baltakatei

I think it involved a planet called …

Just, buy a new iPhone and Mac every two years.

Termux, rsync and SSH.

Worked okay until I got overzealous and killed my battery from leaving Termux on for convenience.

The USB Type-C is useful for sharing files offline between smartphones while the USB Type-A is useful when you want to backup files to a PC at some point.

and then ends it, always leaving you wanting more

After several years of reading, I have realized that most of his books fall into the “Status Quo” genre, much like Marvel movies in which superheroes are cops that work to prevent relatable characters or governments from falling too out of sync with reality. The second their dystopian speculations start to imagine a society better off (due to redistribution of concentrated power or wealth), they immediately end.

Diamond Age (1994): corporations control society by controlling the centralized Feeds that supply matter compilers, justifying their monopoly by saying they keep society stable. MC publishes blueprints for compiling your own Feed. Story ends.

Anathem (2008): The government executes most scientists en masse and imprisons most survivors because technology was too disruptive 3000 years ago. A new global disaster forces the release of the scientists so they can wield ancient technology to solve the crisis. Story ends.

Cryptonomicon (1999) / The Great Simoleon Caper (1994): Some cryptographers think Bitcoin is a good idea even if it might topple governments. They publish it. Story ends.

Termination Shock (2021): Climate change can be solved by billionaires by getting governments addicted to shooting sulfur into the atmosphere. The story ends basically as soon as the operation begins.

Seveneves (2015): The moon blows up, forcing a crash course construction of a modern Noah's Ark in the form of a fleet of spaceships in low Earth orbit. Eccentric billionaires sacrifice themselves to make the project work to save seven genius women who rebuild society with eugenics and a racial caste system. They discover some pre-disaster survivors whose culture is incompatible with the new society. Talks begin for reïntegration. Story ends.

Fall (2019): People upload and emulate their brains into datacenter computers. The first rich people to upload themselves gain an enormous first mover advantage in the digital afterlife and control the minds of newcomers whose surviving families pay ludicrous amounts of money to keep the dead billionaire-controlled Bitworld running. The system keeps running smoothly until the admin with the credentials to shut everything down dies, is uploaded, defeats the incumbent dead billionaire, thus making the world more equitable. Story ends.

The closest thing to an exception I can find is Atmosphæra Incognita (2014; part of Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future), in which a billionaire fights environmental regulations and NIMBY pushback to build a 20-kilometer steel tower to reduce space launch costs by acting as scaffolding for a mass driver. Although the story portrays most people as against the construction of such an audacious structure, and although the main beneficiaries are corporations wealthy enough to purchase space on the tower to install equipment, if you weigh your definition of “society” towards billionaires and their company org charts, then the story is about breaking the Status Quo (of NIMBY California landowners).

Expected behavior: The file is not composed of null bytes.

Actual behavior; The file is composed entirely of null bytes.

If he doesnʼt die from COVID.

If battery technology werenʼt still stuck in the Vietnam War era, 2-second rapid charging would require something like a thick boi USB-B cable to satisfy everyoneʼs desire to also use their phone as a tazer/hand grenade/flying drone/cardiac defibrillator/space heater.

“It looks like youʼre copying text from a copyrighted source. Would you like me to get a quote from the Microsoft Store for a license?”

The Aranet4 runs on two AA batteries and the smartphone apps are still well-supported. The apps also support CSV export of trend data which is nice. In addition to CO2 ppm, it also records temperature, air pressure, and relative humidity (these other readings are probably used to adjust the CO2 sensor readings to account for temperature/humidity/air pressure conditions). I carry one of these with me while traveling and its high alarm beep (I have it set to sample every 60 seconds) is a convenient reminder to circulate air or consider wearing a mask if I am in a public space. The air pressure reading can be used as a crude altimeter, especially if you have two of the devices: one in a stationary location and another on your person as you take a hike; subtract the two values and you get a pressure difference that is a function of elevation.

Interesting sci-fi stories have the villains be defenders of the status quo, both fictional and real. For example, in New York 2140, KSR has the protagonists seeking to collapse global economy for various ends, including protecting and empowering climate refugees.