Bits and PCs - a Computers and Tech Miscellany

[But]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

Better advice than this guy's:

... John McAfee (@officialmcafee) ...

Oh hey, it's that rapist and murderer again!

[lisarea]

A year after Logitech screwed over Harmony users, it, um, screws over Harmony users: Device API killed off • The Register

LOL Software as a Service, LOL cloud computing, LOL letting some random company control the stuff you paid them for already, and LOL at getting bricked by the same company twice.

[ceptimus]

Recommended reading list for the coming holidays,

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Wondermark » Archive » #1444; In which Kinship is formed

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Any sufficiently advanced house is indistinguishable from a haunted one.

— Richard Gaywood (@PenLlawen) December 26, 2018

[lisarea]

How Much of the Internet Is Fake?

Oh, no! The poor advertisers! How can they effectively monetize the internet now?!?!

This article that's linked in that one is really really good. Also long.

A Business with No End

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

What a line.

Fake people with fake cookies and fake social-media accounts, fake-moving their fake cursors, fake-clicking on fake websites — the fraudsters had essentially created a simulacrum of the internet, where the only real things were the ads.

[lisarea]

So, you got an IoT device for the holidays

[Ari]

older generation: RFID tags on our food so we can just walk out of the market and get charged for what we bought, what do you think this is, a surveillance state!!
Same people: Sure Alexa listens to my every word but if I ask her to sing a good night song she will, isn't that great!

I've had this horrific gamification idea around IOT devices where you link a device with an augmented reality game, so like your Kriuger coffee maker has sensors that sends what part of the process is happening and looking through your screen say a pokemon is seen working the different steps, like blowing fire onto the water heater part, etc. Once your cute pokemon helper makes you your coffee you get a cup full of pokeballs and other treats. Of course some would question the eventual addition of tiny webcams to every coffee maker, but they will be drowned out by the many who say it makes sense to allow easier tracking and better game implementation.

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by Ari

older generation: RFID tags on our food so we can just walk out of the market and get charged for what we bought, what do you think this is, a surveillance state!!
Same people: Sure Alexa listens to my every word but if I ask her to sing a good night song she will, isn't that great!

The same-same people, or just people in the same demographic? Because I don't think I've seen this level of dissonance in the same person, and certainly not enough to generalize.

I've had this horrific gamification idea around IOT devices where you link a device with an augmented reality game, so like your Kriuger coffee maker has sensors that sends what part of the process is happening and looking through your screen say a pokemon is seen working the different steps, like blowing fire onto the water heater part, etc. Once your cute pokemon helper makes you your coffee you get a cup full of pokeballs and other treats. Of course some would question the eventual addition of tiny webcams to every coffee maker, but they will be drowned out by the many who say it makes sense to allow easier tracking and better game implementation.

That would make sense with the whole "replacing real world experiences with simulations and then wondering why everyone is incompetent, depressed, and lonely."

[JoeP]

Hmm. I think I have seen that level of dissonance in individuals, but can't think of examples. It's the general-specific situation, like someone who will say "Pakis should all go home!" and then realise they have a Pakistani colleague in the conversation and say - entirely seriously and with feeling - "but not you mate, you're cool".

So in principle people don't want monitoring and tracking of themselves, but they're happy with gadgets like home automation and internet doorbells where they see a direct benefit and are blinded by familiarity. And very happy with monitoring and tracking other people, like the "self-employed" person delivering their parcel with free UK delivery.

[lisarea]

Well, yeah, people definitely are willing to make tradeoffs for things they consider worth the payback. See: Almost literally everyone and Facebook. That's not confined to a demographic, though, so it doesn't work, I guess.

But I have never seen someone object to RFIDs (I assume in Amazon shops) for privacy reasons but be OK with Alexa. I have seen people who object to various types of self-checkout services because they are actively taking people's jobs, but I am a little incredulous that there is someone who a) knows what RFID is, and b) thinks it is a superior tracking method to existing systems.

It sounds like a strawman to me.

[Ari]

Of course it's mostly a joke written in generalities, but did you miss the RFID truther movement that happened in the late 90s early 2000s where RFIDs were basically half a step away from chipping us with the mark of the beast. Although I wouldn't say they really knew what RFID was. I have met some friends parents who in the 90s thought computers were of the devil and had a satanic origin, but are now being avoided by those friends online for all their Trump, build the wall, memes.

[lisarea]

Yes, all bigoted jokes are based on generalities, and yes, I remember people being concerned about tracking devices. In the 90s and early 2000s, RFID was mostly being used for things like company badges, large shipments, and sometimes high ticket items, not groceries, though. (They're not even normally used for regular groceries now, either.) And I don't doubt that a lot of those same people have since changed their minds about the risks of surveillance. Changing your mind about something is not hypocritical, though, even if people change their mind in the wrong direction and also become shitty Trumpists.

The funny thing is that I'd originally written something about how that sort of ageist stereotype usually originates with people who are mad at their parents and cannot see past it, but I thought that wasn't really fair, so I deleted it. Turns out I was right, though.

I don't necessarily disbelieve people who say their parents are ignorant and hypocritical. I'm sure a lot of them are.

What's the logic there, though? "My parents and those in their cohort are products of their time, which was inferior to the time that my cohort is a product of"? As the youth of today would say, "Weird flex, but OK."

Overall, progress marches on, and that's supposedly, generally, a good thing, but people who identify that strongly with their personal demographic aren't the ones who get the credit for that progress. They're not really making decisions, and they often can't even defend their positions. They're just going along with whatever sounds compelling at the moment, and they will continue to do so in decades to come, just like their parents did.

[Ari]

I wouldn't quite consider it bigoted since I would be part of those older generations as well. There's been a huge change in trust around the internet and surveillance sometimes because of whos doing the surveillance. Frankly many of my generation seem to be oddly ok with it as long as its a corporation and not a government. I know people who don't use a thumb print on their phone because the police can make them unlock it, but who have conversations around Hey google. I've been actually quite amazed at how well it works with a multi person kitchen making noise "Hey google next song" *music switches* even though no one had to quiet down and the person kinda mumbled.

[SR71]

i hope i'm being surveilled through my iphone speech to text app



:

[SR71]

Does printer ink just evaporate in the cartridges? I hardly ever print but it seems like every time I finally do the cartridges are empty.

hp750 type

[Ari]

Depends on the type of printer but yes the solvent can evaporate. It doesn't all need to evaporate either, just enough to change the viscosity and clog itself up. If you have a printer you rarely use it's best to pull them out and double ziplock freezer bag them for next use. (The solvent is mostly water but with other lubricants and what not in it).

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

HP 750 is a Laserjet?

Those will sit longer than a Bubblejet for sure. A Laserjet drying up like that is odd and not something I've heard of. In my experience it's usually the Bubblejets that will seize up if not used.

[lisarea]

The toner for a laserjet is already powder, so it must be an inkjet.

But yeah, printer ink dries up like a mofo. We also don't use our printer often, so we got a laser printer instead. They're generally more expensive to buy, but much cheaper to maintain. I don't know how old ours is exactly, but definitely more than five years, maybe about ten, and we haven't had to replace the toner yet.

[ceptimus]

Yeah, I've run a laser for years now, as I print only infrequently.

They don't cost so very much now, and are *MUCH* cheaper to run - even if you don't count the cost of throwing away part-used dried-out ink cartridges. Look on line for the cost per sheet of printing with inkjets - scary.

My current laser printer is a colour one - a Dell c1765nfw. When I bought it I thought it would be good for normal text and graphics printing, but useless for photograph printing, and I kept an inkjet for printing photos. But actually, it prints out photographs with reasonably good colour balance, and once I knew that I got rid of the inkjet printer.

I've replaced the toner cartridges (one colour, one black) after about five years. The toner cartridges don't cost that much more than ink jet ones, are capable of lots more prints before they run out, and seem to last forever if you only print occasionally.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

I'm going off of this here and not sure I'm looking at the right model:



Which is why I was scratching my head, I've never heard of a laser drying up like an ink tank or the jet needles gumming up.

[lisarea]

It'd be pretty good if it turned out the reason the ink keeps drying up is that it's actually toner.

[ceptimus]

HP also made an ink jet with 750 in its name - just to confuse everyone, I guess.

The ink jet one (well at least one of them) was named the hp-psc-750-multifunction-printer-color-series

[SR71]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

HP 750 is a Laserjet?

Those will sit longer than a Bubblejet for sure. A Laserjet drying up like that is odd and not something I've heard of. In my experience it's usually the Bubblejets that will seize up if not used.

I don't really know. The model is Officejet Pro 8600. The cartridge has the words HP Ink Cartridge printed on it. The cartridges are named 750.

in before edit after consulting the googs

The Officejet Pro 8600 is a business-class inkjet printer, which as a group tend to have lower ink costs than do consumer-class models. ... Clearly, in the $200 to $250 price range, HP wants you to buy the inkjet model.
HP's Officejet 8600: Really cheaper than laser? | Computerworld
Page not found -laser-.html