2018 Winter January 12 Friday

16 degrees this morning (feels like 3 degrees).  No walk

16 degrees definitely has a real “nip” to it.  Actually I was more concerned about the wind.  

Yesterday I had one of those “traumatic shocks” to my daily life when the screen on my Apple watch came off.  (I didn’t even realize it could do that).

At first it was just a little loose, so I just snapped it back in and decided I’d take it to the Apple store after work.  Of course somewhere the screen feel off and I looked at my watch and saw a blank face so to speak.

Anyway, I”ll be without my watch for a few days while it is being repaired (hopefully they’ll end up just replacing it, unless it can be fixed to “as good as new”). 

While a lot of people change the bands on their watches daily, I have never changed my band (I actually bought the watch for the band as much as for the watch).  It may be  challenge, but at least I have an Apple store near so I can take it there if I need to.  (I have to take the band off before I send it in.)

The Apple watch has become a part of my life.  Not being without it obviously isn’t quite as bad as not have my cell phone or car, but it is probably in third place of the gadgets in my life. Actually the car isn’t a gadget, so the Apple watch is probably in second place.  

The Apple watch made me think about how much our lives have changed just in a few years.  Yesterday I saw a phone booth (with no phone of course) and I really don’t remember the last time I saw a phone in a phone booth, although I think some airports etc. have to have one or two around.

Just saw about the development of “smart suitcases” that will “follow” you as you walk through the airport, so you can have your hands doing something else.  The suitcase is paired with your phone or watch and will even “stand up” while you are standing still etc.

Of course, this is still in the development stage, but….

I also recently noted that “Instagram” and Facebook and to some degree Twitter are the main methods some companies are using to market their products, which of course is totally different.  

Sometimes I feel like I am somewhere in the middle of the old and the new, if that makes any sense.  

I have always wondered why cars etc. were stuck basically in the pattern as when cars were first invented.  As I have noted several times, when I was a child, I saw an ad with a self driving car and the passengers sitting around a table not paying any attention.  

I know a “self driving airplane” was possible 20 years ago.  I realize there are a lot of recent advances in cars (“blind spot” radar, alarms if you leave your lane etc., automatic braking etc. as well as some automatic driving etc.), but it seems it should have come much sooner.

GPS is a major backbone in all of this.  Since that depends on satellites, just like electricity depends on transporting of electricity from major generating plants, it can be disrupted.  One reason I like the idea of batteries so much is that it “decentralizes” electricity if you have a house that runs on a battery, especially if it stores electricity generated by the sun or wind etc.  Currently there is no such backup for GPS, at least that I am aware of.

That’s it for now, Friday, January 12, 2018.