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There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

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Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#591

Post by itsamario »

pkolaczk wrote: post #217
pjmlp wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why when folks nowadays say "you cannot use XYZ for embedded", given what most embedded systems look like, and what many of us used to code on 8 and 16 bit home computers, I can only assert they have no idea how powerful modern embedded systems have become. Now that it is a pity that when people talk about saving the planet everyone keeps rushing to dispoable electronics, what serves me to go by bycicle to w…

> Which is why when folks nowadays say "you cannot use XYZ for embedded", given what most embedded systems look like, and what many of us used to code on 8 and 16 bit home computers, I can only assert they have no idea how powerful modern embedded systems have become. Yet, I still need to wait about 1 second (!) after each key press when buying a parking ticket and the machine wants me to enter my license plate numbe…

Only in America. America is deigned to make you mad that public common life isn't keeping up with whats in everybody's pocket.

Gently forcing the individual to choose sapient or insentient.

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#592

Post by dyauspitr »

dev_hugepages wrote: post #257
dyauspitr wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only realistic risk so far is addiction and a nicotine addiction doesn’t ruin lives. Other than that it’s marginally bad for the heart and so far atleast not carcinogenic.

Nicotine itself is carcinogenic in the mouth: > Nicotine in tobacco can form carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamines through a nitrosation reaction. This occurs mostly in the curing and processing of tobacco. However, nicotine in the mouth and stomach can react to form N-nitrosonornicotine, a known type 1 carcinogen, suggesting that consumption of non-tobacco forms of nicotine may still play a role in carcinogenes…

The dose in urine is 1-3% of that of cigarette smokers so it is a significant, order of magnitude decrease in risk based on the paper another GP has posted below. In the mouth the levels also seem to be an order of magnitude lower than cigarette smokers (though similar in a majority of cases). Those are relatively acceptable risks for a vice I would think.

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#593

Post by roadside_picnic »

1234letshaveatw wrote: post #561
adrianN wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m relatively sure that electronics are not recycled properly anywhere. At best some of the metals are extracted (hopefully not by mixing the ashes with mercury).

what about best buy and staples? that's where I take mine

I can't tell if this is a tongue-in-cheek comment or not, but all of that is shipped off to 3rd party "recyclers" who pinky promise that they will dispose of it properly. Very often those 3rd parties rely on other 3rd parties until the it ends up in a waste pile in a developing country, but with a long enough chain of differed responsibility that nobody can be held accountable.

The fundamental problem with "recycling" is precisely the fact that we just hand it off and don't ask questions about where it ends up, all while feeling great about ourselves afterwards. Bestbuy and Staples are offering accountability laundering so that you don't have to feel bad and in exchange are more likely to become a customer. The 3rd parties working for them do the same thing, but they usually want cash for it.

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#594

Post by jwr »

ttoinou wrote: post #323
jwr wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's programmer incompetence. Unfortunately pervasive, especially with devices like parking meters, EV chargers, and similar, where the feedback loop (angry customer) is long (angry customers resulting in revenue decrease) or non-existent.

It could be a management problem instead also, while developers are just following instructions sent by management

I disagree — developers are not sheep.

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#596

Post by smeeagain2 »

Saline9515 wrote: post #461
volemo wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue it's kinda a myth, because I used to believe we could create a perfectly closed loop (you know, like the one the recycling symbol suggests) if only we could cleanly separate the materials (which in my imagination requires consumers to vigilantly separate the waste into dozens of different bins). I'm beginning to think I was wrong.

If 1kg of "recycled" plastics allow to reduce the production of 1kg of pristine plastics, it's already a big win, even if it's downcycling. No need to throw away the baby with the bathwater.

[dead]

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#597

Post by TeMPOraL »

dgacmu wrote: post #478
sofixa wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The server running that system needs cooling, yes. You can't just shove it in a closet with zero thought and expect it to not overheat/shut down/catch fire, unless you live in the Arctic.

I have a little fanless mini PC that runs various stuff around my house, including homeassistant. The case is basically a big heat sink. It started crashing during backups. The solution was to stick a fan on it. :( This is literally a box _designed to not need a fan_. And yet. It now has a fan and has been stable for months. And it's not even in a closet - it's wall-mounted with lots of available air around it.

I'm guessing it's the HDD that's failing. Had such mysterious failures with my NVR (the Cloud Key thingie) from UniFi. Turns out, HDDs don't like operating in 60+ degree Celsius heat all the time - but SSDs don't mind, so fortunately the fix was just to swap the drive for a solid state one.

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#598

Post by TeMPOraL »

Nextgrid wrote: post #370
jon-wood wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The self service kiosks are intentionally throttled when scanning barcodes, at a guess to prevent people accidentally scanning the previous/wrong item - I once had some problems with one and a staff member flipped it into supervisor mode at which point they were able to scan at the same rate you'd see at a manned checkout.

I think that's handled by the barcode scanner itself, at least on the ones I've used. The scanner will not recognize the same code immediately, but will immediately pick up a different code. What's slow is that after each scan it needs to check the weight which means it lets the scales settle for one second before accepting another scan.

Now take that, and add someone in our Polish supermarket chain (Biedronka) having the dumb "insight" to disable "scan multiple" option. Until ~month ago, whenever buying something in larger quantity, I could just press "Scan multiple", tap in the amount, scan the barcode once, and move all the items of the same type to the "already scanned" zone. Now, I have to do it one by one, each time waiting for the scales to settle. Infuriating when you're buying some spice bag or candy and have to scan 12 of them one by one.

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#599

Post by pixl97 »

rob74 wrote: post #148
tombert wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a world we live in; we have gotten to a point where computers are so small and cheap that they can literally be “disposable”. It’s beautiful, I love it.

For my part, I hate anything explicitly labeled "disposable". As the author writes, you're supposed to recycle it, but how many people will do that if it has "disposable" written on it? Even worse, if it was truly disposable they could use a non-rechargeable battery, but because they have to keep up the pretense of it being reusable, they have to include a rechargeable battery with more dodgy chemistry that probably…

>they could use a non-rechargeable battery

The problem here is the item lasts 'long enough' that they can't, a single battery, unless it were very large would drain charge first.

But that brings in the second issue of the device not being refillable, which may be the bigger sin.

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#600

Post by franciscator »

charcircuit wrote: post #55

It's not rediculous if you look at this through a modern lens. In reality this tech is cheap. Trying to keep it around is hoarder mentality. You are stockpiling garbage which can be cheaply replaced.

I think recycling and upcycling are good practices. With them, you can build missile, drone tracking systems and water irrigation systems, smartwear and other control for almost nothing.
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