Somewhere in the mid 1990s, my company provided ISDN so I could work from home

That joke never gets old …… when I first got mine, I happened to be wearing flannel and drove to Maine with my wife. So many lesbian jokes, but my beard was a bit more literal

223 Tesla Model Y, I’ll admit it

While I don’t like whatever rabbit hole Musk went down , this is the nicest car I’ve owned. It’s quiet, quick, nice sporty handling, love the glass roof, and it’s a gadget lovers dream. While it is the most expensive car i’ve owned, I got both federal and state incentives so not by much. Most of all I can charge at both home and work so never need visit a gas station again.

Yes the panel gaps are normal and straight. No I don’t notice any different performance, reliability, or range in the cold. Yes, superchargers are plentiful around here so my 1,200 mile roadtrip was no problem

I don’t know what the rate is here in Massachusetts, but it’s rare to have to smell cigarettes these days. I really think we’re more likely to (and my kids complain about the stench) encounter pot smokers these days. I can’t help but think that’s a good thing … but have to follow up each with an obligatory dad lecture on the health concerns with putting burning anything in your lungs

Edit: West Virginia, of course

• https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/smoking-rates-by-state

True but mobile websites still tend to be horribly done or missing functionality. I want it to just work, dammit, and too many attempts at being clever just arent

In the two decades I’ve lived here, we’ve never had a power outage long enough or widespread enough to affect cell service.

I don’t even care about calling - who does that anymore? But data is more important in day to day use. I can entertain myself without it, but I’m not sure I still have a working radio receive broadcast TV, so I’d have no way of staying informed

But it is an interesting question - do cell towers also have redundant or special service or be prioritized for restoral of service in an emergency?

And allows for free will.

Why are we satisfied with the idea that God made man intelligent in his image, while being all-knowing, but not this? Isn’t this the same thing? God could have made man with emotions in his image, while being in no way limited to those emotions himself. Why would we limit ourselves to an uncaring God above all that when he could also be all-caring, all-feeling

(Insert misogynistic crack about an all-emotional God being proof God is a woman)

I’ve got beer. The legend is all those IPAs were originally created to survive months long voyages

I’m downhill from a water tower which I guess is good. However I live in a major metropolitan area with water pumped from 100 miles away. So I can’t imagine that working

When they built a new tower, they were talking 1/2 supply, so I guess that

When I first moved into my house I did try to create an emergency kit but with a lack of serious thought. A few weeks ago, the plastic water jugs had degraded enough to spontaneously start leaking. So yep, that’s why you don’t do that

I’ll be ok for a bit. My chest freezer will be good for several days, and my family room has a gas heater that doesn’t need electrical. Also gas stove top doesn’t need electrical, and I have a propane grill so cooking is set. For entertainment, I have books on kindle that should be good a couple weeks

Fridge, car, phone good for a day or so until batteries are used up - do we still have cell service? I’d try digging out my camping gear but hopefully didn’t leave fuel with that.

We have excellent power reliability here. I don’t think it’s gone more than 2 hours in the last 20 years

One of the reasons the rollout has gone so slowly is device profiles. Imagine a committee of every company that makes or wants to make a certain type of device, having to come to a consensus about supported functionality. Sounds like a nightmare, sounds like things will get stuck for years (and they have) …. But now we’ve had several releases of device profiles defining how most basic device types should act.

When I read about this, I became much more optimistic about Matter/Thread. This is a big deal and I don’t know why there aren’t more articles about it

I just had to transfer one of my guys out after frequent arguments to do that. I don’t understand - I point out a function that does exactly why he wants, yet he still wants to reinvent it.

I’m dreading when I come back after break. I got 50% a new junior guy who keeps saying he’s a great programmer. No sign of it so far but my management insists I take him on. All he needs to do is expose a new endpoint, wire up functionality that’s already there, and I walked him through it. Should be easy, right? No reinventing the wheel, right?

For me, one of my principles is that smart home stuff should work normally , with automation as a bonus. That means smart switches, not bulbs, and generally means no subscriptions or internet dependencies.

Some use cases for my smart switches are:

• automatic timers for multiple rooms to make the house appear lived in, or to match my schedule
• voice response, in case my hands are full r I don’t want to get up
• easier dimming - I can say “set dining room light 20%” faster than I can get up, walk over, and futz with the switch
• scenes, such as work mode, to set everything just the way I like it

For example, one of my automations is

• half an hour after sunset, turn on dining room light to 50%
• if weekday, set to 30% at 9pm, and turn on bedroom light
• if weekend, do it an hour later
• turn off dining room half an hour later
• turn off bedroom light half an hour later

If I’m home, this matches my schedule. If I’m not, maybe I look like I am. Maybe you think this looks needlessly complicated but it’s convenient and it’s not something you can do without smart devices

With the new Matter/Thread standard, we may finally have a unified market where everything works together, and Apple is one of the sponsors of that. With Apple, Amazon and Google all supporting it and adding it to their devices, there’s too huge an already established base to ignore. Of course it’s rolling out frustratingly slowly, but something like this could be the sark that ignites it

These days your home automation hub can be an Apple TV, or Amazon Echo device, or many similar, there’s really not much to bother with and many people already have it.

The new Matter/Thread standard continues to slow rollout with the promise of unifying smart devices that had been scattered across several different paradigms, and should just work together (and without the s scription r having to hope the manufacturer keeps its portal running.

Not to push but if you were considering home automation but those were blocking issues, you should look again

The home automation field is potentially going through a revolution with the new Matter/Thread standard, that Apple helped define. Devices are much more likely to work together and they should not be calling home. Apple already has the Apple TV and whatever the speaker is that can act as automation hubs, and HomeKit software across their product line to provide nice dashboards, shared across your family, integrate with local Siri, etc.

Door locks are something that needs to just work. I’m not going to take off my gloves and fiddle with a combination in the cold, nor am I going to hope my fingerprint works despite dry cracked skin. I understand Bluetooth is painfully slow. Home key seems best and everyone I know has a iPhone but conceivably some people may not. There are a lot of solutions that don’t “just work”, but maybe Apple can do it. Responsiveness. Reliability. Convenience. Just works. For all.

Every coworker has a specific type of task they do well and known limits you should pay attention to.