Automatically Better?

First, a little note. I'm leaving the comments set to "allow anonymous posting" because... well, it encourages comments. The last time I did that I was hit with spam, but so far to good. And thanks for the comments on Vancouver's helmet law.


I like things to be done with minimal input from me. I like the alarms that pop up in Outlook telling me when I have an appointment, or when a task is due. I like direct withdrawal and direct deposit. I see them as one less thing to worry or think about. I like rear-view mirrors that dim when they sense that there is bright light behind you at night. I like lights that turn on when there is motion, or when it's dark. In short, I like things being done for me by technology with little or no input from me.

Most of the time.

Some times it annoys me to no end because it doesn't quite work as intended. If you look over to the right of your screen, you'll see a section titled "Currently On Test". Listed there you'll see a couple of different sunglasses. Now, I've mentioned them all before, so I'm not going to go into detail about them. My point is this: Both the Addidas and the Rudy Project are relatively expensive. But the Addidas -- below -- uses older, more traditional lenses while the Rudy's use their newer Impact X photochromic lenses.

Now, right off the bat you might think, how in the world can old tech compete with new tech? I mean, newer is always better right?

Remember what I said above about how things that function with little to no input from me are great when they work? Well, there is still room for swapping out your own lenses. Sure, the photochromic lenses are great. And the newer ones seem to be more tolerant of large temperature swings. But sometimes, they seem too dark when I want them lighter, and too light when I want them darker. This is due to the fact that they rely on UV light to change. It is possible to have more UV than visible light coming in -- overcast day -- or more visible than UV -- inside a car -- so the lenses don't change exactly as you'd like them to do. Here, having a fixed-tint lens is better.

This is why there are so many different lens colors. What would be the best? Get a set of glasses that uses swappable photochromic lenses. Change the color/tint when you want to, but let the glasses do the fine tuning.