It’s not just homes. I was working at a place when it moved to a newly built office. Plagued with dumb mistakes. Most striking was when we got into summer. First really humid day, AC stopped, wouldn’t turn back on, and then we realized water was seeping from the ceiling in the bathroom. Room was drenched. Turns out, the original building plan was for AC to use a water drain, but the building or fire inspector said it needed to be pumped. The builder did order a pump installed, but because it wasn’t in the plans, no electrical was built for it, so it was never plugged in. Just blatantly sloppy.

Between that and the condition of friends’ new homes we’d seen, we bought an older home, which has its own problems from age and previous owner workarounds, but we know any hidden and/or structural builder errors are long revealed.

Access to food, transportation, housing, it’s almost like he thinks the job of government is providing decent infrastructure.

I strongly support this idea as long as it is funded by universal healthcare and/or basic income.

Apple Maps. The integration across my iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch is too good, and I have Shortcuts and automations to bring up directions as needed. Also, we build guides for vegan-friendly restaurants for out-of-town trips, so it’s a real stress reliever.

I set most of my timers using Siri and avoid 30, 40, 50, and 60 exactly because I can’t seem to emphasize “TY”in a way to distinguish it from “TEEN”. My wife needs to me to clarify those too, so it’s definitely a me problem, not a Siri problem. I instead go over or under a minute or two, depending on the task.

FYI, new alarm app coming in iOS 26 could be what you need.

https://mastodon.social/@simonbs/114687924840611437

App Clips. I’ve used these several times to pay for meals at restaurants. Those use Local for Toast. QR code on bill. Scan it. Check the items. Add the tip. Pay with Apple Pay. I eventually installed the app, but I think it still uses the clip interface instead of opening the app. Did it for parking once too, different app. My local Sunoco also has App Clip tags at the pumps, but I don’t need those. Definitely a self-serve deal in my experience. I’d see more if I went out more often.

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-app-clips-iphb3a73ec53/ios

If your goal is control, then why not pay manually? I pay down a chunk around each paycheck, i.e. twice a month. Wallet widget on the Home Screen of my “Home” focus mode gives me easy access at home. I keep Auto Pay on as a backup that I haven’t had to rely on yet.

To be clear, cat litter buckets in classrooms is a real thing in some schools but only to use in active shooter lockdowns if needed. When a classroom of kids is trapped for hours, someone will need to poop, and they’re going to want to cover up it and not smell it the whole time. So unfortunately there’s a perfectly valid reason for kids to poop in litter buckets at schools that these conspiracists, who are probably the same nutjobs who think school shootings are fake, are twisting into furry accommodation.

Not an employee, but I was part of an accounting project for a firearms manufacturer at their local shipping and repair facility, and the repair guys would use the hallway for sight alignment, so we’d sometimes step into the hall and see a rifle pointed our way. No ammo was allowed on-site, so it was safe, but it was still unnerving for the first few weeks. Now I fear my response to seeing a rifle pointed my way will be to politely step aside and wait.