Aaron Parecki

Signs you might be traveling too much:

You start measuring streaks not by the number of nights away from home, but by the number of nights you spend *at* home.

Something about Apple's decision to do "OAuth-but-not-quite" rubbed me the wrong way, but this is a great example of how it breaks down very concretely.

https://twitter.com/atomicbird/status/1163478833326108673

Over the past few weekends I've been overhauling my home automation systems. At the core, as I decide what to buy and how to configure it, there are three primary principles:

• Manual override: Everything automated has to still have the ability to be controlled manually
• Keep it at home: No "cloud" services unless absolutely necessary (e.g. push notifications to a phone)
• Open: Avoid vendor lock-in, use open source and open protocols where possible

So far, I've removed my Dropcam (acquired by Google/Nest), removed SmartThings (acquired by Samsung), and replaced everything with the best alternatives I can find, and making a few sensors myself as well.

It's been a fun experience for sure! Not something I would recommend as an "out of the box" solution, but I've learned a lot, and have a lot more ideas still! I'm planning on doing a full writeup once I get a few more things hooked up.

I need to start keeping track of the tail numbers of the planes I've flown in because I'm really curious how many times I've flown in the same plane.

A lot changes in 4 years. It used to be there was only one guy driving a taxi between Ontario and Redlands. Now there's a Lyft pickup location at the airport! Very glad I don't have to rent a car anymore!

Relatedly, I'm back at Esri HQ tomorrow for the first time in 4 years!