Building Cool Things
In A Digital World

I’ve automated a good portion of my own home and that of many others over the years. Rarely it’s an easy task, complications come quickly, and navigating endless integrations is near impossible for people who aren’t tech-savvy. That’s arguably one of the biggest downfalls of the home-automation landscape today.

We’re in a time where every company is trying to figure out ways to make it easier for the average person to use their products without having any sort of tech-experience. The problem is we’re in a stage of limbo, and will likely remain in this stage for at least the next decade. Devices can get smarter, but there’s the problem of having them installed, configured, and integrated. This problem extends to having to install 20 different apps on your phone to allow the integrations of all the different brands. It’s a disaster. But, I’ve got the keys.

I’ve built a lot of cool things over the years, but one thing has haunted me for quite some time. My laundry.

Have you ever owned a printer, more specifically anything that called itself a BubbleJet, InkJet or any one of the other ridiculous names they used? You’re probably already in pain reading this. But, if you owned a LaserJet, maybe you’re still smiling. The difference is considerable in many ways.

Your standard issue Bubble/Ink Jet is usually a small form factor, they’ll typically cost under $100, and the ink comes in little cartridges. They’ll boast this stupid claims such as “print on a CD label, photo paper, print banners, colour everything!!111!!1!!”. It’s all nonsense. These things aren’t even good enough to hold your door open, or act as an anchor for your boat. They’re trash, and that’s where they belong – but people still buy them in droves. Why? Because they’re cheap and look like they do a million things, only you don’t realize they do none of them well. The print quality is about the level of the runny watercolour painting done by a toddler.

If you haven’t heard about this, I think I am deeply envious of you. It likely means you live a life that has next to no contact with the news at large, and especially social media. But, for the other 99% of us we all know Facebook (and it’s child companies like Instagram, WhatsApp, and some others all went offline on October 4th somewhere in the middle of the day (EST). Conspiracy theories about the outage started in record time, but the real reason behind it all – at least from what they’re disclosing – is an issue with BGP. You’re likely wondering what BGP is, but frankly you should be a hell of a lot more concerned with the hidden implications of what this outage meant for many.