Grammerjack

Here's my take on tech trends in 2015 and predictions for 2016. Personal trends in 2015. I started using Twitter, following a mix of optimistic tech bloggers, economists and comic-book artists. Always something interesting to read. I don't tweet much. (Nothing to say :-P) Podcasts. I'm following a bunch of tech, gamer, and comedy podcasts. I especially like The Voicemail , Accidental Tech Podcast , Melton, and Guys we F*cked (NSFW) . I switched to a large-sized iPhone 6s+. The big screen is great. I stopped maintaining my "Terminal Emulator for Android" program, because I lost interest in the idea of an on-device terminal emulator for Android. (And I lost interest in maintaining the project in the face of frequent Android UX and build system churn.) Open Source I've been doing less open-source software work than in previous years. My OSS work has been driven by emotion and "hack value". This year I haven't come up with any ideas th...

Just an update on my family IT use. The T-Mobile family plan has worked great for us. T-Mobile's plans are nice for us because: The third, fourth, and fifth lines are only $10 / month. When the paid-for data is exhausted, the plans automatically switch over to unlimited free low-speed data for the rest of the month. Streaming music doesn't count against the data caps. Free phone calls, texts, and low-speed data in Canada and Taiwan. (It was great using Google Maps to get around Vancouver. I was using many short cuts that I didn't know about when I was navigating using paper maps.) For the last 3 months of 2015 T-Mobile had a special where they gave everyone unlimited high-speed data for free. I ended up getting used iPhone 5s 's for all my kids. I had the kids pick their own otterbox commuter cases.  My son was initially frustrated at having to give up his rooted and customized Android phone for the smaller, less customizable iPhone. He's grown us...