The reading lights above our bed burned out long ago, but since they were hardwired into the cabinetry, replacing them was a complicated chore that I put off for years. So when I finally decided to tackle it as a Christmas present for my wife, I wanted to do more than just restore the lights - I wanted to turn them into an experience to remember.
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What I came up with was a fleet of individual lights that can each act as a nightlight or a reading light - both modes behave differently - but that can also act together as a “sunrise choir,” coordinating to bathe the entire room in a colorful sunrise simulation - a gentle counter to the bleakness of waking up in the still total darkness of a northern winter work day.
I finished the implementation and installed them a year and a half ago, just in time for Christmas. They worked brilliantly and we’ve been using them ever since. The project now is to organize my files and share them somewhere so others can use them too.
Weather apps are great at telling you the facts: temperature, wind, humidity, chance of rain… But they don’t tell you what you actually need to know in the moment:
“Should I grab the big coat, the light jacket, or nothing at all?”
Sure, I can see out the window whether it’s raining or not, but temperature? That’s hard to nail down at a glance.
Or at least, it used to be hard.
Now I have a servant for that.
After reviewing my archived experiments from a decade ago, I’ve decided to call that effort a “proof of concept” and go back to the drawing board for a full redesign.
If you know who Varys is, you’ll know he’s nothing without his “little birds.” They’re the ones who listen to the whispers of power and then tell him all about it.
Well, my varys needs some listeners too.