We aren’t there yet, but maybe one day we will harness AI the way we harnessed the atom — or as a more recent example, the Internet. Will we continue pretending AI is some kind of magic we can’t possibly understand… Or will we peer into the black box?
Continue readingOld Man Yells at Cloud
Technology has gotten objectively worse in the last few years. I know I’m dangerously close to becoming an old man yelling at the Cloud. That every generation is uncomfortable with the next generation’s technology — everyone has a level of tech they’re used to, and things introduced later become increasingly foreign. But I’m pretty sure…
Continue readingSo I Tied An Onion To My Belt – 2022 Edition
As of the end of 2022, we’ve lived in our house for 7.5 years. Never in our adult lives have we lived anywhere this long — nor did we imagine we would, or that if we did, it would be here. The winters are bitter cold, the summers too short, and the scenery relatively bland.…
Continue readingEverything is Automatic
There’s lots bad about the time in history we all just got through, but if there was an upside, it was how it forced us to change our pace, and re-prioritize our lives. I’m not eager to go fully back to the “normal” we accepted before Covid-19; remote work, new ways to connect, new hobbies and level of self-sufficiency that we had to adapt to were worthwhile side-effects of a “great pause.” But our dependence on technology, and in particular, an unquestioning trust in Big Tech to save us, highlighted for me just how genuinely broken the industry I work in has become.
Continue readingFrom the Passenger Seat
Few things in life are stranger than being driven around by the child you taught how to walk. Sitting in the passenger seat while Ben pilots one of our vehicles is more than a little terrifying, entirely surreal, and very exciting! It feels like yesterday he was our chubby little guy waddling around the apartment,…
Continue readingServing HTTP to old devices and HTTPS to new ones
Devices that pre-date modern encryption are still on the Internet. They shouldn’t be used for anything that needs security, but there’s still valid use-cases for serving content to them. Newer devices, on the other hand, are increasingly hostile to unencrypted content. The popular notion is that HTTPS helps reduce attacks — and while true, and…
Continue readingEurope 2022
Well, we finally got the kids to Europe! This is something we’ve had a general desire to do since before we had kids, and a specific intention to do since before Covid hit. It took a little longer than we’d hoped, but this summer we pulled it off. It helped — more than a little…
Continue readingThis one’s for you, Agnes
I worked for Microsoft for 2 years before I finally got the nod to attend Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Aside from CES, MWC is the largest international event for consumer technology — especially in 2011, as smart phones and tablets were taking off. Nicole was 9 months pregnant with Eli, my mom was coming…
Continue reading