I can usually get by with a bit of fiddling for most run-of-the-mill technology problems. Temperamental WiFi, sluggish laptop, or unreliable streaming devices. However, every once in a while a trial and error solution is not readily apparent. Like the time I unplugged the hotel alarm clock to move it and couldn't figure out how to reset the time. It was a fairly common iHome alarm clock that I've seen in plenty of hotels, but never had to adjust.

After a few head-scratching minutes, I threw my hands up and did a web search. David Levine is my hero! He's got a handy little blog post that helped me reset the clock in no time. And the infuriating part is, like a lot problems, once you know the solution, it seems soooo obvious.

Thanks, David for your EZPZ instructions!

P.S. Unfortunately, when it comes to home improvement I'm more like Tim Taylor (of Home Improvement) than Jonathan Scott (of The Property Brothers). My wife says I have an adversarial relationship with drywall and it's true! 

Next post next Saturday, 6:30 a.m.

"You have the right to remain silent..."

The Miranda rights are familiar to anyone who has watched a movie or TV program with American police. Similar procedures exist throughout the world when police may need to question a suspect.

I'm not a criminal lawyer, but the basic premise of reading these rights is to preserve the suspect's right against incriminating himself and their right to a lawyer. By doing so, any statements made are more likely to be admissible as evidence in court.

This got me thinking about all the things we say on social media. And how each post creates a written record of our rare brilliance, regrettable stupidity or something in between. And how each statement, by default, will be preserved for longer than we realize. And finally, how what we say can be used against us in the court of public opinion. 

Despite being an avid user of social media, as an attorney and Privacy professional I'm wary of the pitfalls of having everything you've posted stored indefinitely. Think about how much you've changed over the years. Think about how easy it is to post something you regret. And as data analytics gets more powerful, uses of the information that we might not have even imagined may become reality - perhaps not always to our benefit. Think "Minority Report."

So what is a connected citizen of the world supposed to do?

My EZPZ suggestion is to exercise what I like to call your Social Media Miranda Rights:

You have the right to delete your posts. Anything you post can and will be used against you in a court of public opinion. You have the right to privacy controls. If you cannot find privacy controls, you might want to consider passing on this app. Do you understand these rights? With these rights in mind, do you wish to keep posting?

In practice you can separate your social media posts into two camps. The first are things that took time to create and are more permanent in nature - like a long-form blog post, article you wrote or video you scripted. You can forget about these for the most part and revisit them every few years for relevance.

The second are the spur of the moment posts. Tweets, LinkedIn updates, and Facebook posts generally fall into this camp. Where possible, come up with a time frame that you don't mind these being accessible to the world. So for example, maybe you only want the last 30 days of what you said to be easily accessible online. In that case, you could use an application like Tweet Delete to automatically remove any tweets older than 30 days. For LinkedIn, they only display your last 30 days of updates so no more to do here. I'm not a big Facebook user, but I imagine they give you some controls.

Important! If a social media app doesn't give you adequate control over your data, you might want to seriously consider passing on using them. Or at least do this with your eyes wide open.

At the end of the day, by exercising your Social Media Miranda Rights, you will minimize the chances that your next job, election, or relationship will be ruined by an errant post of Christmas past. And hopefully, you can avoid being hunted down like in the Minority Report.

Good luck and "RUN! ! ! ! ! ! !"

Next post next Saturday, 6:30 a.m.

Have you ever woken up in the middle of night where you can't get to sleep because it feels too hot? Or maybe, like some of my family members, who shall remain unnamed, you suffer from the affliction of "hot head" when sleeping. No medical danger here. Just a super-heating of the head when you fall asleep. One solution is to flip over your pillow to the cool side so you can drift off to sleep again. However, at 3 a.m. in the morning this normally effortless maneuver can seem like a chore. 

I recently found an EZPZ solution to help. It's called the Chillow and it's basically what it sounds like. A pillow that stay's chilled better than a regular pillow. I don't have the background to understand the magic that they employed to make this happen, but I can report back that it works. When you first receive it, you have to pour water inside, which gets absorbed by a foam-like filling inside which holds the arctic goodness. The Chillow is about the size of your pillow, but only about a half-inch high so you place it on top of your existing pillow.

Money saving tip: The best part of buying the Chillow is if you participate in a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) offered by your employer, the Chillow is eligible for reimbursement. Just remember to save your receipt!

ChillowPLUS Original Deluxe 2-sided Cooling Pillow Pad and Cool Relief Wrap

Smarthome Technologies

Next post next Saturday, 6:30 a.m.