Tech Thread

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OedipusTex said:
I had a 30 year career in the tech industry (semiconductors) before my present foray into sustainable energy. A company I co-founded brought universal USB charging to the world (you're welcome).

It's often difficult to predict where technology will lead us. Product advancement is not linear, and will often take sudden, unexpected 90-degree turns. If you've never done so, check out the Youtube video of Apple's unveiling of the first iPhone (
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. Apple took a 90 degree term and disrupted the smartphone product arc, and in a direction that also disrupted the PC industry.
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Apple sped up the popularity of the modern smartphone hugely by adding their marketing prowess to it, but it was HTC who were the main leaders of the technology and it was growing rapidly before Apple jumped on the bandwagon.

The first iPhone was at least a year behind the technology of HTC releases at the time, and it was fugly with it to. The phrase mentioned the other day "smart phones for dump people" neatly describes the iPhone until at least the iPhone 6 as it was twice the price of alternatives, poorer technology with a poorer user experience. It probably still is, but I don't pay much attention now. Although, I did play with an iPhone 13 the other day as a free alternative to me replacing my old P40 Pro, but handed it back. I'd rather use a cheap £100 Chinese android and I'd see less of a downgrade, and it would be more useable. I'll probably buy something decent though.

I really don't get the appeal of average technology with crippled software at bleeding edge prices. The only good thing I see in an iPhone is its resale price. One born wvery minute I guess.
 
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Anal Frank Fingers said:
Apple sped up the popularity of the modern smartphone hugely by adding their marketing prowess to it, but it was HTC who were the main leaders of the technology and it was growing rapidly before Apple jumped on the bandwagon.

The first iPhone was at least a year behind the technology of HTC releases at the time, and it was fugly with it to. The phrase mentioned the other day "smart phones for dump people" neatly describes the iPhone until at least the iPhone 6 as it was twice the price of alternatives, poorer technology with a poorer user experience. It probably still is, but I don't pay much attention now. Although, I did play with an iPhone 13 the other day as a free alternative to me replacing my old P40 Pro, but handed it back. I'd rather use a cheap £100 Chinese android and I'd see less of a downgrade, and it would be more useable. I'll probably buy something decent though.

I really don't get the appeal of average technology with crippled software at bleeding edge prices. The only good thing I see in an iPhone is its resale price. One born wvery minute I guess.
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But those devices weren't the revolutionary devices that Apple introduced. They were more like advanced PDAs than the integrated device and subsequent Android devices spawned by Apple. I'm not trying to defend Apple here - I despise them and will never use any of their products - but they were the disruptor.
 
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OedipusTex said:
But those devices weren't the revolutionary devices that Apple introduced. They were more like advanced PDAs than the integrated device and subsequent Android devices spawned by Apple. I'm not trying to defend Apple here - I despise them and will never use any of their products - but they were the disruptor.
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I’d love to despise Apple and not use them.
However I find all their stuff incredibly intuitive, reliable and easy to integrate with their other devices.
Sorry but I’ll never use anything else
 
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dennisboothstash said:
I’d love to despise Apple and not use them.
However I find all their stuff incredibly intuitive, reliable and easy to integrate with their other devices.
Sorry but I’ll never use anything else
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Funny isn't it? I find Apple computers quite unintuitive and quite difficult to integrate with anything other than Apple devices. I won't go so far as to say I'd never buy one but I'd always try and find something else first!
 
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Kalman said:
Only insofar as it receives data. For example, when a programme crashes on a computer, it sometimes asks the user to send data for analysis i.e. an error report. This doesn't mean the programme fixes all of its flaws though. That would require sentience which I don't think AI will ever be capable of.
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Not quite.

Today, generative AI just regurgitates what it has scraped from various sources online. You can have a reasonably competent conversation with it, and the output is generally sound, but "it only knows what it knows".

What OpenAI have allegedly solved with Q* is "reasoning" which means it has the ability to plan multiple steps ahead. Many see the holy grail for AI being it able to solve a maths test, as the required intelligence to do so cannot be scraped from online sources, it comes from problem solving abilities; being able to understanding what's being asked of it, knowing what mathematically formula(s) to apply and ultimately producing the correct answer.

Once that's possible it stands to reason that any other form of problem solving, which humans are currently far more suited for, could be carried out by AI too.
 
Plum said:
Funny isn't it? I find Apple computers quite unintuitive and quite difficult to integrate with anything other than Apple devices. I won't go so far as to say I'd never buy one but I'd always try and find something else first!
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I have a Macbook which is about 7 or 8 years old but still runs as smooth as when I bought it. However the software is definitely unintuitive and there are certain things that are easy to do on a Windows PC that are difficult and sometimes impossible to do on the Mac.
I also have an iPad which I bought as it was bizarrely cheaper than an equivalent android tablet. I only use it for catching up with the news in a morning or queuing up songs on YouTube on the smart TV.
I don't use iPhones as I find the software restrictive and lagging behind android too much.
 
Plum said:
Funny isn't it? I find Apple computers quite unintuitive and quite difficult to integrate with anything other than Apple devices. I won't go so far as to say I'd never buy one but I'd always try and find something else first!
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Ah
I don’t try and integrate with anything else, so maybe that’s why.
Although I found Apple to Apple either than other non Apple stuff together. Probably not a fair comparison though
 
I've just driven up from the West Country, no snow overnight here, but driving in fog, then rain, then fog. About 10/15% (guesstimate) of the cars driving, newer vehicles had no rear lights showing . Daylight running lights on the front. Owners get in and turn on the Christmas lights dashboard and then put their brain in reverse.

When did the M.O.T allow this. ?

You used to put lights on which made the dashboard light up and then you had lights front and rear.

It's madness!!!!
 
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TIGERSCAVE said:
I've moved it, didn't know we had a tech thread... though it was more out of interest.
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I was being facetious.
Once saw on a car forum someone complaining about the new car he had bought, how dangerous that the instrument panel buttons and switches didn't light up at night, couldn't find the window or door switches, he went quiet after been told to turn the light switch to ON
 
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