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O Holy Crap

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Re: O Holy Crap

#311

Post by bombela »

Damogran6 wrote: post #192
eternityforest wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you on a network with some kind of firewalling or tracker blocking? I wonder if they are programmed to stop working if they can't phone home after exiting dumb mode? Or if there's an activation step they never planned to need recovery from failure of?

I don’t think it was intentional, talking to their tech support, there was no way to restore it to function. I suspect a bricked firmware update.

What's so sad is that usually bricking is a pure software bug. That overwrites whatever code boots the device far enough so thatnl it can update itself.

If you have the hardware programmer you can most often update the flash directly.

I don't expect everybody to have all the hardware programmers on hand. But I would gladly go to a repair shop to get a quick firmware flash to unbrik some device. Of course this is probably not worth it for manufacturers. It's so infuriating because most device even have a relatively standard programming port already (though you need to open open the device to access it)

Re: O Holy Crap

#312

Post by bombela »

eternityforest wrote: post #294
bumby wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can design hardware to last, but I think we often don’t for economic reasons. My larger point is that using software just trades one well-understood failure mode for a group of unknown, hard to test failure modes, usually because it’s cheaper. I think my biggest complaint comes as a result of the data economy. You can still find “dumb” tvs but they are usually a lot more expensive than their smart variants, I assu…

I think that definitely applies when you have updatable software or software that interacts with something updatable, but less so for the 8 bit embedded MCU stuff typically used to replace hardware. If you, say, use a microcontroller to soft start a motor instead of making it bigger, or use a capsense pad instead of a switch(Yes they can be obnoxious, but at least they last!), you are unlikely to get into a permanent…

I have a fancy OLED TV, not connected to the internet. A powerful desktop running MS Windows 10. And a fancy sound system with Dolby Atmos.

First MS Windows is the only way to get Netflix and similar to stream the 4k HDR Dolby Atmos stuff outside of smart TV applications. It will silently stream the lower quality without telling you. So if you do not tinker, you must use the smart TV crap to get any chance of watching content at the capability of your hardware.

Then comes the bugs. Randomly the TV and Sound system decide they cannot transfer sound anymore. It's just as if it is on mute.

To be clear the connection is pc -> tv-> sound system. Using 48gps HDMI cables.

The only solution is to unplug both the TV and the sound system. Reboot is not enough. Unplug one is not enough. It has to be both.

Btw if you do not have the right HDMI cable you will also get lower resolution and refresh rate. Without any recourse. No information reported anywhere until you learn that pressing 7 times the green button on the LG TV remote finally gives you the details on the active HDMI connection.

Oh and by default the sound setting of the TV will also decide atmos and convert it to 5.1 PCM before forwarding to the sound system, while you really want a passthrough to the sound system.

Basically nothing really works. So if you do not tinker I am not sure you even get the advertised quality and features. With that said ignorance is bliss.

Re: O Holy Crap

#313

Post by bombela »

mschuster91 wrote: post #198
bumby wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would gladly use 10k lines of code to save one moving part or one switch This creates a whole new reliability problem. Software reliability is notorious for its interface failures and there can be many more of those modes (where hardware typically has a few wear-out style failures). I think about my relatively high-end TV that seems to always struggle with software updates without any glitches. It seems like we'v…

> It seems like we've just been lulled into accepting software glitches as the price of having software control everything. Luckily, most of the software is not safety critical. And the thing is, somehow every vendor seems to skip out on ensuring a working out-of-band upgrade process - despite U-Boot bringing everything you need with it to provide recovery via whatever means you want. Ethernet, USB, a serial debug po…

It even makes the development of the product easier for the programmers. Maybe when they don't need to fight the flashing process they can focus on writing better code.

One can still hope.

Re: O Holy Crap

#314

Post by chrisweekly »

cosama wrote: post #150
chrisweekly wrote: post #43

Can anyone recommend a large room humidifier that might actually work reliably (assuming proper care and maintenance, no weirdly hard water) for multiple winter seasons? The last FOUR I bought from diff brands failed either DoA or within a couple weeks. Willing to pay for actual basic quality.

In my opinion there is only one humidifier that is worth the money, the honeywell warm mist humidifier [1]. It works great for us, just put it in a little tray in case it leaks. It also got one of the best written customer reviews on amazon I ever saw [2]. TL;DR, they use it on McMurdo station in Antarctica and love it. Don't buy a ultrasonic humidifiers, they actually reduce the air quality considerably [3], you nee…

Thank you so much!

Yet more evidence of the HN community's friendly helpfulness.

Re: O Holy Crap

#315

Post by eternityforest »

bombela wrote: post #311
Damogran6 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it was intentional, talking to their tech support, there was no way to restore it to function. I suspect a bricked firmware update.

What's so sad is that usually bricking is a pure software bug. That overwrites whatever code boots the device far enough so thatnl it can update itself. If you have the hardware programmer you can most often update the flash directly. I don't expect everybody to have all the hardware programmers on hand. But I would gladly go to a repair shop to get a quick firmware flash to unbrik some device. Of course this is prob…

This is a case where Arduino is so far beyond any professional solution it's just insane. USB update, no problem.

If products would all just use a Wemos D1 or something on their board, none of this would be an issue.

But sadly software defined products need(or think they need) proprietary firmware and Arduino isn't set up for strong DRM.

Re: O Holy Crap

#316

Post by tengwar2 »

nosianu wrote: post #300
tengwar2 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She was sold a carrot peeler. She didn't receive a carrot peeler. It's not relevant what the price was: that's a decision for the shop. If they can't sell carrot peelers at a price that makes sense for them, the answer is to not sell carrot peelers, not to sell things that are described as carrot peelers but which cannot peel a carrot.

I don't understand your point? The whole article being discussed is about tons of crap getting sold.

I seem to have replied at top level - I intended to reply to someone attempting to say that selling crap was ok because you should expect crap if it's cheap.

Re: O Holy Crap

#317

Post by BlueTemplar »

oblio wrote: post #108
BlueTemplar wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regulations. Also probably how cars and refrigerators need energy to work ? The downside is that cars especially have not gotten cheaper. (This is starting to change, sadly by necessity rather than choice, ~ton personal vehicles will soon be the thing of the past even in rich countries.)

> soon personal vehicles will soon be the thing of the past even in rich countries. https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/global-car-sa...

That's not what I said, and I don't know what your argument is ?

Re: O Holy Crap

#318

Post by KurvaKing »

philwelch wrote: post #209
wincy wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yeah I paid for Consumer reports and instead of buying an expensive dishwasher got the $500 Bosch that they claimed washed as well as the $2000 Thermador dishwasher. It has been going strong for a few years, no complaints here. I know Consumer Reports can’t really account for durability although I think they survey their members to see what’s still working, so it’s better than most places.

CR and Reddit seem to agree that Bosch is a solid choice, which is why I went with Bosch.

[dead]

Re: O Holy Crap

#319

Post by JoeAltmaier »

oblio wrote: post #134
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #95

Carrot peeler? What nonsense. Back of a knife does a fine job. Still, lots of crappy 'appliances' out there. If the labels aren't peeling or fading, then the knobs come off or there's too many parts to keep track of, and one falls behind something and, well, throw it away now. Our fancy dishwasher had a soap flappy thing in the door. Convenient location! Fill and fold shut and... the manufacturer didn't think beyond…

> Carrot peeler? What nonsense. Back of a knife does a fine job. It does, but it's both slower and less safe than one of these things, if you know how to use it right: https://www.ikea.com/nl/en/p/ikea-365-vaerdefull-potato-peel... Personally I'd recommend that style over the "default" peelers that look like this one: https://www.ikea.com/nl/en/p/ikea-365-vaerdefull-peeler-blac... The vertical one is much faster.

Never found a butter knife to be much of a challenge. And somebody challenged by simple utensils should probably not be trusted with one of those things :)

Re: O Holy Crap

#320

Post by julianlam »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #102
julianlam wrote: post #18

I have empathize with the author's plight, but I don't have much sympathy for him buying multiple coffee grinders and throwing them all out because he bought cheap ones. > I can’t say the same about my coffee grinders. I use the plural because I’ve owned a lot of them, all bought in their original packaging and dead within a year. They’re good ones, supposedly, with burrs not blades, but they stop performing before l…

The existence of a Cadillac product doesn't refute the proliferation of absolute crap. Somebody sells a coffee grinder, it should grind coffee for years. No exceptions.

That's the thing, the Baratza Encore is decidedly not a Cadillac product. It is an entry level grinder.

It's just not a "grinder shaped object"

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