Technology Blogs (216)

We are in a New Technology world:
Just about everything is possible with communications across the world, being a millisecond away:

You are totally dependant on a bank card, and many more cards.
Money has just about landed in a museum...

To conform with everyone else we are getting more clever at technology by the second.
My mom refused to use these fancy things, but she did change her mind, as all have...

We all have different uses for our computers:
Work
Fun
Dating
Communications
you tell us more

Quite a lot of people don't use computers for work, and just personal use, which tends to then be a tablet / CellPh, as the rest is too bulky.

What do you expect in the future, what will happen to technology and the people attached to them?

When I talk about drones, some people think of a teenage boy flying over a neighbors back patio to capture video of the guys daughter or hot looking wife. There are no examples of drones being used elsewhere that will change that mindset. Sorry...

But, if you are open minded, you could find some interest in drones being used in business.

In the example, large scale model drones are equipped with tanks and spray nozzles for the application of pesticides or liquid fertilizers in agriculture.

Pretty simple design with gyroscopic stability, the pilot remotely controls the drone over the crops at the speed and altitude of his choosing.



I've seen some larger GPS models including some with programmable flight path and obstacle avoidance.

Technology put to good use!

Last week it was a leaked rumor. This week it's been confirmed. Motorola is bringing back the legendary RAZR flip-phone. Introduced in 2004, the RAZR was such a hot item that Motorola sold more than 130 million units in 4 years making it the best-selling clamshell phone in the world.
Eventually sales slumped as touchscreen phones became popular and Samsung took the market lead. In 2011 Motorola resurrected the RAZR until 2013.
On November 14, 2019 Motorola released details that an Android based RAZR will be released for 2020 exclusively through Verizon Wireless at a price of $1,500.

I don't have a crystal ball, but I'll make a prediction that the initial review will be slower than expected. Those who have service with other providers won't be willing to jump ship and there will be a market for cracked/unlocked phones, but I suspect at $1,500 you can buy a flagship Samsung S10+ and have enough money left over for 65" Samsung 4K UHD TV.

Motorola may have priced themselves out of the market.

For many years, I've been using Firefox for my internet browser and update usually once every 3-4 months. In the past few months, it's been nagging for weekly updates. Annoying doesn't say enough and now, last weeks update has been snagging when I open a new page. It usually takes 2 or 3 tries to get whatever link or bookmark to open.
Hopefully, they will realize that the last update wasn't quite right... and fix it on the next update.

I spoke to someone in the Samsung support about the last update they pushed through my cellphone. He agrees with me that they 'fixed things that weren't broken' and prefers the previous release. Unfortunately there is no easy way to downgrade.

Updates... good or bad, they're part of life now.

Lots of us here are getting on a bit could drop dead or just have a stroke loose the power to tap out a message so what happens to the profile ? I see profiles here that have not been used for 3 or 4 yrs does it matter to people that when theyre going to be dead that theres all this crap left behind or do lbloggers see it as their legacy ? C.S. doesn't delete stuff we write its out there, no taking it back . I think its wrong that CS has this power . On a bad day you could write something you wish you hadn't.....it's unfair . At least when you delete Facebook its all gone .....what a relief .

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...

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.

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.