jeffdubin · HackerTrans

há 10 mesesdiscuss

The museum itself is a hidden gem in central Ohio (USA). There have been so many times where I've visited a city and looked for interesting tech attractions, only to find out about something after I had already left. This is one of those places, not typically found on the tourist maps.

jeffdubin

ano passadodiscuss

I can confirm this. A Brother HL-L3270CDW color laser worked fine with third-party toner at first, but would not recognize it after a firmware upgrade. I tried three different sets of cartridges, including different brands - none were recognized, and there's no way to revert to a previous firmware version.

That was the last Brother color printer I'll buy, unless they go back to accepting generic toner.

jeffdubin

há 2 anosdiscuss

It's hard to trust Apple to keep their word on privacy when an "accidental" Siri activation potentially results in that recording (or related data) finding its way not just to Apple for, say, speech recognition, but all the way to advertisers.

Transparency would be appreciated here, Apple. Is there any ability for a user to review all recordings made and submitted to Siri? I want to say that Android has this ability via Google Takeout.

jeffdubin

há 2 anosdiscuss

The org I work for recently signed a small (5-user) enterprise agreement with a popular web-based form solution provider for $5k. When I asked them to enable SSO, they asked for an additional $2.5k, which I felt was ridiculous. This is why we didn't do SSO.

jeffdubin

há 3 anosdiscuss

Don't count out local hamfests. Yeah, some tiny ones are a little disappointing, but bigger cities usually have respectable events. Even if you're not into ham radio, you'll find plenty of non-radio tech stuff. And there there's the Dayton (OH) Hamvention which is /huge/ - people/groups/vendors drive in from all over the US and setup flea market booths, to sell and buy stuff, but also to just sit around and talk tech with the other attendees.

jeffdubin

há 3 anosdiscuss

Thanks for pointing out these alternatives - I'll check them out!

jeffdubin

há 3 anosdiscuss

Filmic was for a while the app for turning your phone into a pseudo-pro video camera. But Blackmagic Camera wasn't the executioner - it was their own doing when they abandoned what had been a pay-once app and suddenly turned to a (quite expensive) subscription model. That didn't sit well with the community - the app's rating tanked by hundreds+ of one-star reviews. At least iOS users have BMD's camera app - Android users don't have anything comparable.

jeffdubin

há 3 anosdiscuss

The failure was letting encryption into the standard in the first place. This will be a never ending game, with big broadcasters continuously lobbying the FCC and congress for the ability to monetize the broadcast bands. If we allow broadcast television to become a subscription service, then just kill TV broadcasting and repurpose this spectrum for mobile (cellular) use. I'm not endorsing this idea, I'm only saying that by going down the path of encrypted transmissions, broadcasters are no different than any other ISP - except they'll own the pipe AND control the content.

You want to stop this in its tracks? Convince Amazon to start buying some TV stations. Congress would be livid.

jeffdubin

há 3 anosdiscuss

If there's someone with at least a little tech/mech inclination available to supervise, perhaps a 3D printer might be considered? There are sub US$200 printers available (e.g. Creality Ender 3) which are a good starting point (though you can spend more to get something more plug-and-play) and it presents so many avenues of exploration. There's the mechanical aspect of the printer itself, but also designing things to print (e.g. tinkercad.com) and then getting to hold them is a blast. Even finding pre-designed objects online to download and print is rewarding (see printables.com for inspiration).

Admittedly 8yo is a little young to start. There are challenges, and patience is a must. But the family can find a local makerspace (or library, or school) to get a better idea of what's involved.

jeffdubin

há 3 anosdiscuss

If you want to get a feel in real-time, visit a site offering WebSDR[1]. Look for a receiver in the US and tune between 530-1700KHz in AM mode. Note that reception will vary based on time of day [2].

[1] http://websdr.org/ is a good place to start

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear-channel_station

jeffdubin

há 4 anosdiscuss

It's hard for me to take this data seriously when I enter an address that I know to be problematic for cellular coverage and receive "100% coverage" on the mobile broadband tab, and listed with carriers I know to have zero outdoor coverage at the location.

jeffdubin

há 4 anosdiscuss

Also check that the camera doesn't rely upon a proprietary configuration tool, e.g. a Windows-only IE plugin, and that the camera doesn't need internet connectivity to function. Some cameras will stop streaming, even locally, if they can't hit the manufacturer's cloud-based platform.

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