Thinking About It: August 2023

Interoperability & Walled Gardens or Closed Ecosystems/ Does your information furniture work well together? Smart clothes yet?

Fabric being blended with computer electronic technology in a big way now as smart shoes & smart pants & smart shirts & smart jackets bring the tech into the most basic aspects of our lives, what we wear daily for fast fashion or similar to protect from solar UV damage of our skin or eye with UV400 sunglasses & SPF1000 sunscreen :P Since all of those spray can CFC emissions & leaking refrigeration circuits caused the Earth's Ozone Layer to thin significantly (Thanks for telling us NASA), even though the Montréal Protocol (Global Treaty) tried to ban CFC manufacturing worldwide, low quality countries like Myanmar continued making & selling them industrially, along with low quality MDMA & and Meth made from pseudo-ephedrine in large steel reaction vessels in little clandestine chemistry manufacturing operations.

It's amazing what people do when they misuse their cognitive abilities, especially given that all activities & movement of the human body are organized, executed & controlled by the brain. Try reading the book "The Brain that Changes Itself": it also named itself :P

Standards for connectivity are important, like USB-C or the NEMA 15-R 120v AC power outlet that allows Americans to plug in their BendTec blender & mix things with incredible power :)

I have been using Amazon Echo products with Alexa, that I renamed "Computer" so the invocation for voice interaction with it involves saying "Computer" which is fun since Alexa now 8 years old and more skilled than ever before.

Several Echol Dot's with increasingly nice industrial designs gave way to a full-size 3rd gen Echo speaker with much better audio quality, but similar increase in size & mass. Without high-speed internet & WiFi online at all times & an Amazon Prime subscription, these devices are not as useful other than as ornamental technical electronic decorations.

An iPod Classic gave way to many generations of iPods then iPhone, iPad, MacBook, iMac & many more :) I learned early on that sticking with the same electronics ecosystem (Apple) for everything other than the voice computer interface, though I find myself using Siri on iPhone 14 more lately with "Hey Siri, turn on my flashlight" and the corresponding off invocation or digital assistant interaction.

Alexa & Siri lack the emotional & cognitive features that make interacting with real people more interesting, even if just with voice. These bots have a kind of a flatness or non-human aspect that also means the Alan Turing test has not been passed by either artificial intelligence bot. In this I mean that elastic cloud computing used to give both Alexa & Siri their ability to answer voice questions or queries with natural language voice responses & recognition.

NLP or natural language processing a kind of search engine like software that takes the voice pattern & converts it into text for IO with the computer, using a library of pre-known base sounds to convert spoken words into text input & to synthesis voice by converting text into spoken words though speakers as analog wave pressure patterns in air that eventually hit out ears & sound similar to human natural language speech. Really amazing that anything like this even exists & that with things like Apple Watch 8 you can wear Siri on your wrist // and interact with it like Dick Tracy, even making voice calls from your wrist over 5G or LTE and making & receiving text messages, fitness tracking, navigation, and much more.

Natural voice interactions with Siri on iPhone or Hey Google on Android make a smoother user experience that fast & easy on the go when mobile, like when you're driving your car to work or driving home after work.

One of the two USB-C input ports on our M2 MacBook pro stopped working, odd given its not even that old!

I have written about the virtues of USB-C because it can be used at up to 100 watts for charging gaming laptops, important given that No Mans Sky now works on Mac too :) I am joking of course.

User replaceable batteries in iPhone 15 according to new EU consumer protection Right to Repair laws, the standard applies to vehicles, electronics or anything with fade prone rechargeable battery that loses its ability to hold a full charge after a few years of daily use from capacity loss or capacity fade or degradation, something small thin LiPo batteries used in smartphones are well known to do, in addition to occasionally catching fire or venting with flame & lots of blue white smoke as it were, something I know about as a L2 Device Repair Technician.

I have no idea why the USB-C port on our M2 MacBook stopped working suddenly while the other USB-C port works fine. Since it only has 2 information & power USB-C ports, losing one is bad, because if it dies, there is no way to charge or use the computer. Given my current situation & lack of tooling & information, I will be taking it to the local Apple Store for help.

Cool not enough to sell smart lights or smart cameras that do not interact with other technology you already have online, like your existing smartphone, tablet, laptop or computers. What is the point of learning thermostat if it kills the control board in your furnace quickly by constantly cycling the relays like NEST units are renowned for by many furnace service technicians & homeowners who had to pay for an expensive repair caused by their learning thermostat.

I installed one in our natural gas furnace home in Renton and within 1 year the furnace control board died. I opened the furnace, photographed the control logic board with my phone, went online & ordered a replacement board, when it arrived, I turned off the power, unplugged & unscrewed the dead logic controller board & installed the new one using the photo of the old one hooked up, on my phone, to make sure I connected all the wires correctly. This replacement board cost me $153 & took less than 30 minutes to change DIY style. I then uninstalled the NEST and went back to the old HVAC thermostat controller with its simple low power LCD & basic slow switching control methodology, that had worked for 15 years and was still working when I reinstalled it.

I still have the $275 Nest in a box as a reminder of how buying into brand new technology often has unintended consequences. It was cool to set the temperature with Alex Dot voice control back then, but the glitz or sizzle of that setup faded as it was not reliable. I value reliability, durability, product longevity, things that are well made and hold up well like a Speed Queen washer or Sunfrost Fridge. I feel a nostalgic sadness for a time where appliances were made in America & designed to last a lifetime with basic maintenance.

Berline IFA like the European version of Las Vegas CES or the Consumer Electronics Show! Where companies show off their next generation products, like the latest robotic vacuum or robotic window cleaner or robotic stale air hunting air purifier. Do you feel like having a Rosie from the Jetsons like me? I have fond memories of watching the Jetsons & dreaming of a better future, as a young child! Thats only 40 years from now according to the timeline depicted in the Jetsons, and flying autonomous drone passenger vehicles already exist if you have deep enough pockets to actually afford one, think Ehang 216. See EHang | UAM - Passenger Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV)

One of the two USB-C ports failed on our M2 MacBook Pro, the rear left USB-C port stopper working, and no longer transfers power or data. Fortunately, it is a daughter board & even at the Bellevue Square Apple Store, its only $113+ tax to repair officially at an Apple Store! Love it! Especially given that the machine itself cost 18X more than that :) Why the USB-C port died randomly, I have no idea, but Kevin the Tech said he had never heard of it before. They had to special order the part & even when I turn my machine in, it takes 3-5 days for the repair. At least one of the two ports still working, for without it the machine would be bricked, no way to charge it or get data in or out over the USB-C port.

Compact 600W LG Stainless Steel Easy Clean Microwave Oven / Heating Water My Favorite Way

I add 200ml water to a 500ml glass measuring cup with pour spout & handle. I heat it for around 3 minutes to near boiling then add it to 20-30 grams of course ground coffee in a 350ml borosilicate beaker French press, the put the lid & basket on it for 5-9 minutes & let the coffee form an infusion with the hot water. Some whole milk or half & half added to a 450ml white ceramic mug with a funny expression printed in black on the outside. "In order to insult me, I have to first value your opinion, Nice Try Though" I often preheat the dairy liquid & mug for 30 seconds to remove the chill that the refrigerated milks products produce in the mug since they are added cold. This makes the resulting cup of coffee a touch warmer.

I heat water in a large 4 cup glass measuring cup with pour spout & handle when we make 60 grams of course ground coffee in Meg's large stoneware French Press. That makes the coffee more medium flavored & we heat the water to 185F or around 90 C for that operation by heating for 7 min 77 seconds or 8 minutes and 17 seconds :)

Sometimes I rebrew my coffee grounds for 20+ min to extract any remaining soluble substances from the course freshly ground coffee that I hand grind in a 17 click setting in the machined dual bearing smooth handle grinder that can do super fine Arabic coffee or espresso from 1-7 clicks, while 8-14clicks good for pour over, and 15-26 clicks for French Press or AeroPress in the slightly finer side. Rebrewing brewed coffee grounds also known as Eisenhower Coffee because of how coffee was conserved for the war effort in WWII with socially encourage rationing.

Some people claim that using computers does not make you smarter, but that depends on how you use the computer, which has more to do with the user's brain than the logic-based computer itself, which I see as nothing more than an information tool. In some ways you could argue that reading Wikipedia for thousands of hours could be a way to become very knowledgeable about the world & how things work & interact without actually spending a lot of money or "getting dirty" though the internet is full of image filth, mostly pornography, and similar distasteful or unsavory content, proving there are a lot of lonely people online in the world.

I like physical keyboards & desktops & laptops because I started using a computer when I build one from component parts in the early 1990's and it worked since I had studied how to do it on Encarta CD ROM on a Mac computer in the library of my Elementary School. I almost always type these blog postings on one of my laptops, the latest an M2 MacBook Pro, while an older Core2-Duo Unibody MacBook was my first Apple laptop back in 2008, the first metal one after those white polycarbonate units. Later I got a 5K iMac that ended up burning out, its not-working properly in its original box in storage right now awaiting a future repair.

We are currently using the last Intel iMac's that we got on a steep discount at Costco before the refresh to Apple Silicon models. I am typing this posting on an Asus F17 gaming laptop that I got specifically to replace the gaming desktop I currently have mining crypto currencies using a small cluster of Nvidia GPU's in Random X mode. I also play Steam Games like Counter Strike Go sometimes & dabble in No Mans Sky & Euro Truck Simulator. My gaming history goes back to Atari as a boy. An original Nintendo after that. Original X-Box in high school.

I still have an Xbox One or Xbone as its is known & like the current higher performance version but don't game enough to justify buying one. Laptops work better in a tiny 200 square foot home, though my last Intel iMac setup on top of a 7-foot-tall storage rack, next to top bunk of our bunk bed, but I have to use it prone, since there is not enough vertical room to sit-up, so I keep sessions on that machine short as its awkward to use like that. Perhaps the overuse of video editing on the M2 MacBook Pro was related to the rear USB-C port failure that Apple will fix for $112 something when they get the special ordered part in the near future. They said they have to keep the MacBook at the store for 3-5 days because of the high volume of repairs.

When reading a blog post like this, your getting a glimpse into my mind & thought processes. The bitrate of this exchange is also variable & depends on the readers knowledge & language skills & time allotted & other factors. If you're reading this, you're probably a very lucky person with a computer & internet connection and electricity.

One of the main problems with smartphones & internet use, the extreme number of distractions online. They do not make people smarter when used to screw off constantly, as watching Cat videos on YouTube does not normally increase anyone's skills, knowledge or abilities, though there is a lot of DIY content that can teach you have to do something, like "How to repair" your whatever // there is enough content online that a person could not watch all if they tried. I even have a YouTube channel. //

It's the ecommerce on Amazon, Alibaba, Ebay & elsewhere online that turned the internet into an industrial revenue generator or profit maker. Look at the beneficiaries of online sales, some of the world's wealthiest people.

I think AI tools will help some focused people in some specific domains but will be largely used to entertain & distract people with fake news, false, inaccurate, untrue, lies, misinformation, disinformation, distractions, entertainment, music, videos, apps, games & more to keep people's brains insane so they buy more things they can't actually afford for reasons they often & likely don't understand, or fail to integrate into their lives & though life until 3 years after they make the initial investment or purchases. Everything you purchase and investment into your future one way or the other and can help or harm you or your budget.

Try using your computers without internet access & see how much fun you have! Going offline after being online for a long time feels slow, boring & peaceful or tranquil, but without TV or Radio or any source of entertainment or information, you could find yourself left in the dark about what is actually happening in the world, though none of it is actually surprising if you consider human history.

We repeat the same mistakes until its widely accepted that there is a better way & then people start slowly adapting the new best methods or ways & people they know prove the Toyota Prius a reliable car despite having so many onboard computers. A new 2023 car can have over 100 chips, that's why the chip shortage hamstringed automakers into production shutdowns during the COVID19 pandemic debacle & supply chain interruptions with thin supply chains designed to keep operating costs down without any meaningful resiliency as the cost or weakness of operating like that. Anyone heart of the value of a buffer in memory management on computers of having grocery inventories at home to cook with or similar.

Without materials to work with making anything impossible. It is possible to use packaging materials to craft things. Though the value of such actions questionable, perhaps worthwhile if you enjoy doing it with a childlike neglect for things that might add more value to your life. But who cant say how much entertainment is enough for a person? I barely understand myself & could never tell someone else how they should operate, other than to be loving & kind to other people & inwardly forgiving & gracious with themselves since people can be really hard on themselves. People are often their worst critic, their inward thought life very harsh or critical in reflective considerations about how they are as a person, how they conduct themselves, what they have said or done. Saying the wrong thing in the wrong place or at the wrong time or the wrong person can get you fired or worse. Being a modern person can be very similar or super complicated. It's different for everyone in some ways. No one a genuinely identical on all levels. Everyone has a highly subjective experience of reality. We all have bias. No one is perfect and no one has all the answers.

It can take a few minutes to several hours to write these blog postings. For a moment I used an generative AI tools to write more, more quickly, but it took away from the granular control I have to include my voice in what I write & share. Perhaps that is prideful or arrogance, but I really like typing the posts by hand on a physical keyboard, with the clicky sounds of my ten fingers mashing away at the keys like a mad piano player in the future. In a way, typing a high speed like playing a musical word instrument. Perhaps that why some people call bloggers digital musicians. More like information magician :P //Var Loop

Do you have good search engine integration with the bot crawlers? Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, are people easily able to find your content? Who cares? So what? What makes the difference between people is how they are connected to other people, like transistors in your smartphones SOC integrated circuit chips, stacked as layers of CMOS logic made in chip fabs on the world's most expensive and complex machines from ASML, largely at TSMC, though Intel still fabs a lot of chips too :) In all seriousness, I am a school bus driver & 14 other kinds of people :) I do all sorts of stuff and am so busy I can hardly sleep. I have an endless supply of tasks that need my attention immediately, but still have the ability to hone my focus to write & share :)

Write software & more! Your able to do way more than most people think they can. You really only need 5 hours of solid sleep & that gives you 19 hours per day to make it happen, to pay your taxes, to take care of your trash & recycling, to cook, shop, clean yourself & your place, to take care of your Dog or children or home or car, to go to work, to work for income// so you can flex your credit card spending at Costco on the weekend you capital industrialist pretending to be an innocent wild animals. You're as crazy as Adolf Hitler, you just hide it better! People are really good a lying, to themselves & other people & most people learn how to lie by the tender age or 2 or as a two-year-old human toddler or baby // People are good a lying down because they have to sleep & most people do not sleep while standing up.

I hate email because of all the spam ads & commercial emails. I started using email as young boy back when dial-up was the only way online. At first it was fine, but I made the mistake of giving my email to too many people & companies early on. More recently I got a Gmail account, but Google or Alphabet Inc did not exist back then.

I don't like getting texts when I am sleeping. I don't like getting phone calls or other news updates when I am sleeping. I don't like being bothered when I am sleeping because I barely get enough sleep as it is. Thank God I don't have children, or I would probably go insane. I feel like a grandpa, with grey hairs in my beard now, or wisdom streaks as I call them. I have lived 5 lifetimes of experiences in my short almost 40 years with the belief that I can do anything I set my mind to do. A can do anything attitude of enabled encouraged & empowered energy :) I hand type these blog posts to give context & details that the AI tools were just not good enough for yet. I want the posts to reflect my mind & thinking, not the internet itself or just facts.

Opinion & editorial content OP-ED can help other people to think about life differently, like a software update for brain computers. Reading makes people more intelligent. Being literate part of being educated & that makes complex global society possible. People worldwide can't all behave like cave monkeys running around like wild animals in the rain forests as though it were 10,000 years ago like some people are still doing today / incredibly!

Cultural heritage or a living legacy if you will according to the governments of countries that protect those wild areas from industrial development in order to enable the indigenous peoples to live as they always have. Probably wise giving that industrial development toxic to the biosphere because of pollution & war & crime & other problems created by industrialized societies.

None of that is natural, it's made up, just like money or language or numbers, created by people for human use, synthetic or artificial if you will, like so many processed food ingredients today // pesticide, herbicide, fungicide, insecticide / industrial chemicals made by people to solve problems with human overpopulation & 4 generations of industrialization. The current industrial revolution known as the AI or artificial intelligence or #4IR or 42 in machine learning if you know what I mean :)

Spin Flipped a trick for a trip or a dip into a different way of thinking with lasting consequences to though processes essential for high functioning with unknown long-term effects, though suicidal depression & anxiety seems to emerge, its really just like splitting your differential or having a nervous breakdown. Is your brain melting too? Do you hear the voices telling you to do things you known you should not do? I am joking, but in all seriousness, stop & think!

What are you doing to or with yourself & is that really making your life better or helping your family, friends, neighborhood, community, state, or the biosphere & nature & wild animals? What about your children, think about your children & their children, your grandchildren. We want to leave the world in a better place for their benefit. Thats why green eco-friendly electricity from new nuclear breeder reactors & other renewables so important. Go without enough sleep long enough & you will feel your mind slipping away. You might also start micro-napping from exhaustion & that can cause a car accident. A 10-minute refresh nap can really help!

Funny that people put their phones to sleep with the sleep wake button & windows & macOS have sleep modes too. If we let our machines sleep for so many hours per day, most cars are driven less than 2 hours per day, then why do we allow light & sound to rob us of enough sleep or rest. Let yourself rest & recover & be renewed & restored & repaired by sleep since you are getting older & weaker day by day anyway & no one gets out of here, life, alive anyway! If you don't believe me, consider that elderly people are usually not actively participating in professional sports or entering the Olympics. I hate getting older & wish more than anything that I could be 23 forever or biologically 23 until I am chronologically old & dead. I try to stay young in heart & mind, even though my body ages continually.

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