[dhosek]

In the opening, the author of the article talks about how he couldn’t live in the apartment building with all the smart-phone requirements because as an Orthodox Jew, he can’t use a smartphone on the sabbath, the reason for this being that the Orthodox ruling is that turning electrical devices on/off is a violation of the Sabbath ban on making fire,¹ which makes your comment a bit amusing.

That said, I think that there’s a lot to be said for choosing low-tech options. I have the overhead light in my living room controlled by a cheap $5 mechanical timer not unlike what was available when I was a kid in the 70s. It’s near an expensive high tech digital picture frame. I like going for the lowest tech option that’s feasible.

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1. There’s some discussion of this subject in Richard Feynman’s Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman which I won’t get into here.