5 Thoughts for August 20, 2015

1. If you were looking to invest in a smart home and wanted it to be future-proof, Google's latest product, the On Hub router, is probably your best bet, for three reasons: (1) It will be continuously supported with automatic software upgrades, (2) it is Zibgee-compliant (one of two open standards for the Internet of Things), (3) and is already a beast, spec-wise. That is, if you're willing to plop down $200. Oh, and its demand is very high, so it'll take a while before you'll actually get your hands on one. So what can you do with the IoT? You can set up a home security system, have your home automated to do a bunch of things when you leave or arrive, control the thermostat, power and devices remotely, or communicate remotely with your pet -- and I'm talking about what you can do right now, not 10 years from now.
2. There seems to be some confusion about what "Black Lives Matter" means. Obviously all lives matter, but what BLM is saying, is that the lives of black people are being ignored, by way of current policies, laws and bias, hence, a reminder to white folks that black lives matter...too. When I hear a politician respond to the issue of BLM by saying that all lives matter, it makes me question their suitability as a public servant, considering the shallowness of their thinking. 
3. Everyone is mischaracterizing Judge Berman's actions in the Inflategate arbitration. Everyone seems to believe that Judge Berman's grilling of the NFL's lawyers is a sign that he will rule against them, but they seem to have forgotten this tiny snippet: "Berman warned the NFL that an arbitration decision could be set aside if a key witness didn't appear at an arbitration hearing." It seems to me, if you combine Berman's questioning and his warning, what he is essentially saying is that he will rule that the NFL was more likely correct, but that the penalty was too severe. Don't believe the sports media's reporting, that Berman will rule in favor of Brady and let him get off without anything -- they're applying superficial interpretations of the judge's actions, thus far.
4. Funniest movie I've seen on DVD this year: What We Do in the Shadows.  This mockumentary is right up my alley. If you're not laughing by the end of that clip, you don't have a great sense of humor. This deleted scene is a riot!
5. The internet is a giant library my brain's repository, thus allowing me to "remember" ideas that I vaguely recall, by entering a few keywords into a query. While it may seem that I have an unfathomable depth of knowledge in a wide variety of subjects, the truth is, my brain is a keeper of keywords, and I merely enter those keywords into a search engine to recall the full idea. San internet, I'd be an absent-minded professor at best, or worse, a beach bum. In fact, that's a big part of what this blog is about -- I remember making an entry about a subject, and by keeping good tags, I can recall it later, to check my own memory. Oh, and I also use Pocket, Google Drive, Google Keep, Pinterest and photographs to help me remember things.