Ephemera 

Random things that have been collecting in my brain the last few weeks:

• The last time I headed abroad, I realized AT&T had finally caught up to the competition and offered a reasonable international plan (use your data, $10/day).
• I also realized I didn’t want to waste my data on stupid things I could wait to pull over wifi, so I made it so a bunch of apps could only update over wifi (most notably, Facebook). A couple of months later, when only using Facebook over wifi, and only using it sparingly (I’m ready to be done with Facebook), I noticed I’m using about half as much cell data as I was before. Thanks, Facebook, for preloading all your shit content, and for your huge app updates.[1]
• I traded in my hybrid for an electric Chevy Bolt. It’s been a pretty interesting experience (more on that in the future), but I did find one odd bug: plug in your iPhone (after using Carplay) before the car is turned on, and it doesn’t seem to be able to boot the Infotainment system. Unplug the phone, and life is back to normal (and then Carplay is usable again when you plug it back in).
• I’ve enjoyed listening to Crimetown, one of Gimlet’s many podcasts, but their production schedule just destroys my ability to remember what’s going on. Same goes for StartUp. Anything that’s sort of serialized just gets trounced by the seemingly random release schedule. I think the all-at-once-model (like for S-Town) is much better for stories that are serial. Or, at least be ready to release it every week.[2] I probably should have just saved up all of Crimetown and binged it.
• I bought a Zelda-Mario Player. It’s really fun.