Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Can't outrun the battery

As we are nearing the month of September, I am very excited for the next iteration of the venerable Apple iPhone. I skipped upgrading to last year’s iPhone 15, so my current iPhone 14 Pro is going on two years of use. While the processing power and the cameras are still capable and fantastic, the issue with having that old a phone is the battery.

These days I am down to the 20% threshold at the beginning of evenings. Sooner rather than later, my iPhone 14 Pro will no longer last a full day of use on one overnight charge. A mere inconvenience for sure, rather than anything detrimental. But when I can throw money at the problem - by spending over a thousand dollars for a brand new phone - I shall certainly do that.

That’s the thing with anything that runs on batteries: degradation. Your device is only as good as the battery fitted inside. Once it deteriorates past a certain threshold, you no longer have the same kind of device. A laptop that only lasts two hours on a charge (it was eight hours when new, let’s say) is effectively a desktop. It’s only as mobile as your proximity to a pluggable power source.

Obviously, a solution is to swap out the old battery for a new one. And I just might do that when the battery on this M1 Max MacBook Pro that I am typing on degrades enough to be annoying. The first generation of Apple Silicon is still so powerful that I don’t see the need to get a whole new Mac laptop anytime soon.

You can’t do that with an electric car, can you? I would be super weary of buying a used electric car like a Tesla Model 3 - unless there is a way for customers to see the remaining battery capacity. Mileage is not longer the main determining factor. I would buy a used Model 3 with 50,000 miles with 85% capacity over a similar Model 3 with 30,000 miles, but has 75% capacity left.

Consequences must follow

What really grinds my gears is going to Target and finding the thing I wanted to buy is locked up behind plexiglass. The introverted me will definitely not call for an associate to unlock the damn cabinet. Target often leaves me no choice but to buy the same item from Amazon. Sure I would have to wait two days to get it shipped for free, but at least I don’t have to beg someone to allow me the honor to make a purchase.

It’s a real shame that it has to be like this. Those tasked with making and enforcing laws have abdicated their duty to the public. When criminals can steal with impunity, the law-abiding majority suffers. The few ruins it for the many. We all have to take our shoes off at airport TSA checkpoints because one person nearly snuck a shoe bomb through one time. We all have to pay higher auto insurance premiums to cover the few who do not.

There has to be sufficient punishment to act as a deterrence. America cannot be like Japan: the orderliness, the cleanliness, and the utter lack of common crime is because of the Japanese culture. Lacking that, government must then create strong incentives. Take a look at China: pretty crimes are nonexistent, not because the population is overwhelmingly benevolent like Japan, but it is because there’s surveillance cameras everywhere. Who would be stupid enough to steal anything? Especially in a country with a somewhat arbitrary judicial system.

Not that I am advocating for mass surveillance here in the States. I’m just saying we cannot get to Japan from a bottom-up cultural standpoint. We must catch and punish those who do not follow laws. There’s no room for laxity. Oh, you can’t afford that red light ticket because you’re poor working class? Easy: don’t run the freaking red light in the first place. Choices were made, consequences must follow.

My fellow San Franciscans: you ever go to other parts of this country and be amazed that merchandise at a Target aren’t locked up behind glass? I have. It’s fantastic and sad to see at the same time. The powers at be in San Francisco are actively choosing to not have nice things.

You played yourself

I think products boycotts are a very good thing. You the customer have the power. For example, I’ve been saying for months now that the price of McDonald’s has gotten too damn high. Therefore I have stopped patronizing its franchises. And because I’m not the only person doing so, McDonald’s had not so nice quarter financials.

Boycotting works. Be the change you want to see.

What I think is stupid is when people boycott for the sake of political ideology. Remember the Bud Light fiasco? The company featured a trans person in a commercial, and the entire right flank of the political spectrum freaked the heck out. No more Bud Lights for them (it’s not even good beer). Some even destroyed their existing stock of the beer, which is kind of wasteful, honestly. In this economy, I would still go to Costco for a $1.50 hot dog and soda, even if the current CEO has anti-gay views.

Because I’m not going to waste my precious dollars just because a company - or its representative - does something I don’t like. You don’t see Democrat voters destroying their Tesla cars now that Elon Musk has thrown his hat with Donald Trump. That would be absurd. Tesla cars, given a long enough timeline, will self destruct anyways.

You might be thinking: no one - on either side of the political aisle - would be stupid enough to destroy thousands of dollars worth of personal property. Well, take a look at this guy who pumped a ton of bullet into his Harley Davidson motorcycle. The crime? Harley Davidson the company supported pride month.

It’s quite hilarious to see Trump supporters twisting themselves into a knot to support electric-vehicles, now that Elon is in the camp. You seriously should reevaluate your life if your preferences and choices are dictated by politics. Maybe Elon truly is a genius: Tesla sales are in the tank, so while not join the Trump party to turn formerly recalcitrant people towards buying yours cars?

In case of emergency

The problem with modern cars is that they don’t come with spare tires. My BMW M2 certainly does not have one. In its trunk space where a spare is suppose to be, there’s the 12-volt battery (because race car), and a can of tire goo. There’s no emergency jack, or a lug wrench to take off the wheels. In the event of a puncture, I would hook that can to the faulty tire’s valve stem, and the goo is suppose to fill up the tire’s innards. Doing so is suppose to buy me just enough time and mileage to get the car to a tire repair shop.

Oh by the way, the punctured tire that I just filled with goo? It’s irreplaceable. Even if the offending hole is otherwise small enough to be patched. I guess BMW really expect its owners to have the income to replace a $300 tire (if you don’t cheap out, that is) without it hurting. Don’t forget: for balance, you typically should replace the other tire on the same axle as well. That’s $600 in potential repair simply because of a tiny piece of sharp object on the road surface. It’s either that, or call a tow truck. (Presumably, being left stranded on the side of the road is not a choosable option.)

I went with a third option: making and packing my own emergency tire kit. The consensus on the best scissor jack for BMW cars is this $25 unit from Harbor Freight. The head fits into BMW jacking points perfectly. Also from Harbor Freight is this heavy duty tire repair kit. It has everything: plier to extract the foreign object, reamer to prepare the hole, insertion tool for the rubber plugs, and a blade to cut off the excess. The $22 it costs is vastly cheaper than replacing an entire tire. You hate on Made in China until you have to pay for Made in the USA prices.

Lastly, I bought this lug wrench from Amazon. It’s got the necessary 17mm socket for BMW lug bolts. With these three tools packed in the M2’s trunk, I can tackle any puncture during road trips, short of something catastrophic. (That can of goo isn’t going to do much for a hole that size, either.) Best of all, I can take these tools with me to whatever my next car would be. Because it’s very likely that will also not have a spare tire or emergency tools.

Did you get got?

Is your Social Security number amongst the billions of personal information records that were hacked from National Public Data, a background check service? Apparently a hacking group stole all of that information, and has been offering them for sale on the dark web. You can go here to check if your very own personal information is a part of that data breach.

I am lucky: there were no matches found for my information. Unfortunately, I have friends and coworkers who were not so lucky. They now have to freeze their credit at the three major credit bureaus, and keep a hawkish eye on their Credit Karma accounts.

It’s crazy to think that back in the day - well before my time, San Francisco State University ID numbers were people’s Social Security numbers! Either that was the stupidest thing ever, or indeed it was during a time when the Internet isn’t what it has become today. Back then, even if you know a person’s Social Security number, using it for nefarious stuff isn’t so easy. To open lines of credit, you would have to physically visit a bank. Pro tip for those looking to commit fraud: best not do so in-person, at places with security cameras.

Obviously it’s whole new world these days. A name with a matching Social Security number is a gushing gold mine for opening credit cards. Some ill-gotten spending power is just a few clicks on a banking website away.

You know what they should do? Invoke a second factor authentication whenever Social Security number is used. Something that only the actual person would know, or have access to that information. Perhaps the total gross income from a specific tax return year. The bank should be able to verify this with the IRS. It’s a hassle, sure, but I would definitely want that safety when my credit identity and worthiness is at stake.

Not without the sacrifice

Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, got into some controversy during a recent talk at Stanford. Basically, he said that Google is falling behind AI startups like OpenAI because of work-life balance and working from home policies. The virtual-signaling crowd has come out in criticism, saying work-life balance is super important, and not everyone wants to dedicate a majority of their time energy towards work.

And that’s fine - have your work-life balance! Just don’t expect the same results as a team of workers spending 80 to 100 hours a week slaving away at a problem. As the great Thomas Sowell wrote: “There are no ideal solutions, only trade-offs.” Eric is absolutely correct: a mature company of many thousands can get beaten by a plucky startup dedicated to a eureka moment. For every Adobe, there’s a Figma willing to out-grind its ass.

Work-life balance has many positives, but there are indeed trade-offs. I know this first hand. My career working IT at a university has tremendous work-life balance. However, I know I’m leaving lots of money on the table. In fact, I make the least out of my group of friends. The equation is simple, really: the more time you spend working, the more money you will make. Show me a CEO who goes home right at 5:00 PM, and I will show you a failing company.

I think what people want - and honestly, who wouldn’t if you can get it - is to have work-life balance, but also the high salary. They want the results without the sacrifice. Obviously, that’s not how it works in the real world. If you have aspirations of climbing a company ladder, you put in more work than what is minimally required. You are going to get beaten to the higher seat by the coworker who can come in on a Saturday, while you are home tending to the kids.

Is it fair? Of course it is. The lunch is not free. What do you want to sacrifice?

You can't take a shortcut

Blink and you’ll miss it. My housemates’ set of twins turned a year old! Cliche to say, but it does indeed seem like just a few months ago they came home from the hospital. Those tiny little humans! Also cliche to say: when it comes to kids, the days are long, but the years are short.

I think having children is the best reminder that good results simply takes consistent effort over long periods of time. There aren’t really shortcuts when it comes to raising kids. You change their diapers and feed them milk for the nth amount of time, then they start talking and walking. There’s no hack, or top 10 tips to get your babies to grow faster. There’s only the work, day after day after day.

And unlike something like exercising or going on a diet, parents can’t exactly just stop this whole taking care of a child thing. Well, the morally sound ones, anyways.

Parenting is suppose to be hard. I think if there were this hypothetical shortcut to raising kids, those that did it before the hack was invented would be seriously resentful. The same way those who have diligently paid off their students loans are loathe to see those who didn’t get theirs forgiven by the government. Or those who lost their excess weight through diet and exercise, are hateful towards those who can now simply inject Ozempic into their bellies once a week.

Paradoxical, isn’t it? People love a shortcut (get abs in two weeks videos), but people also hate those who take shortcuts (can also be known as cheating). I think it’s positive to see that ultimately, we all know that putting in the work consistently is what makes that pot of gold at the end genuinely worth its weight.