Last Commented Technology Blogs (217)

I'm in the middle of a YouTube marathon viewing stories about some amazing inventions.

Thomas Edison patented (and marketed) the electric light that changed the way we live. No more candles or gas lights in the night. His lights were powered from generators that he built using direct current (DC) which is the same current created by batteries. DC current is good for short distance. The major drawback using DC is voltage drop over wires for any distance. This would require a power station every mile. Another problem was the generators themselves weren't efficient nor reliable.

Nikola Tesla, a young immigrant to America started working for Edison. Tesla told Edison he could fix the generator problems and Edison agreed to pay him a million dollars* if he did. Tesla redesigned the generators and Edison reneged only giving him a pay raise.

Angered he had been cheated by Edison, Tesla went off on his own and worked on a new invention of a generator using alternating current (AC) but he needed funding and struck up a partnership with millionaire George Westinghouse. His generators were in direct competition to Edison.

Edison announced to the public that alternating current was dangerous and began a smear campaign of publicly electrocuting dogs using AC. In response, Tesla gave a demonstration at the Worlds Fair in 1883 by shooting electricity through his body to produce light in the lights in his hands!

Alternating current being the superior method of transmission became the standard of electricity as we know it.

The more I learn about Edison, the less I like the man.

* note: one story claimed the deal was $50,000 and another said $1,000,000.

Forms that clear all the data if one detail was missed.

Lots of times we have to fill out forms online. When you get to the bottom and hit the submit button, you expect to move to the next page. MOST forms are programmed that when you are missing a selection it will let you know what needs to be completed in order to submit the form. But, SOME sites clear ALL THE FIELDS and make you start again without letting you know what was actually missing...

I can understand security fields like credit card numbers, but missing a zip code and having to go back and fill out an entire questionnaire makes it to my list...

To begin, we have to narrow and define what we would mean by a subjective object we are calling a "Lie". ( I cannot think of an objective manifestation of a lie ) Also we have to define what a "Liar" is.

The word itself "Lie" has as far as I can recall has negative connotations exclusively.
Everything associated with untruth, non-truth being greyed toward evil or wrong.

We will have "White" lies, they are acknowledged as non-true however gain a special pleading as non-bad or evil on social grounds. We can imbue the "Liar" with no bad or selfish intent on the use of this memetic object. Many kinds of storytelling could be included.

With regard to non-true statements much of the shade of the greys comes from the use and intent of the liar.
We might define "Grey" lies as statements made not at all unlike white instances, but with a selfish or gainsaying intent. A listener may be able to acknowledge to themselves that the statements are in fact grey, but enjoys hearing them just the same.

I think we would have to include a great many jokes in the category of grey lies.
Also flirting to some degree could be included. Fictional works of many kinds, Blarney and Bullshit. Good story tellers may be called grey liars. PR firms would at best I think, have to be included with this sort of lying, being generous.

We would then be left with the "Black" lies. Foul words and phrases with ruthless intent. To indicate non-truth with bitter inclination to steal, injure, control and even destroy those to whom it it is delivered.

Serial killers, thieves, dictators, conmen, grifters of every sort would make best use of these particular memetic devises. Paedophiles, date rapists, partner abusers, propagandists and cult leaders would also swell their ranks.

It would seem important to distinguish some other species of untruth from lies and liars at this point. If someone is convinced of the veracity of a statement made that is actually untrue, I do not think it may be said that they are a liar or are lying.
I would say willful ignorance on a statement one offers as true has to be called black in the morality color chart we are proposing.
Confusion, misstatement, unintentional conflation, illusion and delusion should not label a communicator a liar.

So for the purposes of this exploration a Lie would be a statement by someone that is not true and the Liar has knowledge and intent not to communicate a particular truth and persuade by this without regard to the assumed morality of the misdirection.

Now we have some provisional definitions to work with and a frame on which hang our ethical considerations about this species of non-truth and its users.

We all at one time or another speak of lies and of liars, known and suspected.
There is no shortage of persons that will offer their opinion that they despise liars and would call lies among the worst if not the very worst things in the world.
Less often and as a seeming taboo are lies and lying taken on as a topic.
Something to be analyzed and understood as an important object of perception.
I wondered about lies many years ago and I am still astonished at the poverty of material on the subject. Dare I say, it is almost suspicious.

Perhaps if my feeble wit may illuminate, I may cast some shadows behind me on the threshold of this blighted mansion.

I'm at my home house in Miami for the weekend.
Plans include sorting through 2 closets and 2 dressers of clothing to determine what I get to keep, what gets donated and what becomes rags for cleaning.

My laptop came for the ride and I've got a Wi-Fi hotspot signal from my phone to get internet.
I've done this lots of times, but today the bandwidth was crawling and I cannot link to my computer in the office to do any work. I switched to my tablet that also has hotspot capabilities and it was streaming along very well.
So, I switched back a forth a few times checking bandwidth with a few services and called my cellphone provider to complain.
My phone has unlimited 4G, but 3G if I set it in hotspot mode. The tablet gets 4G with a 2gig ceiling and drops to 3g... or slower depending on conditions.
For $10 I can upgrade the plan so my hotspot has 4G with a 10gig ceiling then drops to 3G. I can add or remove the plan as needed with no penalty.

I was told it would be about 2 hours for the system update and to reboot my phone for it to take effect. I rebooted and about 15 minutes later I had a 4G hotspot out of my cellphone. The bandwidth was so good it, out performed my Comcast internet at my condo.

Not sure how long 10gig will last if I play a YouTube movie, but I can set it on low bandwidth and see how that goes.

Yesterday, my cellphone carrier pushed through another update, from OREO, Android 8 to their current version PIE, Android 9.

Maybe you're familiar with some of their previous versions... they all have to do with something sweet. Names like Donut, Eclair, Jelly Bean, Ice Cream Sandwich, Marsmallow.
Typically, when a new version is available, Google will release a BETA version that goes out to select groups for field testing. After the bugs are worked out (notice things with sugar often attract bugs) they release them to the carriers who decide what to remove or add to the 'Pure Google' version to the (slightly) altered version that's installed in your Android device.

It wasn't broke, so why are you fixing it? I asked that to a technician and his response was not all phones running Android react the same way. When a new release gets installed they are already working on 'patches' to fix problems not encountered in previous releases or to resolve issues with different models. One (major) flaw is that applications (APPS) must be updated so they can work with new operating systems.

This is the way things are. Implement a new O/S and spend months updating apps to correctly work under it.

Back to the update...
I first noticed the icons have changed appearance. The top row of clock, battery power, Bluetooth messages got moved around a little. Many of the screen backgrounds are (battery draining) white. When will they learn? I had to put the phone in night-mode to get a black background. Text message banner now uses 40% of the screen to tell me I have no new messages. Colored dots appear in front of all my contacts. I haven't checked to see if they actually have meaning or just random colors. I could do without the dots.

The biggest drawback for me is connecting everything to 'clouds' and social media. I don't want to share what's on my phone with the world. Every time I open a photo viewer I'm being asked to sync (synchronize) my photos somewhere else (group messaging and friends list, etc.) and tag locations with story lines. Thanks, but no and I'd like not to have to decline every time I open the app.

It would be nice to see a menu option 'don't bother me' as I don't want to update all my apps monthly because some new data sharing service becomes available.

Category is Technology but the new update is leaning to lifestyle.

More later...

Decibel (dB) is a logarithmic unit to measure sound or electronic signal levels. For the purpose of this blog, I'll use it in audio... sound levels.
On another blog, a member will be going to a Formula One race and it's suggested they bring along hearing protection as often race cars develop noise of over 130 dB. Two weeks ago, I attended an outdoor concert and used ear plugs to lower the sound of the performance. It didn't bother my friend, but for me, the volume was louder than I wanted to be subjected to.

The decibel scale In basic terms: zero dB is the threshold of human hearing and a whisper would be 25-30 dB. Normal conversation is 60-70 dB and a lawn mower (at 6' feet) is around 100 dB. Most scales I've seen rate 125 dB as a level of pain and a jet engine at 100 feet away would be 140 dB.

Some sound ratings in the work force, like the noise from a wood chipper or jack hammer where used continuously poise serious problems of hearing loss. A blast from a shot gun could register 170 decibels. Although it's only a split second of noise, a few of those could permanently harm ones hearing. I know 2 people who lost most of their hearing... one guy had the job of refueling helicopters in Vietnam. The aviator hearing protection always fell off as they scrambled to get the helicopters back in the air and he now has dual hearing aids supplied by the VA. The same for my uncle who had the assignment to load bullets on the guns of a battleship during WWII.

When we were kids, it's was rare to have a car stereo more than 20 watts. It's become commonplace to see custom shops installing 1,000 watt systems in cars now!

When talking to one of those guys (with a megapower system), it won't be long before their first word is... huh?

People are online... and it looks like all systems are up!

The US and UK are placing either restrictions or bans on 'Huawei's' development of 5G phone coverage in those countries. Are those actions to ultimately protect their network security or will the impact be far greater for the UK with the erosion of further trade development with China?

A few times a day I receive (robotic) phone solicitation calls to my cellphone offering me discounted healthcare programs and the recording starts with "We've been trying to reach you..." along with that is their takeaway "This is our last attempt to offer this discount..."
If that were true, I wouldn't receive so many calls.

I stopped using a land line years ago and switched to VOIP service provided by Vonage. It was my backup to a cellphone and served as a FAX line. I haven't used it in months and decided the $30 fee could be used elsewhere.

Since I'm a T-Mobile customer, I decided to switch to their VOIP service for $10 and now that I'm at a location 45 miles North, I selected a new phone number in the local exchange.

The device with new number has been installed for a little more than a week and the first message on the voicemail system is:
"We've been trying to reach you..."