581–590 of 661 posts
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Ok, why do you think this is the case?
Because terrestrial TV and radios are strictly receive-only devices, whereas cable/satellite set-top boxes are connected to the provider's network (otherwise you can't get VOD or PPV, for instance). I guess it's possible for you to buy a receiver that's IOT enabled and phones home, but that'd be a conscious decision on your part.
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You and me both. I was fed up of following the cooking instructions only to have some things explode. I was particularly tired of cleaning up porridge which will quickly turn concrete-like. Instead, drop it down to medium, add on a minute or two and it's perfect. Why is it that all microwave cooking instructions say to use high power. I recently bought a soup that included the cook time for a 1000W microwave, I can't…
A microwave only work with an on/off cycle. It runs on MAX for x seconds and off for y seconds. If you want 50% effect, it runs 5 seconds, then wait 5 seconds. Cooking it on low is just letting the food distribute the heat naturally for a while, instead of building up an energy bubble that will expload in steam. So low effect is good. It's still max effect but on half the time. When cooking oatmeal porridge I usually…
That may be changing soon because of solid state microwave/rf-heating:
Solid State Cooking Oven Uses RF Energy, 1m31s
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6Xg1UAwutc
Goji Food Solutions Solid State RF Cooking Demonstration, 2m35s
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg-UtHjkkfM
[3] https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a...
[4] https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/design/the-future-of-...
[5] https://appliancebuyersguide.com/mieles-dialog-oven-brings-r...
[6] https://thespoon.tech/miele-introduces-the-dialog-a-high-end...
[7] https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/applications/consumer/home-a...
[8] https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/i/infineon/micr...
[9] http://www.gojifoodsolutions.com/
tl;dr essentially a beamforming solid state microwave phased array
edit: removed one double link
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My microwave has a wheel to turn the timer, a wheel to set the WATT, a stop button and a start button. If you press the start button it’ll automatically run for 30 seconds, if you press it again it’ll add another 30 seconds to the current run. It took me maybe 4 years of owning it before I learned of the start button feature. Not sure what the hell people are doing with microwaves that connect to the internet, but I…
I buy smart tvs because they have ads on them, which makes the initial purchase price cheaper. Then I just connect it to my media server and never bother with the smart features.
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A microwave only work with an on/off cycle. It runs on MAX for x seconds and off for y seconds. If you want 50% effect, it runs 5 seconds, then wait 5 seconds. Cooking it on low is just letting the food distribute the heat naturally for a while, instead of building up an energy bubble that will expload in steam. So low effect is good. It's still max effect but on half the time. When cooking oatmeal porridge I usually…
My partner enjoys what we call "overnight oats" but it's not for me, I like the warm wake-up. I'm half milk, half water, 4 mins at 60% and then I don't have to stand there watching it. Fruit on top as a treat otherwise it's plain all the way! But there can be a big difference in the oats you use, totally agree.
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My TCL starts to bootloop if it goes more than a month without connecting to the internet so it can download screensaver ads. The warranty people force me into the support gauntlet. The support gauntlet's first demand: connect it to the internet.
Hold up. What if you don't have internet? Are they legitimately prepared to say "well, in this case your TV is not gonna work"?
Also, software. Half the software on our computers stopped working despite not being internet related.
It was incredibly frustrating and really soured me on the direction tech is headed.
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but surely these devices are set up to use DHCP and receive home users' DNS servers? giving them static IPs would not work. I suppose it depends on a) if these devices are somehow set up to receive just an IP address over DHCP and use their own hardcoded DNS servers and b) whether the home DHCP server / router would honour this and not enforce its own DNS servers along with the IP address
They’ll be using DHCP, but even when not doing anything nefarious you’re better off using known DNS servers when deploying appliances on random networks because consumer ISPs have a habit of ignoring TTLs and redirecting DNS results when you’re reaching bandwidth quotas and the like.
i. e. the ads on smart devices can be blocked
Dumb TVs are disappearing, monitors are more pricey, and panels for digital signage even more; so why not attempting a different approach like gutting a smart TV then connecting the panel to an external driver? It has been done with smaller monitors, through dirt cheap boards that made possible adding HDMI to old VGA-only panels, for example: https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=S... How difficu…
More pricey of course, but affordable and still much more convenient than any ready made screen. Just pay attention that they must be programmed for the specific panel they'll be used with. You will have to tell the seller the exact model of your panel before the purchase.
Lower resolution ones could be programmed with software called "rova tools". http://tech.mattmillman.com/info/lcd/rovatools/ Not sure about the new ones. Probably after some time similar software will be written.
I don't have a TV, only a few monitors (it's very liberating, actually). So instead I'll talk about my microwave. Yes, unironically! :D It has two dials. OMG how do I survive with only two dials? How do I program it? Well, the answer is, unsurprisingly, that I don't program it. Instead I crank it to watever wattage I need (usually the top one), and the time I think it'll take until the food I becomes hot. Aaaand that…
I love the idea of smart TVs, but every single implementation I've seen in the last few years has been utter garbage. Everything they do is one step forward and like 3-30 steps back. For example, I recently bought a low-end Samsung TV running Tizen, which meant I could return my set-top-box (ISP has a Tizen app), get rid of my barely-functioning miracast stick, bluetooth transmitter (native features) and media PC (ap…
Honestly I have the opposite feedback for a Samsung TV. It’s a really nice aluminium remote, there are less than 8 buttons total, and yet I can use TV, Netflix and YouTube perfectly. My only gripe is that I can’t VPN with it to get US Netflix. Oh and the ads on the menu :(
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but much better than the old analog knob. For less than a minute you couldnt even turn it (usually jumped back to the bell or was anything from 20s to 1min)
This. Since becoming a father I realised how annoying our analogue microwave knob is when you just need to blast something for 20 second while dealing with a screaming child. Either it's too short and you get 2 second, or it's too long and you get 60, now you need to do your best to cool the thing down quickly In the time before baby, the analogue microwave was refreshing, now it's a nuisance.
Not sure about your microwave, but mine (ca. 1996 Panasonic) has an analog knob (actually, that's the only control) for time.
If I need less than a minute, I turn the knob past 1 minute, then turn it back where I want it. That pretty much always works for me.
Perhaps it might for you too.