Village Voices - We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks

As I sit at my keyboard pounding out the words going into this column, we are in the middle of a heat wave. It’s hot outside. But here in my basement office, it’s cool. Almost too cool. But as you read this, the heat wave has passed and it’s actually very nice outside.

I have the thermostat in our house connected to my smartphone via an app. I can adjust the temperature from anywhere in the world that has wi-fi, which is pretty much everywhere. When my wife and I get away for a couple days, we adjust the thermostat to save energy. A few hours before arriving home, I can adjust...