paxiongmap

I had a single Sonos speaker with Alexa (deactivated) and a Nest carbon monoxide detector. They have both been replaced with non-smart alternatives. The tipping point was seeing friends install smart heating systems and smart locks. I can't imagine any level of convenience that would make me literally put the keys to my house and ability to be warm in the hands of a 3rd party IoT company.

I find the idea that you'd connect things like these to the Internet absolutely insane. I do think we're past the point where being able to ensure you don't leak data isn't compatible with functioning in the modern world, but trying to limit the things that have Internet access to systems where you have control just seems sensible.

I'm about 25 years looking for a book I remember getting out of the library as a teenager. I've even gone back to the library to see if there are any records of books borrowed in the late 90s (there weren't). None of the LLMs have helped and neither have a number of subreddits. So I occasionally use it as motivation to read obscure stuff from about the right era. However, my memory is confused and has definitely conflated a number of different titles (I found a couple of scenes in an Arthur C Clarke anthology, but not the main plot thread).

Upgraded and now audio won't play out of my HDMI monitor. I wouldn't think this would count as a very niche use case, but what do I know.

I'd probably characterise it as more as "AI doesn't have the massively transformational ROI that all the AI salespeople said it would and now I have to pay for my tokens and the humans I though I could replace at the same time". The idea AI would be running whole companies below some weird godlike CEO who won because they were clever just pushed an attractive narrative for the investor class.

I am very bullish on AI as a tool, but not as a way to completely restructure the economy overnight. Doing things is hard, and better tools don't make fundamental problems about change go away.

I read this today which really resonated and is relevant: https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/attack-on-competence

In a capitalist system, capital makes the rules for everyone. This is why capital earns more than labour. System working as intended.

I've been on Fastmail with my own domains for 4 years now, having been fully Gmail since 2004. The transition was seemless, the apps are solid and I can't imagine ever going back. The only option I'd consider would be full self-hosting, but I really can't justify the effort to maintain the one service where I need very high uptime.

I highly recommend Peter Gray's writing: https://petergray.substack.com/

Relevant to the discussion about online spaces and autonomy in childhood, I'd jump into this discussion about teen suicide rates: https://petergray.substack.com/p/d3-why-did-teen-suicides-es...

We have robbed our children of autonomy and freedom and then wonder why anxiety and depression are rampant.

I have just done the opposite - left London for the countryside and am currently very much enjoying it. As our toddler gets older it will interesting to see how we deal with the challenges of letting them find their own space.

"The least bad thing that Ofcom and the Government could do is to quietly let the matter drop whilst focusing on education."

This generalises very well for all Government. Shame we're a couple of generations into education being about producing pliant workers over independent, thinking human beings.

I came to a similar conclusion when I was very very close to pushing the 'Buy' button on the original Palma. My main hope is for this to be successful enough to encourage some competitors who do the software / service side in a way I can get on board with.

XKCD is universal... https://xkcd.com/1216/

As another product of the British 'education' system, this is all very familiar.

If you're interested in some content that really helped me understand why I hated school so completely, I recommend "Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling" by John Taylor Gatto, and "Free to Learn" by Peter Gray. Peter Gray also has a very nice blog called "Play Makes Us Human" at https://petergray.substack.com/

As a parent of a toddler, deciding on schooling options is one of the most serious decisions I'll have to make with my partner over the coming years and it terrifies me. Home schooling is a very attractive option from my perspective, but only due to lack of alternatives that offer the sort of nurturing and positive environment that I want my child to have.

> The remaining organisation was anything but a competent customer for IT implementations.

This is very much the standard in UK public procurement and has been for a large number of years. It's got a lot worse since Brexit when most civil servants with any skills or capability to deliver have moved on because they didn't want to deliver the 'will of the people' to have their cake and eat it.