Half-Life: Alyx Is Out and I Have Nothing to Play It On
Half-Life: Alyx came out today and it's apparently incredible, which doesn't help me since I don't own a VR headset and neither does most of Steam right now.
Animal Crossing Launched at the Worst Possible Best Possible Time
Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out yesterday, the same week the whole state got told to stay home, and the timing is doing more work than the reviews are.
My Actual Home Office Setup Now That Everyone's Remote
A practical rundown of what's actually working for suddenly working from home this week: router placement, VPN split tunneling, a cheap headset, and keeping some shape to the day.
The Week MWC Didn't Happen
This week I was supposed to be in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress. Instead its cancelled, and I've got some thoughts on what that actually costs beyond the obvious.
Monday, Market Panic, and a Phone That Folds
A Monday where the Dow dropped over a thousand points on coronavirus fears, and a smaller gripe about the Galaxy Z Flip's scratch-prone "glass" screen.
Watching MWC Fall Apart, One Company at a Time
MWC 2020 didn't die all at once — it died company by company over about a week. Some thoughts on watching that unfold, and on Samsung proving two weeks earlier that you don't even need the Barcelona stage anymore.
My Battery Is Stuck in a Warehouse in Shenzhen
A $6.50 AliExpress battery stuck in a Chinese warehouse turns Apple's coronavirus supply chain warning into something a lot more personal.
MWC Is Bleeding Exhibitors and Nobody Wants to Say the Word "Cancelled"
LG, Ericsson, Nvidia, Sony and now Facebook have all pulled out of Mobile World Congress ahead of the late-February show, and GSMA is still insisting its going forward.
The Loretta Ad
A personal reaction to Google's "Loretta" Super Bowl ad and why its emotional pitch bugged me more than it moved me, plus a quick aside on Tesla's wild stock run.
Tesla's Stock Is Doing Something I Don't Understand
Tesla's stock has more than tripled since last summer and just blew past $600 a share after a surprise second straight profitable quarter. I don't understand it, and I'm suspicious of anyone who claims they do.
A Train of Satellites Just Wrecked My Orion Shot
A string of Starlink satellites photobombed my attempt at an Orion shot last night, which turned into a whole thing about SpaceX, astronomy forums, and my neighbor's telescope.
Windows 7 Is Dead, Long Live the Dell in My Parents' Office
Windows 7 lost official support this week. Notes from actually migrating my parents' decade-old Dell off it, including a free Windows 10 upgrade trick that still worked.