Category Archives: Gadgets and Technology

What dozens of delivery drones in the suburbs sound like

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Residents in Richardson, Texas describe the sounds of delivery drones overhead:

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But in the Richardson neighborhoods near the Amazon distribution center, any joy about the innovation has been muted by the sound of dozens of drones, if not more than a hundred of them, flying by every day, sometimes so loud that they sound like flying lawn mowers. (Other companies, including Walmart, are also using delivery drones, but different types, in the area.)…

“We hear them zoom, zoom, zoom, back and forth from morning until past dinnertime,” said Nikki Anderson, whose extended family spotted the drone — and many more — one Friday earlier this month. She has long prized the serenity of her backyard, with its undulating pool and birds chirping from landscaping that included a shrub sculpted into the shape of a giant heart…

Kristi Graham, an administrator for a music education company, was one resident who complained to Amazon, upset about drones flying over her backyard, where her family swims and barbecues.

After her complaint, she said Amazon did change the route — to the front of her house…

When a protest was held in front of the Amazon distribution center in June, Ms. Puri took part. People waved signs like “Too low, too loud, too many.” And she said many Amazon delivery drivers, whose jobs may be at risk, honked their horns in support.

Suburbanites like tranquility in their yards, if they can get it. There is often some level of noise they put up with, including lawn care, local traffic given all the driving in the suburbs, and recreational noise (kids playing, all those pickleball players?).

These delivery drones represent a new source of noise. For residents who expect their yards to be retreats from the world or nature preserves, drones are an intrusion. An outside company is introducing a noise they do not want and the residents do not think the suburb’s regulations do enough.

What if this was the trade-off for suburban residents: would you accept delivery drones if it means fewer delivery trucks on the road? Suburbanites may not like noise but they also do not like traffic. If drones demonstrably reduce road traffic, would this make the drones and their noise palatable?

Resistance to Flock cameras but willingness to add doorbell cameras and maybe toothbrush cameras?

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Flock cameras are facing resistance in a number of American communities. But why such resistance when Ring cameras are common and other home devices can have cameras? Indeed, many consumer products can contain cameras:

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This week at the international home appliance exhibition IFA 2026 in Berlin, appliance maker Miele unveiled a smart dishwasher. It comes with an app so you can keep tabs on its performance, and the ability to automatically run during off-peak electricity hours.   It’s also equipped with a camera on the inside of the door, all the better to monitor your dishes and make sure the machine can accurately meet your “personal preferences” when it comes to washing them.

Cameras have been the name of the game in the appliance world for some time now. Smart ovens, refrigerators, and doorbells have all gotten the camera treatment, attempting to close the gaps of mystery in our daily lives. Miele isn’t the only company joining in on the trend this month: Dyson just rolled out a $500 electric toothbrush that uses a tiny, 100,000-pixel macro-lens camera to livestream what’s going on in your mouth, as you brush, to an audience of one (you). Allegedly, these cameras help everything run easier, and faster. The dishwasher camera tailors washes for optimal energy efficiency and finally solves the mystery of what goes on inside there during the cycle. The toothbrush camera targets interdental cleaning, helping your teeth stay in pristine condition between dentist-office cleanings. The fridge camera can track your groceries, and the doorbell camera clears up any confusion around who might be at your door while you’re away.

For consumer products, potential buyers can decide not to buy them. As of now, there are plenty of toothbrush and dishwasher and refrigerator options without cameras. That could change in the future but if there are not sales for these devices, that might not happen.

Perhaps people are more okay when they feel they can control the camera more. A dishwasher camera is hopefully only going to look in the dishwasher. The owner can disable the camera or control the machine if desired. Or perhaps they trust Miele, a company, more than law enforcement, with whatever data the camera generates. And plenty of households have smart devices that can listen.

The trade-off of privacy for new technology started a long time ago. Having cameras everywhere is not inevitable. The Flock cameras could proliferate because many residents and communities are worried about crime. Ring cameras are common because residents were worried about their property. People will accept cameras if they feel they get something sufficient in return. Some are not feeling that way about Flock cameras. They might feel better toward toothbrush cameras in the future. If a toothbrush camera could reduce the need for dentist visits, would people purchase them? I’m sure someone is trying to figure what it would take.

Will Americans get used to delivery drones just like they got used to hordes of delivery trucks?

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Florida residents recently responded to Walmart starting delivery via drone:

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Reactions to the drones added at the Walmart Supercenter in Apopka have been mixed, with some residents like Brittany Nilsen saying she’d “absolutely” use the service for the sake of “convenience.”…

Some likened the noise to a police siren or fire truck but said they’d become accustomed to it.

In addition to the noise, other locals said they were worried about privacy and safety…

After arrival, the drone hovers about 20 feet above the drop zone and lowers the order down via the tether, with the drone itself never landing on a Walmart customer’s yard.

Imagine the air at roughly building height or tree top level with a steady stream of drones delivering packages from different suppliers. There would be noise. They would be part of the view when looking into the sky or looking into the distance.

But I was reminded this week of the ways that we now just accept delivery trucks all over the place. The trucks stop in roadways with their flashers on while the driver goes to the door to complete the delivery. They stop on narrow roads and busy roads. They add to traffic.

The benefit of both is that people get their desired objects without having to go to a store. The delivery comes directly to them. This modern convenience is expected and people will sacrifice for it to happen. Americans like driving and they are willing to put up with traffic and stopped vehicles to get their packages. Whatever downsides come with drones could be outweighed by packages coming via the sky.

I see almost no ads online and I see a lot on streaming services

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I remember hearing as a kid that Americans would see thousands upon thousands of advertisements in their lifetime. I have not heard updated figures for years as entertainment habits have changed. Where are people seeing or hearing advertisements today?

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I realized recently I see almost no ads on websites and limited ads on social media (and I do not use apps for social media). Because I use multiple ad blockers, I see no ad banners at the top of pages, ads on the sides of pages, and rarely see ads on videos.

Where I do see more ads is through streaming services. Because they now require paying more each month to eliminate ads, I see breaks while watching shows.

In terms of older media forms with ads, with TV (particularly live sports) and radio I can skip to another station during ads. I no longer subscribe to newspapers and magazines – even though I enjoy reading them – so I do not see print ads. I still get plenty of junk mail addressed to me.

Am I living a life with fewer advertisements compared to several decades ago or are the ads ever more present across a range of media? They might be there in product placements in TV shows or in how many baseball game plays on a radio broadcast are sponsored. Or I still drive past plenty of signs and billboards. (I was also recently in Times Square in New York City and it was full of ads.) Or many everyday items – water bottles, sports equipment, clothing, etc. – prominently features logos and branding.

The advertising industry is not going away in the third decade of the twenty-first century. Even as I and many others will claim that these advertisements do not affect us, there is a whole industry that will continue to find more ways to personalize ads, have them in all media forms, and find news ways to tailor these ads to our particular interests and settings.

An American county on track to have 60% of revenue come from data centers

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As Americans debate data centers, one county in Virginia is dependent on the revenues they generate:

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There is a credible argument there. Look at northern Virginia. So much tax revenue goes to northern Virginia now from being Data Center Alley, as some folks colloquially call it. The flip side can be found in Loudoun County [Virginia], or in a state like Alaska. I mean, the corollary here is that if you rely on oil and gas revenue for your state’s budget, eventually you will kind of be reliant on that industry to a point where you’re not able to successfully regulate it effectively to what the people want. And that’s what’s happening in Loudoun County, where within the past couple of weeks, staff for the county have started warning that their budget is on track to be 60 percent data-center revenues. And they’re actually very concerned about how much data-center money is providing a foundation for their living, and recommending against relying on so much data-center money.

Data centers can provide revenue. As noted in this discussion, they are an in-demand land use. They may not provide many jobs but they will pay property taxes.

As also noted, a community or county or state relying on a single industry for a large portion of revenues is a problem. That industry might be popular for a while. But it may not be popular forever. The rush of building data centers will slow. Technology may move on.

Given the opposition Americans have to data centers near them, it is more likely that:

  1. Data centers will cluster in certain locations and not others? I would guess at least a few communities or counties will approve data centers because of the benefits they perceive them to have.
  2. Data centers end up spread out across metropolitan landscapes. This may be due to utilizing certain locations that are not near residents or numerous communities approve data centers.

If I had to guess, I would go for #1: data centers will end up in places that want them. This may not be in counties that generate 60% of their revenues from data centers but some places will want to strike while this development option is hot.

Where data centers will end up when some community leaders see them as providing benefits, others see them as threats

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There are already thousands of data centers in the United States and more to come. Some community leaders say they benefit their community:

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The recently approved CyrusOne data center in Sangamon County is projected to bring $500 million in capital investments to the county. Marc Ayers, a former Sangamon County Board member, said it’s estimated to generate $5 million to $6 million in property taxes annually, with around $98 million in tax revenue over the next 20 years…

DeKalb Mayor Cohen Barnes said the Meta data center that has been operational since 2023 has contributed significantly to the city with community investments and around $250,000-300,000 in utility taxes…

Barnes said the data center in DeKalb employed more than a thousand union construction workers over the five years it took to build. Now, he said there are hundreds of permanent jobs working on tech, electricity and maintaining the HVAC systems.

Other local leaders describe the downsides:

Property tax revenue from data centers can be significant, but many say the massive centers aren’t worth the millions of gallons of water they consume or the stress they put on an already struggling electric grid. The ComEd territory in northern Illinois, for example, has enough large-load energy projects in its queue to more than double the amount of energy demand in the territory by 2040…

John Laesch, the mayor of Aurora, said the five operational data centers in his community have provided generous tax payments, but those benefits don’t outweigh the downsides data centers can bring to communities…

“But during our public hearings, we heard residents ask, is that $1.6 million worth the noise pollution and the strain on our power grid and potential long-term risk to our climate?” Laesch said.

With these different perspectives, are there and will there be clear patterns in which communities have data centers and which do not? With land uses that can be controversial, will most or all communities say no or will there be certain kinds of communities that approve data centers?

Given some existing patterns, these might be some fault lines:

-Communities with residents with higher incomes and higher levels of education vs. those with lower levels

-Communities who are seeking out new economic and development opportunities vs. those who are not

-The political leanings of local officials

-Communities with pro-business/jobs/growth/construction coalitions vs those where such coalitions have a lesser presence

-Metro areas with a stronger presence of big tech companies versus places that do not

I would bet some of this could be answered already but it would also be interesting to see what happens now with companies and communities having the advantages of seeing what has already happened and what might work for getting the outcome they want.

AI to help me find an expensive home that is within walking distance to Whole Foods

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What kind of potential homebuyer is Homes.com aiming to reach with their AI assisted search (“Homes Ai”)? About 20 seconds in, the video includes this line:

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Narrow it down to homes walkable to a Whole Foods.

According to a few search results, there are over 500 Whole Foods locations in the United States. Who tends to live within walking distance of these locations?

The video keeps going with the theme. After seeing some expansive interiors and a gourmet kitchen with the AI chipping in that it has white quartz countertops, the final home shown is $1.425 million.

The homes depicted appear to be in single-family home, if not suburban, neighborhoods.

So it appears “Homes Ai” is aimed at a wealthier potential homebuyer with particular lifestyle interests? Could “Homes Ai” help people search for reasonably priced housing or affordable housing?

Zillow makes the majority of its money from real estate agents

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Zillow changed how many people find and view real estate but it makes more of its money from real estate agents:

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Not everyone agrees Zillow is good. Like Uber, the company has weathered a barrage of industry resistance, naysayers and litigation in its conquest. But its dominance is unquestionable. Arizona’s Kris Mayes, one of five state attorneys general suing Zillow over alleged anticompetitive practices, has called it “a gorilla-sized company.” In 2024, Zillow reported annual revenue of $2.2 billion; analysts estimate it will be even higher in 2025 and 2026.

People associate Zillow with homebuyers, but it actually makes around 70% of its revenue from agents, who pay the company for customer leads. Wacksman thinks a lot about how to keep the agents happy (hence tonight’s Musgraves concert). He knows many of them have reason to loathe Zillow, which has empowered consumers with market data and property history previously known only to licensed agents. Many of these “information arbiters,” as Wacksman describes pre-internet agents, were ruined during Zillow’s rise. “Our original mission statement was ‘power to the people,’ because it was about giving the nonprofessional access to data that only the professionals had,” he says. “It obviously worked.”

So Zillow opened up possibilities for potential homebuyers but then makes its money by providing their information back to the people who used to exclusively have this information? I am trying to think how this might work in other industries. Car listing sites that then provide leads to dealers looking for buyers or sellers? Ride sharing companies selling info to taxis for riders? Online marketplace sites selling user info to sellers?

If anything, this is a reminder of one of the revenue drivers of the online/social media world: data and information about users. Websites and platforms have information about users. What they see and linger on. What they engage with. Personal information they offer as part of accounts and profiles. How they interact with other actors. This is valuable for companies and organizations who have products or services to offer.

At the same time, is this revenue model similar to how other real estate websites operate? Does realtor.com make money off customer leads? Or Redfin? Are there other ways to make money off real estate listings available to a broad audience?

Where is my wrapped academic work summary for 2025?

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With different apps and platforms offering year-end summaries, who offers one of these for academics? Alongside my listening, watching, and reading, I want to see a count of emails sent, meetings attended, assignments graded, class sessions prepped, and more.

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The one platform that could do that for me would be Microsoft products, specifically Outlook or Microsoft 365. Outlook offers insights into my time through the calendar and email activity, could report on who I sent the most emails to (and who received them from me), and could look at the text of the calendar and emails to figure out what I was working on.

Expand this to Microsoft 365 and even more data is available. What did I type into Word? What did I track in Excel? What did I present through Powerpoint? What conversations and groups was I part of in Teams?

I suppose I could do this work myself. At various points I have tried to track my time and activity. This work can be helpful, particularly when filling year-end reports or updating my CV. But there is also a lot to keep track of and I have not found that knowing the contents of every or nearly every minute is useful. I do not need everything quantified; seeing general patterns can help me keep address my top priorities.

Is this what AI will offer in the near future? Could it make a to-do list for each day anticipating what I need to do based on previous activity? Or will it take work to manage the manager?

(Other contenders for helping prepare my 2025 year in academics wrapped: Google Photos, our learning management software, my library records, my key card.)

How many data centers does the United States have, want, and need?

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Datacentermap.com says there are 4,287 data centers in the United States.

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How do they know how many data centers are in the country? Their explanation:

Our data originates from multiple sources, primarily:

  • Operators: Data center operators and service providers use Data Center Map as a marketing tool, to promote their data centers, networks and services to potential clients. They have direct access to add and update listings.
  • External sources: We monitor multiple external databases, to identify missing or changed listings. They are automatically queued for manual review.
  • Manual sourcing: We manually identify operators that we are missing and manually add them to our database.
  • End-users: End-users send us tips and requests, about missing or outdated listings, that we manually handle…

As there are no regulatory requirements to register data centers in a central database, there are no complete resources available. All databases are based on voluntary data submissions and/or collecting data from providers or other sources.

How many data centers are needed for the United States? From what I have read, data centers are under construction in order to meet the current and future needs of AI technology. The future needs might be hard to forecast. Within a few years, what newer tech and AI products will be considered essential?

How many data centers are wanted? I am thinking of two possible scenarios. First, tech companies might want a certain number of data centers to meet needs and have extra capacity. But, they can only build so many and they can meet needs and maybe only a little more.. Second, communities and residents may not want some of these data centers. While this opposition often occurs community by community, this could add up to limit the number of data centers throughout the country.

It will be interesting to see where this number ends up. And if the number keeps going up, how many people living around them or driving by them will know and/or care they are there?