Cutting to the chase–there are some undesirable issues to the electoral college system. To put it in simple terms, the only states that matter are swing states. This impacts both conservative and liberal polities because we are now focusing all the “output” of an election’s campaigns in those swing state geographies.

If we think about the election as an event that generates economic output to affect some kind of exchange–like a campaign trying to win votes by spending money on said campaign and what campaigns do–we’re basically redistributing wealth from the public to a handful of states. The Democrats raised hundreds of million of dollars for the Harris campaign and frankly the 7-9 swing states are getting almost all of it. It’s even more lopsided on the Republican side where about 2-3 states are getting almost all of it.

This is not about the argument related to popular votes. I think that’s one way (of many) to solve the problem, but we should identify what the problem is. I think there is a strong and compelling reason, though, to think that these national/federal political offices should serve every state in the Union, or at least at the campaign level. Fundamentally if we concede that modern (well, since Citizen United) federal elections are basically Money Raising/Spending Contests, all the more I think there is a commercial or monetary interest for each state to get those dollars. It makes no sense to try to keep the current status at your own loss.

We are talking about 100s of millions of dollars spent in Georgia or Pennsylvania between both Dems and GOP’s presidential campaigns. Sure, a lot of it is going to mobilize volunteers or whatever, but also a lot of it is going to plain old boring TV, radio and internet ad spend. And isn’t it good for the state with this money, motivating its citizens to be more politically active? At least I think that is a great side effect about elections that is now captured mostly by the battleground states.

Which is to say, all the benefits of an election is being captured largely by a few states! The rest of us are saddled with infinite fundraising spam. Well, those in the BG states also get endless attack ads to balance things out maybe, and people canvassing their neighborhood to win votes. This is an everyday thing that most of us don’t see often, maybe once in a while.

As for representation, the bicameral parliament and electoral college system ensure that Americans don’t get equal say in federal affairs. Moving it to a popular vote is not an issue for me, but the more meaningful fix would be breaking up congress into the European-style multi-party mess that we know yields a more stable polity, or at least one that’s more responsive to the people.

Fundamentally, American politics is there already, it’s just the inertia of what already exists ensures that there can only be two bandwagons at a time. The check-and-balance system by definition skews conservative because it is easy to stop legislation and keep the status quo, until the Supreme Court is hijacked like the way it is today. For sure we aren’t going to change the way we pass laws, let alone what’s enshrined in the Constitution.

Presidential elections are for sure one of those “hate the game, not the player” situation. And the efforts to change it like

PS. Solving the “problem” here is not about crafting an electoral system that is disadvantageous to the Trump campaign or Republicans, but one that actually address a real shortfall of the current system. For example, what if dark money and super PACs played a much less role? We already know 75% of the funds in 2024’s election come from the top 1%. Some folks might get their panties in a bunch about States Rights when talking about a popular-vote based election, but I don’t know why anyone would be against, at least, putting a contribution limit on corporations for SuperPACs. And if you believe in State Rights, you would be fine with the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, right? Texas and California generates more of the US “GDP” than all of the swing states combined (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin), but those voters literally get zero say with our current system. And 39 other states (plus DC)! Why couldn’t states work together and pool their votes based on a set rule? I think this question is really the true fascist litmus test. The Pre-Emancipated South would have failed it. Would 2024 Republicans, too? Only time will tell.

Sure, I drive a Tesla, so maybe take my opinion with a grain of salt. I did spend a lot more money on the Ford than the Tesla, though, so while my dad and I agree that the Ford build quality is really good (not to say anything about comparing a heavy-duty vehicle with a lower-ish end luxury sedan at almost half the price), we both also agree that the software on the Ford is not that good.

First of all, the Sync navigation just feels like something from 2005. It looks more like a 2005 nav polished with 2015 UI makeover. Last time I checked this truck was model year 2022, a good 7 years too old for the most software-advance Ford. Oh did I tell you how Sync on nav would crash like one out of ten times? Not to mention on basic routing, it’s just outright worse than Google Maps maybe one out of three or four times (as in, give a worse route)? Like many OEM dashes they get a pass as long as it has Android Auto/Apple Carplay, and this is a bad trend of big car companies just not doing their homework because they don’t have to in order to be market-competitive, and the engineering debt comes to bite them in the rear.

But yes, it has wireless AA/Carplay and it’s pretty good when it works. It is definitely kind of finicky. Sometimes I would put my phone on the wireless charger pad and it still wouldn’t connect, maybe one out of 10-20 times. Usually it will connect as long as it’s in a pocket near the console, and not covered up heavily by coats or something. Whatever. Wired does work.

What prompts me to write this post, besides mild procrastination, is that software updates are stuck. Turns out there’s a winter 2022 patch that updates the “Distance To Empty” algo in cold weather to be more accurate. About half of F-150 Lightning owners were able to install it no problem. The other half have to basically resort to Konami Contra cheat codes to fix the issue, and that’s only some of the time. I got as far as manually charging the 12v, because the truck normally isn’t plugged in. And no luck. I think Ford definitely screwed the pooch on the 12v arch design here. This is a heavy duty truck, and if all those subsystems are just going to cross over from the gas F-150, the battery needs to be equally beefy. It is not, in the Lightning.

This software update is cumulative, which means if you can’t get it installed, you can’t get any subsequent installed. I hope they’re looking at their installation base and seeing that dropoff. And good luck getting the dealer to fix it, because they’re even less clueful than most owners.

On the plus side, Bluecruise is excellent when it works. The UX needs work because it’s not always clear when it’s enabled, when it’s partially enabled (eg., hands free versus not), and when you can or cannot enable it. The dash is just cluttered with junk data that I don’t really need, but it’s there due to inertia, so that’s part of the problem. You can see how the Old literally is holding back the New in this case. Compared against the EAP Autopilot, it’s about on par, minus the auto lane change feature which is very sweet, but maybe not $6000 sweet. I think Bluecruise is free for another year? Or something? Then there’s a subscription. Sigh.

I guess I’ll try the cheat code when the weather is warmer. I mean at least this wasn’t a 2021 VW ID4, right? Now that was a hellish software update problem.

I ordered the Galaxy Watch3 on launch. I think I ordered it on August 6th and got it on August 13. After mulling over a bit and not able to find any detail specs after the announcement (and I was pretty busy that day) I went with the 41mm black/silver combination. That smaller 41mm one was definitely sold as a “women’s watch” IYKWIM. As you may know my biggest gripe about smartwatches are how big they are. They are chonk. They are thicc bois. So I went with something smaller, based on my experience with my current smartwatch.

A bit of background here–I used to wear a watch all the time, a pretty pedestrian Casio was my last watch but ditched it after I got fully on board on the smartphone revolution (Nexus One babeee). It wasn’t an immediate thing, but it made sense after a while so I went without it for a few days. It felt fine and segue easily into the lifestyle where I carry a smartphone on my person all the time. Which I still do.

Fast forward like, 10 years? Now, I ask Google Assistant what the time is sometimes. I’ve been rocking a Pebble Time Steel for the last 5 years. It’s a great watch but it is getting a bit long in the tooth in terms of the feature I would like. It is also, as I would find out, less comfortable to wear than modern Android watches with their teardrop backs. There are other drawbacks of the Pebble Time Steel, but it is a compromise I can live with given its long battery life and decent look. The gold watch can confuse some onlookers as if it’s the high end Apple watch when they first rolled out the line but not anymore.

Prior to the Pebble Time Steel I had a normal Pebble, being a backer from the original Kickstarter. Other than that, I’ve seen other folks’ fitness devices and smart watches. My mom actually likes them so she wears them pretty much since they became affordable. Ticwatch is great…back in 2017. Other relatives use Apple Watch. I studied it a lot and would have gotten one if I am going to upgrade from the Pebble. There is definitely a vacuum of smartwatches for non-iOS users. That’s nothing new.

So I think I agree with Engadget’s headline saying the Watch3 is the best Android smartwatch. The core Tizen/Exynos 9110 combo does great and for the most part surpasses most WearOS combinations on Qualcomm. The industrial design goes the way of a chonk watch, which is at least a watch thing, not the “device” thing Apple Watch is. They are sort of competing schools of thought but you would think the freedom of the Android ecosystem allows different companies and OEM design drastically different looking smartwatches. That makes them like, well, watches.

I decide to return the rather-expensive (it came to over $420 after tax) Watch3 today because after using it for a couple days, I think I can opt for the slight bigger (by 4mm) and slimmer (by 1mm) 45mm version. If I tried for the titanium version it would even be almost 6g less heavy. But that one is not available yet. The 45mm is $25 more, which is trivial when it cost $399 to just get in the door. That is a chunk of change, but I actually think that is the right price for this watch.

The idea about smartwatches is, like I said earlier, either about a device or a watch. I can keep wearing my Pebble Time Steel in 2025 because it actually looks rather appropriate despite the aging, arguably terrible display. Because a watch really is about how it looks on your wrist, which most of it comes in the stuff outside the display.

The Watch 3 is just a proper piece, a fine looking watch. The 41mm might be a bit cheeky for a luxury watch because it’s a bit nondescript, but the 45mm looks like a proper watch. The rotating crown is a great navigation tool and it really accentuates the watch, plus adding protection to the screen. It speaks a very stated, balanced, Korean-Asian sense of style. Go walk around SIN, HKG, or HND, look at all the luxury stores and ads, and you know what I mean.

My only reservation is with the size, and given Watch3 45mm is still a good 14-20% smaller than Galaxy Active, that means it’s finally not too big to be unwieldy, that I won’t press the crown buttons by bending my wrist. Even my relatively small Pebble Time Steel gets into that.

If you are tracking this product category, though, you would be a bit concerned that a Watch Active can be had for under $200, but this launches for over $400 after tax? Given the two really aren’t different outside their guts, what is going on? And it comes to that a smartwatch is not just a device. It’s also a watch. And you would never be able to justify a $20000 or even a $2000 watch, yet that’s where the game is.

So I think a fine looking hardware like Watch 3 45mm Titanium for a yet-to-know price is probably worth it. I dig the new features for sleep tracking and ECG. I like how it has heartbeat and O2 tracking over the Pebble. I like the crown. I like the display. I don’t like I have to use Samsung Health–mainly because it doesn’t integrate well with what I already use. The sleep tracking app I use also doesn’t seem to integrate with it (not a surprise, may take some time). I don’t like that I have to buy a 3rd party app for Google Fit integration. Samsung Health sleep tracking is okay, but is lacking compared to what I currently use. It can survive a full day (with always on turned on), but not so hot on how it takes a while to recharge.

But it’s good enough that I can make it work on my routine day. Kind of like Android watches generally they meet the minimum at best. I like the watch overall, which justifies the price, but it has added Samsung baggage that holds it back still. Another reason why I have returned the watch… Once Google’s acquisition of Fitbit clears.

I spent a good chunk today reading up on 3D XPoint technology. It’s basically non-volatile memory based on a phase change technology. Think NAND, except it writes-in-place (no erase needed) and does not have the same degradation issue NAND has (it still does…). This means this memory can be directly addressed, and also offer very low latency and very good performance at low queue depth.

This is because Intel issued a PR for its consumer space, selling 3D XPoint SRT (basically M2 cache drives for consumer grade desktops and maybe laptops). For $77 or whatever you can stick 32GB of fancypants new memory tech into your crap-tier desktop and it will function like a hybrid drive? Uh okay. The only juice I found was that they’ll release a U2 version of this memory and that’ll be worth looking into when the time comes?

Instead, let’s read up on Intel’s roadmap (unlike SLC/MLC NAND, Intel and Micron locked 3D XPoint down) here. Or their 4$/gb enterprise “cache” solution. Or Sammy’s answer as of last year. As you can see this has been playing out for years. A lot of the performance that 3D XPoint brings are going to be “locked” behind the controller scheme, and OS level support. Obviously for hyperscale solutions there’s all kind of juice to be extracted but if we plebs get even non-volatile memory as a result, that would be pretty sweet. Of course even for NVM-based memory (that sounds dumb) to play a revolutionary role there’s so much that has to change…

It’s interesting to see that the heating uptake on NVM directly leads to my investment in NVM (bought a Sammy 950 pro last Christmas) being obsolete. As someone who still owns an Intel X-25m g1 I find it only apropos.