Vacation and Serendipity
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day and feel that depression that long-term work is not moving forward. It’s happened a couple of times now that in those moments two things are required:
- Some distance from work
- Luck
In this case, that’s exactly what happened. While strolling through the backstreets of Akihabara, I came across the fine people of Aisan Electric (愛三電気株式会社) who sell common-sense solutions for data centers and networking hobbyists, such as:
- A 24/7 SFP vending machine—absolute magic for those middle-of-the-night hardware emergencies!
- A handheld copper connectivity tester that spits out received VLANs and can ping gateways instantly.
- A wide array of RFID equipment, which is an established technology that can cover really small devices at range.
Serendipity at the Edge
This got me thinking about “passive” home automation—using RFID tags on non-powered items (like a specific coffee mug or a set of keys) to trigger local AI agents when they are “seen” by a reader. It’s a low-energy, privacy-preserving way to add context to a private AI assistant without cameras or battery-powered sensors.
This kind of serendipity—finding a solution to a problem you weren’t actively solving—is only possible when you step away from the keyboard and into the “real” world of physical hardware and different cultural approaches to tech. Akihabara remains a pilgrimage site for anyone looking to reconnect with the tangible side of engineering.
This post was cleaned up with Automation to clarify thoughts for the reader.