The Tech Thread

[BigJag]

Isn't it easier to be a paid member? You get an allowance for direct loading of images.

[SuperBacon]

2 minutes ago, BigJag said:

Isn't it easier to be a paid member? You get an allowance for direct loading of images.

I've asked if I can have that yeah. 

[deathrey]

On 6/23/2024 at 10:14 PM, Steve Justice said:

Has anyone got or used a wireless Android Auto/Apple Car Play adaptor that they can recommend? Lots of varied reviews across many options on Amazon, so I'm not sure if they're worth the money. 

We have this one: AAWireless - Wireless Android Auto Dongle. We got it from Amazon but it seems to have gone up in price now.

It has worked really well for us, my husband set it all up on his phone but bizarrely it seems to have a preference for my phone (we have the same phone) and will always try to connect to mine even if I'm in the house and he's in the car. I would recommend it though as that's the only issue we've ever had.

We are getting a Tesla next week so it will soon be going in to retirement.

 

Edited July 9, 2024 by deathrey
My font went all huge after I copied and pasted the name of the adapter and I don't know how to change it back

[Steve Justice]

21 minutes ago, deathrey said:

We have this one: AAWireless - Wireless Android Auto Dongle. We got it from Amazon but it seems to have gone up in price now.

It has worked really well for us, my husband set it all up on his phone but bizarrely it seems to have a preference for my phone (we have the same phone) and will always try to connect to mine even if I'm in the house and he's in the car. I would recommend it though as that's the only issue we've ever had.

We are getting a Tesla next week so it will soon be going in to retirement.

 

Thank you! 

I actually went for the Motorola MA1 in the end, purely because it's the only one endorsed by Google and connects straight through the Android Auto app instead of having to configure it all via a third party app. 

So far, so good. Connects within about 15 seconds and works well. I was expecting a lag when it comes to skipping tracks on Spotify, but I haven't noticed a difference. 

They're a bit pricey, but I'm glad I bought it. 

[SuperBacon]

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Edited July 11, 2024 by SuperBacon
Wrong thread brother

[burchybabi]

Any TV make or specific model recommendations or even what to avoid? Currently have a 50” Samsung plasma which is about 15 years old and showing signs of starting to go so looking for a replacement. We use it for quite long durations but not into gaming etc so doesn’t have to be top of the range specifications in that way. Thanks in advance 

[hallicks]

16 hours ago, burchybabi said:

Any TV make or specific model recommendations or even what to avoid? Currently have a 50” Samsung plasma which is about 15 years old and showing signs of starting to go so looking for a replacement. We use it for quite long durations but not into gaming etc so doesn’t have to be top of the range specifications in that way. Thanks in advance 

How much cash have you got to burn? I bought an LG A1 OLED 2 or 3 years ago. It’s still doing pretty well and you get HDR/Dolby Vision with the streaming apps if you’re on the premium tier (we are for Disney but not Netflix). IPlayer has some HLG HDR as well. The most recent equivalent is an A3 and they’re pretty good from what I’ve seen. A3 is the entry level OLED, they also have other models which have more inputs and higher peak brightness HDR. But if you don’t care about that, A’s are fine. 

[Browser Brady]

We had a demo of Microsoft’s AI Tool “CoPilot” at work today. 
it all feels a bit like “the emperor’s new clothes” as in people were fawning over each other to praise it and i just don’t get it. 

Like the features i saw it do don’t actually solve any existing problems that i have ever heard anybody complain about .

You can summarise emails, erm right.

You can transcribe Teams meetings, erm ok.

You can now use Co Pilot to draft emails, wouldn’t i want to do that myself ?

You can generate mad pictures of crazy stuff, why the fuck would i want to do that ?

Not saying it will never be great but at this point in time i just don’t seem to be invested in it as everyone else..

Also, would it not be fair to say that we having been using AI in the workplace ever since we’ve been using a pocket calculator ?

 

Edited July 30, 2024 by Browser Brady

[Chest Rockwell]

No, a calculator isn't AI because it's just processing.

I was pretty impressed by CoPilot taking meeting minutes and I think that function will get used plenty and is very useful. Can't speak to any other user cases.

[Browser Brady]

9 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

No, a calculator isn't AI because it's just processing.

I was pretty impressed by CoPilot taking meeting minutes and I think that function will get used plenty and is very useful. Can't speak to any other user cases.

Ok , does a calculator execute pre defined functions to give defined results but AI can generate things that aren’t pre defined essentially?

Yeah maybe it’s just me, i was very underwhelmed.

[SuperBacon]

I tried to get CoPilot to write something for marketing material and it was incredibly shit.

That'll teach me for being lazy.

[Jesse]

Yeah there's definitely some Emperor's New Clothes about the whole thing, as you say. I haven't found it helpful at all, and I don't know many people who've found interesting use cases. The costs only seem like they're going to keep ballooning too, so without a way for it to reduce spend I can't see it gaining a proper foothold in my area of work.

[Browser Brady]

13 hours ago, Jesse said:

Yeah there's definitely some Emperor's New Clothes about the whole thing, as you say. I haven't found it helpful at all, and I don't know many people who've found interesting use cases. The costs only seem like they're going to keep ballooning too, so without a way for it to reduce spend I can't see it gaining a proper foothold in my area of work.

Don’t think Microsoft do genuine innovation really well. Outside of Xbox and moving Office 365 to the cloud , i struggle to think of something really innovative they have done in the last 10 years.

[Chest Rockwell]

Whilst we're on Microsoft can I just say that Whiteboard is the biggest piece of shit ever. They should be embarrassed to put their name on it. I get angry every time I have to use it, which is way too regularly. 

[LCJ]

Microsoft Teams has given our Department no end of issues during the last year. Over a thousand people were issued Surface Pro 7 laptops during peak pandemic in 2020. Those laptops were OK until Microsoft decided to roll out New Teams. Long story short, the webcams on SP7s do not work properly in New Teams(something to do with the way the video encoding is now handled). We raised the issue with Microsoft and they have given zero help over how to resolve the issue. They’ve had Gigabytes worth of logs from ourselves but we still have no solution. The issue is happening worldwide but Microsoft are so big, they can release any old rubbish and get away with it.

Google Gemini AI I find to be useful. You can ask it about a lot of things and it will give detailed, useful and accurate answers. It’s not perfect but it does help me in my line of work at times.