a bit buggy at this point in time, but expect things to improve in coming updates.

For those who would rather have a stable Android experience on the TouchPad, Android 4.4 KitKat or previous versions are a safe bet. This is only the first custom Android 5.0 Lollipop ROM for the TouchPad, there will certainly be more that will be even more stable and capable of being used as a daily driver.

Android 5.0 Lollipop ROM For HP TouchPad Released , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

The paper airplane has certainly come a long way since it was first thought up of by one of those enterprising minds at a school or college, offering a welcome distraction from the rigors of boring lessons in a classroom setting. It looks like technology has finally caught up with the regular paper airplane, thanks to the $49.95 PowerUp 3.0 Smartphone Controlled Paper Airplane.

With the PowerUp 3.0 Smartphone Controlled Paper Airplane, you will be able to transform just about any kind of paper airplane into a remote controlled one, now how about that for a true, blue makeover? All that you need to do is to add this to your paper plane, and it will end up as propeller driven, only for you to be able to control it with your smartphone. The PowerUp 3.0 Smartphone Controlled Paper Airplane will hook up to your smartphone via Bluetooth (which is only natural), and 20 minute charge time results in 10 minutes of flight time. Surely getting something like this is a whole lot easier than settling for a DIY version, don’t you think so?
[ PowerUp 3.0 Smartphone Controlled Paper Airplane is a breeze to play copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

By Jerry Zezima

My mom’s the very model of the modern modeling mother. And she could soon share a runway with Heidi Klum and other model moms because she (my mother, not Heidi) began her modeling career recently at a fashion show in my hometown of Stamford, Conn.

Heidi, who’s 41, has gotten a lot more exposure, mainly because she’s not shy about wearing lingerie in public. Besides, she began her career as a teenager.

My mom, who’s a bit more modest, just turned 90.

Because 90 is the new 60, which happens to be my age, my mother was asked to take part in a fashion show at Chico’s, a women’s clothing chain with a store in the Stamford Town Center mall.

“I must have good genes,” my mother said.

“Did you wear jeans?” I asked.

“No,” she replied. “I had on a pair of boysenberry slacks.”

“What about a top?” I inquired.

“I was wearing one,” my mother assured me. “In fact, I wore a couple of tops.”

“At the same time?” I wondered.

My mother sighed, because she knows I have a fashion plate in my head, and explained that first she wore a print blouse and then changed into another top with a coordinating jacket.

I was going to ask if she also wore the diamond-studded, $10-million bra that Heidi Klum famously sported on the cover of the Victoria’s Secret catalog, but I thought better of it because Chico’s doesn’t sell stuff like that and this was, after all, my mother.

“But you could,” I suggested, “be in the Chico’s catalog.”

“Yes, she could,” said store manager Terry Mrijaj, whose name is pronounced “Terry.”

“Do you know that my mother is 90?” I asked when I called to talk about the new supermodel.

“She’s amazing,” Terry stated. “She’s stylish, elegant and beautiful. Whenever she comes in, customers remark on how great she looks in our clothes. She’s a walking advertisement for the store.”

Not bad considering my mom couldn’t walk a year and a half ago, when she fell and broke her leg. But she has bounced back — she didn’t bounce when she fell — and is driving again. And now, she’s modeling.

“She’s a natural,” said Terry, adding that the fashion show, a breast cancer fundraiser, featured seven models, the youngest of whom is in her teens. My mom, not surprisingly, is the oldest.

Terry knows from experience because she was runner-up in the Miss Teen New York pageant when she was 18. “I’m 45 now, so I’m half your mom’s age,” she said. “I hope I look that good when I’m 90.”

My mother said that when she was 16 or 17, she was asked to model a sable coat at Levine & Smith, a fur shop in New York City.

“My father was so insulted — he didn’t think modeling was very reputable — that he refused to let me do it and we never went back,” my mother remembered. “So I went into nursing.”

“Those white uniforms weren’t too stylish,” I noted.

“No, they weren’t,” my mother agreed. “I wear better clothes now.”

They include the fringe skirt and black top she wore to a family birthday bash.

“How does it feel to be 90?” I asked.

“Pretty good,” she said. “I don’t feel like it and I don’t act like it.”

“And,” added my wife, Sue, who shares her birthday with my mother but is, of course, considerably younger, “you don’t look like it.”

Sue should know because she could be a model herself.

My mother’s next gig will be another fashion show at Chico’s.

“I know your mom will be a hit again,” said Terry. “She’s a star.”

Let’s see if Heidi Klum can say that when she’s 90.

Stamford Advocate humor columnist Jerry Zezima is the author of two books: “Leave It to Boomer” and “The Empty Nest Chronicles.” Visit his blog at www.jerryzezima.blogspot.com. Email: JerryZ111@optonline.net.

Copyright 2014 by Jerry Zezima

It all began when this nasty kid was picking on me in electric shop class, shoving me from behind and laughing when I didn’t fight back.

I didn’t fight back because the teachers at Junior High School 67 in Little Neck, New York warned us that anyone caught fighting would get demerits, which would go on your – drum roll, please…. permanent record.

Ooooh! That had a scary ring to it – “permanent record” – and you didn’t want any dark marks on such a sacred thing, if you ever hoped to land a good job, get married, have a family….

Hey, you pretty much believe everything they tell you when you’re twelve years old.

So I ignored the shoving until the next shop class, when the nasty kid – a skinny, blond-haired, slit-eyed punk – shoved me again, then punched me in the stomach.

He was sneaky, doing it when the shop teacher, Mr. Hertzberg, wasn’t watching.

“Why don’t you fight back?” the kid asked through clenched teeth.

“I don’t want any demerits,” I replied, clutching my guts.

He pushed me aside and walked away laughing.

That night I told my parents what was going on. My mother was upset and wanted to call the school. My father told her not to do that. Then he pushed all the furniture to the walls and stood in the middle of the living room in his stocking feet.

“Let me show you how to box,” he said. Strange words, coming from the least violent man I’ve ever known.

He struck a classic pose – left fist forward, right fist near his chest. I struck the same pose and the two of us faced off, shuffling around in our socks. It was more Fred and Ginger than Frazier and Ali, but still my mother was worried.

“Don’t hurt him!” she said. I think she was speaking to both of us, although at this rate the only damage we were doing was to the bottoms of our socks.

My father showed me how to throw a combination, his fists stopping inches from my face. Then he showed me again, in slow motion.

“Be quick,” he said. “If you have to hit him, don’t say, ‘Here it comes!’ “

I had to laugh. “Why would I say, ‘Here it comes?’ ”

“What I mean is, don’t warn him that the punch is coming.”

“What about demerits, and my permanent record?”

He waved away my worries. “Don’t worry about that. Just defend yourself.”

That was what liberated me – my old man, telling me not to worry. Demerits, permanent records…. maybe the whole thing was just a racket to scare students into behaving well and make life easier for the teachers.

And I was hearing about it from my own father, so it was information I could trust. Screw the system, and put up your dukes!

At my next shop class I was ready. I was actually hoping the nasty kid would shove me from behind. Sure enough, he did.

I turned and shoved him back.

“Oh, he’s ready to fight!” he jeered, but his face went red and I could tell he was startled.

I struck the fighting pose my father taught me, not even bothering to check if Mr. Hertzberg was watching. At this point I wouldn’t have cared if the school principal, Mr. Zeitlein, was sitting at ringside.

“Let’s go,” I said.

Those narrow eyes widened. “Ain’t you worried about demerits?” he asked.

“No,” I replied, even though my clenched fists were trembling. “If you want to fight, I’m ready.”

He swallowed. His shoulders sagged. He was just a bully, after all.

“Ahh, forget it,” he said, and he slinked away.

This all happened 47 years ago and I think about it every Thanksgiving, eternally thankful to my father for that funky boxing lesson.

Because the enduring lesson came not from Dad’s fists, but from his words: Don’t worry about that. Just defend yourself. Good to learn there was a rebel heart beating behind his white shirt and tie.

So that’s my big fight story. On my private scorecard I penalized the nasty kid ten demerits for walking away.

Sometimes I wonder whatever happened to him. I figure he’s got a lousy job, a nagging wife and ungrateful, disrespectful children. (I can dream, can’t I?)

And to this day, I’m sort of sorry the fight never happened. Would have been a sweet victory on my permanent record.

Charlie Carillo is a novelist and a producer for the TV show “Inside Edition.” His website is www.charliecarillo.com

WASHINGTON — This coming Black Friday will mark six years since a worker died beneath a throng of shoppers at a Walmart on Long Island. Although federal regulators faulted the retail giant in the tragedy, Walmart still hasn’t been compelled to pay the modest $7,000 fine that was levied against it.

The case, Department of Labor v. Walmart Stores, has not moved forward since HuffPost reported on it a year ago — on appeal with a federal review commission that handles workplace safety fines. As of this writing, the commission lists the status of the case as “pending review.”

The case was first referred to the commission three and a half years ago. A spokeswoman for the commission said it does not comment on the timeline for pending cases.

It’s common for employers to appeal whatever penalties the Labor Department’s safety inspectors issue against them, including when workers are killed on the job. But the case of 34-year-old Jdimytai Damour, who had worked at Walmart for only a week when he was asphyxiated beneath the Black Friday crowd, underscores just how long those appeals can drag on, even in cases where the fines are comparably small.

Brooke Buchanan, a Walmart spokeswoman, said the retailer has made significant changes in recent years to minimize the frenzy among shoppers and make for a safer atmosphere, including spreading out merchandise that’s on special and staggering sales times.

“After this horrible incident that happened six years ago, we took major steps working with crowd experts, law enforcement and people who do this for a living to see and help set up our stores,” Buchanan said.

As HuffPost previously reported, Walmart, which had net sales of $473 billion last fiscal year, probably isn’t disputing the penalty in order to save $7,000, the maximum amount the Occupational Safety and Health Administration can fine a company for serious violations. Indeed, the company has already spent millions of dollars in legal costs just to fight the case. For Walmart, more significant than the nominal fine itself would be the ramifications if the fine were upheld.

OSHA used what’s known as the general duty clause as the foundation for its fine against Walmart. The clause holds that employers have a basic responsibility to provide a workplace that’s “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to [their] employees.”

In essence, the agency argues that Walmart should have foreseen the dangers presented by a mass of excited shoppers waiting at the store’s doors. An administrative law judge agreed back in 2011, though Walmart appealed that decision to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, where cases often wait years for review.

OSHA regulations tend to be very specific, and the agency doesn’t often reach for the general duty clause because it isn’t so easy to prove what should be a “recognizable” hazard. Employers, unsurprisingly, often criticize citations using the general duty clause as too vague. That’s what happened when OSHA cited a poultry processor recently for violating the clause and putting workers in danger of ergonomic hazards. Before that, OSHA hadn’t tried to wield the clause in such a case in more than a decade.

In the Black Friday case, Walmart would be more eager to defeat OSHA’s arguments than to avoid the $7,000 penalty. The company has argued that the dangers on Black Friday could not have been predicted. If regulators ultimately succeed in their case, OSHA would theoretically have an easier time putting Walmart and other retailers on the hook for Black Friday disasters in the future.

In a deal to avoid prosecution, Walmart agreed to develop a new crowd control plan the year after Damour’s death. For its part, OSHA has started issuing guidance each year on how stores can handle their sales events safely. The agency recently sent letters to the major retailers urging them to adopt their own plans ahead of Black Friday.

“Retail workers should not be put at risk,” David Michaels, the head of OSHA, said last week.