Old Common, Day to Day Technology. Waht do you hang onto?

[buckeyefarmer]

I was watching how the I-phone was developed. Ruined marriages, breakdowns. The people who developed the touch screen software was a bought up company by Apple and never got the credit they deserved. Many people never got the credit they deserved. Jobs was more bully than genius. I mean, he got the amazing product to market.

Yes, I used the xerox star system, first commercial system to use GUI with icons and folders, Ethernet, mouse, etc.
Apple Lisa and MAC , and Microsoft with it’s windows program that ran on DOS copied these things. After apple sued Microsoft for copyright infringement, xerox sued apple likewise. This suit was thrown out on procedural issues. Apple lost their suit vs Microsoft.

Gates and Jobs were good at marketing other people’s ideas

 

[Industrial Toys]

I thought the Galaxy tablet would be a big benefit over my tiny I-Phone for watching Youtube in bed, but it's hard to hold onto. Also, after charging tablet ten hours, only shows 25% charge. I can't hardly be bothered to pursue that issue.

 

[Doofy]

Screen size is the difference for me. Poor vision dictates largest screen possible with biggest font.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

If I want big screen size I pull it up on the tv screen. In general tablets are bulky to hold. I would rather use a screen I can set down like a pc or laptop, or my smartphone which is ok size to hold.

I need glasses to see on any of them.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Another customer just switched to the cheapest IP phone service. Great, now you only hear half of what they are saying. And it always does that on the critical words. So you ask them to repeat at which time it usually looses bandwidth again and they think you have a hearing problem or something,

My copper land line has become less and less reliable with time. Now they have an internet repeater 3 miles away that runs on batteries. The batteries last 48 hours before the land line goes down. VOIP is not realistic because our DSL goes out all the time, most recently for 23.5 hours yesterday, but another ISP is promising FIOS by spring. When that happens, I'm going to shoot the phone company in the head and bury it.

 

[k0ua]

Did you all know that in between telephone central offices ALL interoffice trunking is over IP nowadays.? Bet you didn't know that.

 

[Industrial Toys]

The battery operated thing out here in the country is called a switch or remote by the techs. Basically a multiplexer. Kind of obsolete now, but it used to enable them to provide a bunch of lines far out from the centrl office without running copper pairs all the way.

I have bell lines but through a reseller for half the price. Makes no sense but it's law. All of a sudden I couldn't communicate in an analogue manner with a customers security panel and was looking at their phone service, only to find my reseller/provider had been bought and my lines put on VOIP with shi$%$ bandwidth! They put them back where they were and all has been fine.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I stick with the oldest technology that still serves its purpose. Wood stove. Machetti, axe and splitting maul. I did replace the buck saw with a chainsaw years ago. I still have a pitcher pump on my shallow well for emergencies and a clothesline out the back door. My Radio Shack weather cube is probably 45 years old, and I just changed the batteries in my Radio Shack DX-440 that is as good as any SSB portable SW receiver made today. My little Kubota L3130 has the same drawbar HP as the Allis Chalmers WC that my dad started farming with in 1949, and I still use the drawbar implements he had back then. My old Wards buzz box has a high frequency arc stabilizer and a MIG torch, and I can do a lot with it.

I love my cell phone, and don't even have cell service where I live. I download audio books and play them through a bluetooth headset while I'm working in the shop or on the tractor. I also have my entire music collection on a micro SD card in the phone. It makes that hour and a half drive to get to the doctor a lot more tolerable. There's nothing but crap on the radio any more.

 

[Industrial Toys]

About the same as TV.

Just seems to me, you get new technology and all of a sudden you have new problems and troubles that are totally beyond your control. An old wall thermostat, maybe you could repair or buy and new one and install it. Now buy one and you have to download a PDF and have all the up to date software to do that or call an 800 number and be on hold for some time. Probably has a WIFI connection so no one will take responsibility. It's just not worth any possible advantage. And if it works, it will spy on you. lol

 

[Doofy]

With all the medical device advancements, why haven't they developed a painless way of drawing blood for testing.

Went to the clinic today and came home with both arms bloody and bruised. First Phlebotomist jabbed me and rooted around for a bit and couldn't find the vein. 2nd phlebotomist came over and rooted around some more and still couldn't find it. They then switched arms and finally found a vein.

They scan your forehead now, to check your temperature and they have a special sonogram machine that can see how full your bladder is (pee even shows up as yellow). They are still medieval at drawing blood. Go figure!