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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Nothing ever changes...

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BrianP
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Joined: 30/03/2017
Location: Australia
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Posted: 03:15am 04 Jan 2020
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Nothing ever changes...

A snippet from Neville William's editorial in the January 1945 edition of "Radio and Hobbies"



Have we learnt anything??

B
 
Cyber

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Joined: 13/01/2019
Location: Ukraine
Posts: 161
Posted: 06:14am 04 Jan 2020
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No, we are doing quite an opposite, but sales are enormous.
 
Poppy

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Joined: 25/07/2019
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Posted: 11:49am 04 Jan 2020
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What exactly is your point, I can read the text one way or another without further context.

Andre ... such a GURU?
 
BrianP
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Posted: 05:41am 05 Jan 2020
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OK, I guess my point is:

There is a lot of new STUFF being developed. Do we need it... some might, some won't.
I'm thinking, the world has only finite resources. Do we, as a whole, perhaps need to prioritise more what these resources are used for.

The point of quoting from circa 1945 was to focus on the "do we need it" aspect, as touched upon by the author (coming from years of war where resource shortages were common place).

Look at the current proliferation of micros & IOT hardware (and other stuff). Isn't a lot of this put to market without a "do we really need this" answer. There is a lot of pretty useless junk out there.

Quoting from the original "It is dubious logic which argues that a device or method must be employed just because it happens to be feasible or 'modern'.

That was my point...

I was born in the middle of the 2nd world war - I'm tainted by the focus on scarce resource that was applicable then. Sorry if this post is in itself reinforcing my argument about "do we really need it"

Enough...

B
 
Cyber

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Posted: 06:16am 05 Jan 2020
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I just agree with BrianP, that we didn't learn from this. By we I mean humanity.
Today lots of electronics are manufactured just because they was able to implement some new feature, and marketing help sell it well by persuading consumers that they suddenly need this new feature.
If you think very well, many of modern products (especially electronics) don't actually do useful stuff. They are mostly just trendy, and people buy them like zombies.

By the way, I found this magazine online:
http://docplayer.net/130794907-Radio-a-home-made-electric-clock-i-vol-6-no-10-january-registered-et-the-g-p-o-sydney-for-transmission-by-post-as-a-periodical.html
I miss old magazines. They were so pleasant and warm...
 
Davo99
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Posted: 08:42am 05 Jan 2020
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  Cyber said  
If you think very well, many of modern products (especially electronics) don't actually do useful stuff. They are mostly just trendy, and people buy them like zombies.


Couldn't agree more.
Look at the idiots that line up for days before a new phone is released .  Did the one ion their pockets not make or receive calls any more or do any of the other unlimited unnecessary functions all of a sudden?

Camera's and accessories such as flashes are now so over saturated with all manner of useless features, finding what you actually need and wading through the pages of menus to get to a simple function is a night mare. I could eliminate at least 90% of the functions and be BETTER off. Some of these things take forever to learn how to operate yet I could pick up a completely manual camera and be using it quite happily in seconds.

I was talking to my nephew who is an electronics designer/ engineer and he was saying the chips and computing power available these days is so cheap that manufacturers just put in what they need then throw a whole load of other functions at the product just to make it look good and useful to the consumer even though they know  no one will ever use it other than just out of curiosity because it's there.

As for new cars..... Does the merc I drive really need to have 16 Different colours I can adjust the footwell lights to? Do I give a flying dam about all the eco screens and carbon emissions readouts and menus it has? No, I'd just like to be able to have an odometer and trip meter readout I didn't have to scroll through a whole bunch of screens to get to them just like cars used to have one button to set them.
The readouts and menus the thing has just goes on an on to the point you are never really comfortable in the thing or using any of it for fear of screwing something up and not being able to re set it to what you want to.
There is so much crap on the TV screen on the dash I don't use, don't want and have never missed or wanted for in my old Holden ute. All these " features" don't make the driving experience any better for me, they make it considerably WORSE! Even the GPS is such a complicated joke I have my faithful Tom tom with me that I can use with no problem unlike the overly complicated nanny mentality built in one.


  Quote  I miss old magazines. They were so pleasant and warm...


I used to buy about a dozen magazines a month. I haven't bought one in at least 10 years and most of what I did read is now gone or so thin there is no way i'm paying $12 for it.

There is a lot to be said for the net but you can read a book or magazine anywhere and you don't have to worry about the batteries going flat and you could always see them in bright sunlight as well.
 
CaptainBoing

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Joined: 07/09/2016
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Posted: 10:59am 05 Jan 2020
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Problem is, it is largely driven by a greedy few and the brainwashing of the gullible many. Why else would people queue round the block to greet sales staff like rock-stars so they could dump a <12 month old product to spend another £1000 on something which does an identical job only a bit faster and with a few more bells and whistles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8hNcf8TnVc

Until that cycle is broken we are hell bent of buying ourselves back to the stone-age, and our money lords have all the gold on the planet in their castles...hope it tastes nice coz at that point it will be worthless other than the "ooh! shiney!" effect.

To quote one notable Captain "The economics of the future are somewhat different [...] The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force of our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity."

we can dream.  

More effort should be put into recycling - A LOT! And that includes manufacturing with a view to easy end-of-life processing.

  Quote  I miss old magazines. They were so pleasant and warm...

Ah! the heady days of ETI and EE... Oh for a time machine, the innocence and anticipation of a bright future. Might take a few 'mites back with me - really blow the socks off the world of 1980... would be fun!
Edited 2020-01-05 21:07 by CaptainBoing
 
Poppy

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Posted: 12:11pm 05 Jan 2020
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  BrianP said  

That was my point...


And now I got it!
Thanks, friend!


  BrianP said   "do we really need it"


In some way .... yes!

I agree with all you guys said before!

This is a very complicated task and if we really want to learn on this we have to go very deep into differentiation.

We have to look at whole mankind and anthropologically its time schedule concerning development. Differently about technology, sociality, stupidity and much more...

The main basis of this current development is our global economic system, it is all founded on exponential growth. (I am not a socialist or something, any Ideology is just misleading because of its claim of universiality!)

Capitalism feeds egoism, all that counts is making more than before and being bigger than all others! Just think about cartel law, only this saves us from monopoly but still letting oligopoly happen!

So it actually does not matter to the system if something is useful as long as it can be sold and feed the market and the resources do not matter for being a problem exclusively for future generations!

The mass (I usually call the "plebs"!) wants to follow a leader, having any religion, no matter what kind of, so they do not have to take responsibility!

This all supports the warm feeling of living in homeostasis, better said in a stupid bubble!

Now the young generation does not "know" what the older does, but that does not mean that old stuff is better than new. It all equally has to be questioned!

But we have to do hard work letting former experiences not vanish, we have to conserve but without being conservative! If you look at history you can see that everything is repeating. SO we have to analyze and question, taking consequences!

SO we should show the risks of this flooding and give constructive ideas of improvement, but on the other hand as long as the plebs is kept satisfied it will not overrun us all, but being satisfied by this ourselves will only feed our own homeostasis.

Life is a struggle and we cannot change the masses, but I think every individual must prove to be individual by real individual thinking and acting!

SO the first step is to reconsider and then to really act consequently!
And let all others see what you are doing and explain why and what for and time will show if humankind will just erase itself or develop, the world will go on without us (if we do not blow it in peaces, as we could!)

SO tasks are questioning if we really need things like, a car, unhealthy food, all that plastic stuff ... it is not really about electronics, everything around us is some technology that we probably do not really need but exploiting our common world!
We have to find a general point of view!

And those who really do so are just some but real individuals!
And that is what our world really lacks, mankind is just an overrunning mass like a locust plague on a cornfield.

But those zombies follow examples, the good ones just do not want to be stupidly dogmatic leaders and that is what makes them good as well. But if every one being an individual really follows own really developed and constantly questioned, reconsidered therefore always improved and updated principles we might wake up some "sleeping beauties" not making them follow us but starting to think individually!!!

I think the biggest challenge is keeping on and not getting overrun at all!


Just "headwanking" the question is what we really do in the real world!

...and development takes time, just think how short ago there still were the Middle Ages, Hitler or Trump!

Andre ... such a GURU?
 
Tinine
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Posted: 01:35pm 05 Jan 2020
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Don't worry, be happy :)

Avoid the constant brainwashing that is religion, politics, media, etc. and just focus on having as much fun as possible.
 
lizby
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Joined: 17/05/2016
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Posted: 02:42pm 05 Jan 2020
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Grump, grump, grump. My DVR always flashes 12:00. And in addition, Get Off My Lawn!

I do understand about the complexity of menu systems and lack of usefulness of many functions to the typical user, but part of what drives this apparently flailing technology is a need for real technological solutions--cheap lighting for those still using kerosene, communications for third-world harvesters--fishermen and farmers--so they can get best prices for their products, and perhaps learn more quickly about best practices, working disposal methods for human waste that don't require the costly infrastructure that we can rely on in our first world.

Of course, answering and making phone calls on a cell phone is one of its less common uses these days. I like being able to use it to remotely monitor and control my unoccupied property 1,500 miles away. And to monitor the security system in the house I'm in now.

I also used to subscribe to many tech magazines--Byte and Circuit Cellar and Dr. Dobbs and Popular Electronics among them, and very much looked forward to each new issue--especially because there was almost no other way for a hobbyist to learn about new stuff. Learned about the 8080 and Z80 and C that way. Now I subscribe to several youtube feeds where hot new items are analyzed, not to mention sites like thebackshed.

Here's the new technology I eagerly await--a whole house battery system for not much more than $1,000 per kilowatt hour. To say that I +need+ it overstates the case--it would have made a 24-hour blackout last year a bit more convenient.

And then there's the real need to provide more technological solutions to climate change, whether more and better storm surge protection or pie in the sky solutions like clean coal or electrical production by fusion.

Meanwhile have you seen what's coming up in CES starting Tuesday? ;-}
PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed
 
Tinine
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Posted: 02:59pm 05 Jan 2020
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Climate change: Obama stated it was greatest threat to our future.

September 2019, the Obamas spend $15M on new house on Martha's Vineyard with a coastal view!!!

Don't listen to what they say, watch what they do.
 
Poppy

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Posted: 05:08pm 05 Jan 2020
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  Tinine said  Don't worry, be happy :)


  Tinine said  Don't listen to what they say, watch what they do


= Don´t worry about anything you cannot change at all and be happy about all small steps you can achieve yourself not doing so but doing something about it!


Andre ... such a GURU?
 
lizby
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Posted: 07:14pm 05 Jan 2020
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  Tinine said  Climate change: Obama stated it was greatest threat to our future.

September 2019, the Obamas spend $15M on new house on Martha's Vineyard with a coastal view!!!

The latter does not contradict the validity of the former, whatever opinion one might have of that validity.
PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed
 
Tinine
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Posted: 07:30pm 05 Jan 2020
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Pretty much every issue in the world is energy related, right? Would we ever be allowed to have free energy? No. Pursue it and make a breakthrough and you will be suicided or heart-attacked.

Electrolysis, Faraday 1834. Oh it requires more energy to produce than what can be realised. And that's the end of it? 1834...you kidding me???

It has been proven that high voltage, high frequency, negligible current (therefore negligible power) can also split water and generate copious amounts of hydrogen - on demand - no need for storage. Water mist is the only emission.

Not allowed to happen.

So we just toe the party line and continue to complain about all the wrong issues.
 
Tinine
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Posted: 07:33pm 05 Jan 2020
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  lizby said  
  Tinine said  Climate change: Obama stated it was greatest threat to our future.

September 2019, the Obamas spend $15M on new house on Martha's Vineyard with a coastal view!!!

The latter does not contradict the validity of the former, whatever opinion one might have of that validity.


Manhattan and Florida were both supposed to be underwater several years ago.
 
Warpspeed
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Posted: 07:34pm 05 Jan 2020
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Have to agree that things that "should" be simple and intuitive to use have become a nightmare of complexity.

But one recent purchase, a Rigol oscilloscope is an absolute technical marvel, even though there are far more functions and features than I will probably ever use, or even know about.
Cheers,  Tony.
 
lizby
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Posted: 09:12pm 05 Jan 2020
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  Tinine said  . . . make a breakthrough and you will be suicided or heart-attacked.

. . .

Not allowed to happen.

As exampled by whom? So we have atomic energy (and weapons), men on the moon, rockets, planes, cars, cell phones, solar power, etc., etc., but the magic of free energy has been suppressed?

If you have ideas, please post them and we'll see if we all get disappeared. I'll take the chance.

  Tinine said  Manhattan and Florida were both supposed to be underwater several years ago.

Oh, please. According to absolutely no standard predictions.
PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed
 
TassyJim

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Posted: 09:51pm 05 Jan 2020
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I bought a new car recently.
Nothing flash, just a Subaru Forester.

Someone counted 71 buttons for the driver to play with.
It took an hour for the salesman to go through all the 'safety' features explaining how they don't work all the time.
They have to do that so I don't sue them when the lane guidance doesn't work.

It took me 2 weeks of fiddling to get the air conditioning working the way I wanted it to.

I have now become immune to all the beeps and bongs that emit from the computer every time it's not happy.

Life was much simpler when I had the '58 Porsche.

Jim
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Tinine
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Posted: 11:39pm 05 Jan 2020
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  lizby said  
  Tinine said  . . . make a breakthrough and you will be suicided or heart-attacked.

. . .

Not allowed to happen.

As exampled by whom? So we have atomic energy (and weapons), men on the moon, rockets, planes, cars, cell phones, solar power, etc., etc., but the magic of free energy has been suppressed?

If you have ideas, please post them and we'll see if we all get disappeared. I'll take the chance.

  Tinine said  Manhattan and Florida were both supposed to be underwater several years ago.

Oh, please. According to absolutely no standard predictions.


https://www.collective-evolution.com/2018/01/04/the-inventor-of-a-water-powered-car-that-died-in-a-restaurant-yelling-they-poisoned-me/

It's naive to believe that Faraday's method is the only simple solution.

We are now seeing wind turbines as a renewable solution but do we get a reduction in our energy bills? Nope!
Any new, clean alternative energy is welcome as long as we remain shackled to the high cost.
 
Tinine
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Posted: 11:48pm 05 Jan 2020
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Japanese car

Stan Meyer and others
 
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