1) A thing you like becomes fashionable.
2) Demand exceeds supply so much that the thing you like becomes difficult to find and much more expensive to buy.
3) Broad demand drives up the production, harvesting or importation of that thing, until the demand is exceeded.
4) The fashion will inevitably wane.
5) Then there will be a bounty of the thing, an oversupply while production ramps down and warehouses fill up.
6) Now you’ll find every variety of the thing you like, at closeout prices.
Most of us are powerless to alter this cycle. As with any tide, the best we can do is surf the waves.
The thing about most home automation is…
These are labor saving devices which eliminate the need to get off my butt to perform some minor, uncomplicated and routine task. But I’m a middle aged human who already spends hours long stretches of time sitting on my butt, gazing into an electrified sheet of glass. There are already too many days when those small physical tasks are damn near the only reason I get off my butt at all. So, the more time and money and mental exertion I invest automating my life, the greater my need to contrive other opportunities to exercise and stretch and rest my eyes.
In other words, this is why I still draw my curtains by hand.
Before any major update to my operating system or critical app(s), I make a clone (a bootable duplicate) of the drive (exactly as it was before updating).
Cloning a large drive is slow, requires a spare drive of equal size, is inconvenient to my schedule, then sits on a shelf collecting dust until the next time I write a new duplicate over it. I almost never use it.
But, on the rare occasion that an updated app somehow trashes months of previous work still in progress, I am so grateful that I can restore the missing files from the clone. Click and drag, then everything is back as it was.
This is a very good feeling.
The internet is like a huge library. There are many shitty “books” in there, but countless gems as well. It’s never been more important to intelligently filter what we give our time to.
In my travels, I search gas stations along my route using the Google Maps app, which shows the current price at (most of) those stations.
I do this so routinely that I forget many folks just pay the going rate wherever they stop, having no idea the price may be significantly cheaper just a couple miles down the road.
| Good Judgement: | Really, you should read the documentation on this one, before you jump in and change EVERYTHING. |
| The Deadline: | [angrily tapping its foot] [cartoonish steam billowing out of ears] |
We live in a world of networks within networks connected to other networks. Some networks are wireless, others are a web of cables spun of copper or glass; most are ultimately a combination of all three. Some networks are local, others wider, while a few are global. Most of these are connected to one or more of the others. Are you with me so far?? No surprise that most folks get confused by the distinctions and similarities between these all. How many people can explain the differences between ubiquitous WiFi, the internet, and mobile service on their “phone”?
As a consumer, any business that requires a permanent record of my face is a business unworthy of my patronage.
Any request for a photograph of me or a copy of my photo ID is automatically suspicious and will immediately harm my assessment of the organization requesting it. While a requirement for such things is an excellent reason to end my relationship with them.
You’ll know these organizations when they ask you to verify your identity in these ways. Beware the (actual) IRS directing you to the controversial third-party service ID.me to verify your identity with facial recognition, though they’ve promised to reverse this policy.
I value the utility of intuition
informed by careful thought.
For anyone who didn’t read the memo…
Never give
any information
of any kind
to anyone
who calls (or texts) you.
No matter who they say they are.
I have never regretted sticking to this no-no-never policy.