In August 2015, I flew to Italy for the first time. I made stops in Milan, Bologna, and Florence, before eventually settling down in Cinque Terre. Milan I wish I could say more about my time spent in Milan—besides stumbling into a cafe designed by Wes Anderson, but once you’ve seen one big city, you’ve sort of seen them all.

The best pieces of technology do exactly what they need to without getting in the way. Sadly, the only gadget I own that can make that claim isn’t my smartphone, or laptop — it’s my bloody smart bathroom scale. I bought a Withings WiFi Body Scale back in 2011, and since then, it’s done nothing but reliably record my weight for four years. The thing about “smart” devices, though, is their smarts tend to come at a cost. Sometimes battery life is sacrificed, the experience is complicated, or form…

News of Michael Brown’s murder did little to move me — another unarmed black person senselessly killed by a police officer? It must be Saturday. Growing up as an unarmed black male in New York City, my father instilled in me a healthy fear of the police. Now, don’t get…