Ai

There’s a particular kind of “where do I plug this in?” problem that doesn’t have a clean answer in any single shop. I needed internet in a spot where pulling a cable wasn’t realistic, and “consumer LTE router from the operator’s catalogue” wasn’t going to cut it either: I wanted remote SSH access without poking a hole in anyone’s NAT, I wanted the link to survive a short power cut without anyone noticing, and I wanted to know when it didn’t — without staring at a dashboard. Off-the-shelf boxes solve maybe one of those things, and usually behind a vendor app I’d rather not install. ...

Whether loyalty programs are good or bad, and how much we “pay” for our privacy — that’s a topic for a separate discussion. Today I’d like to focus on something more down to earth: user convenience. And, while we’re at it, AI — because these days it’s hard to write anything without bringing it up. 😉 And no, this is not a post about the app from the picture. 😉 Dozens of apps from dozens of providers — each one there just to show a barcode at the checkout. That’s what you actually need. On top of that, of course, the “special offers” — that is, ads the provider wants you to see. Finding the right card in line takes too much time, especially when the store is underground or in a steel-roofed warehouse and that “special offer” decides to load extra lazily. The look on the faces of people behind you says it all. 🙂 ...