BS: Technology 10 | Big Al Nil

Subject: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 07:26 AM

I noticed it first about two years ago.

I was in Currys buying a new camera...
Does it do movies with sound? I asked timidly about a mid priced camera - not really daing to hope that something so cheap could dp something so wonderful.
The pre adolescent sales assistant looked at me as though I were an idiot. T
'They all do that! You could do THAT on your phone!'
not on my phone, I thought..... thinking of that glorious day recently when I'd worked out how to do speed dial.


Anyway one of those little ads popped up on my computer advertising a fabulous looking stereo system for a hundred and fifty quid. surely some mistake... 60 watt speakers, made by Sony...

The problem is does things like Bluetooth (which sounds like a tropical disease of some kind).

I feel like I have outlived the place I am occupying in the world.

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 01:02 PM

If it's any consolation Al, I can feel a bit the same way.

I did for example write an Android app to enable my printing to CUPS needs and still use it. I can (thanks to people hacking the protocol) write my own code to talk to our Visonic alarms system. I?m not completely tech clueless with tech but it moves further away from me and AI???

I was surprised when I found my basic (WileyFox Swift 2) had a finger print reader. Even more recently I had some (abandoned) idea to play with nfc and smart cards and bought a cheap read/writer on Amazon to play with only to find my phone could use them (albiet, pretty unreliably ? Pip's 2012 Nerxus technology is better with the cards that came with the external thingy)

As you mentioned cameras, I still prefer to have my small Panasonic Lumix with me if I think there is the off chance of a photo and would prefer to maybe update that one day (if needed) than considering trying to afford to keep pace with a capable camera on a (presumably high end) phone.

I don't know where I am, some sort of mix of luddite but with some sort of interest in tech and some form of lack of interest at the same time?

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 01:35 PM

I had a Heartily loud laugh over 'my dwarf spotted Danios all got a bad case of Blue Tooth and died, now I have to disinfect everything in the aquarium'.

With a name like Hackman you might think
I'm good at IT, coding and hacking but short of 3D programs and graphics I'm a computer coward.

My fear is that one bad keystroke will send me down a digital whirlpool that will swallow the computer.

I've been around computers since 1968 with telephone connectivity and even worked for IBM. But I can't even clear the unanswered messages that have maxed out on our phone.

I walk the world without a cell phone at all times. No crossing 5 lane streets staring at a tiny screen for me.

Advanced Medical tech, if someone else does it sounds great. Upgrading genes and DNA is fine with me.

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 01:42 PM

The other fear is inviting Estonians into every facet of our life leaving us to learn the fine art of homelessness.

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 01:55 PM

Hope you didn't take their extra guarantee offer Al - it's a con
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 03:15 PM

Big Al          YOU ARE NOT OBSOLETE



                  only the criminals are new

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 03:22 PM

you print to CUPS?
all these years - i just used them for drinking coffee out of...

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Mr Red
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 03:44 PM

CUPS
Common UNIX Printing System
I would guess.

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 04:49 PM

all these years - i just used them for drinking coffee out of...

Oh I use Kaffiene too (actually with the 'K', a media player)

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: michaelr
Date: 18 Oct 17 - 10:33 PM

Bluetooth... isn't that what you get from your Blackberry?

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 19 Oct 17 - 12:14 AM

Blue balls... ermmm.. what exactly have you been trying to do with your Blackberry...!!???

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 Oct 17 - 04:26 AM

bury it

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Vashta Nerada
Date: 19 Oct 17 - 10:07 AM

Lately I've branched into trying Bluetooth. My vehicle didn't come with it, but it has a very good auxiliary plug on the radio/CD player. I found a little rechargeable Bluetooth receiver that I can plug into the aux plug and then play audio books from my phone. I did this because I fear accidentally leaving my phone in the car one day after driving and listening - phones in cars is a major source of vehicle burglaries. I also have a little Bluetooth speaker in the house that I can use with the phone or the tablet. It was getting to where everything paired with that little speaker was greeted with an electronic peep when the speaker found something in range. Then there are the Bluetooth headphones . . . That said, I still have all of the little cables and connectors and adapters earbuds to use with this equipment, and will probably never get rid of them, they're still the most reliable connection, even if they do tether you to devices and snag on the drawer pulls in the kitchen.

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 19 Oct 17 - 10:29 AM

Pairing bluetooth headphones and speakers with tablets / phones still doesn't seem that reliable..
get's quite annoying when it refuses to work.

I've got a guitar amp that's bluetooth enabled to allow remote control of internal settings - tone / FX / etc via a phone or tablet,
but I've not got round to trying that yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 19 Oct 17 - 01:05 PM

pfr, I have found an older Samsung tablet, kindly given to me, more reliable for Bluetooth than a cheap new tablet I bought for my father. His headphones and the Yamaha thing under the tv connect reasonably easily and once away,he can blast out his opera, etc. It can take a reboot with the newer one.

I had initially thought that that Samsung tablet was working well with a Panasonic amp, also in the living room and mostly used for their old records, but even if it does connect, I often get stuttered sound. The only things we have that are close to 100% with Bluetooth and the Panasonic are my Swift 2 and Nvidia Tablet - both running Android 7...

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 19 Oct 17 - 01:10 PM

(opps - Pioneer, not Panasonic)

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 19 Oct 17 - 01:24 PM

all i know is, you have to remember your tablets

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 19 Oct 17 - 01:43 PM

The (dect) phone rings (alarm) in the living room for dad's lunchtime clopidogrel. His others (morning and evening) are easy to remember but this afternoon one was getting forgotten.

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: DaveRo
Date: 19 Oct 17 - 04:48 PM

Bluetooth audio was originally aimed at handsfree headsets and speakerphones, and used a high-compression codec called SBC. When A2DP was invented SBC was mandatory, but better codecs could be used - if both ends supported them. For licensing reasons better codecs are often not included in either the source or sink. And, of course, Apple only talks to Apple.

The reason I know all this is that I send iPlayer audio from my Android tablet to my hifi via a raspberry pi - and the quality is awful (though better than the Android speakers) with frequent stuttering. The reason is SBC. It sounds much better with a cable.

But with my son's Sony Bluetooth headphones it's excellent.

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 Oct 17 - 05:02 AM

When you are an Electronic Engineer you would be gobsmacked at the lack of knowledge, of all but the most nerdy peeps, actually. The shelf tells you things that I regard as essential, and like places like the Argos or Amazon website tell me virtually nothing.

Ebay is not so bad if you are prepared to wade through several seemingly identical entries to find a useful list of features.

And if you want a car that is less than 1.695 Metres wide (Yaris), comes in red (post office, for the use of) & homologated to attach a tow bar, you basically have to schlep round the showrooms, and then the towbar fitters.

"There you are sir, only 1.75 M, and it is red".
But it is maroon, and the towbar?
Silence!

And why does it cost 495 GBP (5% fer gawdsake) more just to have a black (BLACK!) car over a cheapo blue car? OK "grey 250GBP to you sir, but I am doing myself down"

NEXT!

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 21 Oct 17 - 05:35 AM

its happened AGAIN last nigh!!!!

JIm Carroll sent me some songs in his Dropbox.
(now I only have the vaguest idea about dropboxed - it sounds like a cricket injury)

So I saved the files onto my hard drive? what do I find? about a hundred little files in the folders I thought I'd saved.

sometimes I feel like I should be drawing on cave walls...ug!

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 Big Al Nil
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Oct 17 - 10:55 AM

Ah HAH BLUE TOOTH: A Swedish firm named their invention after the first Viking King named Blue tooth for coalescing several tribes.

Of course they were not called Vikings back then they were called Danes.


Al there is a MS command that brings up everything from your computer ever displayed on its screen that you did not actively save.
I discovered years worth of pages. Amazing.

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 | Big Al Nil
From: Mr Red
Date: 23 Oct 17 - 03:51 AM

Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson so named because he had a blue tooth. He united the areas we call Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Not sure he would have called himself a Dane, or even a Viking. But we would call him a Viking or Scandiwegian.

The confusing thing is a lot of adverts refer to bluetooth devices as BT compatible. And BT is a large UK telephone company that was once nationalised. Some communication devices can be BT compatible in either/or sense!

Subject: RE: BS: Technology 10 | Big Al Nil
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 23 Oct 17 - 10:35 AM

His Dad was called Gorm the Old - as Johnny Cash said, Life ain't easy for a boy named Blue Tooth.