Modern technology which is shït.

FFred

Wibbs wrote: »

Nope. As El Dude notes it was horribly expensive and they won the race. In 1969 Stanley Kubrick directed 2001 and space odyssey, the most expensive science fiction film ever made up to that point and as he noted it cost 10 million dollars(in 60's money) to make the entire thing over nearly a year, NASA were spending that per day.


They were also concerned about losing the crew on a mission, which they figured they would if they had kept going to the original Apollo 20(they stopped at 17). They had some close shaves already. Apollo 13 the obvious one and even then they were lucky because if that failure had happened at any other time in the mission they would have been killed. Apollo 12 had issues just after launch, Apollo 13 had an engine shutdown on the second stage, the Apollo 1 crew were killed by a fire in thier command module on the ground during a test.

During the 70's some of the original plans and gear were simply lost or just dumped as scrap. Plus a new generation of engineers had largely taken over and many of the skills of the original guys were lost. When in recent years current engineers looked at the Saturn V F1 engines they were shocked to see the complexity, how handmade they were and how each individual engine was ever so slightly different to the next.

Overall though we could go again tomorrow if the will was there and do it more quickly and more efficiently, but the will isn't there at the moment. Likely won;t be unless privately or semi privately funded and followed through. As well as the "space race" being a factor another huge factor was the politics. Kennedy being assassinated actually helped. The project took on a memorial as well as a goal feel to it and his vice president and later president Johnson was very supportive of it. The joke is Kennedy had been getting cold feet about the whole endeavour just before he died, he saw the massive costs involved might be a hard sell politically(and it was and continued to be throughout the 1960's). He even made an offer to the USSR for more joint missions. When Nixon got into the White House he was happy with the first landing but pretty quickly tired of the whole thing from a political standpoint.

So for the Americans to do it again they'd need a president and government willing to start it and a president that got two runs at the office and the next administration hanging on until it was done. That happened in teh 60's but I can't see it happening again any time soon. Maybe if the Chinese got serious about it. They might. Though they've only got to earth orbit. That's "easy" by comparison to going to the Moon.

****sake Wibbs . I can usually have one rubbed out to your posts but that was wayyyyyy too long .......

Atlantic Dawn

Button start on a car, there's no emotion or working of the key to emotionally connect with the engine, same start given every time. With the old style key start every car had a sort of personality, you could get back in a car you sold 20 years ago and know exactly how she liked to be started of a cold October morning

Wibbs

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

And faster than them all was the x-15

Note I said 'the fastest(that we know of) jet engined aircraft to fly" The SR72 is pure conjecture and the X-15 was rocket powered.

Google is your friend

Indeed it is.

Pinch Flat

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

And faster than them all was the x-15

Google is your friend

X15 was a rocket engined plane. The blackbird the fastest jet engined plane. Again google will assist

Edit Wibbs beat me

Wibbs

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Button start on a car, there's no emotion or working of the key to emotionally connect with the engine, same start given every time. With the key every car had a sort of personality, you could get back in a car you sold 20 years ago and know exactly how she liked to be started of a cold October morning

Whatever about button starting with the key fob in your pocket, it was daft when you had a key and then a button start.

Though that takes me to another effing useless new tech, the keyless entry fob that is common today. An utterly idiotic notion as far as security is concerned as shown by the rates of car theft going up for the first time since immobilisers were fitted to cars as standard. Seriously, how hard is it to use a key, or press a button?

Kyson Rough Train

Kyson Rough Train wrote: »

Ignorance is bliss.

It’s called not being paranoid.

It isn’t ignorance, If I want to hide something I know how to do it but for the vast majority of of things I and most do online who cares even if it’s tracked and the amount it’s actually tracked and used is very debatable to be honest.

Pinch Flat

I find email a pain in the hoop. You can no longer ask anyone to do simply something, or if you didn’t email someone they didn’t action it. Everything is documented as threads buried in threads becomes hard to follow. People slip stuff in or send you a whole archive on drop box last knocking’s Friday with an answer expected by first thing Monday. Everything is expected to be turned around almost instantaneously

What happened to “can I have this by 4pm Friday please”.

d8491prj5boyvg

Zelda Flabby Manicure wrote: »

It’s called not being paranoid.

It isn’t ignorance, If I want to hide something I know how to do it but for the vast majority of of things I and most do online who cares even if it’s tracked and the amount it’s actually tracked and used is very debatable to be honest.

They know a lot. They know that I will get up at 8am tomorrow, even though I am adamant I'll get up at 7.30. And that's the tip of the iceberg.

lmimmfn

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Button start on a car, there's no emotion or working of the key to emotionally connect with the engine, same start given every time. With the old style key start every car had a sort of personality, you could get back in a car you sold 20 years ago and know exactly how she liked to be started of a cold October morning

Had 2 petrol cars which had to be replaced within 6 months to 2 diesels. I paid 400-500 euro for button start on the Mrs car just because I knew she would never wait for it to heatup in the cold winter mornings.
Don't care about personality, more worried about damage
So I completely disagree with you on button start

Skylinehead

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

And faster than them all was the x-15

Google is your friend

If we're going there, I raise you Apollo 10.

Nobody said anything about Earth!

lmimmfn

Wibbs wrote: »

Whatever about button starting with the key fob in your pocket, it was daft when you had a key and then a button start.

Though that takes me to another effing useless new tech, the keyless entry fob that is common today. An utterly idiotic notion as far as security is concerned as shown by the rates of car theft going up for the first time since immobilisers were fitted to cars as standard. Seriously, how hard is it to use a key, or press a button?

Keyless entry is honestly fantastic when you have young kid(s), come out of shopping centre with bags, holding the kids hand( or pushing a stroller), it's a pain in the tits rummaging through pockets for the keys while holding bags and trying to keep an eye on kid(s), but other than that complete waste of money

In general some car features are great for kids that others have 0 use for. On useful car features, I do love auto dimming headlights and auto adjusting rear view mirror though

Skylinehead

Wibbs wrote: »

Whatever about button starting with the key fob in your pocket, it was daft when you had a key and then a button start.

No no no. My Civic Mk 8 had that, one of the first normal cars to have a starter button, but still had to turn the key first.

I don't care because I got to press a BIG RED BUTTON to start it. Amazing technology :pac:

astrofool

Skylinehead wrote: »

No no no. My Civic Mk 8 had that, one of the first normal cars to have a starter button, but still had to turn the key first.

I don't care because I got to press a BIG RED BUTTON to start it. Amazing technology :pac:

The first version of any technology will usually ape the familiar.

The thread has turned into a bit of a "all modern technology is sh*t" thread, I work in tech and travel quite a bit (lots of modernised hotels and rental cars), so it's always great to see what's next, and then figure out how to incorporate it into daily life in a way that benefits me (especially when buying a new car).

For modern tech that's sh*t, look at VR/AR and the attempt to make it mainstream, it can be great for specific applications, but lag and form factor kill it for consumers.

For great technology, take a leaf from Larry David and get remote control curtains, expensive, but life changing.

One eyed Jack

astrofool wrote: »

For modern tech that's sh*t, look at VR/AR and the attempt to make it mainstream, it can be great for specific applications, but lag and form factor kill it for consumers.

That reminds me - 3D television.

Every couple of years they give it a shot, and it fails miserably!

lmimmfn

astrofool wrote: »

The first version of any technology will usually ape the familiar.

The thread has turned into a bit of a "all modern technology is sh*t" thread, I work in tech and travel quite a bit (lots of modernised hotels and rental cars), so it's always great to see what's next, and then figure out how to incorporate it into daily life in a way that benefits me (especially when buying a new car).

For modern tech that's sh*t, look at VR/AR and the attempt to make it mainstream, it can be great for specific applications, but lag and form factor kill it for consumers.

For great technology, take a leaf from Larry David and get remote control curtains, expensive, but life changing.

On VR it depends what you use, if it's a rift/vive on PC there is zero lag and it is quite fantastic. Accessibility is a problem I'll admit. AR is a waste of time because the problem of VR must be addressed before AR is properly addressed, eventually though I can see AR/VR being very transformative.
Outside gaming VR is fantastic to determine scale for architecture etc. I have do do some major renovations in the next few years and I'll be using VR to model how it looks.
When the resolution is high enough I can see VR being fantastic for software development as screen's pace will no longer be an issue although would dread to be strapped into current VR at work 40 hours a week.

AR when it's good enough and I obtrusive on glasses/sun glasses will be fantastic, HUD while driving, menus for restaurants while walking by etc.

The high horse brigade

One eyed Jack wrote: »

That reminds me - 3D television.

Every couple of years they give it a shot, and it fails miserably!

Stereoscopic 3D has been around since the sixties, they rehash it every few years and it's always crap. Some people due to eye defects can't see it, others like me get headaches from longer than 5 minutes. It will only get good when we get holographic 3D

astrofool

One eyed Jack wrote: »

That reminds me - 3D television.

Every couple of years they give it a shot, and it fails miserably!

Interestingly, the application of it did improve the technology of the 2D images being produced by TV (as they had to be able to flick between images faster, leading to more fluid motion, which luddites will hate as it's not 24p, like the cinema of their youth).

People also forget that their ears and eyes get worse as they get older, and that it's often not technology making things worse, it's their senses not able to pick up the richness of the input anymore (yet their memory version will look/hear awesome).

lmimmfn

Double post but WTF.

Curved TVs, WTF is the point of that, only those in the centre get a proper viewing angle so it's useless for living rooms with more than 2 people centrally located.

Curved monitors on PC are absolutely sublime though as it's just for 1 person and for ultrawide removes distortions.

El_Duderino 09

One eyed Jack wrote: »

That reminds me - 3D television.

Every couple of years they give it a shot, and it fails miserably!

I doubt it fails. I'd say they cause a stir, convince people it's the next big thing they need in their lives, sell a rake of them and then the market falls away. But it's a market created from nothing so I'd say the manufacturers are doing grand.

astrofool

lmimmfn wrote: »

On VR it depends what you use, if it's a rift/vive on PC there is zero lag and it is quite fantastic. Accessibility is a problem I'll admit. AR is a waste of time because the problem of VR must be addressed before AR is properly addressed, eventually though I can see AR/VR being very transformative.
Outside gaming VR is fantastic to determine scale for architecture etc. I have do do some major renovations in the next few years and I'll be using VR to model how it looks.
When the resolution is high enough I can see VR being fantastic for software development as screen's pace will no longer be an issue although would dread to be strapped into current VR at work 40 hours a week.

AR when it's good enough and I obtrusive on glasses/sun glasses will be fantastic, HUD while driving, menus for restaurants while walking by etc.

There is great applications for the technology, just not at the consumer level, the games being played have to be tuned to handle massive amount of lag, which removes a lot of the competitive element. Eye tracking tech is becoming useful at the pro level alongside mouse/keyboard controls as it means people can react as fast as their eyes can move, rather than the relative slowness of their fingers.

lmimmfn

astrofool wrote: »

There is great applications for the technology, just not at the consumer level, the games being played have to be tuned to handle massive amount of lag, which removes a lot of the competitive element. Eye tracking tech is becoming useful at the pro level alongside mouse/keyboard controls as it means people can react as fast as their eyes can move, rather than the relative slowness of their fingers.

It depends what you've tried?, I experience 0 perceptable lag on my Oculus rift headset or controllers. The OLED screen runs at 90FPS so ~11ms lag, the controllers presumably have less as not hindered by the framerate.
Again depends what you tried and how you try, if everything is not setup correctly it can be a crap experience.
Some Windows headsets have inside out tracking, I. e. No led's for tracking but those can have horrible lag and it's down to the tech for processing the headset orientation but I'll never use those until the tech is as good as led tracking.

4068ac1elhodqr

astrofool wrote: »

For modern tech that's sh*t, look at VR/AR and the attempt to make it mainstream, it can be great for specific applications, but lag and form factor kill it for consumers.

Agree, limited now, but once it becomes feasible (across multiple factors inc price and quality), that's it, can easily become bigger than the desktop/mobile mouse/finger tapping internet itself.

VR has the potential to become a complete interface, with own full sensory input (multi-gesture control) and accurate haptic environmental feedback. 2025(+) may see people logging on, but logging in via their full360-5S-5G-VRsuits (from Primark Corp).

kowloon

Wibbs wrote: »

Nope, no paranoia on my part. No need for it. I just don't like being used as a dataset by huge corporations with little oversight. When one sees the top heads in Google, Facebook, Apple and others with tape over their personal laptop cameras and mics, are they borderline paranoid too? Plus it can pay to be prudent in areas not immediately obvious. EG on the Watches forums hereabouts and across the web people fire up pics of their watches, some of which are quite valuable. You can download their pic, pull the Exif data from it including GPS location, which if you then throw into google maps will give you their location and house where their fifteen grand Rolex lives. Quite a few burglaries and robberies have happened with that. Ditto for expensive cars.

One of the more unexpected uses of geotags I've heard of was poachers looking at people's photos of animals from their recent safari. As for all the cameras on laptops, I have to wonder what the corporations are going to do with a billion videos of people fiddling with themselves.

Henry Ford III

Edward Skinny Backyard wrote:

I’d be lost without my Amazon echos, I have 4 of them already. Controlling half the house with them among many other things they do.

If you fart loudly do all the window blinds open?

The One Doctor

Diesel cars. Noisy, polluting and trendy.

Can't wait for the inevitable car and diesel tax hikes.

Atlantic Dawn

The One Doctor wrote: »

Diesel cars. Noisy, polluting and trendy.

Can't wait for the inevitable car and diesel tax hikes.

And we don't monitor car pollution on a single busy street in Ireland. One would think it's a conspiracy to kill people.

suicide_circus

The One Doctor wrote: »

Diesel cars. Noisy, polluting and trendy.

Can't wait for the inevitable car and diesel tax hikes.

so just **** everyone who lives in a rural area yeah? i dont btw
also diesel is trendy?

The One Doctor

suicide_circus wrote: »

so just **** everyone who lives in a rural area yeah? i dont btw
also diesel is trendy?

Do rural people not have access to petrol or something?

whisky_galore

The joke that is rural broadband.

riclad

Iphone,s , with no earphone, so you have to buy a dongle or an expensive airpod to listen to music .thats ridiculous.And of course samsung copied the iphone as it usually does.
I do not believe theres no room in a smart phone for a 3.5mm socket.
VR gaming ,i know theres some good vr games ,
But 90 per cent of people do not want to put on a heavy headset with wires to play a game.
it,s like 3 d tv , once you ask the public to put on a headset or
3d glass,s to watch a film ,
you no longer have a mass market product.

i think it,ll remain a small market compared with the pc and console
gaming .
I do,nt care about blue ray or super hd blue ray 4k.
I Do,nt care about playing games in 4 k mode .
Film companys think we are stupid,
yeah ,im gonna buy the films i own on dvd all over again
in hd format .
i do,nt think so.
People bought cds because they were cheap and easy to use
compared with cassette tapes and vinyl .

i,m not impressed with the new sony ,and xbox consoles announced
for 2021 .
They are just very fast pcs which connect to a hdtv.
They will cost 400-500 euro .
If I,M gonna spend 500 i may as well buy a fast pc which can
play 100,s of pc games from steam store .
The whole point of consoles was they were cheap and easy to use.
i think 90 per cent of gamers are quite happy with the quality
of graphics on the ps4 and xbox 1 .

i read articles on 5g , In practice basically it will look like slightly faster
4g , it will only work in citys and urban area,.s
Theres no way you,ll get fast 5g in rural area.s .
no more than you can get fibre broadband in the middle of a field in donegal.
when you go to rural area,s the 5g phone will switch over to 3g mode .
5g will cost billions to build out as it uses different spectrum
than 4g cell towers .
The 1st rule of tech is it won,t succeed if its too expensive and
difficult to use it will not be a hit .
Sales of cd,s and dvds took off when they went down to 100
euro,s for a dvd/ cd player .
i have no interest in phones with 3 camera,s , a finger print reader ,
i just want a phone that runs apps and plays music
And has good battery life .
Maybe ar will take off in 5 years when phones are more powerful ,
and theres good games that use it .
My theory is most people cannot tell the difference between 4k and
an 1080 p hdtv
i don,t see any tv stations broadcasting programs in 4k
so i have no interest in buying a 4 k tv .

Rural broadband is not a joke, it simply does not exist in many area,s .
Your choice is a 3g modem with maybe a limit of 10gig per month , which uses the phone network,
or go to a coffee shop , library that has wifi .