On Sunday I posted about our digital footprint and how we should protect our information (Do You Know Where Your Data Is?).  On Monday, a Federal magistrate handed down a verdict that Apple Inc. must create software that will allow the FBI access to a cell phone belonging to the San Bernardino shooter.  Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, released this statement on Tuesday.  A backdoor is a backdoor for everyone, no matter their intentions.

---

I’m planning a trip.

When I say, “I’m planning,” what I really mean is I am part of a group planning a trip.  And there are always decisions that have to be made.

My family is great at a lot of things; laughing, cooking, watching movies.  But making decisions is conspicuously absent from that list.  Picking a movie involves a lot of false starts, arguments, and compromises.  I have a feeling planning this trip will be much the same.

When I was younger and thought about traveling, I always imagined it would be spur of the moment, “Let’s go!” type of event.  Services like Airbnb and Uber only seemed to make that imagined trip a little closer.  I could book airline tickets on my way to the airport, land, get a car, and a place to stay, all on my iPhone.  I wouldn’t need to bring a camera and a phone and music and a DVD player or my computer or…well, anything except my clothes and a charger.

I have a wife and child now, not to mention a better understanding of money.  That imagined trip is just that, imagined.  It was never real to begin with.  The trip I’m planning now?  All too real.  The adventure of going somewhere new.  Of driving 1,200 miles.  Of finding new food.  And most of all, coffee.  The excitement of an adventure.

We’ve rented a car.  We have a place to stay.  We have a rough understanding of the public transportation system.  We are starting to figure out what we will do while we are there.  There have been some false starts, a couple of arguments, and even some compromises.  But the excitement is still there.  And an awful lot of it was done right from my iPhone.

Nothing to do now but wait, and dream of adventure.

 

Where do you want to go?