Hasta La Gadget!

JUNEAU — For years, the best way for visitors and newcomers to Alaska to learn about the place was to find a self-proclaimed “Alaskan” in a bar on a state ferry, buy a round of drinks and listen to the tall tales.

Before the rise of cruise ships in Alaska waters, independent travelers packed ferries during the summer, while in the winter it was mostly residents, new and old, using the ferries and meeting in the bars.

In the winter, ferry bars were also where adults could hang out and avoid the groups of school kids and sports teams traveling between cities.

But now, the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities says it can no longer afford to keep subsidizing money-losing ferry bars, and will close them this year.

One of those who learned about Alaska in that manner was author Joe McGinniss, whose Alaska classic “Going to Extremes” began with his experience in a bar while riding the ferry Malaspina to Alaska. In the book’s opening chapter he recounts hearing his first stories of the infamous drug and alcohol use of the pipeline-era.

READ MORE AT ALASKA DISPATCH NEWS

While most people living in the Northeast spent Tuesday hiding under their covers to avoid “Winter Storm Juno,” Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Seidel was out braving the worst of it in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Appearing on Wake Up With Al, one could barely make out Seidel’s silhouette through the unrelenting haze of snow. Host Al Roker tried to joke with the meteorologist about what he was going to have for breakfast (the answer was beef jerky…), but before the interview could get much further, Seidel was knocked down by a 60+ mph gust of wind.

“I need to eat something that can put some weight on the body!” Seidel joked, assuring Roker that he was fine. “The gust caught me off guard. It just threw me back into the snow drift.”

Picture this: You are sitting at your computer working late at night. As always, you are stressed about finances, your upcoming court hearing, being single, and all the other stress factors that come with going through a divorce.

All of a sudden, you hear on your phone that you received a text. What a nice break! It’s probably one of your friends, or the girl you just started dating. You take the phone and to your dismay, the message is from your ex. But, it gets worse. It’s a scathing, mean-spirited message, telling you how awful you are and how much she can’t stand you. It goes on and on, includes many expletives and it makes you sick as you read it. It is so full of hate, anger, bitterness.

You get the feeling that she has been drinking because why else would she all of a sudden go on this unsolicited attack? You weren’t even in conversation with her.

I hear stories like this from men and women all the time. It’s a horrible feeling. It’s disturbing. It’s upsetting. It’s creepy.

A person’s first instinct in receiving a text or email that I call “an unsolicited attack” is to attack back. Send back a response. Defend yourself. Hurt back.

But, my divorce advice is do not reply. Do nothing. Do not type one key. Leave it alone. An unsolicited attack deserves nothing from you. Don’t even type something short, like “you’re an idiot,” “grow up” or even “get help.” I know you want to, but it isn’t wise.

An unsolicited attack is the result of the unhappiness of the person sending it. That person is hurting in some way. Maybe his or her life isn’t going well. Maybe he or she is falling apart and they want to blame someone, so who better to go after than the person who set things in motion: you. Blame someone. Unhappy, unhealthy behavior is always the result of someone not taking responsibility for their own mistakes.

The unsolicited attacker wants to battle. He or she wants a fight. They want you to attack back so they can then attack again. They need to release their anger and they are trying to use you to do it. Don’t engage!

If you realize that the unsolicited attack has so little to do with you, you will feel better. I would actually go so far as to say you should feel sorry for the person sending the words of hate and anger. And, just focus on trying to forget about it.

Now, if the unsolicited attacks get to be a regular occurrence, you might have to reach out to your attorney, because no one should have to deal with that abuse. But, I think ignoring the unsolicited attacks (not giving them the attention the sender so obviously craves) will most likely result in the person not sending them anymore. It’s kind of like a toddler. If he or she has a temper tantrum and you ignore it, they see that the behavior doesn’t get them their desired result, so they stop.

The best advice I can give for receiving an unsolicited attack besides ignoring it is, try to think of it as HIS or HER PROBLEM and go back to what you were doing: working, being productive, or enjoying your evening. It’s really hard to do, but getting into battle will only make you upset and ruin your night. Oh, and keep the text. You never know when you might have to use it!

Jackie Pilossoph is the author of her blog, Divorced Girl Smiling, and the comedic divorce novels, Divorced Girl Smiling and Free Gift With Purchase. She also writes feature stories, along with the weekly dating and relationships column, “Love Essentially” for Chicago Tribune Media Group local publications. Pilossoph lives in Chicago. Oh, and she’s divorced.

When you purchase a spanking new smartphone, it is more or less a given that you would have taken the relevant steps to ensure that your precious new purchase would be well protected. Obviously, this means having to actually purchase some sort of smartphone case for it. Which is pretty much a damper at times, since part of the reason as to why you paid so much for the handset in the first place was for its design. A smartphone case would clearly cover up whatever nice design details there are about the handset. Well, all for a good cause, right? The Prynt smartphone case will cater for a unique niche – as it does away with the need to actually tote around a mobile printer whenever you would want to print out that recently snapped photo. It offers protection for the handset, as well as the capability to print out photos right on the get go.

Of course, this is not a released product just yet, since it has just launched on Kickstarter, and there are hopes to raise a whopping $50,000 on crowdfunding site. Early bird pledges for the Prynt smartphone case begins from $49, and this is truly a first of its kind peripheral which will be able to make the images come to life whenever it is scanned by your camera, since it will transform them into a short augmented reality video that can then be played and enjoyed on your phone.

You “wear” the Prynt case on your smartphone in the same way as that of an ordinary phone case, although it does comes with the ability to print images which were snapped by your smartphone. All that you need to do is press print, and the image will then be printed out in a matter of 30 seconds, now how about that? Prynt’s augmented reality function will also be able to transform one’s images into video clips whenever they are scanned by your phone’s camera.

This is an added advantage which has been previously been unavailable in the past – as filming each segment that accompanies individual photos means your photographs would end up as the cover of a digital story, where your handset then plays them when the image is held to the camera. Expect Prynt to arrive in pink, white and blue shades, and it will be compatible with the iPhone 5, 5S, 5C, 6 and Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5, and shipping is tipped to happen some time in summer this year.

Kickstarter Page
[ Prynt Case offers protection…and prints, of course copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Project Spartan, for those who missed Microsoft’s Windows 10 announcement, will be the default browser when it comes to the Windows 10 platform. New operating system, new browser, we guess we can see where Microsoft is coming from, but what about older builds of Windows, like those on Windows 7?

Can Windows 7 users expect to get Project Spartan on their computers as well? The semi-good news is that Microsoft has not ruled out the possibility. According to the IE Dev Chat Twitter account, this is something Microsoft is keeping an eye on and if there is enough demand from Windows 7 users, bringing Project Spartan onto Windows 7 is a possibility. “Spartan is currently targeted at Win10. We’re focused on getting ppl upgraded (free) but will watch Win7 demand.”

However Microsoft stated that the goal is to upgrade as many users to Windows 10 as possible, and given that the first year of Windows 10 will be a free upgrade, Microsoft will be banking on that to get as many converts as possible. As it stands Windows 7 is still the dominant Windows operating system, despite the fact that Windows 8/8.1 was meant to be its successor.

Mainstream support for the platform has since come to an end with Microsoft no longer selling it to OEMs, so it will be interesting to see that once Windows 10 has been released if there will be enough demand for Microsoft to warrant bringing Project Spartan onto Windows 7, but what do you guys think? Or are you planning to upgrade to Windows 10 already?

Project Spartan Could Arrive On Windows 7 If There Is Enough Demand , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.