Category: Tech

Photo by Joe WilcoxJul 6, 20179:20 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Levi

Do you remember Pepe, whom this series featured on March 9, 2017? Tonight, while out walking and chatting with some of our great neighbors, I met his housemate, Levi. His owner described him months ago, and I had been on the lookout since for the “shy” shelter cat who is about four years old. Levi came to his owners with a heart murmur and some uncertain problem with his hind end. He often leans forward when sitting and resists being held. I shot a dozen portraits, choosing this one for how he pushes up on his forelegs and for the personality that his mesmerizing eyes express.

Levi lives next door to my neighborhood favorite, Fess, a handsome, cunning Maine Coon. I look for him any time passing his house. Sadly, my other favorite, The Colonel, is gone. The majestic longhair succumbed to “the cancer”, his owner told me last month. I will feature the family’s new cat, Charlie, soon as he lets me make a good portrait.

Leica by Joe WilcoxJul 4, 20171:20 pm

Sign for the Times

The alley behind our apartment building exits onto Monroe Ave., which across Maryland rims residences along a canyon. The street becomes Arch before circling back and changing to Meade. Near the turn is a lovely, […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxJul 3, 20178:55 pm

Morning, Mourning Cloak

This AM, my daughter’s cat Cali started meowing mournfully before the front screen door. She desperately wanted something outside. As a formerly outdoor/indoor kitty, she suffers when birds or bugs come close by door or […]

Apple by Joe WilcoxJul 1, 20173:26 pm

A Forgettable Mac

The things that turn up on sidewalk sales: eMac, sighted this afternoon in University Heights while walking down Maryland Ave. to Trader Joe’s. Timing is coincidentally comical, as Apple discontinued the educational iMac wannabe nine […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxJul 1, 20176:23 am

The Cats of University Heights: Betty Too

This series seeks to promote one feline on one day and never again. But sometimes uncertainty lurks like a furball under a car, which brings us to what could be a repeat. I give the odds as 50-50 that today’s beastie is Betty, but I’m betting not or there wouldn’t be a featured shot. I met her on Nov. 11, 2016, in the alley behind North Ave. closer to Madison. She rolled around, grubbing attention from a neighbor who knew her.

The cat I call Betty Too (just in case they’re the same) was spotted on June 29, 2017, in a gated apartment courtyard opening into the same alley but closer to Monroe—street at the other end. I had walked down searching for a black cat that crossed the alley; hence how I saw this other blackie, way inside beyond the locked door-gate. I never did find the other one. Betty Too came up to visit, but she couldn’t get pats through the grates. Sorry `bout that, kitty. Like Betty, she is black, was sighted off the North alley, and wears a blue color. What are the chances they’re the same?

Photo by Joe WilcoxJun 30, 20176:21 am

The Cats of University Heights: Tabby

On the morning of June 26, 2017, I took an unusually early walk through the neighborhood. Along Mission Cliff Drive, approaching Park Blvd., a pretty tabby moving in the shaded greenery from yard to yard […]

Society by Joe WilcoxJun 29, 201712:01 am

iPhone Turns 10

Steve was right, and I don’t refer to Apple cofounder Jobs, but to an iPhone buyer I met 10 years ago today. He was among the eclectic group of people waiting outside Apple Store Montgomery […]

Apple by Joe WilcoxJun 27, 20172:00 pm

Europe’s Anti-Google Ruling Stifles Competition

Today the European Union gave Apple a great gift to celebrate iPhone’s 10th anniversary (on June 29th): The ridiculous, record $2.7 billion fine, and associated sanctions, against Google that once again demonstrates the EU’s small-minded oversight that wrongly regulates evolving technologies in a big world. The adverse antitrust ruling finds that the online titan favored its own online shopping services (and paying customers) over rivals.

In February 2010, with the EU Competition Commission’s preliminary investigation starting, I rightly called “Google a dangerous monopoly“. Seven years later, the competitive landscape has dramatically changed, and rapidly evolves. The Commission’s action is too much, too late, and in the short-term can only benefit rivals like Apple that will dominate online activities and commerce as what we knew as traditional web search becomes something else.

Apple by Joe WilcoxJun 20, 20173:43 pm

Google Pixel XL First Impressions

Next week, iPhone is 10 years old; sales started on June 29, 2007. Please see my post about that day—”The iPhone Moment“—and another on the tenth anniversary of the device’s unveiling, “The iPhone Metaphor“, from January of this year. Strangely, I celebrate by abandonment. Twelve days ago, my family switched to Verizon from T-Mobile, and in process I gave up iPhone 7 Plus.

Appropriately perhaps, as I write this sentence, Talk Talk’s “Living in Another World” streams from Tidal. Yeah, that’s me, with respect to iPhone 7 Minus—what I started calling the thing after learning that Apple makes two models, one of which in part is incompatible with Verizon and other CDMA carriers. You want model A1661 and not A1784. Rather than get another Minus, I chose to try something else: Google Pixel XL, which overall user experience is as good and in many respects so much superior.

Money by Joe WilcoxJun 17, 20174:56 pm

Amazon Across America

My first reaction to Amazon buying Whole Foods is “Huh?” Few brands could be any more different. The online retailer is all about giving customers the most for the least amount spent, while the grocer is the pricey purview of the alt-organic lifestyle elite. No moment is better metaphor for Whole Foods’ clientele than the exchange I heard between a thirtysomething couple standing at the deli holding chicken luncheon meat. “Is it free range?” the women asked her husband. It had to be, or she wouldn’t buy. They argued. I silently chuckled: luncheon meat—not a bird! It’s all pressed meat, Honey. You do know that?

But from another perspective, and one transcending retail store presence, are other considerations, like brand affinity and buyer demographics. For the first, Amazon may be all about value, but in an increasingly middle-class and well-to-do demographic kind of way, particularly among city dwellers. Despite sharing similar cut-throat margin, expansive business philosophies with Walmart, Amazon doesn’t carry the same stigma among the socially conscious “better-thans”. For the second, who do you think plunks down 99 bucks a year for Prime membership or can’t wait for two-day free delivery or is too busy to go to the store to buy groceries? Without hard numbers to back the supposition, I’d bet there is lots of existing and potential regular shopper overlap among these customers and those who walk Whole Foods’ aisles.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJun 15, 20176:19 am

The Cats of University Heights: Spry

In the alley beyond Alabama going towards Park Blvd., about midway between Monroe and Meade, I spotted a lanky, grey short-hair sprawled on the pavement; June 13, 2017. She slipped away as my wife and I approached, among cars against a garage, resisting me and the Leica Q. The Featured Image shows her hanging on the fence, at least a six-footer and taller than me, following a dramatic leap. She balanced there long enough for four clicks of the shutter. This is the third shot.

Once again, the mirrorless camera’s 28mm, f/1.7 Summilux lens and 24-megapixel full-frame sensor deliver super sharp detail enough for a close-crop. Vitals: f/8, ISO 100, 1/125 sec, 28mm; 6:36 p.m. PDT.

Apple by Joe WilcoxJun 13, 20173:47 pm

Say, What Is That Suspicious White Van?

The photo’s composition isn’t great, but I was rushed to capture anything at all. I spotted this Apple Maps vehicle on the loose today. The poke-it-to-the-fruit-logo-company opportunities are so many, I barely can get any out. For starters, the vehicle clearly was lost, turning down a street that dead ends at a pedestrian bridge. If you’ve ever been misdirected using Apple Maps, imagine the dude driving around with the camera car in similar state. Maybe he’s the blame for your SUV plowing into that lake last month.

Of course, I would see this thing on the day when news orgs everywhere are reporting that Apple CEO Tim Cook confirms the company is working on a self-driving car. Yeah, well not this vehicle. Zoom in on the Featured Image and see the bewildered guy in cap who just barely executed a three-point turn without taking out a swath of local walkers (my wife and I among them) and in process making news headlines across the globe. Lucky for him, the LGBT protests against President Trump were a day earlier. Blinded by bright rainbows, he could have plowed into anything, or anyone!