Fire 10 HD plus Dock review, first thoughts

The packaging is inoffensive. There is very little of it. It is what appears to be fully recyclable paper product. It protected the product. This is not counting the Amazon box it was shipped in, with those inflatable balloon things. Those are also recyclable, but of course the balloon things are not paper product. The packaging was easy to get into. If you have used a Fire before (or, presumably, another Android based phone, tablet, etc.), it is pretty straightforward. The doc was stupidly easy to set up. Both the dock and the device come with charging cables — they are expecting you to leave the dock set up and plugged in and thus give you another complete charging kit (cord and wall part) for the tablet. Nice!

I’m a little bummed that the dock (which is black) covers up so much of the back of the Fire (which I bought in red). But I’m resigned to that sort of design choice at this point. What can you do?

The screen is beautiful. The camera is meh.

The LastPass app does not appear to be supported anymore on Fire. I’m seeing people say they have been able to sideload the google store LastPass app. I’m not that ambitious.

I’m not sure _why_ Facebook integration during setup didn’t work. When I downloaded the FB app, I was able to login just fine. I don’t really care that much one way or the other.

I was able to connect FarmVille 2 Country Escape to my current game, altho I had to play a few levels to get the point where that would work, which irks me and I am convinced I must be doing this wrong, but the stuff I can find telling you how to do this says you have to play even further into the game than I did so who knows. Hardly Amazon’s fault, regardless.

If you have the tablet sitting on a table next to a Dot, and they have the same wake word, they do _not_ step all over each other. But you will wind up hearing the same thing twice. Just not simultaneously / overlapping. So. Could be better and could be worse. The microphone is very sensitive — you can murmur and it will hear you. Make of that what you will.

I did not plug the tablet in overnight (pre-dock arrival). I had the thing set to respond to a wake word. Over the course of the night, it ran down to 93%. YMMV, obviously.

I did not restore from a previous Fire. As with earlier incarnations of these tablets, you have the option of storing wifi passwords and so forth so that should you total your device, you can restore and get everything back as if it never happened.

Given the low cost of the device (sub $200, even with the more memory choice and turning off special offers), and the reasonable cost of the dock, it probably makes sense to buy this rather than, say, an Echo Show, if you have any use whatsoever for an additional tablet. I bought this purely to play with — I had finally managed to get rid of my last Fire tablet and am slightly annoyed with myself for buying another one, because having only Apple hardware for a while was kind of awesome (less cognitive load). I’m completely uncertain what I’m going to do with this thing — probably put it in my office. If I decide I like playing my game on it, I might stick it in my purse some days, rather than bring the iPad. It’s lighter. On the other hand, it doesn’t have a keyboard and by the time I rectify that, I might as well bring the iPad with the Logi Create case. *shrug*

If I were a poor college student, and I wanted to have some kind of smart home answer my questions device, and I needed a (second) tablet, this whole setup would be a fucking dream come true. I’m _not_ a poor college student, and I already struggle finding homes for all the Alexa devices I buy. But I don’t think I’m returning it because it’s pretty cool.

Next up: setting up Netflix and seeing what it is like watching a TV show or movie on this thing. It _might_ serve a travel purpose. There has been some expressed desire to set up an Alexa device in the hotel when we travel, and this might actually work out really well for that, pace internet connectivity / data speed.

Seattle, Single Use non-compostable/non-recyclable food packaging (straws) and the disabled

The straw activist movement has run up against disability advocates.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/07/11/627773979/why-people-with-disabilities-want-bans-on-plastic-straws-to-be-more-flexible

The results are about what you would expect: a fair amount of what-about-ism on both sides, a whole lot of not reading articles before responding to them, etc. Both sides of this recognize that this is a high profile issue, so while the stakes _seem_ small, they are actually substantial, because this can be used to apply pressure more generally to related issues that are less high-profile.

You can obviously go watch the fun over on twitter in response to this.

But if you are actually interested in problem solving, you might find this useful information:

http://www.seattle.gov/util/forbusinesses/solidwaste/foodyardbusinesses/commercial/foodpackagingrequirements/

Specifically, under “Current exemptions...”, the banned straws are allowed for the disabled.

I have mixed feelings. I can see where the straw activists are coming from. Like that ice bucket wtfery, goofy trends that seem on the surface to be tilting at windmills can generate significant resources and attention to things that are Worthy (in this case, Ocean Pollution). I anticipated some pushback from disability activists (because I read way too much about the 19th century, and two things that seem “totally unnecessary” now but very nice to have — straws and ice — were a huge component of what visiting nurses had to offer when they made their rounds. Tells you something!). Yes, it’s a pain in the ass to have to remember the things you have to have in order to be functional (I have a really big problem with sunlight. I _used_ to live in Seattle, and even there I carried sunglasses and wore a hat most of the year. Out here, it is _insane_. If I leave the house without a hat and/or my prescription sunglasses. I go back. It’s never happened on the way to catch a flight, but I would go back. It is not optional.). But carrying around a half dozen plastic disposable straws in a purse, belt pack, back pack, the glove compartment of your car (if you have one), diaper bag, whatever the fuck is, in the larger context, pretty easy to deal with, vs., say, when there is no elevator and stairs don’t work for you. (ETA: Or, to use a really weird example, if you are at Universal Studios on the west coast, and you need to transition from one park to the other, and you have a major escalator phobia. _Major_ escalator phobia. Let’s just say that my daughter and I learned a whole lot about what is involved in moving from one level to the other if you can’t do escalators (because she can’t). There’s an elevator partway, and then you either walk along a road or take a van down that road. And back up. We wound up taking the stairs back up, which was a chore. I cheated and rode the escalator part of the way, but she would rather climb all those stairs than get on an escalator.)

Remember: I did note above that the straw issue is being used by _both_ sides as a proxy. It’s a valid proxy.

Anyway. If you are part of the Anti Straw team, do us all a favor, and make sure anything that you get passed as an ordinance, law, etc., includes an exemption for plastic, single-use straws THAT ARE FLEXIBLE for the disabled, that can be stored out of sight and available upon request. If you work in a place that has gotten rid of straws generally, ask to keep at least one box around in storage in case someone needs one. Complying with ADA doesn’t have to be hard. And being a jackass is not actually necessary to Save the Turtles. Or Whales. Or whatever.

Hidden Legacy, Ilona Andrews, reread

#28, #29, #30

I think the order is _Burn for Me_, _White Hot_ and _Wildfire_, but I persistently confuse the titles of the second and third.

Anyway. I think this is read #3 for the first 1 or 2, but may only be read #2 on the third one. I’ve honestly forgotten. After rereading _Iron and Magic_, I got to thinking a little about the Hidden Legacy series and decided to go revisit it (I really didn’t want to take on a reread of the whole Kate Daniels series, because while I had a lot of time to read this week and stay up to late, I didn’t have _that_ much time).

It holds up pretty well, factoring in observations I have made before (probably about this series): you can really tell to within 1-3 years when a book written in the last 20+ years was written / published, based on what people do (and do not do) with their cell phones.

I’ve been thinking a lot specifically about Linus Duncan and his role in the whole conspiracy. At the time, when the series was coming out, I really felt like he lacked plausibility. What was his motivation in this whole thing? He already had so much power and influence. But he makes a lot of sense to me _now_. And that makes me sad.

The other major thing I noticed this time around, that never really percolated through on previous reads, was

HEY SERIOUSLY SPOILERS GO AWAY ALREADY!

Victoria Tremaine telling Nevada that she had _expected_ James to not have any powers, and all the bad treatment she dished out to him was an effort to teach him some “hard truths”. All well and good. But why, then, did James have, not only children, but _three_ children, enough to show _all_ of what he was a carrier of? Also, did James tell Mom? Did Grandma Frida know? All these people are supposedly “normal” and not “thinking like Primes”, but _someone_, at a minimum James, decided to follow through on Creepy Victoria’s breeding program. WTF?

I still don’t get why Connor thinks Nevada and him are such a bad match. They both have will based powers; they’ll get _something_.

Random Musings About the Business Cycle

First: CR says no recession anywhere in sight:

https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2018/07/investment-and-recessions.html

Trust him. He’s a numbers guy and he’s good at this.

OK. Now that that’s out of the way.

Once upon a time, over a decade ago, a financial advisor type person talked me into putting my cash in auction rates. I asked for a prospectus. No prospectus. Guaranteed. Safe. Insured. Never blah blah blah.

I _did_ get my money back. But here is the wikipedia entry on what happened:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auction_rate_security

Now, if someone says, there is no prospectus, I tell them politely that I am _not_ actually laughing at them, and _thank you_ for thinking of me, but _no thank you_. If there is a prospectus, I read the prospectus, and generally say no thank you anyway. I operate from a modified _Gift of Fear_ perspective. Investments which choose me do not have my best interests in mind. I will do better picking randomly, than saying yes to what has zeroed in on me.

But there is a special place in my heart for investments which would like to help me make a little interest on cash which is sitting on the sidelines to ensure that, in the event of some awful liquidity crunch event (yeah, remember that?), I won’t have to sell at very low, fire sale type prices. That special place in my heart is essentially a canary in the coal mine. If you want me to make some small amount of interest on that cash which is _supposed_ to be the Most Liquid Thing Ever, by having me invest in something that is the Least Liquid Thing Ever in a crunch, well, not only will I say no, I will go, hey! You have used up the Smart Money and are now forced to market to Stupid. That means you are desperate.

This time, it is some sort of short term commercial paper that would supposedly once have been Safe As Houses and in a Money Market except they don’t let them do that any more, because Look How That Turned Out. I said no. I explained why I said no. I mentioned the auction rates parallel, observed pre-emptively that history does NOT repeat itself but sometimes there are patterns and thank you for the data point.

We then talked about housing and homelessness.

I don’t know who the short term commercial paper was issued by, but I will make the following observations.

(1) Amazon is busy wiping out established players in market after market.
(2) The Fed is trying to normalize rates, which means that zombie companies which have continued to limp along by rolling paper are under stress.
(3) Smart Money knows this, and is balking, because the odds of a near term, BK (of the liquidation variety, a la Toys R Us) event is going up, in part because of Fed normalizing and in part because of the increasing likelihood of wage pressure and in part because of (impending) trade war / tariffs making marginal business models non-viable.

So the commercial paper — thus far A+ — is being shunted over to Stupid Money.

Here are my predictions:

(1) Correction event in under 3 years, bigger than 10%, probably smaller than the Great Recession.
(2) Short term more than one national retail chain folding in more or less the same way Toys R Us went under.
(3) Increasing numbers of scandals hard to suppress where entrenched money squawks because they bought something that stank to high heaven but was promised it was “safe” and they want their money back. They will get their money back. But still.

I don’t give financial advice. This isn’t financial advice. Please feel free to come back and laugh at me. I know I will.

ETA: Arguably, I should not have posted any of this at all. But hey, as long as I am:

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1GR2Y2

That’s a few months old. It is interesting to think of this not just in the context of rising Fed rates, but also increasing supply of alternative short term instruments.