Sundries

Sundries

Ally bank alerts - Ally Bank quit sending deposit and withdrawal alerts to me. After two weeks, I switched to US Bank. I received an email recently that claims that this is fixed. Three months. I'm not going to test this.

Restaurant background music - do Italians really like jarring horn blasts in their music? Who decided that droning/unchanging drum tracks enhance music (at a Thai restaurant, but clearly American music). Why must it all be so loud? And why do restaurants need any background music?

Samsung S25 features - I bought a Samsung S23 (smartphone) in June 2023. Upgraded from an S22 solely because reviews said that the S23 fingerprint reader is much better. True - it was worth the $800 (?) price. I later found that Samsung Goodlock/Lockstar (free software) allowed me to put the time zone and next alarm on the always on display. I finally had a decent phone, but too big, nasty screen reflections, and heavy. The S24 did not address any of these issues. Pass. The S25 Ultra has this new feature - Gorilla Armor 2 - "the Industry’s First Anti-Reflective Glass Ceramic For Mobile Devices". Enhanced durability - fine, but I do not have a single scratch on my S23 with no screen cover. Anti-reflective surface - this is, apparently, a wave cancellation layer (or multiple layers) made with a very hard (ceramic?) material. 75% reflective light cancellation. This is worth $800. But it is NOT on the S25, only the S25 Ultra, which is BIG. New AI function, new colors, more speed? Pass.

Folded lists - folded lists are a handy way to put a long list in a short place. On Google's blog top page, by default, the list is folded by year and month. You can't see titles until you click on a year and a month. Sigh. A scrolling list is far superior. You can switch to a long list, but it only shows dates, not titles. The date of publication is more important than the title of the post? After living with this for years, I made a web page of all the titles as a list, and repeated the investing blogs (the most popular posts) at the top. www.blog.ravitz.us . This is so much easier for finding specific posts.

Calendars - after maybe 45 years of wall calendars with a nice picture for each month, I can't find anything interesting and new. For 2025 - Peanuts, the comic strip from long ago. I like Snoopy.

My phone calendar has a significant defect. It has all the national holidays, but no religious holidays. Mardi Gras - I need to know when restaurants have a Cajun special. Saint Patrick's Day - restaurant specials again. Easter, Halloween - look at all the associated candy. Whether you believe in the roots of these holidays or not, they are important in our culture and I want them on my phone calendar.