Weekly Update 07/25/26 – 07/31/26 (Eagle One, Apple Watch, Flock Cameras)

This week's Weekly Update covers some of the annoyances I have been dealing with, along with some thoughts about old cars, how we perceive the passage of time, and technology that can track where our cars go.

Things are going well, with a few exceptions.

One of the biggest areas of annoyance started with my new home equity line of credit. I do not know if IQ Credit Union had a data breach, if certain information about a loan is publicly available, or if there is some other way companies can find out that I have gotten a loan.

What I do know is that I am receiving a large amount of snail mail referencing a loan from IQ Credit Union and asking me to call. The letters do not contain much more information, just a request that I contact them. I know better than to simply call a phone number I do not recognize, so I called IQ Credit Union directly. They have no idea who is sending these letters or why I am getting them. I assume these are phishing attempts, with cybercriminals trying to get information from me about the loan or possibly gain access to it.

I was even approached by a certain home improvement company telling me that I had requested a quote on having new siding installed on my house. The first couple of times they called, I let the calls go to voicemail. The third time I answered and asked to be put on their do-not-call list, at which point they hung up on me. This did not feel like a standard cold call. They were specifically stating that I had contacted them, which I had not done.

This is the company I used a couple of years ago for my window replacement, but I did not contact them about siding. I was not pleased with the work they did on the windows, so I am not planning to contact them now.

Another source of irritation, literally, has been my Apple Watch, or rather the band for my Apple Watch. Earlier this year I got my third Apple Watch. I am very pleased with how the watch works. Over the years I have developed a very useful face on the watch, so it can do a lot for me. For example, it tells time both digitally and with a clock face. It also displays information from my calendar and to-do lists. It has a feature that remembers where I park and a button that allows me to record conversations or make notes for myself.

It also helps me locate my iPhone when I have misplaced it. I can turn the feature on and my iPhone beeps, while the face of the watch tells me how far away the phone is. If I start walking toward it, the distance decreases, and if I walk away, it goes up, so it is very easy to find.

I am especially thrilled by the increase in battery life compared with my previous watch.

The old watch's battery lasted less than a day, so it was difficult to keep it charged. I would charge it at night, but that meant I did not take advantage of some of the safety features, such as fall detection, if I got up during the night.

The new watch's battery seems to be able to last at least a day and a half. My new routine is to wear it to bed, wake up with it on, go for my walk, and get ready for my day, including showering with it since it is waterproof. Once I am settled at my desk, I charge it and then put it back on before I get up.

The only problem with this routine was that, over time, I started noticing that in the morning after my shower my wrist would feel irritated along the band. The irritation gradually got worse. I thought moisture trapped under the band was causing the problem.

On Tuesday, July 28, it was much worse, and I noticed that the area under the band was red with small blisters. I removed the watch and ordered a new band.

The old band, a ZZDZZ, was plastic with magnets. The magnets made it a little awkward to put on, but once it was on it felt solid and comfortable until the rash developed. I am moving to a nylon band, which should breathe more. On the whole, I am very disappointed in the ZZDZZ band and would not recommend it.

As I think I have mentioned here, at the moment I do not have my own car. I am looking into getting one, but I will not be in a position to do that for some time. Currently I am using Dawn's 2008 Prius, and recently I noticed something interesting about it. When I purchased Eagle One, my first car, it was 12 years old and felt like a very old car, already a classic destined to go down in automotive history, while Dawn's car is six years older but still feels like a modern car.

Some of you may remember Eagle One. I think it holds a place in history alongside other great first cars, like David Garrett's Bandini Mobile or my sister Conie's Casper, a white 1969 VW Bug.

Eagle One was a 1967 VW Bug that I purchased in 1979 for $850. That means Eagle One was only 12 years old when I bought it, six years younger than Dawn's Prius is today.

I have no idea how many miles were on Eagle One when I bought it because the speedometer was broken and I replaced it. During the time I owned it, I had it repainted from its original green to a wonderful metallic blue. I had to have a new engine put into it, and while I was working for RTR Speaker Company, I had the engineers, who were friends of mine, design a custom speaker package that mounted in the space between the back seat and the back wall of the car.

Eagle One turned out to be one of the best investments I ever made. Several years later, when the car was stolen, the insurance company paid me $2,500 for a car I had originally purchased for $850.

You see, the 1967 Bug is considered a classic. I had owners of restored 1969 VW Bugs offer to trade pink slips with me even though I had not started the restoration of my car.

For some Beetle enthusiasts, 1967 is something of a dividing point between the classic Beetle and the more modern versions that followed. As Volkswagen continued to modernize the Beetle, the cars became more complicated, and some enthusiasts believe they lost some of the simplicity and reliability that made the earlier cars special. Even today, I have seen 1967 Bugs advertised online for $20,000 to $40,000.

But the main thing I have been thinking about is the comparison and how time seems to flow. Eagle One was only 12 years old when I bought it, but it seemed like an old car. Dawn's Prius is 18 years old, yet it still feels like a modern car. The years have been kind to it.

Recently I have also noticed conversations online about how much some people hate Flock cameras.

A Flock camera is an automated license plate reader made by Flock Safety. It photographs passing vehicles, reads their license plates, and records information such as the plate number, vehicle characteristics, location, and time. The information can then be searched by authorized users. Flock technology is also being used to analyze traffic patterns, including traffic volumes, peak travel times, congestion points, and the types of vehicles using a road.

Law enforcement can use Flock data to investigate crimes, search for vehicles connected with an investigation, receive alerts about stolen or wanted vehicles, and help locate missing persons. The system can also search using characteristics of a vehicle rather than relying exclusively on a license plate.

As a libertarian, I should probably be opposed to systems like this. It is another example of government reaching into our private lives and trying to control us. But really, I am not. I feel that this kind of invasion of privacy is a natural evolutionary step in technology that cannot really be avoided. I do not think it is possible to turn back the hands of time the way some people who oppose this kind of tracking want without expanding government control over our lives. I can also see advantages that could come from this kind of tracking.

For example, law enforcement could potentially see that a certain car was repeatedly near a series of banks when robberies took place. There could also be more practical uses, such as knowing that something may have gone wrong when a car enters a portion of a road but never leaves it.

It is even possible that systems using this kind of technology could be used for things such as speeding enforcement. I have heard of toll roads where speeding can be detected without a police officer actually observing the car speeding. Instead, they know how long it should take to travel from point A to point B at the legal speed limit. If you make the trip in less time than that, then at some point you must have been speeding. Flock could potentially be used to make the same kind of deduction.

I must say that most of what I have written about how these cameras could be used is not entirely my own idea. My father used to talk about using technology like this, or at least something similar.

He wanted every car to have a barcode mounted underneath it and barcode readers installed at every intersection. He really liked that idea and was not willing to listen when I told him that we did not need barcode readers. I told him that eventually computers with cameras would be able to read license plates without needing special codes on the cars.

In fact, I think I invented FLOCK.

By the way, Storm, Dawn's puppy with the heart defect, is recovering well. The biggest problem is keeping her quiet. She wants to run around and play, but it has only been a week since she had open-heart surgery. Dawn is still looking for support to help pay for that surgery, so if you or someone you know would like to help, please click here: Storm's GoFundMe.

Well, I hope you all are having a good week.

— Odell Sneeden Hathaway III

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Weekly Update 07/18/26 – 07/24/26