Random thoughts.... [Tech Edition]

"The person at my company" is me. I haven't personally owned anything but Macs since 2005 or so, so I'm used to quality products. I had no idea fan noise would be an issue in 2020.
 
I haven't personally owned anything but Macs since 2005 or so, so I'm used to quality products
You sure you owned Macs then? Their laptops at least have been crap for the past 5 years or so, aside from terrible keyboard, tons of issues with GPU desoldering from the board, using under spec resistors, batteries expanding. I like Macs myself and hoping they will get their shit together again but it really does seem to me that they are treating their computers as a side business these days.
 
Hmm, sometimes it seems technical devices are sentient beings, doesn't it? I have a device I wanted to update for about a week or so to use new features, but every time I tapped on "download update" there was an error "unable to download". Today I tried it again with the same error message so I decided to write an E-Mail to the manufacturer's support. While writing the E-Mail and getting all the necessary infos (I'm support staff myself as well so I know that every detail helps) I tried itone more time only to find the device downloading the update... :ph34r:

Sometimes it's the same with customers at work: once they call us the issue they were calling just disappears. :dunno:

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Well, spoke too soon - about 10 minutes into the "downloading now" screen the error reappeared. Ah well, the E-Mail is still in the drafts folder...
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Well, spoke too soon - about 10 minutes into the "downloading now" screen the error reappeared. Ah well, the E-Mail is still in the drafts folder...
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You spoke too soon and upset it, now it's punishing you.

Sometimes it's the same with customers at work: once they call us the issue they were calling just disappears. :dunno:

Same happens for us, we just claim to be wizards.
 
Welp, in the end I had to perform a hard-reset after downloading the update through a Wi-Fi hotspot from my work phone instead of my home Wi-Fi didn't work. The device is Android-based and has physical buttons so with a combination of different button presses you can perform a hard-reset.

Ah well, now I have the whole afternoon to once again set up the device the way I want to...
 
The config itself isn't complicated, the most important data is stored online. The main things are downloading the offline maps again (it's a bicycle satnav I use for longer trips) and logging into the online account which has a password containing 20 random characters. Reconnecting the sensors and bluetooth headset takes some time as well, but isn't complicated as well. As long as I don't have to do this every time I want to update the firmware I'm good without a comprehensive config backup.
 
Looks like the battery in my Latitude is doing same thing as my waist line - expanding.
Luckily it’s a Dell not a Mac so 7 Phillips head screws for the cover and one for the battery is all you need, and Dell sells the battery for $70
 
Looks like the battery in my Latitude is doing same thing as my waist line - expanding.

We had a nice collection of those from E7440s and E7450s, one was particularly impressive. None of us wanted to be too close to them.

Our latest Latitude 7400s are very nice but the lack of a network port is annoying. Their built in sliding covers for the webcam make me chuckle.
 
We had a nice collection of those from E7440s and E7450s, one was particularly impressive. None of us wanted to be too close to them.
Don’t blame ya, I pulled mine completely out.
the lack of a network port is annoying.
Tbh I almost never use it anymore, one of the
reasons is that it drops connection when switching from wired to wireless, so if you have something doing a remote run and have to go to a meeting it will crash
 
So what’s your opinion on folding phones?

I owned two clamshells back in the day, hated both and ended up replacing both with candybars simply because the hinge was a nuisance. So why did I get the second one? Well, the RAZR was sexy and Nokia made a blatant knockoff that even ran Symbian so I just had to get it. Ended up hating the hinge. Again. ?

Add a fragile folding screen to the mix and... no, I don’t think so. Not yet at least.
 
Nope, they don't do it for me. I do get them, I do think there is a market for them, but nope, I won't be buying one, not any time soon.

Also, you just made me realise that back in pre-modern-smartphone era, I never owned a flip or a sliding phone, and neither did my brother nor my parents. It was candybars only for us.
 
Makes no sense to me, I have a hard time believing that the screen will last for any real length of time and also having to open the phone to use it seems a step backwards.

If screen longevity issue can be properly sorted I could see getting a folding tablet. I already have to open up a cover to use it and if it could be made to fit in my pocket that would be pretty awesome.
 
My parents are clearing their attic and one of the many things found was the instruction manual to one of my mum's old 35mm cameras, a Hanimex 35 DL. Not an expensive camera for its time but it has an interesting feature - dual lenses.

hanimex_35DL_bordeaux.jpg


We've now come full circle to having essentially the same feature on phones, I find that pretty fascinating.
 
Some people think Apple is too restrictive about controlling their platform. I used a Philips Android TV for almost a year until it broke on me, and then again shortly after a very lengthy repair. Now I have an LG with WebOS. Both OSes have their strengths and particularly WebOS is very uncluttered and easy to use. It makes a great smart tv OS.

However, one issue I have with both OSes is that you never know what will happen when you hit the right or left arrow key in a streaming app. The devs all have their own idea. Will it skip 10 seconds? Will it start seeking at 2x the speed? You won’t know before you try and even when you do know, you make mistakes because you forget which app or service you were using this time.

Apple’s tvOS, however, is consistent because Apple makes the devs use their UI.
 
Roku has a similar problem with letting the ap developers decide on how some buttons function. It can be annoying, to say the least.
 
That's one of the biggest reasons why Apple is so successful, the interface is always extremely consistent.
 
I have a love hate, I enjoy phone software and when I had macs, the OS was great there too. These days I wouldn't touch a laptop/desktop from Apple purely on the front of "screw you for trying to repair your product and increase its service life."

Plus their specs leave some to de desired but I guess the price is down to not having bloatware to subsidize the cost which is also why tvs are cheap.
 
Kind of the same, I like the polish of the OS and mobile hardware is great but their computers...
 
This was a recent acquisition of mine a Sony TC-K333ESA Elevated Standard Cassette Deck. Stunning machine for recording purpose. Unfortunately given the rarity of them they still hold their value a lot these days.

It came out in 1991/92 and was on of the better Sony decks from the period. The ES range was Sony's (Spare no expense line of components) So everything is very heavy duty, well made and reliable.

 
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