Random thoughts.... [Tech Edition]

Double post purely because I'm proud of my MacGyver skills, I've temporarily solved the problem using an old-fashioned (albeit digital) plug timer, an Apple USB charger and three USB extensions.

It does click a relay but it's unlikely to wake me up, I could've done it like this originally but even the digital versions are a pain when it comes to BST clock changing. This will do for now. :p
 
My iphone ringer volume keeps turning itself down to 0 and the Google search box autocompletes my question which means I'm not alone.

As usual these days, all the search hits treat me like a nincompoop and suggest I turn off the setting that allows me to change the ringer volume with the side buttons. Thanks, but I turned that off a decade ago and haven't touched it since. This is a bug of some sort, not a simple setting.
 
New OLED TV supports HDR in Windows and it's great - yay!
Every time I take a screenshot or use the Snipping Tool it messes up the HDR conversion and looks bloody awful - boo.

Best solution has been to turn HDR off unless I really want it, some games support it and so does YouTube. HDR still works great when connected to other devices or through the built-in apps, it looks so much better than the HDR on my old Samsung LCD because the blacks on this OLED are actually black.

Edit: Also I've found that when I turn the TV off the PC reverts to 640x480 in the background, when I turn it on everything has to expand back up to UHD and it sometimes messes up the taskbar right-click menus. :unsure:
 
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That was pretty funny but I've never seen this guy before, I suppose wearing sunglasses indoors is his thing. It's really odd having someone's facecam (which I don't care about anyway) without being able to see his eyes. I must be getting old.

Now where's my AOL free dialup CD?
 
Casey Neistat does the sunglasses too, partly so he can make it look like he is looking directly to camera while looking at other things that need doing.


Was watching one of the other scambaiters and the scammer went nuts because he thought he was Kitboga.






wen
 
Matt2000 said:
Edit: Also I've found that when I turn the TV off the PC reverts to 640x480 in the background, when I turn it on everything has to expand back up to UHD and it sometimes messes up the taskbar right-click menus. :unsure:
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Fixed by unplugging the other HDMI cable I had plugged in to my Atomos Ninja. Apparently when that's off it doesn't report any resolution data and Windows tries to switch to it when I turn the TV off, hence defaulting to 640x480. The second screen I have attached on a switcher box doesn't seem to bother it though. 🤷‍♂️
 
I've always had flagship phones and sometimes people wonder why I buy them. Well I've been looking at photos taken with my HTC Touch HD in 2010 and the 4 megapixel photos are still acceptable instead of total potatovision, I can't see why it wouldn't be the same in another 12 years.
 
Matt2000 said:
I've always had flagship phones and sometimes people wonder why I buy them. Well I've been looking at photos taken with my HTC Touch HD in 2010 and the 4 megapixel photos are still acceptable instead of total potatovision, I can't see why it wouldn't be the same in another 12 years.
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My brother's wife is buying a new "budget" phone ever 9-12 months, and her photos always look like trash taken by a novelty toy in 2013. Everything is blown-out to hell, with pixels the size of postage stamps.
 
Matt2000 said:
I've always had flagship phones and sometimes people wonder why I buy them. Well I've been looking at photos taken with my HTC Touch HD in 2010 and the 4 megapixel photos are still acceptable instead of total potatovision, I can't see why it wouldn't be the same in another 12 years.
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I don't buy new phones that often, so of course I'll spring for the top of the line. It's why I got a Galaxy S21 Ultra, and those optical zoom telephoto lenses produce astoundingly good photos.
 
I needed a work phone when I was much worse financially. Needing it now meant I couldn't look for used, so I went ahead and bought a budget line phone (the Galaxy A03S)

It's perfectly fine for "phone" tasks. but when you ask it to do anything more complex (Editing a Word Doc, for example) it will send you scrambling back to the iphone.

With better timing and Resources, I would've probably gone for a refurb Note 9
 
NecroJoe said:
My brother's wife is buying a new "budget" phone ever 9-12 months, and her photos always look like trash taken by a novelty toy in 2013. Everything is blown-out to hell, with pixels the size of postage stamps.
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Don't forget the watermark. SHOT BY ULEFONE/REDMI/CHEAPCRAP PRO 9000 XP ULTRA TURBO GTI
 
NecroJoe said:
My brother's wife is buying a new "budget" phone ever 9-12 months, and her photos always look like trash taken by a novelty toy in 2013. Everything is blown-out to hell, with pixels the size of postage stamps.
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I was honestly shocked by the image quality of the one plus nord ce my wife had for all of three weeks. That’s 2021 phone ffs and it’s not bottom of the barrel or anything, but damn that was bad. Replaced it with an iPhone just to not be annoyed anymore every single day by photos of our daughter that should’ve come out much better.
 
We were possibly going to have to share one computer between the two of us, for her work, my school, and otherwise. I found out my school's library had laptops available to borrow.

I looked up the two models to chose from. One was a Chromebook which had 1-star total reviews on both Amazon and Best Buy. The other was a Dell, and when I ran the model number, I was getting 6th-gen Intel results. I was fully expecting an i3, 4gb RAM, with a shitty 1024x768 trash-tier 250 nits screen with 2" bezels, a 5400rpm hard drive, and the weight of a boat anchor yet still 1hour 4min battery life that had an MSRP of $799. But still, I chose it over the Chromebook.

Fast forward to this afternoon when I go pick it up, and it's a carbon-fiber shell model with a mid-tier 11th gen i7, 1080p 400 nit screen, 16gb RAM, nvme SSD, camera that can do Windows Hello, readable bqck-lit keyboard, charges via USB-C, MSRP today is ~$2k
 
Speaking of flagship phones, I've had mid-tier and cheap smartphones between 2014 and 2018. Then I decided to go for an Android flagship. I initially wanted a Samsung Galaxy S9, but settled for a Huawei P20 because I got a better deal on it. It was good for the time, camera is still good (even despite the lack of OIS), but after returning an iPhone SE (2020) I was using for a year, I tried to go back to the P20... I just couldn't. It was too slow and laggy. And then I bought a used iPhone 11 Pro which does the job perfectly.

Speaking of laptops, my Dell Inspiron is starting to feel really outdated. Yeah, it does have an SSD, 16GB of RAM and an i7, but it's a dual-core i7-7500U (the last of the dual-core U-series i7s, oh had I waited for another year), it's weighs a metric tonne, the battery is crap, and the screen is unimpressive to say the least. I find myself using it less and less, when I need a laptop, it's just too hefty so I don't bother with it, but when I'm home, I just use the desktop instead, which is quite energy-inefficient. For those reasons I'm still thinking about getting an M1 MacBook Air as soon as I save up enough money.
 
Tram said:
For those reasons I'm still thinking about getting an M1 MacBook Air as soon as I save up enough money.
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I have a base model M1 Air. I also have a desktop (M1 Mini :p) so the laptop doesn't get used that much, but I still need a laptop and I want a decent one.

The biggest problem with the M1 Air is the battery life is so good you misplace the charger between uses. It makes my six month old work-issued Dell feel like an ENIAC.
 
The base model is exactly what I've been thinking about. I would ideally like the 512/16GB configuration, but even used, they're more expensive, and they're not that easy to come by. From what I've heard, the base model should be enough for daily tasks and stuff like photo editing, graphic design, and maybe even light video editing, which is about what I'm planning to use it for.
 
The M1 Air should come down in price a bit now that the M2 model is out. There have been good deals out there even before, I'd hold out for one with 16GB. 8GB is just not futureproof imho, especially with the workloads you're describing.
 
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