The Technology Vent and Rant Thread

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Renate

And well you can say that!
They have the probes backward on the DVM.

And an original 7805 needs at least 8V in to regulate. Even an LDO can't output 5V at less than 5V in.

A switching regulator normally boosts or reduces. Ones that can do either are rarer, though possible.

Who publishes this nonsense?

[Graham44]

Originally Posted by Quoth

A computer Neural Network and biological brains have almost nothing in common. It's a label applied to make it sound more "AI"ish. So pure marketing nonsense.

And human brains can make leaps when looking for the answer to something. For example an astronomer maybe looking at data received that doesn't make sense, they could be running a program and it keeps coming back with answers that don't make sense, that Astronomer could then make an intuitive leap and say 'What if this is X behaving in a way we haven't seen before?' use their imagination and intuition and discover something new, AI couldn't do that because it couldn't make that leap as it's just a fancy machine running a program.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Who publishes this nonsense?

I think that somebody soldered up the top photo and then asked some AI to draw it up pretty.
In any case, I was picking on the DVM because it was the least egregious of the errors.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Renate

I think that somebody soldered up the top photo and then asked some AI to draw it up pretty.
In any case, I was picking on the DVM because it was the least egregious of the errors.

Someone tried to get an AI to draw a typical valve (tube) AM schematic. They gave up after 4 days.
The prompted AI interface passes on a request to a separate AI system that can generate images. However so far there is no evidence of the LLM AI use of Schematic capture, Visio, CAD etc. It's like an idiot with scissors, magazines and a scrapbook.

There were some rudimentary block diagrams of each valve produced, interestingly using two EF36 rather than one because it added an RF front end.
But nothing with any components other than the valves, certainly no values or connections.
I got bored with checking the lack of progress. Every time I challenged AI it just made excuses and instigated another long wait for nothing.
After 4 days I abandoned the attempt.

There may be CAD/CAE systems that autoroute or whatever and claim to use AI, but that's a completely different class of AI.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by Quoth

There may be CAD/CAE systems that autoroute or whatever and claim to use AI, but that's a completely different class of AI.

My second full-time gig was in this space: knowledge-based engineering tools for CATIA and Pro/E. The good stuff never used machine learning because ML systems make mistakes -- called "hallucinations" when made by chatbots these days -- and you DO NOT want these kinds of mistakes in your designs for things like washing machines and automobile brake systems and the entire fuselage of the Boeing 777.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

Well, there's your answer then...it seems like it simply wasn't a priority to the FLAC developers.

Anecdotally, even though a large portion of my own collection is FLACs, I tend to go for separated tracks. But I feel like many of the FLAC enthusiasts will only distribute their rip as a single, monolithic FLAC with a CUE file to handle the track separation and pregaps. I guess they feel like they're better preserving the integrity of the original rip that way by altering it as little as possible. I wonder if perhaps that might influence the lack of attention to the metadata fields.

That's why I'm finding MediaMonkey 4 to be a blessing. It can handle most audio formats and can map the metadata to the correct tag regardless of the format. Unless there is some issue like the one I mentioned the metadata will appear on my digital audio player. Plus, I rely on the metadata to properly arrange the music in my music library, so being able to properly read the tags is essential.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Back in the mid to 1980s 100% curated data from experts was used to build AI called "Expert Systems".
. . .

'We' inherited an RS/6000, a Sun server, an Apple Lisa and several Textronix X-terminals from a failed FinTech Expert System project… along with a couple of gun programmers.

[nana77]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

That's why I'm finding MediaMonkey 4 to be a blessing. It can handle most audio formats and can map the metadata to the correct tag regardless of the format. Unless there is some issue like the one I mentioned the metadata will appear on my digital audio player. Plus, I rely on the metadata to properly arrange the music in my music library, so being able to properly read the tags is essential.

If you would like you can give a look at: https://www.strawberrymusicplayer.org/ (it's a fork of Clementine player, that's quite fine if using linux: thought on Mac and Windows it's a paid port and wouln'd suggest it imho).
Or https://audacious-media-player.org/
Or https://apps.kde.org/elisa/
As Clementine/Strawberry are fork of Amarok: https://amarok.kde.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar...layer_software
Personally never tried this: https://www.fooyin.org/

Playback of FLAC, MP3, MP4, Vorbis, Opus, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, MKA, Musepack, Monkey's Audio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey's_Audio

[Graham44]

I had to change my mobile phone the other month as they will be/ are (?) phasing out the 2g network here in the UK.

I had a brilliant CAT rugged mobile phone before, it was drop proof, water proof and dust proof, ideal for someone that works outside like me. Sadly I couldn't find another rugged phone that was 4g or 5g (there seems to be some confusion when I look up what networks are being phased out some said 2g and 3g, some said just 3g, the government website said 3g was going first with 2g to follow)

In the end I plumped for just a cheap 4g Nokia. Now the phone itself is fine as in physically it works, the 4g network it uses is c**p to say the least! Half the time voice calls don't get through!

I turned up at a customers today and they weren't in, no biggy I can still get in and do what I need to do. Now in this road I do the neighbour next door and three neighbours opposite. The neighbour opposite came over and said the one I was doing had gone to hospital did I not get the voicemail and text messages both her and the other neighbour had sent? Nope nothing on my phone which is switched on permanently.

Went over to the neighbours to have a cup of tea and for her to send another test text message, nope nothing. Switched my phone off and then on again lo and behold all the text messages came through! Not the voice message though.

What is the point of upgrading to a network thats worse technologically than the old one?

Looking online according to some technology communication providers the new 4g/ 5g networks can end up dropping 50-80% of the voice calls on the network! How can 50-80% dropped calls be an improvement? But don't worry 4g/5g downloads data much better! Great, you just cant use your phone to you know actually make or receive phone calls! Apparently it can be the same for text messaging as well, 2g is more consistent than 4 or 5g (or at least4 and 5g suffer more often from not receiving text messages again according to some articles online)

Looks like this 'upgrade' to mobile networks is another example of businesses employing new technology without really ascertaining whether it actually works or not.

Phew, long rant over,

[nana77]

On 4G there are some Nokia 1020 , if you don't use internet (as Windows Mobile is fully out of support by years), whitin its 52mp Carl Zeiss Camera; or also the Nokia n9 (the platform which Microsoft bought, whitin the accord to use it exclusevely for 10 years), that has that meego nice OS... (and also 12mp Carl Zeiss there).

The n9 had the edges shaped to enhance gestures (closing tasks within gestures), in 2012 .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_Lumia_1020
..or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_Lumia_1520

Ps: if you would consider looking for N9, check before the availabilty of the firmware, as those pages disappeared for the most.
For 80$ the 1020 is worth even just for the Camera, imho.

Spoiler:

To build the n9 OS, Nokia from the N900 made a N950 only for develoers, I mean... beatifulness
This was a rant .
Thanks.

Edit: the EU version of the n9 has 4G (if I recall it correctly).
Also I don't know if even without internet, it should be considered secure anyway.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Graham44

I

…

Looking online according to some technology communication providers the new 4g/ 5g networks can end up dropping 50-80% of the voice calls on the network! How can 50-80% dropped calls be an improvement? But don't worry 4g/5g downloads data much better! Great, you just cant use your phone to you know actually make or receive phone calls! Apparently it can be the same for text messaging as well, 2g is more consistent than 4 or 5g (or at least4 and 5g suffer more often from not receiving text messages again according to some articles online)

The original LTE spec for 4G had data and they forgot voice!
The GSM 2G aund the 3G have native voice (not using data mode) and the SMS is piggybacked on the native management signaling.

The 4G was designed as IP only (Only a single data mode), so SMS is simulated over IP and all voice calls use VOIP.

The 5G is partly backoffice integration, partly higher band and big capacity for stadiums, racecourses and to replace WiFi points. It does almost nothing for most other aspects. Change over during a call to VOIP on WiFi is a supposed selling point of 5G, but was available on 3G, but operators never liked it and few implement as they lose revenue.

The 2G GSM only has 200 kHz channels, but the voice and SMS (and 14K to 245K data) is all more robust than 3G because it's CDMA, it sheds weaker connections as number of connections increase.
The regulators relaxed coverage & capacity rules in UK and most of EU (see regulatory capture) so most operators reduced numbers of masts to save money.

They'd rather increase capacity by more bands than more masts using the cellular principle.

It's a regulatory failure. If there was one wholesale "RAN" and all the operators were simply resellers (like Tesco is, or An Post in Ireland) the effective capacity would more than double.

The 3G was/is terrible, basically a 5MHz channel version of USA 1MHz CDMA, because US patent holders "broke" the spec. A backward step compared to European 2G GSM. A multi carrier version of GSM for 1800 & 2100 MHz whould have been superior. Qualcom had far too much input on 3G and 4G.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by nana77

If you would like you can give a look at: https://www.strawberrymusicplayer.org/ (it's a fork of Clementine player, that's quite fine if using linux: thought on Mac and Windows it's a paid port and wouln'd suggest it imho).
Or https://audacious-media-player.org/
Or https://apps.kde.org/elisa/
As Clementine/Strawberry are fork of Amarok: https://amarok.kde.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar...layer_software
Personally never tried this: https://www.fooyin.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey's_Audio

Right not I'm okay with MediaMonkey 4. However, if I start having difficulties I may give it a try. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Graham44]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The 2G GSM only has 200 kHz channels, but the voice and SMS (and 14K to 245K data) is all more robust than 3G because it's CDMA, it sheds weaker connections as number of connections increase.
The regulators relaxed coverage & capacity rules in UK and most of EU (see regulatory capture) so most operators reduced numbers of masts to save money.

So for voice 2g is actually better? The technical side of it is all a bit above my head

If that is the case it is a step backwards at least for phone calls on a mobile phone

[Robert45]

Why does no one disable ads on kindle?
It is just few commands or this .sh file! I did not know about it and spent $20 on it!

Moderator Notice

Work-around deleted

If you want an ad-free Kindle, buy the ad-free Kindle, or pay the price difference to have the ads removed from an ad-supported Kindle.

Do not post this again.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Graham44

So for voice 2g is actually better? The technical side of it is all a bit above my head

If that is the case it is a step backwards at least for phone calls on a mobile phone

The voice quality on 3G and more so on 4G is much better. But the European 2G GSM (not USA CDMA 2G) is a more reliable connection. At worst the data is 14.4 K, or 28.8 K on 2 channels. If the signal is good then EDGE mode and 245 K is possible using only 200 kHz. The 3G uses a 5MHz channel and the faster 4G uses a 20 MHz channel.