Snowed In With Surge Pricing
Dug out from the East Coast blizzard this weekend and can't stop thinking about the Uber surge-pricing screenshots flooding my Twitter feed instead of the storm coverage itself.
Snowed In and Not Trusting My Nest
Snowed in during the East Coast blizzard, I can't stop thinking about the Nest thermostat bug from a few weeks back and whether I actually trust my smart home right now.
Why My Thermostat Doesn't Get Software Updates
A software update quietly drained Nest thermostat batteries and left people's houses cold last week. Here's why that pushed me further toward keeping my dumb thermostat around.
Goodbye IE9/10, and a Website Meets Its Match
Microsoft cut off support for old IE versions this week, and between fixing a client's ancient intranet app and watching lottery sites buckle under Powerball traffic, it's been a week about creaky infrastructure.
Killing the IE8 Hacks (Finally)
Microsoft cut off support for IE8, 9, and 10 this week, so I finally ripped every last legacy IE hack out of techpad's stylesheet. Here's what that cleanup actually looked like.
Oculus Rift Preorders Are Open, and $599 Stings
Oculus opened Rift preorders this week at $599, and after three years of hearing "as close to $350 as possible," the number stung more than I expected.
China Trips the Breaker Again and My Stock App Won't Shut Up
China's brand-new circuit breaker rule tripped again this morning, halting trading in minutes and dragging Apple and other tech stocks down with it. A few thoughts from someone whose RSUs just had a bad Thursday.
The Rocket Landed Upright While I Was Standing in a Return Line
A personal take on SpaceX's December 21 Falcon 9 landing, watched half on a phone in a Target return line and half on a laptop that night with cold pizza.
A Week Late on OpenAI, and I'm Still Not Sure How I Feel
A week-late take on the OpenAI announcement, why "for humanity" pledges from billionaires make me a little skeptical, plus a Force Awakens tangent I couldn't resist.
Swift Runs on My Ubuntu Box Now, and I'm Weirdly Excited About It
Apple open-sourced Swift this week with Linux builds, so I spent Saturday getting it running on Ubuntu instead of doing yard work. Notes on the install, the REPL, and why it matters more than the headlines let on.
Billionaires Writing Letters to Babies
A cold cup of coffee, Zuckerberg's letter to his newborn daughter, Adele's Spotify holdout, and a coworker's spreadsheet for Star Wars tickets, all colliding in one scroll of the News Feed.
The Heart Thing Still Isn't Right
Almost a month after Twitter swapped the star for a heart, I'm still fat-fingering favorites into public likes, plus a Cyber Monday site-crash rant.