If you've spoken with me for more than eight seconds, you may know I'm unable to shut up about Waymo and self-driving cars. Earlier this year, Waymo ran its service in Austin as an invite-only program before opening to the public. During this time, I logged 62 rides, 355 miles, and 1,363 minutes of Waymo-ing around town!
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are exciting to me – I see the remarkable potential they have. While I have no actual industry experience with the technology (my knowledge is that of a fanboy), I thought it would be fun to lob a few predictions about the future into the abyss of the internet.
Specifically, I'd like to predict what the state of autonomy will look like by the end of 2030. If I'm right, you’ll see me gloat on Bluesky or something. If I'm horribly wrong, this webpage will 404.
I'd like to start with one of the more contentious issues: cameras versus lidar.
One of my first encounters with a Tesla Robotaxi – I spotted two of them charging together in Austin
The day after my birthday, ‘A’ and I were sitting on the floor of the nursery late. (It was 8pm, which is considered late now.) I was using my leg in a V-shape to hold him upright, his head near my knee.
His eyes fixated on me, in a strange and unusual way. I tried what I had been for weeks at this point: making faces, sounds, and clowning around in attempt to get even the smallest reaction out of him.
The first few weeks of this felt like a comedy routine performed to an audience of bricks. (Screaming bricks, specifically.) While ‘A’ has become more expressive capable of eye contact over time, there still hasn’t been a clear “call and response” between him and I.
Preface: Last week, my wife (Cassidy) and I became parents! While I plan on writing more extensively about our time at the hospital, this series is intended to process stray thoughts and memories as they happen.
Here are a few notes from our first few days home with our son, who I refer to as ‘A’. (Perhaps we'll call the second and third ‘B’ and ‘C’?)
The Pebble was my first smart watch. I purchased a the original model in jet black not long after release. I was in high school at the time, and I recall it drawing a bit of attention at the summer camp I worked at. Maybe it was my age, but I certainly felt dorky wearing it!
Now, in 2025, you wouldn’t glance twice.
I had really, really,really hoped that someone else would come along and build a Pebble replacement. But no one has. So… a small team and I are diving back into the world of hardware to bring Pebble back!
I’m thrilled it’s making a comeback. A hackable, affordable e-ink watch? I don’t care how dorky it looks.
The emphasis is on sustainability. I want to keep making cool gadgets and keep Pebble going long into the future.
You think you understand love before kids. You don't. Every other relationship comes with implicit conditions. Partners choose each other daily. Parents love you deeply, but there's history. With your child? It's different. It's a love so fundamental it becomes part of your operating system.
Sunday was Formula One day in Austin, Texas. The infrastructure to move 400k people to-and-from a suburban race track is enormous! Pictured is one of the (hundreds) of buses leaving, after dropping us off back at our parking lot on the north side of the city.
I'm not sure I love this image when squashed into a small rectangle on this site. It looks great when large.
Straight out-of-camera from the Fuji X100VI (because editing photos takes too long). Years into the advent of EVs, and the supercharging experience is still unparalleled.
After placing an order in February, and waiting many agonizing months, I got my hands on the Fujifilm X100VI – perhaps the most coveted modern camera (and my first non-Nikon purchase).
This camera is essentially my child
One of the enticements of this camera (albeit minor), is its ability to shoot HEIF images out-of-camera, as opposed to standard JPEGs. HEIF is a modern image format (created in 2015), that provides better image compression. JPEG was created before I was born.
I’m a modern man, and a modern man demands modern image formats.
If everyone can see the whole, they won’t ask why it was built a certain way. They’ll see all the ways you built then backtracked, all the ways that didn’t work. And the same obviousness in your decision making that’s clear to you, will be clear and obvious to everyone else.
The graveyard of self-driving car projects is full, and for good reason. I think the technology must reach near-100% perfection before it can become a part of our day-to-day reality.
Friday (the 2nd) was launch day for Apple Vision Pro. Two days later, I found myself on a newly-installed L-shaped bench in the Apple Store, sitting next to Nick.
While Nick explained how the demo would work, a different employee silently placed a Vision Pro on wooden platter between us.
I love the cute little cover they put on the front
After a few rolls processed with this new film camera – I’m learning things!
1. People love the look of film!
For me, this photo (of my wife) from our recent trip to Canyon Lake evokes a strong emotional response. I immediately feels like I’m looking at a fond yet distant past, in spite of this occurring just days ago.
A conversation with my Lyft driver, around 3:45am this morning, paraphrased:
Me: “You out early or late?”
Driver: “Oh I’m out late. I get all the partygoers. Some people don’t like driving the partygoers, but I’m fine with it. I’m the drunk whisperer. 11,000 rides and only two times they’ve puked in my car.
My recent YouTube bender, Nick Carver, has sent me on a minor film-photography bout. Watching him scout, compose, and execute a single frame with surgical precision was kindling for me to start derping around with film. (Seriously – this guy will take days, if not weeks going after a single photo!)
As with any addiction, I need to start small. So I bought a Kodak Ektar H35N. This is the first roll of film (Kodak Ultramax 400) I've ever developed on my own! (Excluding a few disposable cameras I had as a child – but I didn't even know they used film.)
Almost everything around us is overflowing with history and story, including something as pedestrian as... a pedestrian bridge. I absolutely found myself enthralled in this piece by Tyler Vigen investigating how this oddly-placed piece of infrastructure came into existence!
About one month ago, on August 7th, we appended a new little guy to our life: a dachshund named Picasso! (His larger-than-life name makes us laugh.) This is the first time we (Cassidy and I) have been responsible for any living being on our own.
It's been fun to see our dynamic change as we gradually move from “couple” to “family”. He’s not a child, of course – but when a couple adds a dog to their life, is it appropriate to begin calling them a family? I don't know.
