Skynet is Coming

[Bill MullParticipant @billmull]

Posted by Mike Poole on 20/02/2021 13:28:17:

Despite the denials it's difficult to believe that Alexa, Siri and Cortana are not listening in 24/7. The coincidences of discussing something completely random and then being confronted with a connected advert next time you are online are becoming too many to be chance. It’s funny how things that we see no requirement for slowly become desirable and then essential. The internet is still not present in every home and this is not just due to people who feel they are too old to learn something new, my contemporaries are in their early to mid 60s and there are some who have still not embraced smart phones and the internet, of course there are people who simply can’t afford the costs involved and some who simply prefer not to be connected. I once owned a substantial but by no means huge collection of LP’s and then CD’s I gave most of the LP’s to a vinyl junkie and ripped all my CDs to firstly a Brennan then to a NAS drive and SONOS network. My sons consume media from Spotify and Netflix and thus don’t have piles of hard media to store. I am slowly being tempted to subscribe to Spotify but I still have an affection for some music from my pub rock years that is unlikely to be online so other sources will be needed.

Mike

I thought something like this only last week, with my phone in my pocket, I was showing an apprentice how to grind a tungsten for Tig welding. The next time I looked at Google an ad for a tungsten grinding machine pops up….

Skynet is definitely coming, I remember thinking that a few years ago when watching the Terminator show at Universal studios shortly before Universal shut it down.

Despite the show being 21 years old at that stage I thought it was never more relevant

[Sam StonesParticipant @samstones42903]

And then there's the light bulb that is voice activated via an app on your phone.

Here, Julian breaks one apart …

**LINK**

I loved the one about a toothbrush that has Bluetooth.

Sam

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

And here's me thinking Bluetooth is what sheep suffer when grazing on't moor in January….

I think a lot of it driven by an insatiable desire in enough people to make it worth exploiting, to want only ever the Very Latest, the Most Up-Grades, most technical-looking, and the like.

A friend whose hobbies include photography told me years ago of fellow camera club members whose photography was good but never outstanding. Now, my mate had some eye-wateringly costly stuff with names like Hasselblad, but he explained that he bought the best equipment he could afford, then used it consistently for many years. Those others though, would be forever chasing the latest, the newest, the extra shutter-speed or shiny chromed button. Consequently they never became sufficiently accustomed to the camera to know how the scene in its view-finder would appear in emulsion.

Perhaps the same is happening here. Although a washing-machine is just that – though use the wrong setting and your blue workshop overalls will turn a pretty purple from the dye it's run from the other-half's red ball-gown – some people would regard some 20 settings as vital. I think mine has that range – only because it was pretty much standard on what was available. Their makers have latched onto the gadget-conscious rather than the discerning or the practical, and found it profitable.

'

Others have told me of having been eavesdropped by so-called "smart" speakers: talking about something then mysteriously receiving advertisements thought "of interest". And it is eavesdropping, cynical, wilful listening-in to private conversations, albeit by a computer programmed to detect particular words. Companies like Google know enough people do not realise or do not care about it, to more than compensate for those of us who try to refuse to kowtow to the company.

I don't use Google now, which also means I cannot see YouTube videos. The reason? Google places an access barrier designed very carefully to make you toe their line.

I try to avoid helping these parasites – and the criminals, come to that. My 3G, very basic portable 'phone is not connected to the Internet. It spends more time off than on – anyone tracing it in 2019 might have wondered how or why I was suddenly in a rural village 300 miles from home, for just 10 minutes. I have no "wi-fi" devices – this PC is on a broadband line and even the pointer is wired. No "smart-speaker". No radio-controlled washing-machine or toothbrush…

No intention of having them, either.

'''

The teenage girls two doors along were getting cabin-fever in last Summer's lock-downs. Occasionally they regaled me, in my workshop with the door open, with "Alexa! Play xxx.! " followed by short bits of the dreariest dirges going but no doubt Top of the Pops. Rarely right through, before poor Alexa was nagged into playing another. I felt like yelling across the intervening garden, "Alexa! Play Sibelius' Fifth" or something. Or "Alexa! Go to sleep!"

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

I sometimes wonder what the first owner of my 100yr old Drummond felt as he first set it up. No the cheapest small lathe at he time he must have really wanted it and had to save for quite a whle to afford it. But he wanted the latest technology and heck, it could screwcut.

[VicParticipant @vic]

The problem is the public aren’t very bright and fall for all the advertising. A washing machine engineer told me the worst thing you could do to one was put washing powder in it. Undissolved powder he said caused no end of problems in machines but the shops still sell the powder. The best thing he said is liquid detergent, but don’t put it in the drawer but directly in the drum with the washing. I say this because Bosch have now over complicated their latest machines by adding “auto dosing” what could possibly go wrong … and how much extra does it add to the cost of the machine? You have to open the drum anyway so how difficult is it to put detergent in … obviously very difficult!

[Dr. MC BlackParticipant @dr-mcblack73214]

I am continually irritated by the lack of a printed instruction manual on things that I buy.

If I pay a few hundred pounds for a piece of equipment, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a PRINTED Manual in the box.

Lots of Manuals are offered as "pdf' files – especially for computer software. But it's NOT possible to use the software and read the pdf file at the same time. By the time one has followed the first step one has forgotten the second!

Given the choice between two equally appealing items, I will always buy the one that comes with a Printed Manual – even if it cost a few pounds more.

Am I alone in the desire for Printed Instructions?

MC

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

Back in the 70's the company I worked for used to buy CCTV cameras and monitors from Japan. Every item had a user manual (more a 4 page leaflet actually) but came complete with a circuit diagram. Of course, that was back in the day when it was possible to repair stuff on site.

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

MC Black,

Im with you there. I want a manual where can look back and forwards easily but if more importance would be a size of print I can actually see. I am fed up if having to use big magnifying lenses to read tiny print.

Colin

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

MC Black

Roy

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Speaking of printed manuals, I remember the days when your new motorcycle's User Manual told you how to whip the cylinder head off, clean the carbon off the valves and piston crown and maybe even give the valves a quick grind before putting it all back together. Today's motorcycle User Manual tells you not to drink the contents of the battery.

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

An example of technology for the sake of it?. Yesterday I was given a defunct dehumidifier, which appeared to work, but the compressor wouldn't run. Interesting starting arrangement with the start winding in series with a positive temperature coefficient resistor. Memories of the de-gaussing coil on a shadowmask crt. There was also a fusible link in the common supply, but both appeared OK.

The fault was traced to a small PCB, whose function was to interrupt the compressor supply, when a sensor told it the condenser matrix had iced up. Found the relay and its driver transistor which in turn was controlled by a 20 pin IC. Looked up the type number and came up with the following info (I have deleted the chip type number)

I could probably replace that lot with a couple of transistors and a few resistors. Is this just a lazy designer or was he told " We've bought 1/2 a million too many. Can you get rid of them for us?"

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Us hardcore bikers used to like a slug of battery acid on a cold day, warms the cockles of your heart, some lightweights just stick to petrol but unleaded leaves a bit of an aftertaste not like 4 star. Avgas is very agreeable for the ladies.

Mike

Edited By Mike Poole on 23/02/2021 11:11:20

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Having had to replace the dishwasher, freezer and washing machine during the past year apart from the very cheapest machines I would not choose for their quality, you seem to have to pay more for a more expensive appliance to NOT get this connectivity.

My Amazon Alexa developed a strange fault recently – If you asked it to play a radio station or a music track it would tell you it was going to do it and then there was nothing. Searching the Internet suggested it was due to overloaded wifi. So I made certain everything on wifi was switched off restarted the Alexa ad then turned wifi back on as necessary. All is now well.

Are these two things connected – probably!

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

I bought a new camera, a brand I knew well. I wanted to adjust the viewfinder visual appearance. Could not find anything in the 315 page down loadable manual. Why? Because I was looking for "viewfinder" data when I should have been looking for "EVF"

Yes you can gues it now, electronic view finder = EVF

Bah Humbug

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

The most interesting part about this is the data retention time, presumably MTBF, of 10 years – so the design life is only 10 years?

Posted by Anthony Knights on 23/02/2021 11:06:16:

An example of technology for the sake of it?. Yesterday I was given a defunct dehumidifier, which appeared to work, but the compressor wouldn't run. Interesting starting arrangement with the start winding in series with a positive temperature coefficient resistor. Memories of the de-gaussing coil on a shadowmask crt. There was also a fusible link in the common supply, but both appeared OK.

The fault was traced to a small PCB, whose function was to interrupt the compressor supply, when a sensor told it the condenser matrix had iced up. Found the relay and its driver transistor which in turn was controlled by a 20 pin IC. Looked up the type number and came up with the following info (I have deleted the chip type number)

I could probably replace that lot with a couple of transistors and a few resistors. Is this just a lazy designer or was he told " We've bought 1/2 a million too many. Can you get rid of them for us?"

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

Posted by Mike Poole on 23/02/2021 11:07:39:

Us hardcore bikers used to like a slug of battery acid on a cold day, warms the cockles of your heart, …

Don't get pulled over after doing that, Mike, you might get charged by the police…

Rob

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by KWIL on 23/02/2021 11:12:51:

I bought a new camera, a brand I knew well. I wanted to adjust the viewfinder visual appearance. Could not find anything in the 315 page down loadable manual. Why? Because I was looking for "viewfinder" data when I should have been looking for "EVF"

Yes you can gues it now, electronic view finder = EVF

Bah Humbug

Yes – when I bought my VW Touran I was stuck for 15 minutes trying to open the fuel cap to fill up. I thought it'd be under the dashboard like the others I've come across. It wasn't until I chanced on 'tank flap' (literallissimo translation of German 'Tankklappe' ) in the last book of the 3-volume manual that I found I had to press a backhanded rocker switch tucked away on the back wall of the driver's door stowage bin…

 

Edited By Mick B1 on 23/02/2021 11:24:52

[J HancockParticipant @jhancock95746]

Due to an unfortunate muscle-wasting problem I had to acquire a device to get me out of the bath.

The manufacturer chose to call it a 'Bathmate'.

1/ Don't go there……………….unless you never want to be alone !!

2/ Don't go there.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

People are missing the point.

The Covid Chip will tell Bill Gate where you are, you need all these smart gadgets, so he can know what you are doing.

"Hey Elon, I see you forgot to brush your teeth yesterday! Jeff and Mark always brush twice a day, you really need to take care of your toothy pegs, dentistry is expensive even for us billionaires. Stay cool – Bill "

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

The more advanced (? – all right, complicated) things are, the less their manufacturers help us.

The more big organisations want us to do everything on the Internet to serve only themselves, the harder and less efficient they make their web-sites and call-centres to use. Unless you want to buy something….

Not the only ones though.

At work we had to return hire-cars refuelled to avoid the hirers' fat refuelling charges. Not this one. Bringing it back after someone else had collected and driven it to the site where he stayed, I did not know if it was petrol or diesel and even the filling-station staff were baffled by the totally meaningless symbol on the fuel-cap.

BT Broadband's "Help" website tours a maze of options and waffle via one those idiotic "Frequently Asked Questions" anthologies, and returns to you to Square One. You then realise the lack of a "FAQ" means your problem with the service is not an Officially Approved Problem therefore cannot exist. Like the Ministry of Truth dictionary in 1984 – to go with the audio version of the Telescreen, called "Alexa".

Or my battles to learn even the basics of CAD – the on-line .pdf manual is very scanty, poorly-organised, has no proper index, but assumes you know CAD principles and terminology so is only an expert users' aide-memoire to the specific controls. Where do you find such basics? Err… perhaps they fell foul of Winston Smith's dictionary editing. (Rather like a certain real junior-edition dictionary whose publishers have deemed children must not learn ordinary nature words and names.)

Who are the worst offenders for not helping you use their products and services? Computer and telecommunications companies.

That's one reason I refuse to have a "smart"-phone. I was unable to find instructions for the one I did have a couple of years ago. I sold it after a few months of calls and messages I missed, or heard/ read but could not return. It transpired the makers regarded 'phone calls as an auxiliary "feature", not primary function!

[Dr. MC BlackParticipant @dr-mcblack73214]

If I can NOT find the way to contact the Customer Services department of an organisation, I write to the Chief Executive (using an email address found on "ceoemail.com&quot.

I usually get a response from a minion in the Executive Office although sometimes from the CEO himself.

Writing to the CEO usually resolves the problem

MC

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

Posted by Nick Clarke 3 on 23/02/2021 11:17:03:

The most interesting part about this is the data retention time, presumably MTBF, of 10 years – so the design life is only 10 years?

It's worse than that. I'm told the device is 4 years old. If the microcontroller chip is faulty, there is no point replacing it, because I have no way of knowing how it was programmed. It may even have been programmed to commit suicide once the warrantry period was over. The manufacturer does not list the pcb among the spare parts, so it's bodge time. The simplest one is to bypass the relay driver transistor with a switch and control de-icing manually. Otherwise, build a trigger circuit with some hysteresis in it to monitor the ice sensor and drive the relay with that. Isn't technology wonderful.

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

“I could probably replace that lot with a couple of transistors and a few resistors. Is this just a lazy designer or was he told ” We’ve bought 1/2 a million too many. Can you get rid of them for us?”

No it sounds like a simple PIC processor – they will cost less than your 2 transistors which would probably need a capacitor for timing purposes (the latter being guaranteed not to last 10yrs unless quite expensive. Since you knew what it had to do program your own PIC

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Posted by Hopper on 23/02/2021 10:53:39:

Speaking of printed manuals, I remember the days when your new motorcycle's User Manual told you how to whip the cylinder head off, clean the carbon off the valves and piston crown and maybe even give the valves a quick grind before putting it all back together. Today's motorcycle User Manual tells you not to drink the contents of the battery.

The velocette manual even had drawings of the very few special tools you needed., and I seem to remember it telling you how to make an oil filter

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

Posted by Frances IoM on 23/02/2021 19:47:40:
No it sounds like a simple PIC processor – they will cost less than your 2 transistors which would probably need a capacitor for timing purposes (the latter being guaranteed not to last 10yrs unless quite expensive. Since you knew what it had to do program your own PIC

Great idea.I'll buy a PIC programmer and teach myself how to program a PIC. I might as well bin my box of electronic components at the same time.

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