Ask Paul: December 6 (Premium)

After a long week, I’m looking forward to doing some coding this weekend. But first, here’s another great set of reader questions.
Coincidence
Eric_Rasmussen asks:

I just finished the Thanksgiving episode of Windows Weekly. :) I was particularly intrigued by the Mary Jo story, as that same sort of scenario has happened to me before.

If you’re not familiar with this story, please check out Windows Weekly #625, at about 1:20. The follow-up came this past week in Windows Weekly #650 (at about 1:38), since I somehow managed to run into the exact same woman again, this time near my home in Pennsylvania. I posted a picture of us on Instagram; to be clear, she looks exactly like Mary Jo from the back.

These are the kinds of events that make me wonder if we really are living in a simulation. :)

Yep. :)

I think what this really is, is just that thing I had read about so many years ago where we, as humans, have been naturally selected to see coincidence as a conspiracy. (Ancient man would see something moving in the grass, and those who ran away lived; those who didn’t sometimes died because it was a tiger or whatever. Flash forward a few hundred generations and we see a purpose in every coincidence, from the JFK assassination all the way down to smaller things like this.

Anyway, it’s still crazy and fun when it happens for sure.

Be sure to check out Eric’s similar story in the original post.
Home improvement projects for the tech enthusiast
spacecamel asks:

I have been enjoying the home improvement parts of your podcast and was wondering if you had any good home improvement ideas for the tech enthusiast?

This is more for Brad than me, as I’m not particularly skilled in this area. That said, one home improvement project I’ll be undertaking soon is adding Ethernet to at least a small area of the house. And we’ll see how it goes from there.

I did ask Brad about this and he suggested replacing wall timers for lights with smart bulbs. That’s something I’ve also done, and since it doesn’t require any actual construction or skill, it’s certainly doable even by someone as useful as I am. :)

Maybe this is a good area of exploration for some 2020 articles. I do intend to at least write up my Ethernet wiring experiences.
Apple’s future
helix2301 asks:

I know in the past you have talked about Apples customers and there willingness to give money to Apple. Apple is now getting into the services business the Apple Card, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+. I guess my question is what other services do you think Apple could get into to become profitable. I know they still sell software like finalcut I can't picture them getting into console gaming or selling iwork as cloud platform like office 365 I guess my question is where can their service business go from here moving forward. Health service maybe? More wearables (not really a services business)? Just wondering your thoughts.
...