Posts by Dave 126

Re: MacGuyver solution in the wild

Third party foam tips called Comply are available for a range of in-ears headphones. I haven't used them myself, but reviews seem to be favourable.

Re: I've always found

>Left the buggers in the seat pocket in front of me while packing up my stuff before leaving. Damn. Damn.

Sadly for me such incidents are a case of 'when' and not 'if', so twenty quid for in-ears and thirty quid (ideally some Sennheisers in a sale) for over-ears tends to be what I spend.

I had a lovely pair of Sennheiser over-ears that were so comfortable that I could sleep in them and have no discomfort upon waking... but for some stupid reason I took them out the house and left them in a pub.

Re: Wait - am I a weirdo?

You're not a weirdo - controlled tests in people suggest that constantly loud noise is no barrier to sleep, and indeed can aid drowsiness. It's sudden changes in noise level that keep people awake.

Indeed, one of the new generation of large airliners elicited complaints from pilots that their rest area was too quiet - without constant engine noise they could hear noises from the passenger area which disturbed their sleep.

Re: I've always found

Also, by releasing good quality headphones Apple can continue to make their case for ditching the 3.5mm audio socket. Audio over Lightning can do something that 3.5mm can't: supply power to active noise cancelling headphones. True, the primary use-case will be wireless, but using Lightning when Bluetooth is not appropriate (Airplane Mode, or low headphone battery) makes sense.

Personally, I wouldn't mind a 3.5mm socket so that I can treat inexpensive earbuds as consumables (they always get lost or broken), but Apple won't reverse their decision.

Re: I've always found

> I've always found

that the current big brands like Bose, Sennheiser, Sony and Beats (urgh) colour the sound way too much

Beats especially have long had a reputation for being too bassy. If Apple wanted to sell headphones to grownups (who have more money and are more likely to travel by air) then releasing Apple branded headphones instead of Beats branded headphones is not a stupid move.

Re: @Dave 126What's the application?

> How do you change the programming to make it crack an encrypted message

Shor's Algorithm. Basically, a way to factorise large numbers in a sensible time frame if you have a quantum computer. Using classical computers it is very time consuming to factorise large numbers, whereas it is trivial to multiply numbers - it is this asymmetry that forms the basis of most encryption schemes in use today.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shor%27s_algorithm

Re: What's the application?

The classic example of where classical computers don't work too well is called The Travelling Salesman problem - ie what's the most efficient route to visit all the cities. Some quantum computers could calculate all possible paths *simultaneously*. But beyond optimising supply chains and logistics, other applications for quantum computers include research into materials and medicine.

Some scientists doubt if quantum error rates can be reduced sufficiently, but it's too big a prize to not reach towards.

Re: All that screen and only 1080 vertical ? In 2018 ? For gaming ?

Greater than 1080 monitors for gaming are a relatively new thing - a lot of gamers don't have to GPU grunt to run games at very high resolution (at high frame rate and high detail settings). I imagine some games benefit more from a very wide monitor (Elite?), and some befit more from high resolution.(Call of Duty?)

Re: Remove one bezel ?

There's a monitor brand who make a stick-on bezel that acts as a prism for joining monitors. It minimises but doesn't eliminate the bezel.

Samsung have touted monitors without bezels at trade shows which can be joined seamlessly - but it doesn't appear to be consumer-ready yet. I imagine the alignment is tricky and that the tolerances have to be smaller than a pixel.

Re: Still only 1080 Vertical

Macs are 16:10, MS Surface are 3:2, and some older laptops are 16:10 though they are as rare as hens teeth today. A few times here I've invited anyone to name a current 16:10 laptop but it seems you're all as stumped as I am!

From an ergonomic perspective, taller laptop screens place the user's gaze higher above the keyboard - that is, closer to the most comfortable and healthiest working position. That said, no laptop is ergonomically suitable for long time working, hence stands and discrete keyboards.

Re: I have a fine collection of Rolexes, including the very hard to come by Daytona...

I'd more interested in mechanical watches if they can achieve ten years plus without a service.

The need for a service undermines their potential 'just forget about them' appeal, especially since some Casios can go for over a decade on a single battery (plus solar and kinetic models, but I don't know the longevity if their energy storage components, battery or capacitor).

Still, come the EMP blast I'll use one of mechanicals.

Re: Fitbit - lost the plot

Xbox eventually replaced all affected models even outside of the warranty period and without proof of purchase. I believe some Macbooks manufactured around the same time also suffered from issues related to the same root cause - mandatory use of lead-free solder.

A high tech manufacturer near me still uses leaded solder for its military and aerospace applications.

Re: Men Vs Women

Rural Britain: I've seen more men than women wearing Apple Watch, and more women than men wearing fitness bands. Pure anecdotally, of course.

My sample group is mostly composed of pub users and supermarket checkout assistants.

Re: Suggestion: More 'Physical I/O'

There's the ASOP GreyBus standard which means the OS doesn't distinguish between built in components and those that are hot-plugged. However, the only common implementation (Moto Mod) uses a proprietary physical connector on the rear of the phone.

Audio can be done today over the USB connector. Until recently, Sony supported external stereo microphones by adding an extra sleeve to the 3.5mm port.

Thermal imaging cameras are available today for both iOS and Android phones, through their Lightning and USB ports.

Leica surveying kit now supports Android phones in addition to iDevices.

There's also USB OTG options for talking to Arduino projects, in addition to communication with Arduino over Bluetooth and WiFi.

Re: Fashion statement

Your point is less relevant today than it was in the days of the Nokia 8xxx series. Same functionality as their £200 models, but fancy materials and small form bumping the price to £1000. Motorola too during this period would make expensive phone jewellery, such the Aura with a circular screen.

There isn't a huge price gap today between Korean, Japanese and Chinese Android phones of the similar specification. Apple phones are harder to compare using just numbers, since different folk find varying value in software and peripheral support, etc.

Re: Let's face it..

-Foldable screens, which Samsung have announced their intention to debut in 2018. Not likely to be widespread until phones unfold (or unfurl) into an aspect ratio suitable for watching video (near 16:9)

-Active IR 3D scanning. Announced by Qualcomm for 2018. Useful for hobbyists, tradesmen,etc, with potential impact on retail. Google's Project Tango has been killed in favour a one-camera ARCore, Apple have multipoint IR scanning (and the specialist silicon to support it) in their placeholder iPhone X.

Re: Form factors

> And put a proper layer of glass on it (which doesn't crack at the first drop)

Tell the Materials Engineers to pull their thumb out then... what you want doesn't exist. If you have a hard thing with no give, the forces acting on a very small area get very large.

Motorola's tough phone, the Defy, uses a polymer screen - but being polymer it is more susceptible to scratches.

You might consider a toughened glass screen protector - a brief trawl through forums suggest that most of the time when a drop results in a shattered screen protector the underlying glass screen (the expensive bit) is just fine.

You can if course use plastic film protectors over a glass screen. The physics is such that even the small amount of extra area over which they spread forces goes a long way to protect a glass screen. Of course they may need replacing periodically as they pick up scratches.

All engineering is compromise.

Re: Phone design

Yep. The current constraints on a phone are:

-Size of pockets

-Size of users hands

-Acuity of users eyesight

-The tasks the phone is out to.

Re: Worst argument ever

There's been attempts at untraceable crypto-currencies but the maths is beyond me:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zcash

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-interactive_zero-knowledge_proof

Re: As a practicing[0] guitarist ...

Until the three armed guitarist, foot pedals remain the go-to solution to changing the sound. However, some guitarists over the years have wanted more subtle control over the effects.

Of course most amateur guitarists would do well to leave effects alone - as Keith Richards notes of the Rolling Stones "We try every song acoustic. If it doesn't sound good acoustic, it won't ever sound great if we play it electric"

Re: Jazz 2.0

Good live bands have always responded to the audience.

Re: As a practicing[0] guitarist ...

Here's Onyx Ashanti on TED. About ten years ago I saw him in the UK with an earlier version of his kit a deconstructed MIDI clarinet with with the virtual keys placed into 3D-printed glove controllers (The glove components are on Thingiverse, his code is on GitHub) - so that his arms are liberated. On each arm was strapped an off the shelf MIDI compatible multi-axis accelerometer - an iPhone.

I asked him about it, but he preferred that we talk about electric vehicle drivetrains instead.

https://www.ted.com/talks/onyx_ashanti_this_is_beatjazz/discussion

Re: As a practicing[0] guitarist ...

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/tablet-controlled-mixers

Re: As a practicing[0] guitarist ...

Some of these 'useless kludges' have been widely adopted for real benefits, as you will have seen should you have attended a gig in the last few years.

iPad sound mixing desks are now common, and allow for on-the-fly sound mixing *from amongst the audience* - that is, the sound technician is hearing what the audience is hearing. I've seen bands in pubs use this to achieve subtly that one would normally expect of a studio recording. In addition to better sound for the audience, the mixing box can be left in the stage - so no awkward run of cabling is required to a traditional mixing desk in an acoustically compromised location.

Should any musician wish, they can use an iPhone to control the volume of their own monitor speakers.

It's in the tradition of technology and music, from Bo Diddley using a solid bodied electric guitar to Hendrix having a British boffin make him up effects pedals (and upsetting Jeff Beck in the process).

I don't see many bands using this Bluetooth Fender pedal, but the wireless MIDI (over WiFi) baked into all iDevices has been used in countless gigs for over a decade - it's straightforward, for example, to control a flange effect by using any sensor (orientation, acceleration, light) on the phone.

Re: Ready for the B-Ark?

It wasn't Silicon Valley but New Girl that had a scene in which a hopeless idea is pitched at a venture capitalist. "Your phone has an app for many things, but it it doesn't open your beer or light your stove... what we're pitching is a phone case that has these everyday essentials built in. Like apps but for real life. Today we proudly present RealApps"

"You're calling it Relapse? Seriously? Go away!"

Actually for a while I had a Victorinox Swiss Card stuck to the back of my phone case, but these days I just keep a Victorinox Manager on my keychain and a Victorinox Spartan in my pocket.

Re: Sounds random

If the virtual robot shakes the champagne bottle up and down until the cork pops and some liquid ends up in the glass... then the virtual robot clearly wants to drive F1 cars when it grows up!

Re: What's gone wrong ? IT'S BIGGER !

@Aladdin Sane

I'm glad to see someone is actually using their brain. Yep, this generation of Xperia Compact is the same width as previous versions - partly because if the reduced bezel size (something Sony were knocked for not adopting last year) and because the screen's aspect ratio is different.

Re: What's gone wrong ? IT'S BIGGER !

> Now even Sony have made their "Compact" phone 5 bloody inches

Calm down and think, FFS.

The XZ2 Compact is the SAME WIDTH as previous Xperia Compact phones - 65mm. You do know that a x" 2:1 screen is narrower than an X" 16:9 screen don't you? And did you not notice that with this generation Sony have reduced the bezel sizes? Previous Xperia Compact phones were fragile to knocks against the screen edge on account of having ABS plastic bezels, so get a case and it'll be no more fragile than previous generations.

Re: Saturated

I'm going to order a new phone today. My Nexus 5 has limped on with a cracked screen, dead orientation sensor, dodgy microphone connection cable and no updates for some time now. And its battery (the original or its replacement) was never quite big enough.

OnePlus 5T it is. Apparently a software update makes better use of its camera hardware over its original release, and its far cheaper than a top end Samsung. Unlike a mate of mine I'm not interested in VR, so won't miss the daftly high resolution.

Waterproofing would be nice though.

The removal of U from colour and other words was partly an attempt to distance American English from English English, but also an attempt to remove some French influences from the language.

Program used to be the English spelling, but Victorian show promotors wanted to infer a touch of French flair by advertising a programme of events on their posters. These days i refer to television programmes and computer programs.

> "12-inch display" I stopped reading

Yet it isn't a 12" display. From the article:

" a 13.9 inch diagonal, 3K touch Gorilla Glass display"