small batch, artisinal wisdom
Looking for a quick option for wall sconces setting up an apartment smart home
Can I convert a sconce to wireless battery powered somehow? No
What's the best option for battery powered? How long will it last? How much energy will it pull? Can it be rechargeable?
If the sconce is wireless and hung high then I'd need another way to turn it off, maybe a wireless smart bulb?
Are there battery powered smart bulbs?
Been thinking more about calm tech recently
Gradually I have become more aware of the neediness of the technology around me. It first became obvious when moving into my new apartment. The devices that I needed to set up but didn't have a home for sat on my floor blinking throughout the night. One tiny LED isn't a problem but a dozen? That's starting to get sufficiently bright to be irritating.
Later that same month I accidentally checked the number number of notifications I got per day. To my shock it was over 400 notifications. That's about a notification every 3.5 minutes! I had been feeling frazzled and distracted and that seemed like a good place to start investigating.
Through that process of becoming more mindful I've started to notice more and more attention grabbing. Talking with Person/Ben Vogel about it he voiced similar concerns especially around "how much of our attention is monetized without our consent".
This feels like a natural offshoot of my war against ads. I've got to extreme lengths see Plex / VPNs / Brave Browser / aggressive add blockers to prevent my attention and subconscious from being co-opted. I don't even notice the effort any more unless a friend starts talking about some ad that's 'everywhere' and I haven't even heard of the brand let alone the ad.
What are strategies I can leverage to maximize the value of tech while minimizing the intrusiveness?
The internet is becoming more homologized
Look at consumption tools like App/Pocket or any RSS reader. These tools are incredibly useful to simplify but they can also strip away the character of a webpage. Part of the charm of the cozy web is how bespoke it can be, how individualistic, how artistic